Isaiah: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
2:1 HA DAVAR ASHER CHAZAH YESH'A-YAHU BEN AMOTS AL YEHUDAH VIYRU-SHALA'IM
הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר חָזָה יְשַׁעְיָהוּ בֶּן אָמוֹץ עַל יְהוּדָה וִירוּשָׁלִָם
KJ (King James translation): The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
BN (BibleNet translation): The vision of Yesh'a-Yah ben Amots concerning Yehudah and Yeru-Shala'im.
HA DAVAR: Can't really be translated as "the word", because the verb that follows is the "seeing of a vision", unless what Y-Y "saw" was written down. But DAVAR YHVH is always understood to be "the Word" of the deity, and not a superhuman voice from heaven pronouncing edicts, but in its Creational form: the deity "speaking" the Cosmos into existence ("Let there be Light"). Like Genesis 1:3, John the Apostle's gospel begins with the same CHAZON, though he uses the Greek word, Logos (
Λόγος): "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1).
CHAZAH: Chapter 1 began with CHAZON (see my note there); now it is used as a verb.
2:2 VE HAYAH BE ACHARIT HA YAMIM NACHON YIHEYEH HAR BEIT YHVH BE ROSH HE HARIM VE NISA MI GEVA'OT VE NAHARU ELAV KOL HA GOYIM
וְהָיָה בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים נָכוֹן יִהְיֶה הַר בֵּית יְהוָה בְּרֹאשׁ הֶהָרִים וְנִשָּׂא מִגְּבָעוֹת וְנָהֲרוּ אֵלָיו כָּל הַגּוֹיִם
KJ: And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
BN: And it shall come to pass at the end of days, that the mountain of YHVH's house shall be established as the head of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
BE ACHARIT: A very quick shift from the beginning of the days, in the previous verse, to the end of days in this one. Same Davar though!
"The mountain of the Lord's house… on top of the mountains", is not the Mosaic or the Davidic paradigm, but more like Olympus or Valhalla, though we will see Y-Y in Davidic mode frequently through the later chapters. There is an element of this in the Mosaic, but what we mostly encounter at Sinai is a volcanic deity, the surface of whose mountain is unwalkable for molten lava, whose constant eruptions lead to the famous pillar of smoke by day and pillar of fire by night, though a secondary level of the tale, probably appended in the era of the Prophets, or even later still at the time of Ezra, allows Mosheh to climb to some priestly shrine at the summit of a non-volcanic hill, where he sits in study and meditation for forty days and nights until the writing of the Law is done.
The location of the deity, not in the heavens, but on the summit of a mountain, again like Olympus or Valhalla, or indeed like Chorev or Sinai.
But note that the word for "head" is ROSH, which is lexically accurate, but also symbolically significant, because the "beginning of days" was also a ROSH - BERE'SHIT itself, the opening word (with a lower case w) of the Torah. And ROSH, which also means "source", now comes to mean "outlet" as well, and all the "elements", the primordial "waters" of the Cosmos, will flow like nations into it - helictically, though Y-Y wouldn't have known that. Clever-clever-clever word play! I wonder what Y-Y would think of my modern Einsteinian version of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life (see the illustration above).
2:3 VE HALCHU AMIM RABIM VE AMRU LECHU VE NA'ALEH EL HAR YHVH EL BEIT ELOHEY YA'AKOV VE YORENU MIDRACHAV VE NELCHAH BE ORCHOTAV KI MI TIS'ON TETS'E TORAH U DEVAR YHVH MIYRU-SHALA'IM
וְהָלְכוּ עַמִּים רַבִּים וְאָמְרוּ לְכוּ וְנַעֲלֶה אֶל הַר יְהוָה אֶל בֵּית אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וְיֹרֵנוּ מִדְּרָכָיו וְנֵלְכָה בְּאֹרְחֹתָיו כִּי מִצִּיּוֹן תֵּצֵא תוֹרָה וּדְבַר יְהוָה מִירוּשָׁלִָם
BN: And many peoples shall go, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of YHVH, to the house of the god of Ya'akov; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For the law shall go forth out of Tsi'on, and the Word of YHVH from Yiru-Shala'im.
Humans are able to go to this mountain alive, as though visiting a temple or a shrine. It is specifically named the "House of Jacob".
The phrase from "Ki mi Tsi'on" to the end of the verse is used at the Torah reading in synagogue. The "it shall come to pass" of verse 2 is now shown to be either the end of days or the Messianic age, which may or may not be the same thing; but only the "what will happen" is stated: a time of universal judgement and peace, with some receiving punishment because they refuse to adhere to the laws - and we will see as we continue whether that means the laws determined by an opinion-driven ruler, or the laws of Nature itself. The final chapters of this book will describe the punishment in detail.
Yet how odd, after such remarkable word-play in the previous verse, the awkward and prolix and ungrammatical VE HALCHU AMIM RABIM VE AMRU that opens this one. Why use the past tense for a future event at all? And if the intention is the Vav Consecutive, then use it: VA YELCHU AMIM RABIM VA YOMRU...
YORENU: The root that also yields "Torah" but which Y-Y will use consistently to mean "enlightenment" in a much boader sense.
MIDRACHAV: What is the difference between this and HALACHAH? (I ask, and not rhetorically, because I honestly do not know). Possibly they are synonymous, as with DIN and TSEDEK in the first chapter; but in travellers' terms, a DERECH is usually a highway rather than any smaller road or path, while LALECHET is much more about the journey itself.
2:4 VE SHAPHAT BEYN HA GOYIM VE HOCHIYACH LE AMIM RABIM VE CHITETU CHARVOTAM LE ITIM VA CHANIYTOTEYHEM LE MAZMEROT LO YISA GO'I EL GO'I CHEREV VE LO YILMEDU OD MILCHAMAH
Yet how odd, after such remarkable word-play in the previous verse, the awkward and prolix and ungrammatical VE HALCHU AMIM RABIM VE AMRU that opens this one. Why use the past tense for a future event at all? And if the intention is the Vav Consecutive, then use it: VA YELCHU AMIM RABIM VA YOMRU...
YORENU: The root that also yields "Torah" but which Y-Y will use consistently to mean "enlightenment" in a much boader sense.
MIDRACHAV: What is the difference between this and HALACHAH? (I ask, and not rhetorically, because I honestly do not know). Possibly they are synonymous, as with DIN and TSEDEK in the first chapter; but in travellers' terms, a DERECH is usually a highway rather than any smaller road or path, while LALECHET is much more about the journey itself.
2:4 VE SHAPHAT BEYN HA GOYIM VE HOCHIYACH LE AMIM RABIM VE CHITETU CHARVOTAM LE ITIM VA CHANIYTOTEYHEM LE MAZMEROT LO YISA GO'I EL GO'I CHEREV VE LO YILMEDU OD MILCHAMAH
וְשָׁפַט בֵּין הַגּוֹיִם וְהוֹכִיחַ לְעַמִּים רַבִּים וְכִתְּתוּ חַרְבוֹתָם לְאִתִּים וַחֲנִיתוֹתֵיהֶם לְמַזְמֵרוֹת לֹא יִשָּׂא גוֹי אֶל גּוֹי חֶרֶב וְלֹא יִלְמְדוּ עוֹד מִלְחָמָה
BN: And he shall judge between the nations, and draw conclusions for many peoples; and they will beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they study war any more.
YACHACH: Now in the Pa'al form, where it was in the Hiph'il at 1:18.
Wonderful Messianic idealism! This, ultimately, is what differentiates the Prophetic writings from the earlier books of the Tanach: the recognition that humans cannot live up to the terms of the covenant, and therefore we have to place our naive hopes in a fantasy instead. Rather sad really, at one level; but also the only chance of making progress.
The last phrase translatable into country-and-western American English as "and I ain't a-gonna study war no more" - click here to hear it.
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2:5 BEIT YA'AKOV LECHU VE NELCHAH BE OR YHVH
Wonderful Messianic idealism! This, ultimately, is what differentiates the Prophetic writings from the earlier books of the Tanach: the recognition that humans cannot live up to the terms of the covenant, and therefore we have to place our naive hopes in a fantasy instead. Rather sad really, at one level; but also the only chance of making progress.
The last phrase translatable into country-and-western American English as "and I ain't a-gonna study war no more" - click here to hear it.
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2:5 BEIT YA'AKOV LECHU VE NELCHAH BE OR YHVH
בֵּית יַעֲקֹב לְכוּ וְנֵלְכָה בְּאוֹר יְהוָה
KJ: O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
BN: Go, house of Ya'akov, and we shall walk in the light of YHVH.
This invokes the "Jews" specifically – though we cannot really call this people "Jews" at this epoch; however. My earlier comments suggest that they are no longer insultable as "Habiru - Hebrews", the "Two Kingdoms" having been reduced to the new triplet named Yehudah; but neither will they become "Jews", in the sense that we understand "Jews" to mean the religion Judaism as well as the ethnicity "Jewish", until 70 CE and the fall of the Temple. We could say that they became Jews-by-nationality after the disappearance of the Ten tribes in 722 BCE, but that will only add confusion. I am going to think about coining the term "Isaiac Hebrews" as a descriptor of this transitory stage, post-Mosheh but still pre-Ezra, but that will need some further thought.
LECHU, not BO'U: this is "go", not "come".
OR: The root of TORAH, as with YORENU in verse 3
2:6 KI NATASHTAH AMCHA BEIT YA'AKOV KI MAL'U MI KEDEM VE ONENIM KA PELISHTIM U VE YALDEY NACHRIM YASPIYKU
כִּי נָטַשְׁתָּה עַמְּךָ בֵּית יַעֲקֹב כִּי מָלְאוּ מִקֶּדֶם וְעֹנְנִים כַּפְּלִשְׁתִּים וּבְיַלְדֵי נָכְרִים יַשְׂפִּיקוּ
KJ: Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
BN: For you, the house of Ya'akov, you have forsaken your own people. They are replenished from the east, and with soothsayers like the Pelishtim, and they make covenants among the children of foreigners.
No, KJ has this completely wrong, this is not Y-Y addressing the deity, but Y-Y surrogating for the deity in addressing the people; he invoked the House of Ya'akov in the previous verse, and is addressing them again now.
Is this an accusation that they have been adopting "Eastern ways" – the worship of Tammuz, for example, which we know from Ezekiel 8:14 was happening at the north gate of the Temple; or is this a consequence of the conquest of the Northern Kingdom, the Shomronim arriving with both garrisons and settlers (as they would again when Yehudah was conquered and exiled in 586 BCE and it was the same Padan-Aramians who were re-settled there to replace them) bringing their "voodoo" and their "heathenisms" with them? The difficulty is not just dating the text, but the use of the word "KEDEM", which could as well mean "ancient" as "eastern". But if it does mean "eastern", then it could also infer Persian, as in the Zoroastrian ideas that were coming to fruition and predominance in Deutero-Isaiah's time; while KEDEM as "ancient" infers the earlier Assyrian and Babylonian ideas, which were already fully present in Yisra-El in Torah times, as well as the broader Kena'ani culture that preceded all of these? A Hasmonean redactor would want all of these to be included.
MAL'U sounds like marrying out, diminishing the tribe by fathering or mothering children with non-Yehudim; though its use in the following verse is definitely about material rather than biological replenishment.
And YASPIYKU confirms it: the root is SAPHAK, which means "to strike" in the sense of a bargain or a covenant - here, presumably, marriage arrangements. Cf Nechem-Yah 13, verses 23ff especially.
ONENIM: But surely this is a very vulgar pun? ONENIM, rather than ONANIM - for which see ONAN.
PELISHTIM: Philistines, or possibly Palestinians.
2:7 VA TIMAL'E ARTSO KESEPH VE ZAHAV VE EYN KETSEH LE OTSROTAV VA TIMAL'E ARTSO SUSIM VE EYN KETSEH LE MARKEVOTAV
וַתִּמָּלֵא אַרְצוֹ כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב וְאֵין קֵצֶה לְאֹצְרֹתָיו וַתִּמָּלֵא אַרְצוֹ סוּסִים וְאֵין קֵצֶה לְמַרְכְּבֹתָיו
KJ: Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots:
BN: Their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their hordes of treasure. And their land is full of horses, and there is no end to the numbers of their chariots.
ZAHAV... OTSROTAV... MARKEVOTAV: One of the things that we simply don't know about these Prophets is the method and place of delivery of their words. Did they stand on soap-boxes in the street and simply declaim? Were they an official body, the Guild of Prophets, who delivered formal speeches at official lunches, galas, banquets and ceremonial dinners? Were they like the mediaeval monks, who listened to a sermon from a pulpit every time they sat down to eat in what was otherwise obligatory silence? There are times when any of these could apply to Y-Y. But then there is the poetry, and I can easily imagine a precursor to Bob Dylan, on stage at Jerusalem's equivalent of Madison Square Gardens, accompanying himself on accoustic lyre, and with a set of pan-pipes attached by string around his neck, delivering these amazing lines of poetry in the style of "It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall".
2:8 VA TIMAL'E ARTSO ELIYLIM LE MA'ASEH YADAV YISHTACHAVU LA ASHER ASU ETSBE'OTAV
וַתִּמָּלֵא אַרְצוֹ אֱלִילִים לְמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו יִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַאֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ אֶצְבְּעֹתָיו
KJ: Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made:
BN: And their land is full of idols; every one prostrates himself before the work of his own hands, that which his own fingers have made.
And perhaps one of the reasons for that Bob Dylan parallel is that there is also a second parallel, in this verse as in verse 7: with the Psalms. "Atsabeyhem keseph ve zahav", for example, in Psalm 115:4, which verse ends, just like this one, "ma'asey yedey adam" - "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands." It is almost as if Y-Y is quoting Psalms, and not only here, but frequently. Or are the Psalms quoting Yesh'a-Yah?
The attack on idol worship is the familiar rhetoric of the missionary: my psychotic delusion is superior to your psychotic delusion, so you need to give yours up and take up mine. And the follow-up, of an attack on the making of graven images, would be expected, as these are prohibited within the Mosaic Laws. But is this also an attack on arts, crafts, engineering per se, which is to say the manifestations of the human mind when it applies its potensis for imagination, thought, reason etc? It goes against his own insistence on the poietikos - or does he want even philosophy and the arts to be driven by the laws of Nature, to serve as endorsements for scientific understanding? I fear that, as with the Catholic Church in its millennial resistance to the development of education and the growth of science, out of a desire, indeed a need, to keep people ignorant so that they could continue to be be manipulated into the subservience of faith, so there is always a sense within Yesh'a-Yah that the General Secretary of the Communist Party was not the first to utilise the methods that he did.
וַיִּשַּׁח אָדָם וַיִּשְׁפַּל אִישׁ וְאַל תִּשָּׂא לָהֶם
KJ: And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
BN: And the human becomes empty, and the man becomes depressed, and you cannot bear to be with them.
ADAM...ISH: I am intrigued by Y-Y's separation of these two - and he will do it repeatedly throughout the book. Adam is generally the Edomite name, and Ish the Yehudit, but he uses them rather more to mean Humankind (Adam) and individual humans (Ish). This is then given a further variation, as we shall see, when he uses both the plural of ISH - ANASHIM - to mean "people", and also ENOSH, the multiple plural formed from the same root, as a variant of ADAM (or perhaps the different Y-Ys of different epochs had different ways of using language - we must always keep that thought in mind).
YISHACH: where in the previous he used YISHTACHAVU: Pa'al shifting to Hirpa'el, as it shifted to Hiph'il previously. SHETACH, the root of that latter, means "surface", and is therefore understood to mean "floor": so the Hit'pael (reflexive) form of the verb has a person laying himself flat out on the floor - which is prostration. But here Y-Y uses YISHACH, which is translated as "bow down", that being the next level up, so to speak, in the forms of prayer: full prostration, genuflection (bowing down), seated, standing. But YISHACH does not mean "bow down"; the root is YASHACH, which means "void" or "empty", and is used either of desert regions of human stomachs (see Micah 6:14). So false worship becomes a synonym for a vacuous life - the conceit communicated not by argument, but by grammar. Brilliant! Shakespeare could have done it, Dante, James Joyce. Not many others.
Where does KJ find the word "mean"? It is not in the Yehudit text.
And of course, by idol-worship, he doesn't just mean the gods and goddesses and demons; he also means the superstar on stage with his accoustic lyre and a set of pan-pipes attached by string around the neck, and the world archery and stone-slinging champions, and that actor who just got encored playing Shimshon in the revival of the musical.
And of course, by idol-worship, he doesn't just mean the gods and goddesses and demons; he also means the superstar on stage with his accoustic lyre and a set of pan-pipes attached by string around the neck, and the world archery and stone-slinging champions, and that actor who just got encored playing Shimshon in the revival of the musical.
YISHPAL...AL TISA: I fully acknowledge that my translation requires 20th century psychology, and might not therefore be contextually accurate; I am fairly sure, nevertheless, that this is Y-Y's meaning. Take away the Biblical equivalents of TV, Netflix, Facebook, live sport and pop concerts, throw the individual back on his or her own resources - well, you only have to recall the pandemic of depression that accompanied lockdown during COVID... and Y-Y's entire argument, ultimately, is the need to develop inner resources so that you don't need the vacuous time-fillers and vicarious externals. This, in the end, is the poietikos.
2:10 BO VA TSUR VE HITAMEN BE APHAR MIPNEY PACHAD YHVH U MEY HADAR GE'ONO
בּוֹא בַצּוּר וְהִטָּמֵן בֶּעָפָר מִפְּנֵי פַּחַד יְהוָה וּמֵהֲדַר גְּאֹנוֹ
KJ: Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
BN: Come behind the rock, and hide in the dust, from before the fear of YHVH, and from the glory of his majesty.
HITAMEN: More puns, endless puns. A matter of spelling in the written form, where we have a Tet (ט) and no Aleph (א), but hear that Aleph, as though he were saying Amen; where in fact it is precisely the avoidance of the Amen that is being criticised.
PACHAD: "Terror" overstates the matter. This is PACHAD YITSCHAK, "Isaac's fear", and that fear too was engendered on a rock - in the Akeda, in Genesis 22.
GE'ONO: In the early Talmudic Jewish world of the first millennium CE, "ge'on" will become the adjectival equivalent of today's "genius" - another object of "idol-worship"; replaced in Ashkenazi Europe later on by "ilu'i", from the same root that gives "Aliya"= ascent, elevation, a going upwards. But in both worlds the point is not the "genius" but the "glory": "genius" is about the person who has it, "glory" is about the community which is improved because of him.
2:11 EYNEY GAVHUT ADAM SHAPHEL VE SHACH RUM ANASHIM VE NISGAV YHVH LEVADO BA YOM HA HU
עֵינֵי גַּבְהוּת אָדָם שָׁפֵל וְשַׁח רוּם אֲנָשִׁים וְנִשְׂגַּב יְהוָה לְבַדּוֹ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא
KJ: The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
BN: The arrogance of Humankind shall be reduced to nought, and the haughtiness of humanity shall be humbled; and YHVH alone shall be exalted on that day.
Again the inner contradictions as Humankind is humbled, complaining of his "arrogance" here, where 2:9 complained of his "humility" as being merely his cowardly sycophanting to the bullying despot (this therefore needs more specific details of what is pro and what is con theologically in Yesh'a-Yah's world; we shall have to wait to learn that in later chapters). As in verse 9, note the distinction between ADAM and ANASHIM - the plural of ISH.
SHAPHEL: This meaning too, alongside my note to verse 9.
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2:12 KI YOM LA YHVH TSEVA'OT AL KOL GE'EH VA RAM VE AL KOL NISA VE SHAPHEL
כִּי יוֹם לַיהוָה צְבָאוֹת עַל כָּל גֵּאֶה וָרָם וְעַל כָּל נִשָּׂא וְשָׁפֵל
KJ: For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
BN: For YHVH, the Lord of Hosts, has a day in store for all who are proud and lofty, and for all who exalt themselves or are exalted, and they shall be brought low.
Completes the humiliation, but also completes the paradox to which we have to keep returning: "Do as I say: accept no one else's beliefs or opinions until you have worked them out for yourself." And through this, he becomes just as much of a despot as all the others.
2:13 VE AL KOL ARZEY HA LEVANON HA RAMIM VE HA NISA'IM VE AL KOL ALONEY HA BASHAN
וְעַל כָּל אַרְזֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן הָרָמִים וְהַנִּשָּׂאִים וְעַל כָּל אַלּוֹנֵי הַבָּשָׁן
KJ: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
BN: And upon all the cedars of Levanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan...
Extends it beyond the Beney Yisra-El, and also into Nature – the "cedars of Levanon" probably infers the Temple, which was built with them; but is that also true of "the oaks of Bashan", which were surely used to build other shrines, somewhere, at some time? In Biblical terms (see both link) Bashan is generally synonymous with Mount Chermon, the highest mountain in the region, and very much the Olympus and Valhalla of the Kena'ani and Phoenician people.
2:14 VE AL KOL HE HARIM HA RAMIM VE AL KOL HA GEVA'OT HA NISA'OT
וְעַל כָּל הֶהָרִים הָרָמִים וְעַל כָּל הַגְּבָעוֹת הַנִּשָּׂאוֹת
KJ: And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up,
BN: And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up.
This appears to contrast with 2:2. Or is the intention to boot all the other gods and goddesses off their mountains, and install YHVH in their place? In which case, Y-Y is already envisaging the transition from YHVH Tseva'ot, as Prime Minister, to YHVH the Omnideity, sole President for life.
GEVA'OT: need to explore the root of this, because it could contain either the Egyptian Geb or the word for a "hill", as in Gev'a, Giv-On, Giv-Yah; and quite probably it means both.
2:15 VE AL KOL MIGDAL GAVO'AH VE AL KOL CHOMAH VETSURAH
וְעַל כָּל מִגְדָּל גָּבֹהַּ וְעַל כָּל חוֹמָה בְצוּרָה
KJ: And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall,
BN: And upon every lofty tower, and upon every fortified wall...
2:16 VE AL KOL ANIYOT TARSHISH VE AL KOL SECHIYOT HA CHEMDAH
וְעַל כָּל אֳנִיּוֹת תַּרְשִׁישׁ וְעַל כָּל שְׂכִיּוֹת הַחֶמְדָּה
KJ: And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
BN: And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all delightful sights.
For "Ships of Tarshish" click here. But also Isaiah 23:1, which helps us to understand why the "high towers" and the "fenced walls" are included in this attack on the arrogant amongst humans as well as the false deities.
"Pleasant pictures" can only mean natural sights, given Y-Y's derogation of Art in verse 8, and the prohibition against making graven images in Exodus 20:3 (20:4 in some versions).
"Vanity of vanities; all is vanity, says the preacher" (though I must say I prefer the translation at this link). No one has a clue who the "preacher" was, though it definitely wasn't King Solomon (he was the dedicatee). But hearing Y-Y go on like this, I can't help but wonder if, maybe, it was him.
2:17 VE SHACH GAVHUT HA ADAM VE SHAPHEL RUM ANASHIM VE NISGAV YHVH LEVADO BA YOM HA HU
וְשַׁח גַּבְהוּת הָאָדָם וְשָׁפֵל רוּם אֲנָשִׁים וְנִשְׂגַּב יְהוָה לְבַדּוֹ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא
KJ: And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
BN: And the arrogance of Humankind shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of humanity shall be reduced to nought; and YHVH alone shall be exalted on that day.
Repeats the humiliation, and using virtually the same words, as in verse 11 - though oddly the verbs, SHACH and SHAPHEL, are reversed here..
2:18 VE HA ELIYLIM KALIL YACHALOPH
וְהָאֱלִילִים כָּלִיל יַחֲלֹף
KJ: And the idols he shall utterly abolish.
BN: And the idols shall become entirely obsolete.
The two translations are very different: one transitive, the other intransitive. Is this a prophecy of natural disaster, like Pompeii, or a deliberate human act, like Muhammad cleansing Mecca, or ISIS at Palmyra (Blair and Bush at Babylon too, but you can't easily find hyperlinks for that! Try this one), or Cortez in Mexico? The reference to the ships of Tarshish, above, certainly suggests human intervention rather than divine, but the next verse is an earthquake.
YACHALOPH: Multiple occurrences of this root, especially in texts of a Chaldean source, such as Job (4:15, 9:26 et al), where the general Yehudit sense (Genesis 31:7, 1 Samuel 10:3, Psalm 102:27) of something sliding or gliding or changing is applied specifically to the passing of things and time.
2:19 U VA'U BI ME'AROT TSURIM U VIM'CHILOT APHAR MIPNEY PACHAD YHVH U MEY HADAR GE'ONO BE KUMO LA'AROTS HA ARETS
וּבָאוּ בִּמְעָרוֹת צֻרִים וּבִמְחִלּוֹת עָפָר מִפְּנֵי פַּחַד יְהוָה וּמֵהֲדַר גְּאוֹנוֹ בְּקוּמוֹ לַעֲרֹץ הָאָרֶץ
KJ: And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
BN: And men shall come into the caves in the rocks, and into the burrows of the earth, from before the fear of YHVH, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises up to quake the earth.
sheva
2:19 echoes 2:10, even fulfills it. The destruction on this occasion is tectonic, like Mosaic Sinai.
U VIM'CHILOT : Our repeatedly encountered problem of the second-letter sheva, but made more complex by having both a conjunction and a preposition prefixed. U VI MECHILOT in full. BI ME'AROT, on the other hand...
Note the play on words between LA'AROTS and ERETS, and that the end of the world is going to be a consequence of those tectonic plates whose part in "Intelligent Design" is otherwise unclear.
2:20 BA YOM HA HU YASHLIYCH HA ADAM ET ELIYLEY CHASPO VE ET ELIYLEY ZEHAVO ASHER ASU LO LEHISHTACHAVOT LACHPOR PEROT VE LA ATALEPHIM
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יַשְׁלִיךְ הָאָדָם אֵת אֱלִילֵי כַסְפּוֹ וְאֵת אֱלִילֵי זְהָבוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לוֹ לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֹת לַחְפֹּר פֵּרוֹת וְלָעֲטַלֵּפִים
KJ: In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;
BN: On that day Humankind will throw away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he made for himself to worship, and give them to the moles and to the bats.
Why "moles" and "bats"? PEROT is the plural of PARAH, and PARAH definitely means "a cow" in Genesis 41, Numbers 19:2, and a dozen other occasions. The root, which means "to bear", also yields PERI, which is "fruit", as in PERI HA GAPHEN, "the fruit of the vine", which is blessed at every Kiddush. Aramaic does indeed have a similar word, for "mouse" though, not for "mole" (they are easily mistaken one for the other!), but the Aramaic word has an internal Aleph (פארה) and is really pronounced PE'ERAH, so it isn't that easily confused... and if you really insist on arguing the case, I shall respond that there is also the Egyptian Pharaoh, written פַרְעֹה, which is likewise quite similar; but I am quite certain that Y-Y dosn't intend the idols to be handed over to the Egyptians.
ATALEPHIM: on the other hand, does indeed mean "bats", and can be found in Leviticus 11:19.
Note that this verse is the response to verse 8. There seems to be a pattern in this chapter, of early statements foreshadowing later ones, so that a logical process of actions and consequences can be described. We shall have to see if this becomes a regular technique throughout the book.
2:21 LAVO BE NIKROT HA TSURIM U VI SE'IPHEY HA SELA'IM MIPNEY PACHAD YHVH U MEY HADAR GE'ONO BE KUMO LA'AROTS HA ARETS
לָבוֹא בְּנִקְרוֹת הַצֻּרִים וּבִסְעִפֵי הַסְּלָעִים מִפְּנֵי פַּחַד יְהוָה וּמֵהֲדַר גְּאוֹנוֹ בְּקוּמוֹ לַעֲרֹץ הָאָרֶץ
KJ: To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
BN: To bring them into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crevices of the crags, from before the fear of YHVH, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises up to quake the earth.
Again echoes 2:10 and 2:19
PACHAD: this is now the 3rd time this word has been used. Physical fear, not intellectual credulity, as the cornerstone of faith. And logical enough, well-reasoned, if you regard the gods scientifically, as natural forces such as earthquakes, rather than superstitiously, as bearded old men surrounded by cherubic angels in a wonderland called Heaven.
2:22 CHIDLU LACHEM MIN HA ADAM ASHER NESHAMAH BE APHO KI VA MEH NECHSHAV HU
חִדְלוּ לָכֶם מִן הָאָדָם אֲשֶׁר נְשָׁמָה בְּאַפּוֹ כִּי בַמֶּה נֶחְשָׁב הוּא
KJ: Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
BN: Cease ye from man, in whose nostrils is a breath; for how little is he to be accounted!
CHIDLU: Who is being addressed here though? It sounds like he is turning to the gods and telling them to give up on Humankind. For the root, CHADAL, click here. Interesting to see the translation at this link.
pey break
Isaiah: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
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