Yehudit versions of chapter one have seventeen verses, the King James, and some other translations, continue for four more verses, giving that chapter 21 verses; as a consequence this chapter, chapter two, has only 13 verses in those versions, where the Yehudit will again have 17. I have marked the verse numbers accordingly throughout this chapter, to make the differences clear.
2:1 VE ES'A ET EYNAI VA ER'E VE HINEH ARB'A KERANOT
וָאֶשָּׂא אֶת עֵינַי וָאֵרֶא וְהִנֵּה אַרְבַּע קְרָנוֹת
KJ (King James translation, 1:18): Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
BN: And I raised my eyes, and looked, and saw, and, behold, four horns.
KERANOT: Horns as in the ones on the forehead of a ram, or an Egyptian deity, or horns of light, as in the beams that a child will draw in a painting of the sun, or moonbeams that flicker through the darkness? Mosheh's horns are depicted in mediaeval paintings as the former, but the intention of the Bibical text was always the radiance of the latter.
I noted in the previous chapter that much of Zechar-Yah's vision reflects those of the three major prophets, Yesha-Yahu (Isaiah), Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah) and Yechezke-El (Ezekiel). Clearly, for this verse, he has been reading Yechezke-El! The horn appears at 29:21 (though the translation at my link chooses to ignore it), and confirmation of the connection lies in Ezekiel 28:25,26, where he parallels Zechar-Yah's reference to the dispersed people (see verse 10 below). The four "craftsman" who will bring about the redemption of Yisra-El, in Ezekiel 1:5, are probably the source of the "four carpenters" in verse 3 below. The inference of these allusions is that Zechar-Yah is anticipating the imminent fulfilment of Yechezke-El's vision, which were delivered during the exile in Babylon about a half a century earlier.
2:2 VE AMAR EL HA MAL'ACH HA DOVER BI MAH ELEH VA YOMER ELAI ELEH HA KERANOT ASHER ZERU ET YEHUDAH ET YISRA-EL VIYRU-SHALA'IM
וָאֹמַר אֶל הַמַּלְאָךְ הַדֹּבֵר בִּי מָה אֵלֶּה וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי אֵלֶּה הַקְּרָנוֹת אֲשֶׁר זֵרוּ אֶת יְהוּדָה אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל וִירוּשָׁלִָם
KJ (1:19): And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
BN: And I said to the messenger who was speaking inside me, "What are these?" And he said to me, "These are the horns which have scattered Yehudah, Yisra-El, and Yeru-Shala'im."
KERANOT: See my note to this in the introduction.
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2:3 VA YAR'ENI YHVH ARBA'AH CHARASHIM
וַיַּרְאֵנִי יְהוָה אַרְבָּעָה חָרָשִׁים
KJ (1:20): And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
BN: Then YHVH showed me four craftsmen.
VA YAR'ENI: The "messenger" speaking inside him is obviously his own thoughts; YHVH showing him is simply the role of the Prophet, which is to observe the movements of the stars and planets, and report back on the implications of what he has seen.
CHARASHIM: If they do mean "carpenters", or "smiths", what have they to do with the next verse, which continues to explain the horns, though he appears to enquire about the CHARASHIM? The root means "to cut into" and is used for engraving, both in stone and in metal, and for any instrument that can do that, including those that cut into the soil for the purpose of ploughing, and those that reap fruit and vegetables by slicing them from the tree or plant. But the root, for reasons that I am unable to explain, also yields the word "deaf", the "dumbness" that often accompanies it, and "silence" itself. Which of these meanings does Zechar-Yah intend? Or maybe all of them!
I am wondering if the four horns are also four stars, and the constellation was known as the Carpenters. But, as noted above, the place to go to understand this better is Ezekiel 1 (though an excellent commentary can also be found by clicking here).
I am wondering if the four horns are also four stars, and the constellation was known as the Carpenters. But, as noted above, the place to go to understand this better is Ezekiel 1 (though an excellent commentary can also be found by clicking here).
2:4 VA OMAR MAH ELEH VA'IM LA'ASOT VA YO'MER LE'MOR ELEH HA KERANOT ASHER ZERU ET YEHUDAH KE PHI ISH LO NAS'A RO'SHO VA YAVO'U ELEH LEHACHARID OTAM LE YADOT ET KARNOT HA GOYIM HA NOS'IM KEREN EL ERETS YEHUDAH LEZAROTO
וָאֹמַר מָה אֵלֶּה בָאִים לַעֲשׂוֹת וַיֹּאמֶר לֵאמֹר אֵלֶּה הַקְּרָנוֹת אֲשֶׁר זֵרוּ אֶת יְהוּדָה כְּפִי אִישׁ לֹא נָשָׂא רֹאשׁוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ אֵלֶּה לְהַחֲרִיד אֹתָם לְיַדּוֹת אֶת קַרְנוֹת הַגּוֹיִם הַנֹּשְׂאִים קֶרֶן אֶל אֶרֶץ יְהוּדָה לְזָרוֹתָהּ
KJ (1:21): Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.
BN: Then I said, "What have these come to do?" And he spoke, saying, "These are the horns which scattered Yehudah, so that no man could lift up his head; and now they have come to instil terror in them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Yehudah, to scatter it."
KERANOT...KARNOT: The latter is the more familiar word; the former the one used earlier. They are obviously not the same, once pointed, though absolutely identical unpointed; and the translators for 2000 years have treated both as "horns". Can we now assume that there are in fact two different words, or at least two different meanings, in place at the same time - in which case one might be the metaphor of the nations, and the other the metaphor of the stars, and both interpretations work!
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2:5 VA ES'A EYNAI VA ER'E VE HINEH ISH U VE YADO CHEVEL MIDAH
וָאֶשָּׂא עֵינַי וָאֵרֶא וְהִנֵּה אִישׁ וּבְיָדוֹ חֶבֶל מִדָּה
KJ (2:1): I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked, and behold a man with a measuring line in his hand.
BN: And I raised my eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.
CHEVEL MIDAH: A Biblical theodolyte (why is it called that? is the 'theo' pure coincidence?)! Go back to 1:16, where the messenger said that there would be a line over Yeru-Shala'im. Is this now it?
And a marginal parenthesis because I cannot resist it. European readers from non-Jewish backgrounds think of Franz Kafka as an inventor of metaphysical labyrinths that allegorise the bureaucratic world of Stalinist Communism, and don't appreciate how utterly completely and totally wrong they are. Kafka's world was entirely that of Rabbi Nachman of Breslau, removed from its Jewish context into the Spinozan secular, inventing parables of the human condition in a world whose only gods were metaphors. To help you understand that, here is a good starting-point. In "The Castle", the central character is known simply as K, which may or may not be Kafka himself. What matters is not his name but his profession. He is a Land Surveyor, a man whose metaphorical but also literal life-activity requires him to carry at all time a CHEVEL MIDAH. Kafka's source for that little joke (everything he wrote was intended as a joke) was Zechariah chapter 2.
2:6 VA AMAR ANAH ATAH HOLECH VA YO'MER ELAI LAMOD ET YERU-SHALA'IM LIR'OT KAMAH RACHVAH VE CHAMAH ARKAH
וָאֹמַר אָנָה אַתָּה הֹלֵךְ וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי לָמֹד אֶת יְרוּשָׁלִַם לִרְאוֹת כַּמָּה רָחְבָּהּ וְכַמָּה אָרְכָּהּ
KJ (2:2): Then said I, Whither goest thou? And he said unto me, To measure Jerusalem, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof.
BN: And I said to him, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Yeru-Shala'im, to see how wide it is, and how long."
In order to know what? Exactly how many stones will be needed to rebuild its walls? Or is it about the city's capacity if more returnees should arrive? The problem with complex poetic images is that you have to rely on your reader or listener understanding them! Though people have been trying to figure these particular images out for centuries - click here for one set of completely failed examples (and actually there is a perfectly simple answer - go to verse 9).
2:7 VE HINEH HA MAL'ACH HA DOVER BI YOTS'E U MAL'ACH ACHER YO'TSE LIKRA'TO
וְהִנֵּה הַמַּלְאָךְ הַדֹּבֵר בִּי יֹצֵא וּמַלְאָךְ אַחֵר יֹצֵא לִקְרָאתוֹ
KJ (2:3): And, behold, the angel that talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,
BN: But then the messenger who was speaking inside me went out, and another messenger went out to meet him.
YOTS'E: Did it by any chance "go out" like a horn of light? (Actually the same verb is used twice, but has a slightly different intention in each case).
2:8 VA YO'MER ELAV RUTS DABER EL HA NA'AR HA LAZ LE'MOR PERAZOT TESHEV YERU-SHALA'IM ME ROV ADAM U VEHEMAH BETOCHAH
וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלָו רֻץ דַּבֵּר אֶל הַנַּעַר הַלָּז לֵאמֹר פְּרָזוֹת תֵּשֵׁב יְרוּשָׁלַםִ מֵרֹב אָדָם וּבְהֵמָה בְּתוֹכָהּ
KJ (2:4): And said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein:
BN: And he said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, tell him, Yeru-Shala'im shall be inhabited like a village without walls, because of the numbers of men and cattle who will dwell there...
HA LAZ: An unusual form for what we would expect to be HA ZEH, it appears in Judges 6:20, 1 Samuel 14:1 and 17:26, 2 Kings 23:17 et al.
PERAZOT: I am going to cut-and-paste the comment that I made when Perazon, from the same root, seemed to make no sense in Judges 5:7: "A Perez is an officer in the army, according to Habbakuk 3:14 - clearly not what is intended here. A Perizi is a member of the Perizite tribe, and you are advised to go to my notes at that link, as I am not going to repeat them here. Essentially it comes down to rural peasants from small villages moving in to fortified cities, presumably because of the threats, or even the conquests, of those like Yazin who Devorah and Barak have just defeated. See also PIRZONO in verse 11 - and quite probably Perazon is the reason why ROZNIM (see verse 3) came to mean 'princes', when the root (ROZEN) really means 'leanness' or even 'destruction' (see Psalm 106:15, Micah 6:10 et al)."
2:9 VA ANI EHYEH LAH NE'UM YHVH CHOMAT ESH SAVIV U LE CHAVOD EHEYEH VETOCHAH
וַאֲנִי אֶהְיֶה לָּהּ נְאֻם יְהוָה חוֹמַת אֵשׁ סָבִיב וּלְכָבוֹד אֶהְיֶה בְתוֹכָהּ
KJ (2:5): For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
BN: "For I," says YHVH, "will be a wall of fire surrounding her, and I will be the glory in her midst...
ANI EHEYEH: An unfinished allusion? The full phrase is the one the deity uses with Mosheh (Exodus 3:14), EHEYEH ASHER EHEYEH, the root of the name YHVH. Even if it is not Zechar-Yah's intention, a half-knowledgeable audience will recognise it anyway.
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2:10 HOY HOY VE NUSU ME ERETS TSAPHON NE'UM YHVH KI KE ARB'A RUCHOT HA SHAMAYIM PERASHTI ET'CHEM NE'UM YHVH
הוֹי הוֹי וְנֻסוּ מֵאֶרֶץ צָפוֹן נְאֻם יְהוָה כִּי כְּאַרְבַּע רוּחוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם פֵּרַשְׂתִּי אֶתְכֶם נְאֻם יְהוָה
KJ (2:6): Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith the LORD: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith the LORD.
BN: Beware! Beware! Flee from the lands of the north, says YHVH, for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of the heavens, says YHVH.
HOY: Ho ho, as in the KJ, sounds like Santa Claus having a glass of sherry by the fireside with his elves. Nor is this the call from the crow's next when land is sighted, though we tend to add an initial "a" in English anyway. This is the root of the Yiddish "Oy veys mir", which is a lament, not a chuckle, nor a cheer.
PERASHTI: We have to be careful in translating this; the intent is "dispersal", but dispersal is "tephutsot", and it has a very precise and specific historical identification - see my note to 1:11. There is also, as noted above, a link here to Yechezke-El.
ARB'A RUCHOT: Four winds mirroring the four horns and the four carpenters; but are they winds, as in the gales that blow, or "spirits", like the RU'ACH ELOHIM that engendered Creation?
2:11 HOY TSI'ON HIMALTI YOSHEVET BAT BAVEL
הוֹי צִיּוֹן הִמָּלְטִי יוֹשֶׁבֶת בַּת בָּבֶל
KJ (2:7): Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
BN: Beware, Tsi'on! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Bavel.
HIMALTI: Is that not the first person singular of the past tense? In which case KJ must have the meaning totally wrong? Several more instances coming up, and the BAT BAVEL in the meanwhile: is he perhaps addressing her, and therefore this is 3rd person singular, future tense: a vocative command? Grammatically it could be either; the answer has to lie in the broader meaning - or in a variation in the grammar at that time. See verses 14 and 15 especially, where he definitely is addressing the female, albeit a different one.
BAT BAVEL: Is that the same as "the whore of Babylon"? An interesting article exploring the Prophetic sources of that image in the Christian "Book of Revelation" can be found here. It ties in with the image of the Persian destruction of Bavel which is core to Zechar-Yah's vision.
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2:12 KI CHOH AMAR YHVH TSEVA'OT ACHAR KAVOD SHELACHANI EL HA GOYIM HA SHOLELIM ET'CHEM KI HA NOGE'A BACHEM NOGE'A BE VAVAT EYNO
כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת אַחַר כָּבוֹד שְׁלָחַנִי אֶל הַגּוֹיִם הַשֹּׁלְלִים אֶתְכֶם כִּי הַנֹּגֵעַ בָּכֶם נֹגֵעַ בְּבָבַת עֵינוֹ
KJ (2:8): For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
BN: For thus says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens: "In search of glory he has sent me to the nations which plundered you." For he who touches you touches the apple of his eye...
ACHAR: As in time or place? "First his glory" (see the previous verse), then...? Or "in pursuit of glory"?
HA SHOLELIM: Is there a dot at each end of the Sheen (ש), or only the one on the right that confirms a Sheen rather than a Seen. HA SHOLELIM if there is one, HASHLELIM if there isn't. Hard to tell from the printing, but the sense of the sentence suggests SHOLELIM.
KAVOD SHELACHANI: "CHOH AMAR YHVH" tells us that YHVH is speaking; but SHELACHANI can only be Zechar-Yah, or the same grammatical oddity as HIMALTI in the previous verse, or perhaps a personification of the KAVOD. Either way, given the change of pronoun with EYNO ("his eye"), I believe the quote ends with SHOLELIM ETCHEM, and the rest is Zechar-Yah adding his gloze.
VAVAT EYNO: The source of that cliché! But does VAVAT (or actually BAVAT; the Bet is softened by the preposition, and the final-letter Tav is the suffix "of") really mean "apple"? The root, BAVAH, means "gate" as in... guess what!... Bav-el, the Yehudit way of saying Babylon, though generally it is understood as an unhyphenated Bavel, whereas Byblos on the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon-Syria is very definitely hyphenated Bav-El, "the gateway to El". So this is the "gateway of the eye", which is the pupil; an apple is a TAPU'ACH ETS (תפוח עץ).
2:13 KI HINENI MENIPH ET YADI ALEYHEM VE HAYU SHALAL LE AVDEYHEM VIYDA'TEM KI YHVH TSEVA'OT SHELACHANI
כִּי הִנְנִי מֵנִיף אֶת יָדִי עֲלֵיהֶם וְהָיוּ שָׁלָל לְעַבְדֵיהֶם וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁלָחָנִי
KJ (2:9): For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants: and ye shall know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me.
BN: For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they shall be booty for those who worshipped them; and you shall know that YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens sent me.
HINENI: Need to add this one to the ever-growing list of appearances of this fascinating word; and another in the next verse.
SHELACHANI: The same word, the same grammar, the same meaning as in the previous verse; this is Zechar-Yah speaking, not his angelic messenger or his inner voice of the deity.
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2:14 RANI VE SIMCHI BAT TSI'ON KI HINENI VA VE SACHANTI VETOCHECH NE'UM YHVH
רָנִּי וְשִׂמְחִי בַּת צִיּוֹן כִּי הִנְנִי בָא וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְתוֹכֵךְ נְאֻם יְהוָה
KJ (2:10): Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.
BN: "Sing and rejoice, daughter of Tsi'on, for, behold, I am coming, and I will dwell in your midst," says YHVH.
An early version of Hava Nagilah!
2:15 VE NILU'I GOYIM RABIM EL YHVH BA YOM HA HU VE HAYU LI LE AM VE SHACHANTI VETOCHECH VE YADA'AT KI YHVH TSEVA'OT SHELACHANI ELAYICH
וְנִלְווּ גוֹיִם רַבִּים אֶל יְהוָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא וְהָיוּ לִי לְעָם וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְתוֹכֵךְ וְיָדַעַתְּ כִּי יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת שְׁלָחַנִי אֵלָיִךְ
KJ (2:11): And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
BN: And many nations shall be joined with YHVH on that day, and they shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, has sent me to you.
NILU'I: LIN'OL being "to tie", as in shoe-laces.
VE HAYU LI: As in several previous verses, he is jumping back and forth between first and third person, and sometimes it is him, and sometimes it is YHVH, and in the end we cannot make grammatical sense of it, because there isn't any.
VETOCHECH: Feminine again, confirmation of our reading above.
2:16 VE NACHAL YHVH ET YEHUDAH CHELKO AL ADMAT HA KODESH U VAHAR OD BIYRU-SHALA'IM
וְנָחַל יְהוָה אֶת יְהוּדָה חֶלְקוֹ עַל אַדְמַת הַקֹּדֶשׁ וּבָחַר עוֹד בִּירוּשָׁלָםִ
KJ (2:12): And the LORD shall inherit Judah his portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.
BN: And YHVH shall inherit Yehudah as his portion in the holy land, and once again shall choose Yeru-Shala'im.
If YHVH is now reclaiming his possession, why is he not also reclaiming the other tribal areas? Supreme deity, invincible - but defeated.
2:17 CHAS KOL BASAR MIPNEY YHVH KI NE'OR MIM'ON KADSHO
הַס כָּל בָּשָׂר מִפְּנֵי יְהוָה כִּי נֵעוֹר מִמְּעוֹן קָדְשׁוֹ
KJ (2:13): Be silent, O all flesh, before the LORD: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation.
BN: Be silent, all flesh, before YHVH; for he has woken in his holy habitation.
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