Genesis: 1a 1b 1c 1d 2a 2b 2c 2d 3 4a 4b 4c/5 6a 6b 7 8 9 10 11a 11b 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25a 25b 26a 26b 27 28a 28b 29 30a 30b 31a 31b/32a 32b 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44a 44b 45 46 47a 47b 48 49 50
LECH LECHA - THE STORY OF AV-RAM
ONE: TO KENA'AN
12:1 VA YOMER YHVH EL AV-RAM LECH LECHA ME ARTSECHA U MI MOLADET'CHA U MI BEYT AVIYCHA EL HA ARETS ASHER AR'ECHA
וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל אַבְרָם לֶךְ לְךָ מֵאַרְצְךָ וּמִמּוֹלַדְתְּךָ וּמִבֵּית אָבִיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַרְאֶךָּ
KJ (King James translation): Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
BN (BibleNet translation): Then YHVH said to Av-Ram, "Leave your country, your native land, and your father's house, and go to the land that I will show you.
Note that this is a YHVH tale (worth exploring whether the Av-Ram tales are all YHVH and the Av-Raham tales all Elohim; some scholar will have done this already somewhere I have no doubt).
LECH LECHA (לך לך) is a lovely example of symmetrical writing and word-play; the words identical on paper yet in fact completely different in meaning as well as pronunciation. The phrase literally means "Go to you".
In the previous chapter is was Terach's decision to leave their homeland, with no reason given. Now it is YHVH telling Av-Ram to do so; and again with no reason given. It is usually reckoned by scholars that they were fleeing from Ur Kasdim, but they already did that, and then settled in Padan Aram, where all but Av-Ram will remain, as we shall see. The previous chapter also told us that Terach left Ur with the intention of going to Kena'an (verse 31), so is this simply YHVH's instruction to fulfill his father's aspiration? Terach won't die for another 60 years (Genesis 11:32), so why does Av-Ram not bring the rest of the family once he has settled and become established?
MOLADET'CHA: The English translation is naughty here, hiding its head away from a clear problem in the text. MOLADET'CHA does not mean "kindred", though obviously he had to leave them as well. MOLADET'CHA means "birthplace" or "native land". from the root VALAD = "to give birth", which also parturates into YELED = "boy" and YALDAH = "girl", and which we have seen again and again in the genealogical tables. It is not open to dispute; MOLADET'CHA means "birthplace" or "native land". And yet we have been told that his birthplace was Ur Kasdim, Ur of the Chaldees, and not here, Charan, where YHVH is giving him his marching orders. And yes, you could argue that both were in the same broad area of the Middle East, but one is Babylonia, and the other most definitely is not.... no, there are two completely different histories here, in conflict...
At around 1800 BCE there was a general movement of Semitic-language (pre-Yehudit but also pre-proto-Yehudit, the whatever-it-was that the Beney Yisra-El spoke in Biblical times-speaking tribes through Kena'an into Mitsrayim (Egypt), who may account for Egyptian references to a group of people (a class of people?) called the Habiru or Hapiru; these included Beney Chet (Hittites), Beney Ashur (Assyrians), Beney Kena'an and others. Also Beney Mitani (Mitanians), specifically recorded as coming from the city of Charan. The lead group were the Hyksos, who came to rule an empire from Mitsrayim (Egypt) to Ashur (Assyria) from circa 1750 BCE until circa 1570 BCE, and who most scholars believe were probably the Pharaohs at the time of Yoseph, thereby explaining why Ya'akov and co prospered so, and why Ya'akov gave his son (probably all his sons) a coat of many colours - it was the priestly vestment of the Hyksos, one of their proudest achievements, three types of dye extracted from the murex, a sea-snail that flourished in the Mediterranean off the coast of Lebanon, and which would make the later Phoenicians (the name comes from "phoinix" the word for purple in their language) the greatest trading empire the world had ever known. The Hyksos were Shepherd Kings - we shall enjoy watching Ya'akov perform his own "king of the shepherds" magic later (Genesis 30:25 ff). As TheBibleNet commentary on Exodus will show, the Mosheh legend is probably the story of the revolt by non-Hyksos Egyptians against the Hyksos rule, and the restoration of pre-Hyksos cults and deities in the aftermath of that victory, led by a Pharaoh who bears the coincidental name Ach-Mousa. And that Ya'akov (not Yisra-El) and Yoseph, but not the other brothers except Bin-Yamin (correctly Ben-Oni in this version of the story) were themselves Hyksos Egyptians, probably of Aramaean origin.
There is of course a very great irony here, if the speculation is correct that Av-Raham and co, or more likely the later Ya'akov and co, were Hyksos, and that Mosheh was the man who liberated Egypt from the Hyksos and then conquered Kena'an!
12:2 VE E'ESCHA LE GO'I GADOL VA AVARECHECHA VA AGADLAH SHEMECHA VE HEYEH BERACHAH
וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה
KJ: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
BN: "And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing."
As we shall see repeatedly, whenever anyone leaves home, whether for a long journey, or to move their nomadic pastures, and whether planning to return or not, their fears for the future are expressed in the form of a covenant, which we have to assume is the response to an unstated prayer. In the ancient world (Homer provides the easiest exemplar of this if you are interested in following this up), the gods interfered with, controlled, directed, every aspect of human life, from birth to death, and often argued among themselves as what that fate and destiny should be. So, in Homer, Athena becomes the protrectress of Odysseus, even while Poseidon is seeking to do him harm. So here, as Av-Ram sets out nervously on his own odyssey, he comforts himself with the conviction that his god has sent him, that his god knows what he is doing, and why, and will be there for him.
VE HEYEH BERACHAH: Where Christian gravestones are marked R.I.P. for "rest in peace", Jewish gravestones are marked Z.L., usually in Ivrit-Hebrew, ז"ל, which in full is "zichrono livro'ach - may his memory serve as a blessing" - derived, self-evidently, from this verse.
12:3 VA AVARACHAH MEVARCHEYCHA U MEKALELCHA A'OR VE NIVRECHU VECHA KOL MISHPECHOT HA ADAMAH
וַאֲבָרֲכָה מְבָרְכֶיךָ וּמְקַלֶּלְךָ אָאֹר וְנִבְרְכוּ בְךָ כֹּל מִשְׁפְּחֹת הָאֲדָמָה
KJ: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
BN: "And I will bless those who bless you, and he who curses you I will curse; and in you shall all the families of the Earth be blessed."
Compare this with the prayer of Ya'akov (Jacob) when he sets out from Beit-El (Genesis 28:20-22); on that occasion he asks, on this occasion Av-Ram receives, but the terms are almost identical. In fact, as we shall see, all the covenants from now on will take place at the moment of setting out from the established homeland on a journey into the unknown.
12:4 VA YELECH AV-RAM KA ASHER DIBER ELAV YHVH VA YELECH ITO LOT VE AV-RAM BEN CHAMESH SHANIM VE SHIV'IM SHANAH BE TSE'TO ME CHARAN
וַיֵּלֶךְ אַבְרָם כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֵלָיו יְהוָה וַיֵּלֶךְ אִתּוֹ לוֹט וְאַבְרָם בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵחָרָן
KJ: So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
BN: So Av-Ram went, as YHVH had spoken to him; and Lot went with him; and Av-Ram was seventy-five years old when he left Charan.
The verse confirms the contradiction noted in verse 1. YHVH has told him to leave "your land, your birthplace" in verse 1, and here it is clearly Charan that he leaves, not Ur Kasdim. So can we confirm that Av-Ram was never in Ur Kasdim in his life?
12:5 VA YIKACH AV-RAM ET SARAI ISHTO VE ET LOT BEN ACHIV VE ET KOL RECHUSHAM ASHER RACHASHU VE ET HA NEPHESH ASHER ASU VE CHARAN VA YETS'U LALECHET ARTSAH KENA'AN VA YAVO'U ARTSAH KENA'AN
וַיִּקַּח אַבְרָם אֶת שָׂרַי אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֶת לוֹט בֶּן אָחִיו וְאֶת כָּל רְכוּשָׁם אֲשֶׁר רָכָשׁוּ וְאֶת הַנֶּפֶשׁ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ בְחָרָן וַיֵּצְאוּ לָלֶכֶת אַרְצָה כְּנַעַן וַיָּבֹאוּ אַרְצָה כְּנָעַן
KJ: And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
BN: And Av-Ram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the souls that they had acquired in Charan; and they set out to go to the land of Kena'an; and into the land of Kena'an they came.
A classic description of nomads. After settling for a while in the region of Charan, and becoming reasonably wealthy, on they move. The idea that Kena'an was their destination is absurd, because nomads have no destinations. And anyway, the speed with which they move on to Mitsrayim proves it. The Fertile Crescent as a whole was the nomadic "home"; they felt free to wander it as they wished. In "the land of Nod" indeed, as the Bedou do.
12:6 VA YA'AVOR AV-RAM BA ARETS AD MEKOM SHECHEM AD ELON MOREH VE HA KENA'ANI AZ BA ARETS
וַיַּעֲבֹר אַבְרָם בָּאָרֶץ עַד מְקוֹם שְׁכֶם עַד אֵלוֹן מוֹרֶה וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי אָז בָּאָרֶץ
KJ: And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.
BN: And Av-Ram passed through the land as far as the place called Shechem, to the terebinth-oak of Moreh. And the Kena'ani was in the land at that time.
Note the use of the word YA'AVOR (ויעבור) from the root EVER (עבר) = "Hebrews". We were given the explanation of the eponym in the last chapter, through Noa'ch's descendant EVER, but clearly the Redactor was not comfortable with it, any more than we are who read it; its artificiality is transparent, and then made more so by this and several other attempts later on to find an explanation of the name.
None of this is obvious from the King James translation however, which, yet again, simply avoids a difficult issue by mis-translating.
SHECHEM: (שכם) This is an important reference. Shechem was Ya'akov's stopping-place when he returned to his homeland (Genesis 33:18); it was also the central sanctuary of the Beney Yisra-El from the time of Yehoshu'a until that of David; the Ark rested there, and the annual ceremony of covenant renewal took place there (Joshua 24:1, 25-26), though it clearly also spent some of the year at Shilo(h) (see 1 Samuel 3:21, where it is spelled both with and then without a Hey (ה) - the original manuscript is here if you want to confirm it with your own eyes - and 1 Samuel 4:3, where it is spelled with a Hey ending - שִּׁלֹה), and in all likelihood was peregrinated around all the major shrines through the year. Shechem remained a key shrine after the division of Shelomoh's (Solomon's) kingdom, and a battle between Yeru-Shala'im and Shechem for centrality is a part of post-exilic history, the Beney Yisra-El focusing on Yeru-Shala'im, the Samaritans on Shechem. Shechem is today Nablus, the center of a very different political squabble. For the creator of a Jewish historical narrative, it is essential for the founding patriarch to have a connection with such an important shrine; and we will see that Av-Ram and Av-Raham's journeys, between them, take in almost all the key shrines of Yehudah and Bin-Yamin, without ever so much as visiting any of the shrines in the territories of the other ten tribes - this is Yehudah and Bin-Yamin's book after all!
The story of the rape of Dinah and the revenge of Shim'on and Levi (Genesis 34) also belongs to Shechem, making Shechem central to the Ya'akov stories too.
The name Shechem refers to the priestly portion – the shoulder, or more specifically the meaty part behind the shoulder, the one that "takes the burden of government" or "receives the punishment of lashes" in several Biblical references that you can find yourself if you are interested; the shoulder itself is generally rendered as HA ZERO'A - הַזְּרֹ֥עַ - as in Deuteronomy 18:3 et al. For the Shechem part, see Psalm 21:13, Job 31:22 et al.
The terebinth-oak of Moreh means "an oak-grove", which suggests a native cult long before the Av-Ramic or Av-Rahamic. The name Moreh links to Mir-Yam (Miriam) and other aspects of the fertility cult; MAR (מר) = "bitter" and gives us not only Mir-Yam's name, but that of Mount Mor-Yah (Moriah = "the bitter tears of the moon-goddess") which becomes Maria or Mary in the Jesus myth. And we are told that this is a Kena'anite shrine. We are also told that Sarai was barren, and this seems to have been a reason for their setting out. Nomadic wanderlust may not, however, have been the precise reason for leaving Charan - they were, after all, extremely successful and therefore did not need to move on; but, if we take the text literally, the quite specific wish of the barren wife of the sheikh to visit the shrine of the fertility-goddess, which may have been at any one of several sites, amongst them Chevron, Shechem and Yericho. However we cannot take the text literally. Sarai is herself the priestess of the fertility-goddess; so this is more in the nature of a tour of duty than a pilgrimage: she is not there to worship, but to honour, or to be honoured. And it is she who stops there, not Av-Ram; the story has been patriarchalised, but really belongs to the matriarch.
Thus, what in fact we are given is not yet her inception, nor her divinity, but a patriarchal covenant with Av-Ram: the exact nature of the supposed covenant is not clear, as a variety of versions are recorded in the Tanach. For full details see Graves/Patai pp149/150.
Even orthodox Jewish commentators like Hertz are happy with this explanation. Hertz says: "Some translate 'the directing tree', i.e. the oracular tree held sacred by the tree-worshipping Canaanites. Such trees were attended by priests, who interpreted the answers of the oracle to those who came to consult it. The terebinth (or turpentine tree) grows to a height of from 20 to 40 feet, and may therefore well have served as a landmark."
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| Asherah Tree David Hostetler |
The oracular trees were known in Yehudit as Asherim, and are the phallic male counterpart to the statues (teraphim) of the goddess Asherah, also known as Anat, wife of Ba'al. Asherah, of course, is the Aramaic form of Sarai or Sarah.
The Amerindian totem pole and the Norse Yggdrasill are the best known equivalents of these Asherim (the tree in Hunding and Sieglinde's cottage in Wagner's festspiel version of the Niebelungelied counts for a third), and we can presume that in Av-Rahamic times they were likewise carved, painted etc, just as the walls and pillars of Catholic churches in England were, until first King Henry and then Queen Elizabeth ordered them all to be whitewashed. As a pole rooted in the Earth and reaching into the heavens, we can again think of both Jacob's Ladder and the Tower of Babel; the modern church spire and the pointed minaret of the Muslim mosque have the same purpose, as do those Egyptian obelisks that you will find in Paris (the Luxor Obelisk in Place de la Concorde), London (Cleopatra's Needle on the Embankment), and New York; and mirrored in every skyscraper in the world; and I'm sorry to tell you that your Christmas Tree with its angel on the summit is also an Asherah, as is the standard Cross, complete with its hanging Jesus... the one a female, the other a male version of the same World Tree).
VE HA KENA'ANI AZ BA ARETS: The Kena'anites had settled the low lands in stone age times. They called the land Kinnahu. They were still there in the time of the Kings. From the word Kinnahu we can deduce Hurrian origins, or links, but these should not be confused with the Beney Chor, who are incorrectly pronounced as Horites in English; the Chori were aboriginals who inhabited the hill regions.
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| King Ezana's stela at Axum in Ethiopia (4th century CE) |
12:7 VA YERA YHVH EL AV-RAM VA YOMER LE ZAR'ACHA ETEN ET HA ARETS HA ZOT VA YIVEN SHAM MIZBE'ACH LA YHVH HA NIR'EH ELAV
וַיֵּרָא יְהוָה אֶל אַבְרָם וַיֹּאמֶר לְזַרְעֲךָ אֶתֵּן אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַזֹּאת וַיִּבֶן שָׁם מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה הַנִּרְאֶה אֵלָיו
KJ: And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.
BN: And YHVH appeared to Av-Ram and said, "To your seed will I give this land"; and he built an altar there to YHVH who had appeared to him.
What we must recognise is that a) the altar was already there; b) it wasn't YHVH who was the god of the place; and c) the god whom Av-Ram worshipped, as we will be told repeatedly, was El Shadai, not YHVH (see Exodus 6:3 especially). In one sense then the Redactors are trying to take over the ownership of the shrine and render it Yisra-Eli; at the same time they are trying to create a historic continuity for the cult of YHVH, absorbing El Shadai into YHVH in exactly the same manner.
A MIZBE'ACH (מזבח) was specifically a sacrificial altar.
This verse is crucial to the Zionist argument: the giving of the land by YHVH. We are, however, on dangerous ground if we allow political decisions to be based on religious visions! Three and a half thousand years of known-to-be-uninterrupted habitation makes for a much better rebuttal of the anti-Zionists.
12:8 VA YA'TEK MI SHAM HA HARAH ME KEDEM LE VEIT-EL VA YET AHALAH BEIT-EL MI YAM VE HA AI MI KEDEM VA YIVEN SHAM MIZBE'ACH LA YHVH VA YIKRA BE SHEM YHVH
וַיַּעְתֵּק מִשָּׁם הָהָרָה מִקֶּדֶם לְבֵית אֵל וַיֵּט אָהֳלֹה בֵּית אֵל מִיָּם וְהָעַי מִקֶּדֶם וַיִּבֶן שָׁם מִזְבֵּחַ לַיהוָה וַיִּקְרָא בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה
KJ: And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.
BN: And he moved on from there to the hill on the east of Beit-El, and pitched his tent, having Beit-El on the west and Ai on the east; and he built an altar there to YHVH, and called upon the name of YHVH.
BEIT-EL (בית-אל): Again compare this with the Ya'akov (Jacob) versions, in which it is Ya'akov who names the place Beit-El where it was previously Luz, and Ya'akov who built the altar after YHVH had appeared to him (Genesis 28:10ff and 35). Again YHVH was not the god but, as the name of the place indicates, the Kena'anite El was worshipped here; and therefore, since El was the god of oak trees (Elon/אלון), we can assume that Beit-El included a sacred grove, though the centrepiece, which really gives the place its name, would have been the standing stone, the baetyl. El was always portrayed as married to the fertility-goddess of course; so again we are witnessing the tour of duty.
It may also be, indeed it is highly likely, that these shrines functioned as oases/caravanserai.
Beit-El is 10 miles north of Yeru-Shala'im and was located in the northern kingdom of Ephrayim after the civil war that followed the death of Shelomoh (Solomon).
MI YAM (מים): = west - YAM meaning "sea", in this case the Mediterranean. MI KEDEM (מקדם): = east. That these are the names for the compass points becomes important in the Mosheh story where they are constantly "got wrong".
HA AI (והעי): probably Haiyan, two miles east of Beit-El; it was a Kena'anite royal city, and one of the first cities to be razed by Yehoshu'a during his conquest of Kena'an (Joshua 8).
More problems with the text. If YHVH has given him this land as his, why does he leave straightaway? Because he is still nomadic, or because the Kena'anites forced him to move on? Did he come to Shechem and Moreh by chance, or by intention?
12:9 VA YISA AV-RAM HALOCH VE NASO'A HA NEGBAH
וַיִּסַּע אַבְרָם הָלוֹךְ וְנָסוֹעַ הַנֶּגְבָּה
KJ: And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.
BN: And Av-ram resumed his journey, still travelling southwards.
HA NEGBAH (הנגבה): = southwards. The Negev desert, which occupies about a half of modern Israel, also occupies the whole of the south of the country, but it is not called the Negev because it is in the south, rather from the root NAGAV (נגב) = "dry"; the word came to mean "south" because of the geographical location of the dry area of the country. One of the neatest examples, in short, of the ways in which language develops.
HALOCH VE NASO'A: "going and travelling". He stays so short a time in Kena'an, barely stopping to build an altar, one wonders again if this really was his intended stopping place. And the phrase which is translated here as "still going on" gives it away; nomads travel in slow stages. Clearly Av-Ram was heading for Mitsrayim (Egypt) all along, and the "Lech Lecha" part, the inheritance of the land part, were added by the Redactor to impute historical and divine legitimacy to the Yisra-Elite possession of the land.
12:10 VA YEHI RA'AV BA ARETS VA YERED AV-RAM MITSRAYEMAH LAGUR SHAM KI CHAVED HA RA'AV BA ARETS
וַיְהִי רָעָב בָּאָרֶץ וַיֵּרֶד אַבְרָם מִצְרַיְמָה לָגוּר שָׁם כִּי כָבֵד הָרָעָב בָּאָרֶץ
KJ: And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
BN: And there was a famine in the land; so Av-Ram went down into Mitsrayim to sojourn there, for the famine was sore in the land.
Again compare this with the Ya'akov stories, in which Ya'akov sends his sons down to Mitsrayim (Egypt) because there was a famine in Kena'an.
12:11 VA YEHI KA ASHER HIKRIV LAVO MITSRAYEMAH VA YOMER EL SARAI ISHTO HINEH NA YADATI KI ISHAH YEPHAT MAR'EH AT
וַיְהִי כַּאֲשֶׁר הִקְרִיב לָבוֹא מִצְרָיְמָה וַיֹּאמֶר אֶל־שָׂרַי אִשְׁתּוֹ הִנֵּה נָא יָדַעְתִּי כִּי אִשָּׁה יְפַת מַרְאֶה אָתְּ
KJ: And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:
BN: And it came to pass, as they were approaching the border with Mitsrayim, that he said to Sarai his wife, "Behold now, I know that you are an extremely attractive woman to look at...
We have entered the realm of folk-lore. See below.
12:12 VE HAYAH KI YIR'U OTACH HA MITSRIM VE AMRU ISHTO ZOT VE HARGU OTI VE OTACH YECHAYU
וְהָיָה כִּי יִרְאוּ אֹתָךְ הַמִּצְרִים וְאָמְרוּ אִשְׁתּוֹ זֹאת וְהָרְגוּ אֹתִי וְאֹתָךְ יְחַיּוּ
KJ: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.
BN: "And it may come to pass, when the Mitsrim see you, that they will say: 'This is his wife' and they will kill me, but they will keep you alive.
VE HAYAH: Translating this as "may" rather than the customary "shall", alters the meaning radically. This is a pretext for a discussion group. The use of "may" is not mine; it belongs to the majority of modern translations; but not, as you can see, to the King James. Fear or expectation? A pessimistic take on human nature, or mere sensible concern for the well-being of his... property?
This story is repeated twice more, once with the same protagonists at Gerar (Genesis 20), once with Yitschak and Rivkah chez Avi-Melech (Genesis 26). The original source is the Egyptian "Tale of the Two Brothers", which also gives the original version for Yoseph and Poti-Phera's wife (Genesis 39). What we are actually witnessing, taking the story literally, is the prostitution of Sarai by Av-Ram; something morally unacceptable to us today, but then we are forgetting that she is the fertility-priestess, and ritual prostitution by the priestesses was integral, indeed central, to her cult, and as a sacred duty wasn't really prostitution anyway. And remember she was barren; there may well be a hint in all this of an infertile man as well.
12:13 IMRI NA ACHOTI AT LEMA'AN YIYTAV LI VA AVURECH VE CHAYETAH NAPHSHI BIGLALECH
אִמְרִי נָא אֲחֹתִי אָתְּ לְמַעַן יִיטַב לִי בַעֲבוּרֵךְ וְחָיְתָה נַפְשִׁי בִּגְלָלֵךְ
KJ: Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
BN: "Say, I pray you, that you are my sister; that it may be well with me for your sake, and that my soul may live because of you."
YIYTAV LI: "Be well with me for your sake" is a rather egocentric way of phrasing this.
But of course she is his sister as well as his wife, at least if we take them in their original incarnations as sun-god and moon-goddess. In all these ancient cults, including the Egyptian itself, the King and Queen of Heaven, and the Pharaoh and his Queen, were both incestuous and connubial.
End of first fragment
*
TWO: In Mitsrayim (Egypt)
12:14 VA YEHI KE VO AV-RAM MITSRAYEMAH VA YIR'U HA MITSRIM ET HA ISHAH KI YAPHAH HI ME'OD
וַיְהִי כְּבוֹא אַבְרָם מִצְרָיְמָה וַיִּרְאוּ הַמִּצְרִים אֶת הָאִשָּׁה כִּי יָפָה הִוא מְאֹד
KJ: And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.
BN: So it happened that, when Av-Ram arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians saw that his wife was very beautiful.
YAPHAH HI ME'OD: We use "fair" today as a partner with "middling"; the Yehudit does not suggest this, but rather that she was extremely beautiful; a goddess, indeed!
And of course, being decent human beings, the Mitsrim noticed that he had a beautiful wife, and were pleased for him, but respected the fact that she was a married woman, and got on with their lives.
וַיִּרְאוּ אֹתָהּ שָׂרֵי פַרְעֹה וַיְהַלְלוּ אֹתָהּ אֶל פַּרְעֹה וַתֻּקַּח הָאִשָּׁה בֵּית פַּרְעֹה
KJ: The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
BN: And Pharaoh's ministers saw her, and praised her to Pharaoh; and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's palace.
SAREY (שרי): Princes, from the same root as SARAI (שרי) = "princess"; and in fact, unpointed, spelled exactly the same. Thus the princes of Mitsrayim saw the princess of Charan. However, SAREY was also used to mean "ministers", in the governmental sense, and it is likely, from our understanding of the Egyptian hierarchy, that this was the case here.
VAYEHALELU (ויהללו): "and they praised her" - well they would, wouldn't they? If she were the fertility goddess come down to them, they would assume she was Isis incarnate. All the Hallel Psalms are dedicated to her in the same way, after all. The point being: if all they were doing was praising her in the sense of reporting back how good-looking she was, the verb "LEHALEL" would not have been used. This verb is quite specific, throughout the scriptures, as a part of the lexicon of liturgy, not of amour.
BEIT PHAROH (בית פרעה): does this mean his home, in other words his harem; or his religious function, and therefore his temple, as Beit-El and Bav-El do not mean YHVH's harem nor his front parlour, but his temple. Or is it simply an idiom for "palace". We can't eat our cake and still have it, as the saying should properly go.
PAROH: Pharaoh is a difficult word, especially in the Yoseph story where he is often called Pharaoh King of Egypt, an apparent tautology. Simply the Yehudit word is a transliteration of the Egyptian Pr-'o, which is the king’s royal title and signifies "Great House" - exactly, guess what, like Beit-El and Bav-El, as noted above. And in much the same way, indeed, as we ourselves read Av-Raham = "Great Father" to be merely a title, and Avi-Melech = "father-king" likewise. Like Popes, Kings adopt royal names upon ascending the throne. Shelomoh's (Solomon's) real name was Yedid-Yah (2 Samuel 12:24-25), as was David's full name before him: David, Daoud and Dodi are all diminutives of Yedid-Yah in the same way that Alex and Sasha and Sandy are all diminutives of Alexander. It is almost certain that the renaming of Ya'akov as Yisra-El was likewise a coronation rite (see the commentaries on the Penu-El story in Genesis 32). Jesus likewise is a royal title, meaning "anointed", anointment being the equivalent of coronation in Biblical times.
What we must also wonder is: was Sarai/Sarah in fact a variant spelling of Asherah, and Av-Ram/Av-Raham a title of Ba'al – i.e. is this a myth of the gods being reduced to human proportions by the later redactors, in the same way that Ar-Thur would become a mere earthly king in the British equivalent?
12:16 U LE AV-RAM HEYTIV BA AVURAH VA YEHI LO TSON U VAKAR VA CHAMORIM VA AVADIM U SHEPHACHOT VA ATONOT U GEMALIM
וּלְאַבְרָם הֵיטִיב בַּעֲבוּרָהּ וַיְהִי לוֹ צֹאן וּבָקָר וַחֲמֹרִים וַעֲבָדִים וּשְׁפָחֹת וַאֲתֹנֹת וּגְמַלִּים
KJ: And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.
BN: And he paid Av-Ram very well for her; and he had sheep, and oxen, and he-asses, and man-servants, and maid-servants, and she-asses, and camels.
All of which seems a fair price for selling your sister for a good wife! Except that men do not generally sell their wives, and probably would not get that price, unless in a Hollywood movie. So what is really going on here?
The camels are worrying; are we not too early for camels? This requires a discussion group of its own: the history of the domestication of the camel, which may have been as early as 2500 BCE in Mesopotamia, though the camel bones found in the Timna Valley by Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef suggest that date is way too early: those bones carbon-dated at around 930 BCE. Earlier scholars had suggested the 12th century BCE for Egypt - which is still too early for Mosheh let alone Av-Ram; but even that is now disputed, and the 10th century is now favoured - click here or here.
But if a man is prepared to sell his wife, should we really be so surprised when he is equally willing to sacrifice his son? This requires some comparison with the purchase of Machpelah from Ephron of the Beney Chet (Hittites), where Ephron too is really a god, and his wife, the goddess Yah/Io, is far more significant in fact, like Sarai in this tale.
12:17 VA YENAGA YHVH ET PAROH NEGA'IM GEDOLIM VE ET BEYTO AL DEVAR SARAI ESHET AV-RAM
וַיְנַגַּע יְהוָה אֶת פַּרְעֹה נְגָעִים גְּדֹלִים וְאֶת בֵּיתוֹ עַל דְּבַר שָׂרַי אֵשֶׁת אַבְרָם
KJ: And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife.
BN: And YHVH plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Av-Ram's wife.
All of which seems harsh to the point of Jobdom on the unknowing Pharaoh! And then - plagues. In Egypt. Why plagues? We will wonder, when we get to the Exodus story, if the plagues weren't part of the already existing liturgy for the ancient Egyptian Pesach festival, which will then become transformed into the Mosaic-Jewish in those chapters; is something of the same going on here? This wasn't even adultery, since he had bought a wife perfectly legitimately, and anyway Pharaohs have droit de seigneur. Something else must be going on. We are dealing with links between two religions: is the plague then a kind of theological shatnez - how on Earth does one explain that to non-Jews?! Or is it an ancient way of describing the guilt complex? In the end, we probably have to read it as a way of saying "Pharaoh had an intuition that something wasn't quite kosher" - maybe taking her to bed and discovering that she wasn't a virgin. And how many plagues? Ten, by any chance. And plagues of what? Boils, locusts, darkness, death of the first-born?
Because it is the choice of language that makes this really interesting. Not in the Yehudit, where NEGA'IM is plain NEGA'IM - the verb LINGO'A simply means "to touch". But in the translation, which decides to use "plagues" almost as a deliberate prefiguration. Why would the translators do that? Check it out, but you will not find the root NAG'A at any point of the Passover story. The word used for "plague" (see Exodus 12:13 for example) is NEGEPH (נֶגֶף), and in fact it has nothing to do with the Ten Plagues sent against the Egyptians, but relates to the mezuzah of blood which will ensure that the angel of death passes over the houses of the Beney Yisra-El, guaranteeing that "וְלֹא יִהְיֶה בָכֶם נֶגֶף לְמַשְׁחִית - there will be no plague upon you to destroy you". The same word recurs in Exodus 30:12, and in Numbers 8:19, 17:11 and 17:12. NEG'A, which really means "to touch", is only once used to mean plague, in Deuteronomy 24:8-9; and even that may be another mis-translation: the phrase used is BE NEG'A HA TSA'ARAT (בְּנֶגַע הַצָּרַעַת) and is a description of leprosy, the same sort that Mir-Yam has in Numbers 12, and literally translates as "touching-sorrow", which is a poetical description of severe eczema, or in her case more likely the fallout of volcanic lava.
Neg'a appears in Leviticus 13:3 (inter alia) as an outbreak of psoriasis, which has long been mis-translated as a form of leprosy, varied as NEGA HA NETEK or NEGA HA TSARA'AT, depending on how it manifests and whether on skin or clothing. Perhaps it is some form of eczema or psoriasis that Pharaoh contracts here; the translation as "plague" may be a simple mis-reading of NEG'A for NEGEPH, though I think that less likely than the willful addition of an eleventh plague for theological reasons.
12:18 VA YIKRA PHAROH LE AV-RAM VA YOMER MAH ZOT ASITA LI LAMAH LO HIGADETA LI KI ISHTECHA HI
וַיִּקְרָא פַרְעֹה לְאַבְרָם וַיֹּאמֶר מַה זֹּאת עָשִׂיתָ לִּי לָמָּה לֹא הִגַּדְתָּ לִּי כִּי אִשְׁתְּךָ הִוא
KJ: And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife?
BN: And Pharaoh called Av-Ram and said, "What have you done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?"
How did Pharaoh find out?
12:19 LAMAH AMARTA ACHOTI HI VA EKACH OTAH LI LE ISHAH VE ATAH HINEH ISHTECHA KACH VA LECH!
לָמָה אָמַרְתָּ אֲחֹתִי הִוא וָאֶקַּח אֹתָהּ לִי לְאִשָּׁה וְעַתָּה הִנֵּה אִשְׁתְּךָ קַח וָלֵךְ
KJ: Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
BN: "Why did you say, 'She is my sister?' so that I took her for my wife; now here is your wife, take her, and get out of here."
VE EKACH OTAH: The King James ducks this one most pruriently, with "I might have taken her". No, the text is very clear - he slept with her. I wonder how Sarai feels about her husband, now that she's been sold by him into another man's bed, Pharaoh or not Pharaoh.
"Take her and go thy way" is another tame translation. The abruptness of "kach ve-lech" is much more "take her and get the hell out of here". Given the attitude towards female virginity in this world (then as now), Av-Ram and Sarai can regard themselves as fortunate to get away with their lives, let alone keeping the pimp-goods.
12:20 VA YETSAV ALAV PAROH ANASHIM VA YESHALCHU OTO VE ET ISHTO VE ET KOL ASHER LO
וַיְצַו עָלָיו פַּרְעֹה אֲנָשִׁים וַיְשַׁלְּחוּ אֹתוֹ וְאֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וְאֶת כָּל אֲשֶׁר לוֹ
KJ: And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him: and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.
BN: And Pharaoh instructed his men concerning him; and they sent him on his way, and his wife, and all that he had.
BN: And Pharaoh instructed his men concerning him; and they sent him on his way, and his wife, and all that he had.
It does sound like they are leading away a convicted man - a deportee.
VA YETSAV: This verb will become central to the giving of the law, in the other four books of Torah; so let us get clear from the outset that it does not mean "command"; it means "instruct". Commands and instructions can be very similar, but the former is always a matter of order-and-obedience, while the latter is a matter of teaching-and-learning, and our understanding of Torah, which also means "teaching" (even today the word for a teacher is MOREH, and the root is OR = "light", as in Enlightenment), depends on this.
At this point Chapter 12 ends in the English text.
✡
Chapter 13, Verse 1: VA YA'AL AV-RAM MI MITSRAYIM HU VE ISHTO VE CHOL ASHER LO VE LOT IMO HA NEGBA
וַיַּעַל אַבְרָם מִמִּצְרַיִם הוּא וְאִשְׁתּוֹ וְכָל אֲשֶׁר־לוֹ וְלוֹט עִמּוֹ הַנֶּגְבָּה
KJ: And Abram went up out of Egypt, he, and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
BN: And Av-Ram went up out of Mitsrayim, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.
HA NEGBA (הנגבה): Into the south of Kena'an anyway; due east from Egypt, but "up" because the court of the Pharaoh at that time was at Memphis, not yet at Avaris.
13:2 VE AV-RAM KAVED ME'OD BA MIKNEH BA KESEPH U VA ZAHAV
אַבְרָם כָּבֵד מְאֹד בַּמִּקְנֶה בַּכֶּסֶף וּבַזָּהָב
KJ: And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
BN: And Av-Ram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
13:3 VA YELECH LE MASA'AV MI NEGEV VE AD BEIT-EL AD HA MAKOM ASHER HAYAH SHAM AHALO BA TECHILAH BEYN BEIT-EL U VEYN HA AI...
וַיֵּלֶךְ לְמַסָּעָיו מִנֶּגֶב וְעַד בֵּית אֵל עַד הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר הָיָה שָׁם אָהֳלֹה בַּתְּחִלָּה בֵּין בֵּית אֵל וּבֵין הָעָי
KJ: And he went on his journeys from the south even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Hai;
BN: And he went on his journeys from the south as far as Beit-El, to the place where he had pitched his tent when he first arrived, between Beit-El and Ai...
BEIT-EL (בית-אל): there is much confusion in the Torah between Beit-El and Luz, the town where Ya'akov would later dream the ladder. In the Ya'akov story, we are told that he names the place Beit-El, precisely because of the ladder-dream; but that previously it was known as Luz. Yet here is Av-Ram at the place, and it is already called Beit-El. And of course Av-Ram also has a family member named Betu-El, which is a variant of the same word, in Greek baetyl, which means a standing-stone, the kind you find at megalithic alignments.
AI (העי): the Beney Kena'an town of Ha-Ai = "ruin". Previously a royal city, it was sacked by Yehoshu'a (Joshua 7 & 8), but had been rebuilt by Yesha-Yahu's time (Isaiah 10:28). Identified with El-Tell, a mile south-east of Beit-El. Usually referred to as Ha Ai ("the ruin"), we have to assume it had an earlier name, but after its destruction (not by Yehoshu'a in reality, but by Ach-Mousa - Ahmose 1 - when he conquered Kena'an in the wake of his defeat of the Hyksos; though of course Ach-Mousa may well be the original Mosheh/Moses of the Bible) became a ruin and was therefore known as such.
13:4 EL MEKOM HA MIZBE'ACH ASHER ASAH SHAM BA RI'SHONAH VA YIKRA SHAM AV-RAM BE SHEM YHVH
אֶל מְקוֹם הַמִּזְבֵּחַ אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה שָׁם בָּרִאשֹׁנָה וַיִּקְרָא שָׁם אַבְרָם בְּשֵׁם יְהוָה
KJ: Unto the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.
BN: To the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first; and Av-Ram called there on the name of YHVH.
The altar being the place to which he returns constantly; the centrepiece of the tribe, as a city would be for non-nomadic peoples. Is the tent referred to above in fact the god's portable shrine, his version of the Ark of the Tabernacle?
As to his calling on the name of YHVH, this is a late addition, as in the earlier suggestion that he did the same. As noted above, it is made clear that he worshipped his god by many names, usually EL SHADAI, but never YHVH (Exodus 6:3).
Nonetheless the whole Av-Ram passage up till now has been Yahwistic, with no mention of Elohim.
End of second fragment
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