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
4:1 VE HECHEZIYKU SHEVA NASHIM BE ISH ECHAD BA YOM HA HU LEMOR LACHAMENU NO'CHEL VE SIMLATENU NILBASH RAK YIKAR'E SHIMCHA ALEYNU ESOPH CHERPATENU
וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ שֶׁבַע נָשִׁים בְּאִישׁ אֶחָד בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר לַחְמֵנוּ נֹאכֵל וְשִׂמְלָתֵנוּ נִלְבָּשׁ רַק יִקָּרֵא שִׁמְךָ עָלֵינוּ אֱסֹף חֶרְפָּתֵנוּ
BN (BibleNet translation): And on that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothes ; only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach."
HECHEZIKU: Is Y-Y playing subtle word-games, or am I reading more into this than is actually there? Because this really isn't the obvious and logical verb for what this is saying - that would be LITPHOS, and HECHEZIKU just happens to yield the name of a king. And not just any king... King Chizki-Yah. which in English is rendered as Hezekiah...the very king he will very shortly announce as the, so to speak, David to King Achaz's Sha'ul (see chapter 7).
SHEVA NASHIM: Why seven? It's a sacred number. Prophets don't choose sacred numbers by accident.
LACHAMENU: An untranslateable Yehudit pun; the same root that gives bread (LECHEM), also gives war (MILCHAMAH). Seven women to each man (the scale of the devastation but also the sacred number); the impact of war, when there are no longer enough men to go around. "Called by your name," like Muhammad's marriages, because an unmarried woman in those days was either a virgin waiting for a husband, or a social outcast. So these women will provide for themselves, just so long as the man "gives them his name".
CHERPATENU: I have stayed with the word "reproach", though it isn't really precise; but this is a matter of culture, not lexicon: there really is no equivalent in modern culture. Some translators render it as "sin", but that is even further from the reality A "reproach" infers an insinuation of prostitution or a loose-life, and as per my note above it isn;t necessarily that; but neither is it simply a gossipy tut-tut, or a bitchy "so how come she hasn't managed to find a husband?" The tale of Avi-Gayil and David provides the best comparable - see my rendition of it in the first volume of "City of Peace".
samech break. Why, given that this is clearly a continuation of the last chapter? Or is there a suggestion that the last chapter should have included this verse?
4:2 BA YOM HA HU YIHEYEH TSEMACH YHVH LI TSEVI U LE CHAVOD U PHERI HA ARETS LE GA'ON U LE TIPH'ERET LI PELEYTAH YISRA-EL
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִהְיֶה צֶמַח יְהוָה לִצְבִי וּלְכָבוֹד וּפְרִי הָאָרֶץ לְגָאוֹן וּלְתִפְאֶרֶת לִפְלֵיטַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
BN: On that day all of YHVH's world will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be of the best quality, and splendidly tasty for the refugees of Yisra-El.
"The branch." The first usage of an image that will become central to the language of the book; though we have had distant reference to the image in "the cedars of Lebanon" and "the oaks of Babylon" in 2:13. Check the Yehudit, but I presume it's Netser, which of course yields Notsri and all manner of interesting debates around Christian terminologies – Nazareth, Genasseret, Notsri, Nazarite etc... "Fruit of the earth" – is this the Gide source or coincidence? Redemption of the survivors will also be a key theme through the latter part of the book.
This was my note based on the Gideon Bible, the only translation I had access to at the time of my first assault upon the mountain of Yesh'a-Yah; but the Gideon turns out be a mistranslation, as is the King James. This is not NETSER at all, but TSEMACH, which could at a pinch be a branch, but only because a branch is a growth on a tree and TSEMACH means any sort of growth, anything that sprouts from the earth, or from something that grows on the earth. It really is problematic when translators make basic mistakes of this kind - because we are left assuming that they are not mistakes at all, but entirely deliberate, because they impact on the ideology most profoundly. Translation as an act of propaganda! The text (rather than those mistranslations) is entirely about YHVH as fertility god.
PELEYTAH: from the root PELET, which signifies a "refugee". Some scholars have argued that the original Pelishtim were Beney Pelet rather than Beney Pelesht, because they were the "refugees" from the destruction of Knossos. Isaiah 14:29 however uses Peleshet for the land of the Pelishtim, so he clearly would not agree with those scholars - and he also spells Peleshet with a Tav (פְלֶשֶׁת), not the Tet used here, further endorsing that disagreement.
4:3 VE HAYAH HA NISH'AR BE TIS'ON VE HA NOTAR BIYRU-SHALA'IM KADOSH YE'AMER LO KOL HA KATUV LA CHAYIM BIYRU-SHALA'IM
וְהָיָה הַנִּשְׁאָר בְּצִיּוֹן וְהַנּוֹתָר בִּירוּשָׁלִַם קָדוֹשׁ יֵאָמֶר לוֹ כָּל הַכָּתוּב לַחַיִּים בִּירוּשָׁלִָם
KJ: And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
BN: And it will come to pass that those who are left in Tsi'on, and those who are left in Yeru-Shala'im, shall be called holy, including everyone whose name is written in the Book of Life in Yeru-Shala'im...
"The Book of Life" is not actually stated as such in the text, but this is how it has come to be understood in mainstream Judaism in the three thousand years since.
4:4 IM RACHATS ADONAI ET TSO'AT BENOT TSI'ON VE ET DEMEY YERU-SHALA'IM YADIYACH MI KIRBAH BE RU'ACH MISHPAT U VE RU'ACH BA'ER
אִם רָחַץ אֲדֹנָי אֵת צֹאַת בְּנוֹת צִיּוֹן וְאֶת דְּמֵי יְרוּשָׁלִַם יָדִיחַ מִקִּרְבָּהּ בְּרוּחַ מִשְׁפָּט וּבְרוּחַ בָּעֵר
KJ: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
BN: When the Lord, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of destruction, has washed away the filth of the daughters of Tsi'on, and purged the blood of Yeru-Shala'im to its very core...
But first it requires purgation and purification, which was also true of the Temple and the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices – think red heifer for example (Numbers 19), and the Chanukah festival, and also the Yom Kippur preparations, and the meaning of sacrifice, which is "making sacred", or "making holy", the giving of permission to eat the animals and fish and fruits and vegetables which are divine creations.
But first it requires purgation and purification, which was also true of the Temple and the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices – think red heifer for example (Numbers 19), and the Chanukah festival, and also the Yom Kippur preparations, and the meaning of sacrifice, which is "making sacred", or "making holy", the giving of permission to eat the animals and fish and fruits and vegetables which are divine creations.
So can we say that Y-Y is rethinking his condemnation of the sacrifices, at least in one regard? That he disapproves of propitiation, because it doesn't work; but yet, if the act of sacrifice is also an act of making sacred, and it is undertaken with full Kavanah - both sincerity and intensity - because the person doing it sees it as essential to the ethical code that they have rationally elaborated for themselves...
And we will see, as the book progresses, that Y-Y has indeed shifted his ground, still anti-propitiation, but now insistent on Kavanah. It is most pleasing to witness a thinking man forming opinions, and then, as contexts change, being ready to go back and rethink, re-assess, re-formulate; and this already the second time in less than four chapters.
TSI'ON...YERU-SHALA'IM: Tsi'on in this sense being the spiritual-religious realm, Yeru-Shala'im the secular, though both are geographically the same city (and see the very last note on this page which expands on the point of this).
TSI'ON...YERU-SHALA'IM: Tsi'on in this sense being the spiritual-religious realm, Yeru-Shala'im the secular, though both are geographically the same city (and see the very last note on this page which expands on the point of this).
4:5 U VARA YHVH AL KOL MECHON HAR TSI'ON VE AL MIKRA'EHA ANAN YOMAM VE ASHAN VE NOGAH EYSH LEHAVAH LAILAH KI AL KOL KAVOD CHUPAH
וּבָרָא יְהוָה עַל כָּל מְכוֹן הַר צִיּוֹן וְעַל מִקְרָאֶהָ עָנָן יוֹמָם וְעָשָׁן וְנֹגַהּ אֵשׁ לֶהָבָה לָיְלָה כִּי עַל כָּל כָּבוֹד חֻפָּה
KJ: And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
BN: Then YHVH will create, over the entire habitation of Mount Tsi'on, and over her communities, a cloud and smoke by day, and the gleam of a flaming fire by night; for over all his glory there shall be a canopy.
Reinstatement of the Mosaic symbols (which were also volcanic), though we will shortly see several key Mosaic symbols rejected and destroyed, such as Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah) destroying Nechushtan, the brass serpent which was Mosheh's caduceus pole (Hezekiah? Didn't we just think he got a hidden mention, a prefiguration by subtlety? see the opening word of this chapter). This image of the cloud of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night is simply one of very many arguments in favour of Yesh'a-Yah as the author of the original Book of Shemot (Exodus); though of course he might just be quoting.
And of course it also endorses the conviction, stated repeatedly in my commentaries at the time, that what was happening at Mount Sinai was what happened at Pompeii in 79 CE, and at Sedom somewhat earlier. YHVH in his earliest known form, the volcano-god: Vulcan, not yet Zeus.
CHUPAH: Irresistible in the context to include the illustration that I have: a wedding ceremony, on one of the hills of Yeru-Shala'im, taking away from the bride any possibility of "reproach" - and yes, I know that this is not Y-Y's intention in this verse, but still irresistible in the context of the chapter, because today the word CHUPAH only has the single meaning, which is the bridal canopy. For him, it was a contrast with that other booth, the SUKAH, which will open the very next verse, both as human imitations of the divine canopy, the heavens themselves; and both forms of "making sacred" in which the Kavanah is self-evident.
Reinstatement of the Mosaic symbols (which were also volcanic), though we will shortly see several key Mosaic symbols rejected and destroyed, such as Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah) destroying Nechushtan, the brass serpent which was Mosheh's caduceus pole (Hezekiah? Didn't we just think he got a hidden mention, a prefiguration by subtlety? see the opening word of this chapter). This image of the cloud of smoke by day and the pillar of fire by night is simply one of very many arguments in favour of Yesh'a-Yah as the author of the original Book of Shemot (Exodus); though of course he might just be quoting.And of course it also endorses the conviction, stated repeatedly in my commentaries at the time, that what was happening at Mount Sinai was what happened at Pompeii in 79 CE, and at Sedom somewhat earlier. YHVH in his earliest known form, the volcano-god: Vulcan, not yet Zeus.
CHUPAH: Irresistible in the context to include the illustration that I have: a wedding ceremony, on one of the hills of Yeru-Shala'im, taking away from the bride any possibility of "reproach" - and yes, I know that this is not Y-Y's intention in this verse, but still irresistible in the context of the chapter, because today the word CHUPAH only has the single meaning, which is the bridal canopy. For him, it was a contrast with that other booth, the SUKAH, which will open the very next verse, both as human imitations of the divine canopy, the heavens themselves; and both forms of "making sacred" in which the Kavanah is self-evident.
4:6 VE SUKAH TIHEYEH LE TSEL YOMAM ME CHOREV U LE MACHSEH U LE MISTOR MI ZEREM U MI MATAR
וְסֻכָּה תִּהְיֶה לְצֵל יוֹמָם מֵחֹרֶב וּלְמַחְסֶה וּלְמִסְתּוֹר מִזֶּרֶם וּמִמָּטָר
KJ: And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
BN: And there shall be a booth, providing shade from the heat in the day-time, and a refuge and a shelter from both storm and rain. {P}
I think that Y-Y is attempting to describe the "mushroom cloud" that happens when a volcano erupts, sending vast amounts of rock and ash and molten lava into the sky, which then slowly descends, inflicting the kind of damage on people that is summed up in Lot's wife "turning into a pillar of salt" in Genesis 19, or the "plague" that afflicted Mir-Yam in Numbers 12. So in the previous verse he used the image of a canopy - familiar to his listeners as a chupah, the wedding canopy, though originally the chupah was the full "tent of Sarah" of Genesis 24:67. The second image, the Sukah, takes us back to Mosheh in the desert, in the Book of Deuteronomy, for it was at Sukot that the Beney Yisra-El stopped for the second giving of the Law, laws which included the inauguration of the autumn festival of Sukot (Deuteronomy 16:13-22), for which booths made of palm leaves (if available; wood and willow otherwise) are set up; the shape likewise suggesting a tent. And from that suggestion, Y-Y's real intention, which is to hint at YHVH's own habitation, the Mishkan itself, the "Tent of the Tabernacle" (not to be confused with the Ohel Mo'ed) in which he was brought to Yisra-El, and in which he lived until his "Heychal", his palace in the form of the Temple, was built on Mount Tsi'on. So the shadow of the mushroom-cloud becomes the Temple - a rather clever piece of image-development - and YHVH completes the journey from obscure volcano-god of the Sinai desert to the One and Only Deity of the human world, his capital Yeru-Shala'im.
That is all there is, six verses, in this chapter. I am quite certain it is really the conclusion of Chapter 3.
pey break
That is all there is, six verses, in this chapter. I am quite certain it is really the conclusion of Chapter 3.
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
Copyright
© 2022 David Prashker
All
rights reserved
The
Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment