Isaiah 35

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35:1 YESUSUM MIDBAR VE TSIYAH VE TAGEL ARAVAH VE TIPHRACH KA CHAVATSALET

יְשֻׂשׂוּם מִדְבָּר וְצִיָּה וְתָגֵל עֲרָבָה וְתִפְרַח כַּחֲבַצָּלֶת

KJ: The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

BN: The wilderness and the wasteland will rejoice, and the Aravah desert dance circle-dances in celebration, and blossom like the crocus.

Is this a continuation or a new piece - we certainly seem to be in mid-sentence at the start of this verse? But if the latter, what does "them" refer to? Why are they glad? The last chapter ended with the destroyed wilderness reviving because it had accepted the DAVAR, so clearly this is continuation and should not be chapter-divided.

YESUSUM: See the closing chapters of Deuteronomy, 28:63 and 30:9 in particular, where essentially the same wrap-up message is being given: create a lifestyle for self and nation that accords with the DAVAR, the workings of the forces of Nature, and live by that code, and all will be as well as you can hope for, given the nature of those forces.

TAGEL: What is the difference between this and YESUSUM, both generally translated as "rejoice"? TAGEL comes from the root GIYL (גִּיל), and is usually employed when celebratory dancing, specifically circle-dancing, is taking place as part of ritual and ceremony (Hava Nagilah being the most obvious exemplar). That same root takes us to the shrine at Gil-Gal, and various other places of importance such as Gil'ad and Gal-Ed, all of them ancient megaliths of the Stonehenge type, built as a circular temple, most often with a tumulus adjacent, or as the shrine on the tor of the tumulus.

ARAVAH: See the link.

CHAVATSALET: Gets translated as a "rose", but that would be VERED (ורד) - "I am the crocus of the valley" just doesn't sound the same, does it! (see Song of Songs 2:1). Properly this is the crocus, though there is a case to be made for it being saffron.

35:2 PARO'ACH TIPHRACH VE TAGEL APH GIYLAT VE RANEN KEVOD HA LEVANON NITAN LAH HA DAR HA KARM-EL VE HA SHARON HEMAH YIR'U CHEVOD YHVH HA DAR ELOHEYNU

פָּרֹחַ תִּפְרַח וְתָגֵל אַף גִּילַת וְרַנֵּן כְּבוֹד הַלְּבָנוֹן נִתַּן לָהּ הֲדַר הַכַּרְמֶל וְהַשָּׁרוֹן הֵמָּה יִרְאוּ כְבוֹד יְהוָה הֲדַר אֱלֹהֵינוּ

KJ: It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

BN: It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice, even performing circle-dances, and singing. The glory of the Levanon shall be given to it, the splendour of Karm-El and Sharon; they shall see the glory of YHVH, the excellence of our gods. {P}

RANEN: Funny that I picked Hava Nagilah as my exemplar, and here it is, endorsed. "Hava neranana" is the second verse of that song.

SHARON: Same for my choice of Sharon, above. But note the geography: Lebanon (ha Levanon; it is always ha Levanon, the Lebanon), Karm-El and Sharon – all west and north-west Yisra-El, coastal Yisra-El and beyond, far from Yehudah, far from Tsi'on. Whereas the Aravah is in the south-east, and most definitely part of Yehudah.

35:3 CHAZKU YADAYIM RAPHOT U VIRKAYIM KOSHLOT AMETSU

חַזְּקוּ יָדַיִם רָפוֹת וּבִרְכַּיִם כֹּשְׁלוֹת אַמֵּצוּ

KJ: Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

BN: [It shall...] Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the tottering knees.

35:4 IMRU LE NIMHAREY LEV CHIZKU AL TIYRA'U HINEH ELOHEYCHEM NAKAM YAVO GEMUL ELOHIM HU YAVO VE YOSHA'ACHEM

אִמְרוּ לְנִמְהֲרֵי לֵב חִזְקוּ אַל תִּירָאוּ הִנֵּה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם נָקָם יָבוֹא גְּמוּל אֱלֹהִים הוּא יָבוֹא וְיֹשַׁעֲכֶם

KJ: Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

BN: Say to those whose hearts are palpitating: "Be strong. Fear not. You will see, your gods will come with vengeance, with the recompense of Elohim he will come and save you."

NIMHAREY: From the root MAHAR = "to hasten".

NAKAM: Yet again in this chapter we need to go to the latter chapters of Deuteronomy, 32:35 and 41 on this occasion; and how odd that is, because, according to all the scholars, Deuteronomy belongs to the epoch of the Second Temple, centuries after Yesha-Yah.

   Four possible explanations: a) that our text is a much later edited version of Yesha-Yah, made to conform with Second Temple theology; b) that there was a First Temple version of Deuteronomy, but it got replaced/updated when the Second Temple was created; c) that Y-Y thought all this up entirely independently, but it took several centuries before it became accepted and adopted; d) pure coincidence.

And now it is "do not fear" because the deity is on your side; but we have been told, and repeatedly, to fear whatever side we are on, because it is fear that will bring us, and fear that will keep us. And given the nature of the DAVAR, we ought to have fear - wildfires, tsunamis, avalanches.... the forces of Nature, the gods, doing what they must inexorably do when electrons converge with protons...

35:5 AZ TIPAKACHNAH EYNEY IVRIM VE AZNEY CHERSHIM TIPATACHNAH

אָז תִּפָּקַחְנָה עֵינֵי עִוְרִים וְאָזְנֵי חֵרְשִׁים תִּפָּתַחְנָה

KJ: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

BN: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Repeating 29:18.


35:6 AZ YEDALEG KA AYIL PISE'ACH VE TARON LESHON ILEM KI NIVKE'U VA MIDBAR MAYIM U NECHALIM BA ARAVAH

אָז יְדַלֵּג כָּאַיָּל פִּסֵּחַ וְתָרֹן לְשׁוֹן אִלֵּם כִּי נִבְקְעוּ בַמִּדְבָּר מַיִם וּנְחָלִים בָּעֲרָבָה

KJ: Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

BN: Then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing; for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

NIVKE'U...ARAVAH: The discovery of new springs and wells, new streams and rivers, or simply the flash floods that turn the wadis into temporary rivers every spring? If the latter, then yet another example of the DAVAR at work.

35:7 HAYAH HA SHARAV LA AGAM VE TSIMA'ON LE MABU'EY MAYIM BINVEH TANIM RIVTSAH CHATSIR LE KANEH VA GOM'E

הָיָה הַשָּׁרָב לַאֲגַם וְצִמָּאוֹן לְמַבּוּעֵי מָיִם בִּנְוֵה תַנִּים רִבְצָהּ חָצִיר לְקָנֶה וָגֹמֶא

KJ: And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

BN: And the parched land shall turn into a pool, and the thirsty ground into springs of water; where crocodile now live, green pastures shall appear, a veritable courtyard of reeds and rushes.

SHARAV: The parched land was the principal subject of the previous chapter (34:9 ff).

TANIM: As with the TOHU, BOHU and LILIT word-plays in the previous chapter, so here we cannot regard the TANIM purely as literal creatures. This becomes even more the case with the repetitions of NEVEH and CHATSIR, from 34:13... but wait, surely this verse is 34:13, moved to its next stage, but with its deliberate ambivalences still intact.

KANEH: Takes us back to 34:15, KINENAH.

So fertility again, but a very Egyptian fertility this time, continuing this chapter's tour of the regions of Kena'an; good flax for Torah scrolls, but not too many vineyards.


35:8 VE HAYAH SHAM MASLUL VA DERECH VE DERECH HA KODESH YIKAR'E LAH LO YA'AVRENU TAM'E VE HU LAMO HOLECH DERECH VE EVIYLIM LO YIT'U

וְהָיָה שָׁם מַסְלוּל וָדֶרֶךְ וְדֶרֶךְ הַקֹּדֶשׁ יִקָּרֵא לָהּ לֹא יַעַבְרֶנּוּ טָמֵא וְהוּא לָמוֹ הֹלֵךְ דֶּרֶךְ וֶאֱוִילִים לֹא יִתְעוּ

KJ: And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

BN: And there shall be a raised section of land, and on it a highway, and it shall be called "The Highway of Holiness"; the unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for the others, the ones who follow the straight and narrow, and even the foolish among them will not go astray.

DERECH HA KODESH: The Highway of Holiness, a kind of Via Virtuosa that reflects the Zoroastrian "I am the Way" as well as the later Zoroastrian-influenced Talmudic Halachah, which is for everyone except…

YA'AVRENU: those who are prohibited, but phrased here using the original Egyptian term for the unwanted, the outcast, Habiru.

EVIYLIM: Is this the source of the word "evil".


35:9 LO YIHEYEH SHAM ARYEH U PHERITS CHAYOT BAL YA'ALENAH LO TIMATS'E SHAM VE HALCHU GE'ULIM

לֹא יִהְיֶה שָׁם אַרְיֵה וּפְרִיץ חַיּוֹת בַּל יַעֲלֶנָּה לֹא תִמָּצֵא שָׁם וְהָלְכוּ גְּאוּלִים

KJ: No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

BN: No lion shall be found there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up along it; they shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.

GE'ULIM: See the link, and my notes at Joshua 20:3.

35:10 U PHEDUYEY YHVH YESHUVUN U VA'U TSI'ON BE RINAH VE SIMCHAT OLAM AL RO'SHAM SASON VE SIMCHA YASIYGU VE NASU YAGON VA ANACHAH

וּפְדוּיֵי יְהוָה יְשֻׁבוּן וּבָאוּ צִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה וְשִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם עַל רֹאשָׁם שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יַשִּׂיגוּ וְנָסוּ יָגוֹן וַאֲנָחָה

KJ: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

BN: And the ransomed of YHVH shall return, and come with singing to Tsi'on, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. {S}

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Isaiah 34

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34:1 KIRVU GOYIM LISHMO'A U LE'UMIM HAKSHIYVU TISHM'A HA ARETS U MELO'AH TEVEL VE CHOL TSE'ETSA'EYHA

קִרְבוּ גוֹיִם לִשְׁמֹעַ וּלְאֻמִּים הַקְשִׁיבוּ תִּשְׁמַע הָאָרֶץ וּמְלֹאָהּ תֵּבֵל וְכָל צֶאֱצָאֶיהָ

KJ: Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.

BN: Approach, you nations, to hear; and pay attention, you peoples. Let the Earth hear, and everything that is in it; the world, and every thing that grows on it.

The start of a new piece, apparently addressing the entire world - and if he is using GOYIM and LE'UMIM as we do today, then specifically the non-Yehudi world. Is this yet another Head of the Guild, bearing the name Yesh'a-Yah to denote his office, or still one of the previous? We need to date it to know. But will the text enable us to do that?

LISHMO'A...HAKSHIYVU: A favourite distinction in Y-Y's world, for which see several previous notes: the difference between happening to hear sound because it is unavoidably there, and actually paying cognitive attention. Aristotle will write entire treatises on this subject, several centuries later; and Bloom will taxonomise it in the 20th century.

HA ARETS U MELO'AH TEVEL VE CHOL TSE'ETSA'EYHA: Note that he is also speaking to the crops and the flora and the fauna who can neither hear nor listen: is this, then, poetic language to introduce an explanation of the concepts of YHVH and CHAVAH? We shall see.

34:2 KI KETSEPH LA YHVH AL KOL HA GOYIM VE HEMAH AL KOL TSEVA'AM HECHERIYMAM NETANAM LA TAVACH

כִּי קֶצֶף לַיהוָה עַל כָּל הַגּוֹיִם וְחֵמָה עַל כָּל צְבָאָם הֶחֱרִימָם נְתָנָם לַטָּבַח

KJ: For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

BN: For YHVH is seething with anger about all the nations, and furious about their armies. He intends to destroy them. He will hand them over for slaughter.

YHVH is angry with everyone, especially with armies, which is why there are so many dead in war. This merits psychologically deconstructing - is he angry with himself for creating them the way he did, but taking it out on them? Or is he angry with them for failing to live up to his aspirations? The former would be DAVAR, the latter VA YOMER - for an explanation of this difference see, for one of many examples in these pages, my notes at Isaiah 28:17.

TAVACH: Which is either the abattoir or the kitchen, as opposed to SHECHITAH or MIZBE'ACH, which would denote the altar and ceremony of religious sacrifice, as in ZEVACH in verse 6, below. So the first hint that this will be VA YOMER - human beings will slaughter each other, unneeding of divine interference through nature


34:3 VE CHALELEYHEM YUSHLACHU U PHIGREYHEM YA'ALEH VA'SHAM VE NAMASU HARIM MI DAMAH

וְחַלְלֵיהֶם יֻשְׁלָכוּ וּפִגְרֵיהֶם יַעֲלֶה בָאְשָׁם וְנָמַסּוּ הָרִים מִדָּמָם

KJ: Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

BN: Their slain too shall be cast out, and the stench of their carcasses shall rise up, and the mountains shall be rendered sterile by their blood.

CHALELEYHEM: Yes, "slain" (Genesis 34:27). But they were slain in that tale because of their wickedness (the rape of Dinah by Shechem), which makes them "profane", as are the folk in this oracle; and "profane" is how the word is used in, for example, Leviticus 21:7 and 14. 

   How convenient too, for a poet, especially one who loves playing with that tiny variation between the Hey (ה) and the Chet (ח) - see 33:22 for the most recent of these - that the opposite of "profane", which is "praised", should be HALEL, as in Halelu-Yah.

YA'ALEH: To make aliyah, whether to the land, the city, the Temple! The smoke from the shechitah sacrifices rises to placate the nostrils of the deity. But no, this is just the deep stench of self-annihilated humanity.

   To modern Jews (post 70 CE) there is another inference, which Y-Y probably intended, though it isn't formally in the text. This is Selichot, the prayers for forgiveness, and specifically the Selichot of Yom Kippur, a section of liturgy known precisely by this word, Ya'aleh:

May our supplications rise from the evening,
and may our cry come from the morning,
and may our praise find favour by the evening.

For more on this, see my book "Day of Atonement", p64ff.

VA'SHAM: Pronunciation issues! Does that shva beneath the Aleph count as second syllable, and therefore silent, or is VA a prefictual preposition, and the shva therefore first syllable, and pronounced? Normally the answer lies in the root, but on this occasion the root simply perpetuates the problem: some think באש should be pronounced BE'OSH, others BE'ASH. I have gone for the former. The latter would be pronounced VA'OSHAM or VA'ESHAM.

NAMASU: How does KJ get this to mean "melted"? Is it misreading VA'SHAM as an elision of VA ESH SHEL HEM - the fire extruding from them. If they are being burned to death, whether TAVACH or otherwise, there would indeed be flame. It is not an unreasonable alternate reading.

   Unfortunately it isn't the reason for the error. As per the link, it is seeing the root as MASAS, which does indeed mean "to melt". But the root is HIMES (המס), and is to do with brushwood and other dry thorns and shrubs, which break of their own accord when the sun is strong, or indeed aid-and-abet wildfires; and presumably this too is Y-Y playing Hey-Chet games, because the opposite of this silent collapse of Nature would be the same by human violence, and human violence in Yehudit is CHAMAS (חמס).

   And is this the source for that modern idiom of fedupness, NIMAS LI? (See 2 Samuel 17:10)


34:4 VE NAMAKU KOL TSEVA HA SHAMAYIM VE NAGLU KA SEPHER HA SHAMAYIM VE CHOL TSEVA'AM YIBOL KI NEVOL ALEH MI GEPHEN U CHE NOVELET MI TE'ANEH

וְנָמַקּוּ כָּל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם וְנָגֹלּוּ כַסֵּפֶר הַשָּׁמָיִם וְכָל צְבָאָם יִבּוֹל כִּנְבֹל עָלֶה מִגֶּפֶן וּכְנֹבֶלֶת מִתְּאֵנָה

KJ: And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

BN: And all the Host of the Heavens shall moulder away, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; and all their Host shall wither away, as a leaf withers on a vine, and like a fig withering on a fig-tree.

TSEVA: The "Host" in question being the remainder of YHVH's "Round Table", and its "junior ministers" - the twelve stellar constellations, the planets, comets, moons, black holes, asteroids...

NAMAKU: Many scholars will dispute my explanation of NAMASU, and will make the same case for NAMAKU in this verse, pointing out that the Samech (ס) in NAMASU, like the Kuph (ק) here, are medugash (have a dot in the middle), the intention of the Masoretic scribe being to let the reader know that this is a double letter. And they may very well be correct (but the purpose of commentary is to comment on every possibility, and a dagesh-error by the Masoretic scribe has to be considered).

KA SEPHER: For those unfamiliar with a rolled up scroll, see the illustration (this one is a Moroccan Torah scroll, late 18th century).

YIBOL...NEVEL...NOVELET: He made the same play-on-words at 32:5. How foolish of those who did not notice!

34:5 KI RIVTAH VA SHAMAYIM CHARBI HINEH AL EDOM TERED VE AL AM CHERMI LE MISHPAT

כִּי רִוְּתָה בַשָּׁמַיִם חַרְבִּי הִנֵּה עַל אֱדוֹם תֵּרֵד וְעַל עַם חֶרְמִי לְמִשְׁפָּט

KJ: For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

BN: For my sword has whetted its blade in the heavens. You will see, it will come down upon Edom, and upon the people for whom I have decreed destruction.

YHVH whetting his blade in heaven (in heaven? Are you sure? Is it not simply "the skies"?). 

CHARBI: What would the sword of YHVH in the heavens be anyway? Any connection between YHVH and a CHEREV must always take us first to Genesis 3:24, and from there the reminder that "the flaming sword" was originally a swastika - a suggestion then, perhaps, of the sword here being lightning. But then we need to journey on, full forty years indeed and more, zigzagging as we go, until we reach wherever Mount Chorev might have been, the holy mountain on which Mosheh received the Torah. Yes, the same root, Chet-Reysh-Bet, though it is a connection that has been fastidiously avoided by Jewish scholars down the ages.

EDOM: The traditional first-enemy of Yisra-El.

CHERMI: See my commentary on Exodus 22:19.


34:6 CHEREV LA YHVH MAL'AH DAM HUDASHNAH ME CHELEV MI DAM KARIM VE ATUDIM ME CHELEV KILYOT EYLIM KI ZEVACH LA YHVH BE VATSRAH VE TEVACH GADOL BE ERETS EDOM

חֶרֶב לַיהוָה מָלְאָה דָם הֻדַּשְׁנָה מֵחֵלֶב מִדַּם כָּרִים וְעַתּוּדִים מֵחֵלֶב כִּלְיוֹת אֵילִים כִּי זֶבַח לַיהוָה בְּבָצְרָה וְטֶבַח גָּדוֹל בְּאֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם 

KJ: The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

BN: The sword of YHVH is filled with blood. It is turned to ashes with sacrificed fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For YHVH has carried out a sacrifice in Batsrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

HUDASHNAH MI CHELEV: There has to be a difference between the two sorts of fat, but I am not expert in this subject. HUDASHNAH comes from DASHEN, and based on Exodus 27:3, Numbers 4:13 and Psalm 20:4, I am taking this to be what happens to the fat on the animal after it has been KURBAN, which is to say completely burned as a sacrifice, and that CHELEV is the living fat. The trouble with that distinction is that it doesn't really work for the KJ translation of our current verse; Deuteronomy 31:20 is much closer to that.

Or is Y-Y returning to the theme of his opening chapters, that the gods are not open to propitiation, and so sacrifice is useless, even worthless; what the gods want is obedience to a set of values, ethics, morals and principles? But this inverts sacrifice rather than opposing it (or inverts it to show how ludicrous it is), with YHVH now the Shochet and the nations as paschal lambs. Again Edom the first victim, and specifically now Batsrah (Bozrah), its capital, whose destruction both Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah 49:13) and Amos (1:12) also prophesied; Y-Y will prophesy (63:1-6) that redemption (GE'ULAH) in the form of the Messiah (MOSHI'A at the end of verse 1, not MASHIYACH) will come from Batsrah; and of course it is already associated with prophesy, as this was the throne-city of Balak ben Tsipor, who hired B'l'am ben Be'or to prophesy against Yisra-El (Numbers 22-24).

ZEVACH...TEVACH: deliberate rhymes, but again making the distinction between a holy act and a mere pieceof barbarism (the outcome, it should be pointed out, is the same for the victims either way).

34:7 VE YARDU RE'EMIM IMAM U PHARIM IM AVIYRIM VE RIVTAH ARTSAM MI DAM VA APHARAM ME CHELEV YEDUSHAN

וְיָרְדוּ רְאֵמִים עִמָּם וּפָרִים עִם אַבִּירִים וְרִוְּתָה אַרְצָם מִדָּם וַעֲפָרָם מֵחֵלֶב יְדֻשָּׁן

KJ: And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

BN: And the wild-oxen will come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be rendered sterile with blood, and their dust shall be piled even higher with the ashes of the sacrifices.

Wild beasts will do YHVH's work for him (the fact that nothing but DAVAR is ever done by YHVH, but always through an agent, human or otherwise, adds weight to my suggestion that the Yisra-Eli deity was actually perceived as a verb and not a noun)…

RE'EMIM: Psalm 29:6. Definitely not unicorns, though it is amusing to find them in the KJ translation.

RIVTAH: As it was the skies in verse 5, so now the earth.


34:8 KI YOM NAKAM LA YHVH SHENAT SHILUMIM LE RIV TSI'ON

כִּי יוֹם נָקָם לַיהוָה שְׁנַת שִׁלּוּמִים לְרִיב צִיּוֹן

KJ: For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

BN: For this is YHVH's day of vengeance, his year of recompense for the strife over Tsi'on.

SHILUMIM: From the root that gives SHALOM, which is understood as "peace", but is really about "wholeness", even "perfection". So Yeru-Shala'im, his capital, is implied.


34:9 VE NEHEPHCHU NECHALEYHA LE ZEPHET VA APHARAH LE GAPHRIT VE HAYETAH ARTSAH LE ZEPHET BO'ERAH

וְנֶהֶפְכוּ נְחָלֶיהָ לְזֶפֶת וַעֲפָרָהּ לְגָפְרִית וְהָיְתָה אַרְצָהּ לְזֶפֶת בֹּעֵרָה

KJ: And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

BN: And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its earth shall become burning pitch.

So no need for Hel, or Hell, Dante can meet Eliot above ground! And as to an exemplar for the definition of DAVAR, the "Word" of the deity, none better than this: a holocaust of trees and the non-human as well as the human inhabitants of the land, caused either by wildfires or a volcanic eruption. Natural disaster either way.

ZEPHET: Pitch, which is a kind of asphaltum, which just happens to be what you will find to this day as the sea-bed of the Yam ha Melach, the Dead Sea, which just happens to be where Chorev was located in the Mosaic version of the volcanic eruption (Exodus 13:21 ff), and even more definitely the location of the tale of Lot (Genesis 19)

34:10 LAILAH VE YOMAM LO TICHBEH LE OLAM YA'ALEH ASHANAH MI DOR LA DOR TECHERAV LE NETSACH NETSACHIM EYN OVER BAH

לַיְלָה וְיוֹמָם לֹא תִכְבֶּה לְעוֹלָם יַעֲלֶה עֲשָׁנָהּ מִדּוֹר לָדוֹר תֶּחֱרָב לְנֵצַח נְצָחִים אֵין עֹבֵר בָּהּ

KJ: It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

BN: It shall not be quenched either night or day; its smoke shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste: none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

LO TICHBEH: Which choice of vocabulary drives us inexorably to Leviticus 6:5 and 6 (12 and 13 in the KJ), and you can work out why for yourself when you get there (but start at verse 1 to get the full fire and energy and burning force of this). Y-Y at his literary best!

So Eden and Edom become contra-parallels, like Tohu and Bohu. This is of significance to Christianity, because Herod was an Idumean, the name of Edom at the time of Jesus.

And of course it was ever thus, because Edom is the land of Adam, and so is Eden!

Various bits of this verse resurface in liturgy later: Yomam va Lailah (reversed from here), Netsach Netsachim... or was Y-Y himself quoting already extant liturgy?

34:11 VIYRESHU'AH KA'AT VE KIPOD VE YANSHOPH VE OREV YISHKENU VAH VE NATAH ALEYHA KAV TOHU VE AVNEY VOHU

וִירֵשׁוּהָ קָאַת וְקִפּוֹד וְיַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב יִשְׁכְּנוּ בָהּ וְנָטָה עָלֶיהָ קַו תֹהוּ וְאַבְנֵי בֹהוּ

KJ: But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

BN: But the pelican and the porcupine shall inherit it, and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein; and he shall stretch over it the line of nullity, and the stones of emptiness.

Start at the end, with KAV TOHU VE AVNEY VOHU: Are the beasts named here symbolic? Yes, they most certainly are. Tohu and Bohu themselves! Just as I didn't realise I was predicting when I wrote my note to verse 10. (See Genesis 1:2)

But they are also real creatures, employed here as metaphors. KA'AT in Aramaic and Arabic has to do with "vomit", and it is known that the pelican plucks sea-shells, eats any meat, and vomits back the remainder (lots more on this here). Much argument over whether the KIPOD is the hedgehog or the porcupine - but what does it matter, since the point is the spikes, and the point of the spikes at that. I have gone for porcupine because it alliterates. YANSHUPH doesn't really exist as a genus-name; but means "unclean", in the Levitical sense - see my note at Leviticus 11:17 and you will understand that better. And as to the OREV (which is also in Leviticus 11, at verse 15), I have so many notes on this and its word-games, I hardly know which one to direct you to. Try Psalm 10:8 and follow its links.

So what are "the line of nullity, and the stones of emptiness"? Probably the only geographical points that will be discernible when the world is reduced to pre-Creation. Roll on global warming!

VIYRESHU'AH: The root (probably the only root left in this burned-out wilderness!) is YARASH (cf Genesis 15:3/4), but the way it is employed here, sound as well as grammar, hints at the ROSH, which is the source of all life, in the beginning (Genesis 1:1, first word, and First Word) especially, but, based on verse 10, throughout eternity as well. So maybe the "line of nullity" is the one that joins, or fails to join, the beginning with the end; and "the stones of emptiness" are what you will fail to find because you have failed to reach it. Genesis 1, reversed!

34:12 CHOREYHA VE EYN SHAM MELUCHAH YIKRA'U VE CHOL SAREYHA YIHEYU APHES

חֹרֶיהָ וְאֵין שָׁם מְלוּכָה יִקְרָאוּ וְכָל שָׂרֶיהָ יִהְיוּ אָפֶס

KJ: They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

BN: As for her nobles, none shall be there to be called to the kingdom; and all her princes shall be nothing.

So, after Dante's Inferno and Eliot's Wasteland, we join Shakespeare's King Lear upon the heath. Though the word-order is very strange, the verb (YIKRA'U) coming after the follow-up clause: "her nobles, and there will be none there to be called to provide governance, and the total number of her princes will be zero" is how it should be rendered (except that APHES can't really be rendered as "zero", as that concept won't be invented for several centuries yet - will it?)


34:13 VE ALTAH ARMENOTEYHA SIYRIM KIMOS VA CHO'ACH BE MIVTSAREYHA VE HAYETAH NEVEH TANIM CHATSIR LIVNOT YA'ANAH

וְעָלְתָה אַרְמְנֹתֶיהָ סִירִים קִמּוֹשׂ וָחוֹחַ בְּמִבְצָרֶיהָ וְהָיְתָה נְוֵה תַנִּים חָצִיר לִבְנוֹת יַעֲנָה

KJ: And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

BN: And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in their fortresses; and it shall be a habitation of wild-dogs, a courtyard for ostriches.

ALTAH: The only things that will be making ALIYAH from now on! See verse 3.

NAVEH...CHATSIR...YA'ANAH: Y-Y never uses words without being in full control of their ambivalences and ambiguites. So a NAVEH hints homophonously at a NAVI, the CHATSIR reflects the one where the sacrificial altar stood in the Temple, and the BANOT YA'ANAH, according to Job 30:28/29 and especially Micah 1:8, are literally female ostriches, but in fact this was the idiom for the priestesses trained in the art of keening, which is to say the professional wailers and howlers on behalf of the mourners at every funeral - the name presumably echoing the cry of the desert ostrich.

BN (alternate translation): And thorns will be the only creatures left making aliyah, while nettles and thistles occupy the fortresses; and wild-dogs will deliver oracles, and professional keeners will fill the courtyard.

But wait, are those TANIM really "wild dogs"? Click here.

34:14 U PHAGSHU TSIYIM ET IYIM VE SA'IR AL RE'EHU YIKRA ACH SHAM HIRGIY'AH LIYLIT U MATS'AH LAH MANO'ACH

וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים וְשָׂעִיר עַל רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא אַךְ שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה לִּילִית וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹחַ

KJ: The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

BN: And the wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall cry out to his fellow; yea, Lilit herself shall settle there, and find for herself a place to roost.

TSIYIM...IYIM: Rhyme-games on this occasion. And paralleling TOHU with BOHU of course. For the TSIYIM, and confirmation that the KJ's slightly extended translation is spot-on, see Psalm 72:9 and 74:14. And then look at Jeremiah 50:39, where the same confirmation applies - and then wonder who wrote this oracle first, Yesha-Yah, or Yirme-Yah!

LIYLIT: Why is this translator so reluctant to name the names. Like the BANOT YA'ANAH of verse 13, this is indeed a screech owl, but it metaphors the "night spirit" somewhat monstrously, just as those ostriches gave their name to the keening women; nor is this just any old "night monster"; this is Lilit herself, Adam's first wife. And these verses are as close as we will ever get to a detailed portrait of She'ol.


34:15 SHAMAH KINENAH KIPOZ VA TEMALET U VAK'AH VE DAGRAH VE TSILAH ACH SHAM NIKBETSU DAYOT ISHAH RE'UTAH

שָׁמָּה קִנְּנָה קִפּוֹז וַתְּמַלֵּט וּבָקְעָה וְדָגְרָה בְצִלָּהּ אַךְ שָׁם נִקְבְּצוּ דַיּוֹת אִשָּׁה רְעוּתָהּ

KJ: There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

BN: There shall the arrowsnake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and brood under her shadow; there too shall the kites congregate, every one with her mate.

KIPOZ: This is the only occasion in the entire Tanach when the word occurs, and not even a variant to confirm the root. Gesenius makes a case for that root meaning "to contract oneself", and from this draws the conclusion that it is an arrow-snake - follow this link while looking at the illustration, and the why will be self-explanatory from the physics. But do arrow-snakes make nests, and if so, would you use the root KANAH, which is very much about bird-nests, and therefore an endorsement of the KJ's preference for an owl, as are the kites (for which see Deuteronomy 14:13 and then Leviticus 11:4) seeming to roost in the same trees?

TEMALET: See the link, and then please tell me how this gets to be "laying eggs" (though of course it does, because Y-Y is still playing his literal-metaphorical games in every verse)? And indeed, the same applies to VAK'AH, for which see this link. Escape, break out... and then DAGRAH, "re-gather" - see this link - presumably in some safe place - the root TSEL  is the protective shadow of the wings of the deity in several Psalms (36:8, 63:8...), and a physical shelter in Genesis 19:8. And finally, they don't just "gather"... they  NIKBETSU, and given my notes here, and on the ironic parallels in earlier verses, I think "congregate" is the only viable translation!

   And the verse that follows confirms every detail of it: the portrait of the world reduced to nothingness, then reborn as wild, uncultivated Nature, but embracing the deity who created it, and then, from there, building a human world in harmony. Y-Y's idealism and ideology, expressed to perfection.

34:16 DIRSHU ME'AL SEPHER YHVH U KERA'U ACHAT ME HENAH LO NE'DARAH ISHAH RE'UTAH LO PHAKADO KI PHI HU TSIVAH VE RUCHO HU KIBTSAN

דִּרְשׁוּ מֵעַל סֵפֶר יְהוָה וּקְרָאוּ אַחַת מֵהֵנָּה לֹא נֶעְדָּרָה אִשָּׁה רְעוּתָהּ לֹא פָקָדוּ כִּי פִי הוּא צִוָּה וְרוּחוֹ הוּא קִבְּצָן

KJ: Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

BN: Seek out in the scroll of YHVH, and read; not one of these shall be lacking, none shall want her mate; for my mouth has commanded it, and its breath has gathered them in.

SEPHER: As always with this word, a "scroll" please, not a "book" - there is even a brief description of it being rolled in verse 4 of this chapter.

   But what precisely is this "scroll of the Lord"? Not the full Tanach obviously - that wouldn't be created for another century and more. Torah perhaps. We simply do not know which parts, if any, were written down before the scribe Ezra in the middle of the 5th century BCE, and we don't even have an original copy of that.

KIBTSAN: Yes, as in the modern kibbutz, whether the charedi communities of eastern and central Europe who first used the term, or the socialist collective farms of modern Israel, which adopted and adapted it.

RUCHO: See Genesis 1:2 again - the very same verse that speaks about TOHU and BOHU.


34:17 VE HU HIPIL LAHEN GORAL VE YADO CHILKATAH LAHEM BA KAV AD OLAM YIYRASHU'AH LE DOR VA DOR YISHKENU VAH

וְהוּא הִפִּיל לָהֶן גּוֹרָל וְיָדוֹ חִלְּקַתָּה לָהֶם בַּקָּו עַד עוֹלָם יִירָשׁוּהָ לְדוֹר וָדוֹר יִשְׁכְּנוּ בָהּ

KJ: And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

BN: And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.{S}

GORAL: For which see Leviticus 16:7 ff and Numbers 26:55 and 33:53/54. I do like the idea that the owls will get their portion, and the ostriches theirs - in perfect harmony of course, with the lion happily lying down with the lamb if they are given a shared portion. As to the method of drawing lots, the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol was adorned with the Urim and Tumim, for which see the link? 

Lot-casting also connects to Purim, but Purim is a Judaisation of the Persian Ishtar (Easter) rituals, which they only encountered very much later even than Deutero-Isaiah, so Y-Y cannot be alluding to that. 

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Isaiah 33

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33:1 HOY SHODED VE ATAH LO SHADUD U VOGED VE LO VAGDU VO KA HATIM'CHA SHODED TUSHAD KA NELOT'CHA LIVGOD YIVGEDU VACH

הוֹי שׁוֹדֵד וְאַתָּה לֹא שָׁדוּד וּבוֹגֵד וְלֹא בָגְדוּ בוֹ כַּהֲתִמְךָ שׁוֹדֵד תּוּשַּׁד כַּנְּלֹתְךָ לִבְגֹּד יִבְגְּדוּ בָךְ

KJ: Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.

BN: Woe to you who bully, but who have never been bullied, you who lie and cheat, but no one has ever treated you that way! When you have finished bullying, you shall be bullied; and when you art tired of lying and cheating, your turn will surely come. {S}


SHODED...SHADUD: The root can mean anything from coercion (Proverbs 21:7), the oppression of the poor (Psalm 12:6), to physical violence (Job 5:22). You will notice, at that last link, that SHAD comes with just one DALET (ד), not the two that we have here. Interesting that! Because the Av-Rahamic name for the deity is also connected, El Shadai, which suggests "god of strength", though from the same root comes SHADAYIM, which are the breasts. 

VOGED...VAGDU: See the link.

There is very little mercy or compassion in the tone of this; indeed, it feels like Y-Y is saying, under his breath, "and serves you bloody right". On behalf of YHVH, presumably. And yet, in the very next verse... (though also note that the Masoretes have placed a Samech at the end of this verse, so the next verse may be from a completely different oracle: for an explanation of the Samech see my note at the start of Nehemiah 3).


33:2 YHVH CHANENU LECHA KIVIYNU HEYEH ZERO'AM LA BEKARIM APH YESHU'ATENU BE ET TSARAH

יְהוָה חָנֵּנוּ לְךָ קִוִּינוּ הֱיֵה זְרֹעָם לַבְּקָרִים אַף יְשׁוּעָתֵנוּ בְּעֵת צָרָה

KJ: O LORD, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

BN: YHVH, show mercy to us. We have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

Is this verse an oracle or a prayer? Odd that it switches from "us" to "them" and back again in mid-verse: why is not ZERO'EYNU? Perhaps two different scribes wrote it down, and the final version simply merged them.

CHANENU: Mercy. One of the principal attributes of the deity, Adonai El rachum ve chanun...we had an allusion to the first of those, Rachum, in the previous chapter (32:2). Both come from Exodus 34:6.

YESHU'ATENU: The reason for his own name, or title really, and the ultimate aspiration of his vision.

33:3 MI KOL HAMON NADEDU AMIM ME ROMEMUTECHA NAPHTSU GOYIM

מִקּוֹל הָמוֹן נָדְדוּ עַמִּים מֵרוֹמְמֻתֶךָ נָפְצוּ גּוֹיִם

KJ: At the noise of the tumult the people fled; at the lifting up of thyself the nations were scattered.

BN: Nations fled from all that noise; up went your arm and the people scattered.

NADEDU: From SHADAD to NADAD. One of his more simple word-plays.

ROMEMUTECHA: You can't say this to a post-Ezraic Jew, with or without the suffixed pronoun ECHA, and not conjure up the reading of the Law: Psalm 99:5 and 9, recited by the chazan as the Torah scrolls are being taken out of the Ark. But this is post-Ezraic - it was Ezra who established the thrice-weekly reading of the Torah, centuries after Y-Y. So would it have had an equivalent resonance in Y-Y's time?

   What we can say, based on 30:3 and 31:30, where this image defines the involvement of the deity in the human world, is that what is being "raised up" here is the metaphorical hand or arm, the YAD CHAZAKAH of Exodus 3:19/20 (see my notes at 20 especially).

33:4 VE USAPH SHELALCHEM OSEPH HE CHASIL KE MASHAK GEVIM SHOKEK BO

וְאֻסַּף שְׁלַלְכֶם אֹסֶף הֶחָסִיל כְּמַשַּׁק גֵּבִים שֹׁקֵק בּוֹ

KJ: And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.

BN: And everything you have stolen by these means shall be gathered in, like the liquid silk in the cocoon of a caterpillar; like locusts leaping on those cocoons, so will you be leapt upon.

This completes the imagery of verse 1, and again leaves me questioning the editing of this chapter: have two completely different oracles become entwined? or is Y-Y trying a new technique, of alternating themes by verse? The next verse definitely belongs with verse 2.

33:5 NISGAV YHVH KI SHOCHEN MAROM MIL'E TSI'ON MISHPAT U TSEDAKAH

נִשְׂגָּב יְהוָה כִּי שֹׁכֵן מָרוֹם מִלֵּא צִיּוֹן מִשְׁפָּט וּצְדָקָה

KJ: The LORD is exalted; for he dwelleth on high: he hath filled Zion with judgment and righteousness.

BN: YHVH is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Tsi'on with justice and righteousness.

This is Psalmic, as are 33:6 and 33:7, and on to the end of the chapter; not Y-Y's usual voice or form, so is this perhaps another change of author, though still bearing the honorary title? "He dwells on high" is not Heaven but Mount Tsi'on, where he lives in a palace called the Temple; and recalls El Elyon in Genesis 14:20.

Justice and righteousness therefore include the settling of scores, the equalising of injustices - and this presumably explains the tone of verse 1. Yet how do Mercy and Compassion fit with "get what you deserve"?


33:6 VE HAYAH EMUNAT ITEYCHA CHOSEN YESHU'OT CHACHMAT VA DA'AT YIRAT YHVH HI OTSARO

וְהָיָה אֱמוּנַת עִתֶּיךָ חֹסֶן יְשׁוּעֹת חָכְמַת וָדָעַת יִרְאַת יְהוָה הִיא אוֹצָרוֹ

KJ: And wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation: the fear of the LORD is his treasure.

BN: And wisdom and understanding, and the fear of the LORD which is his treasure, shall provide the solid foundation for your world, a treasure-house from which to harvest salvation{P}

Hints at Kabbalah: wisdom and understanding - Chochmah and Da'at. Fear nonetheless remains the primary source of YHVH's power.

EMUNAH: Go back to the twelfth of Maimonides "Thirteen Principles of Faith", or at least to the setting of them in the song "Ani Ma'amin":

Ani ma'amin be emunah shelemah be viyat ha mashiach, ve aph al pi she yitmahme'ah im kol zeh achakeh lo be chol yom she yavo.

אֲנִי מַאֲמִין בֶּאֱמוּנָה שְׁלֵמָה בְּבִיאַת הַמָּשִֽׁיחַ, וְאַף עַל פִּי שֶׁיִּתְמַהְמֵֽהַּ, עִם כָּל זֶה אֲחַכֶּה לּוֹ בְּכָל יוֹם שֶׁיָּבוֹא.

EMUNAH SHELEMAH = "perfect faith".

33:7 HEN ER'ELAM TSA'AKU CHUTSAH MALACHEY SHALOM MAR YIVKAYUN

הֵן אֶרְאֶלָּם צָעֲקוּ חֻצָה מַלְאֲכֵי שָׁלוֹם מַר יִבְכָּיוּן

KJ: Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.

BN: Did their great heroes not stand crying outside; the ambassadors of peace wept bitterly.


Relates back to verse 3, YHVH acting against the wicked.

TSA'AKU: Why do the translators keep on transferring the past tense to the future? Y-Y describes past events, and comments on them as analogies for present circumstances, teaching the lessons of history for today's betterment. But no, this is Prophecy, and so he must be predicting some future event - which invariably turns out to be the Messianic arrival of that other Isaiah, Jesus.

Having said which, the translators do leave verse 3 in the past tense - which actually makes this error even more bizarre.

33:8 NASHAMU MESILOT SHAVAT OVER ORACH HEPHER BERIT MA'AS ARIM LO CHASHAV ENOSH

נָשַׁמּוּ מְסִלּוֹת שָׁבַת עֹבֵר אֹרַח הֵפֵר בְּרִית מָאַס עָרִים לֹא חָשַׁב אֱנוֹשׁ

KJ: The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.

BN: The highways have been abandoned, the caravans have taken an early Sabbath, the covenant is broken, the cities are despised, no one cares a damn about their fellow Humans.

Which describes the contemporary situation to perfection, then, and still now! So we need Y-Y's lessons from history (so our contemporary Y-Ys keep telling us)

ENOSH: See the link. And note how many key-words Y-Y is playing with in this richly complex verse. NASHAMU homophones negatively with SHEM'A, with a clear sense that nobody is listening, let alone hearing. SHAVAT I have made the same play in my translation. OVER yields IVRIM, the "Hebrews" (see Deuteronomy 15:12). An ORACH hints at OREYACH, which would be "a guest", though clearly no one is being that hospitable here. And the BERIT is plain and straightforwardly the BERIT.

That verse sounds an awful lot like the opening of Yeats' "The Second Coming", or is just that I've been influenced by the Yeats in my rendition?


33:9 AVAL UMLELAH ARETS HECHPIR LEVANON KAMAL HAYAH HA SHARON KA ARAVAH VE NO'ER BASHAN VE CHARM-EL

אָבַל אֻמְלְלָה אָרֶץ הֶחְפִּיר לְבָנוֹן קָמַל הָיָה הַשָּׁרוֹן כָּעֲרָבָה וְנֹעֵר בָּשָׁן וְכַרְמֶל

KJ: The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.

BN: Mourn for the dried-out earth. Levanon is ashamed, and has shrivelled. The Sharon Valley has been transformed into the Wilderness of Aravah. And Bashan and Karm-El are stripped bare. {S}

AVAL: Again we have to look at the grammar and not super-impose comfortable meanings that suit our theological convenience. ARETS, the noun here, is feminine, and UMLELAH reflects that. But AVAL is masculine, so it cannot be directly connected to ARETS, but must be a second person vocative. The only arguments against this are the absence of a preposition (the text translates literally as "mourn a dried-out earth") and word-order (in Yehudit the noun usually comes before the adjective or, in this case, the gerund).

Wasteland, which is the opposite of fertility.

LEVANON: The land we think of as Lebanon was not called that until modern times. When Ya'akov set out on his Siva-voyage, he went to serve as sacred king to the god of the white mountain, ha Lavanah, known today as Mount Hermon, and the cedar-forests that stretched across the Levant from Hermon to the Mediterranean were known as the Forests of Levanon, from the same root-word. The whiteness in this case was mostly snow.

SHARON: The most fertile land in ancient Kena'an, the place famous for producing the rose of Sharon and the Shoshana, the lily-of-the-valley (Canticles 2:1). And do not, as many do, confuse it with SIRION, which was the Phoenician name for Mount Chermon, and named as such, not mis-named as Sharon, repeatedly in the Tanach (see Psalm 29:6 for the best-known example).

ARAVAH: I have slightly extended my translation to make the point that Y-Y appears to be making: the one, as noted above, famous for its fertility, the latter the place where David spent his wilderness years when fleeing from King Sha'ul, the equivalent, poetically, of going down into the Underworld itself.

BASHAN: See the link.

KARM-EL: See the link.


33:10 ATAH AKUM YO'MAR YHVH ATAH EROMAM ATAH ENAS'E

עַתָּה אָקוּם יֹאמַר יְהוָה עַתָּה אֵרוֹמָם עַתָּה אֶנָּשֵׂא

KJ: Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.

BN: Now I will arise, says YHVH. Now I will be exalted. Now I will lift myself up.

AKUM...EROMAM...ENAS'E: And now the text does indeed switch to the future tense. With ATAH - "now" - repeated on each occasion, making the switch very clear that there is a reason for it. And even more so when both, and more, are in use in the next verse.

33:11 TAHARU CHASHASH TELDU KASH RUCHACHEM ESH TO'CHALCHEM

תַּהֲרוּ חֲשַׁשׁ תֵּלְדוּ קַשׁ רוּחֲכֶם אֵשׁ תֹּאכַלְכֶם

KJ: Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.

BN: You conceived chaff, but you shall bring forth stubble; your breath is a fire that shall devour you.

TAHARU: Past tense... TELDU: future tense...RUCHACHEM ESH: No verb, which infers the present tense... TO'CHALCHEM: future tense.

33:12 VE HAYU AMIM MISREPHOT SID KOTSIM KE SUCHIM BA ESH YITSATU

וְהָיוּ עַמִּים מִשְׂרְפוֹת שִׂיד קוֹצִים כְּסוּחִים בָּאֵשׁ יִצַּתּוּ

KJ: And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

BN: And nations will be turned into holocaust-ashes, lime-charcoal, thorns cut down and burned on the bonfire. {P}

VE HAYU: But this time with a prefictual conjunction, so it may very well be that the imperfect is being used to convey the future, following the rule of the Vav Consecutive. With one qualification, that we would expect tit then to be VA YEHIYU.

MISREPHOT: Sadly this is precisely what he means.

33:13 SHIM'U RECHOKIM ASHER ASIYTI U DE'U KEROVIM GEVURATI

שִׁמְעוּ רְחוֹקִים אֲשֶׁר עָשִׂיתִי וּדְעוּ קְרוֹבִים גְּבֻרָתִי

KJ: Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.

BN: Hear what I have done, you who are far off; and you who are near, know the extent of my power.

SHIM'U: Taking us back to my comment on NASHAMU at verse 8.

DE'U: The DA'AT of verse 6 again; or at least the same root, YAD'A, "to know".

33:14 PACHADU VE TSI'ON CHATA'IM ACHAZAH RE'ADAH CHANEPHIM MI YAGUR LANU ESH OCHELAH MI YAGUR LANU MOKDEY OLAM

פָּחֲדוּ בְצִיּוֹן חַטָּאִים אָחֲזָה רְעָדָה חֲנֵפִים מִי יָגוּר לָנוּ אֵשׁ אוֹכֵלָה מִי יָגוּר לָנוּ מוֹקְדֵי עוֹלָם

KJ: The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

BN: The sinners in Tsi'on have been terrified; trembling has seized the ungodly: "Who among us can live alongside such devouring fire? Who among us can live with this perpetual holocaust?"

PACHADU: Back into the past tense - verse 13 was in the present. Though it may be a continuous perfect: Yehudit doesn't actually have such a grammatical form, though it often has that semiotic intention.

ESH...MOKDEY: I find myself wondering whether this is not the Y-Y of the earliest chapters of this book, bewailing the pointlessness of propitiation; after all, Mount Tsi'on was not volcanic, or if it was once it certainly wasn't in Y-Y's time, nor any of the other seven hills. The "perpetual holocaust" was either the Moloch-stove of the pre-Davidic epoch, or the daily sacrifices on the altar of the Temple now.

   Having said which, MOKDEY OLAM, translated grammatically-literally, means "the hearths of the Cosmos" or "the stoves of the world" (MOKDIM HA OLAM, but elided), so it could just as well be the generality of fires, volcanos, etc.

33:15 HOLECH TSEDAKOT VE DOVER MEYSHARIM MO'ES BE VETS'A MA'ASHAKOT NO'ER KAPAV MITMOCH BA SHOCHAD OTEM AZNU MI SHEMO'A DAMIM VE OTSEM EYNAV ME RE'OT BE RA

הֹלֵךְ צְדָקוֹת וְדֹבֵר מֵישָׁרִים מֹאֵס בְּבֶצַע מַעֲשַׁקּוֹת נֹעֵר כַּפָּיו מִתְּמֹךְ בַּשֹּׁחַד אֹטֵם אָזְנוֹ מִשְּׁמֹעַ דָּמִים וְעֹצֵם עֵינָיו מֵרְאוֹת בְּרָע

KJ: He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

BN: He who follows the many paths of righteousness, and speaks in an  upright manner, who despises the profits made by exploitation, who makes clear with his hands that he refuses to take bribes, who stops his ears to avoid hearing about bloodshed and closes his eyes rather than looking upon evil...

HOLECH: And back into the present tense.

TSEDAKOT: Feminine plural.

Really this is all that Y-Y, or YHVH, want: a world in which people behave morally and ethically, and apply mercy and compassion empathetically. 

Though I do find it odd that he includes those who shut their eyes and ears against bloodshed and wickedness, because surely that is a turning away from truth by turning away from, by refusing to acknowledge, reality; and we will never make the garden beautiful if we refuse to notice the weeds and nettles, let alone uproot them.

33:16 HU MEROMIM YISHKON METSADOT SELA'IM MISGABO LACHMO NITAN MEYMAV NE'EMANIM

הוּא מְרוֹמִים יִשְׁכֹּן מְצָדוֹת סְלָעִים מִשְׂגַּבּוֹ לַחְמוֹ נִתָּן מֵימָיו נֶאֱמָנִים

KJ: He shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.

BN: ...he shall dwell on high; the fortresses of rocks shall be his places of defence; his bread shall be supplied: he will be able to rely on a regular supply of water.

YISHKON: future tense.

33:17 MELECH BE YAPHAV TECHEZEYNAH EYNEYCHA TIREYNAH ERETS MARCHIKIM

מֶלֶךְ בְּיָפְיוֹ תֶּחֱזֶינָה עֵינֶיךָ תִּרְאֶינָה אֶרֶץ מַרְחַקִּים

KJ: Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off.

BN: Your eyes shall see the king in his finery; they shall behold a land stretching to infinity.

33:18 LIBCHA YEHGEH EYMAH AYEH SOPHER AYEH SHOKEL AYEH SOPHER ET HA MIGDALIM

לִבְּךָ יֶהְגֶּה אֵימָה אַיֵּה סֹפֵר אַיֵּה שֹׁקֵל אַיֵּה סֹפֵר אֶת הַמִּגְדָּלִים

KJ: Thine heart shall meditate terror. Where is the scribe? where is the receiver? where is he that counted the towers?

BN: Your heart shall give voice to awe: "Where is the man to write this down? Where is the man to weigh his worth? Where is the man to measure the scale of his greatness?"


EYMAH: I believe Y-Y is using this word, not to mean "terror" in the way that we think of it today, bombers in the human, volcanoes in the Cosmic, but as in Proverbs 20:2: "The terror of a king is like the roaring of a lion: he who provokes him to anger will forfeit his life."

SOPHER: He who counts, or he who tells the tale? Both come from the same root, SAPHAR.

MIGDAL: is indeed a tower, from the root GADAL, which means "great".

33:19 ET AM NO'AZ LO TIR'EH AM IMKEY SAPHAH MI SHEMO'A NIL'AG LASHON EYN BIYNAH

אֶת עַם נוֹעָז לֹא תִרְאֶה עַם עִמְקֵי שָׂפָה מִשְּׁמוֹעַ נִלְעַג לָשׁוֹן אֵין בִּינָה

KJ: Thou shalt not see a fierce people, a people of a deeper speech than thou canst perceive; of a stammering tongue, that thou canst not understand.

BN: You shall not see a weak people, a people who speak a language so obscure that you cannot comprehend it, whose tongues stammer meaningless vacuities.


ET AM: Unusual to have the accusative-connector before a noun that does not also have a definite article (see my note at Genesis 1:1).

NO'AZ: There is a root, YAZAZ (יזז), found at Judges 3:10 and 6:2, Ecclesiastes 7:19, elsewhere, which has the sense of "strengthening", even of "prevailing"; but if you look at the Yehudit, you will see that the second Zayin is generally dropped. That root also leads to the name UZI-EL, for whom see Exodus 6:18 or Numbers 3:19, and King Uzi-Yah, for whom see Isaiah 1:1. But there is also a root YA'AZ (יעז), which yields the name YA'AZI-EL in 1 Chronicles 19:18, and the name AZI-EL at Numbers 3:27, and which is understood to mean "weak", or at least "in need of comforting". So which do we have here? The rest of the sentence clearly warrants the latter.

NIL'AG: Elsewhere the root, LO'EG, is used to mean "mockery" and "derision", and that is very much the way it is used in modern Ivrit. Psalm 79:4 and Ezekiel 23:32 definitely have that intention. But here the phrase that follows, EYN BIYNAH, does not allow that reading; rather it takes us back to the source-word, which is Syriac-Chaldean LA'AG, and suggests either "to speak in a barbarous tongue", or, quite literally "to stammer". Note also the Talmudic phrase LASHON AG'AH (see under "Rishonim" 2 and 6 at the link).

33:20 CHAZEH TSI'ON KIRYAT MO'ADENU EYNEYCHA TIR'EYNAH YERU-SHALA'IM NAVEH SHA'ANAN OHEL BAL YITS'AN BAL YIS'A YETEDOTAV LA NETSACH VE CHOL CHAVALAV BAL YINATEKU

חֲזֵה צִיּוֹן קִרְיַת מוֹעֲדֵנוּ עֵינֶיךָ תִרְאֶינָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם נָוֶה שַׁאֲנָן אֹהֶל בַּל יִצְעָן בַּל יִסַּע יְתֵדֹתָיו לָנֶצַח וְכָל חֲבָלָיו בַּל יִנָּתֵקוּ

KJ: Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

BN: Look upon Tsi'on, the city of our appointed fasts and feats; your eyes shall see Yeru-Shala'im as a habitation at ease with itself, a tent that shall never be taken down, whose groundpegs shall never be dug up, nor shall any of its cords be snapped.

CHAZEH: The same root that gives CHAZON, Y-Y's word for his "vision" (cf Isaiah 1:1).

NAVEH: Like YHVH and CHAVAH, there is NAVEH and there is NO'ACH, the tiniest variation on that final letter, so that in a badly-calligraphed scroll it is hard to be sure whether it is a Hey (ה) or a Chet (ח). And such similar meanings too, both places of rest, NAVEH specifically a pasture in Zephaniah 2:6, but see also Psalm 68:13 or even better Exodus 15:13, which is Y-Y's intention here.

OHEL: Very specific choice of word, the OHEL, not the MISHKAN (click here for an explanation of the difference).

33:21 KI IM SHAM ADIR YHVH LANU MEKOM NEHARIM YE'ORIM RACHAVEY YADAYIM BAL TELECH BO ANI SHAYIT VE TSI ADIR LO YA'AVRENU

כִּי אִם שָׁם אַדִּיר יְהוָה לָנוּ מְקוֹם נְהָרִים יְאֹרִים רַחֲבֵי יָדָיִם בַּל תֵּלֶךְ בּוֹ אֳנִי שַׁיִט וְצִי אַדִּיר לֹא יַעַבְרֶנּוּ

KJ: But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby.

BN: But there YHVH will be with us in majesty, in a place of broad rivers and streams; in which no galley with oars shall go, nor majestic ship pass by there.

ADIR: Y-Y repeats ADIR, so it seems to me to be incumbent on the translator to do the same. He is comparing forms of majesty after all, throughout this chapter.

ANI...TSI: Strange to find Y-Y using imagery of ships, because, let's be honest, no one in ancient Yisra-El knew anything at all about ships, or if they did it was because they had gone with the Phoinikim as traders, but they were few and far between. Asher occupied the north-west coast, but Asher was long disappeared into oblivion by Y-Y's time; Dan, even earlier, had inhabited the Mediterranean coast, but got pushed out by the Pelishtim and transferred to deeply inland La'ish, while maps showing both Menasheh and Ephrayim extending westwards to the Med is a statement of political idealism rather more than physical reality: it too was land settled by the Pelishtim from very early on. Fishing boats on Genaseret (the Sea of Galilee) were about the nearest northerners would ever have got to seeing any kind of boat; and that was a great deal more than anyone in Yehudah or Bin Yamin could even have imagined.

   ANI was the word used in 1 Kings 10 for the ships of King Hiram - the trading ships I mentioned above. TSI occurs in Numbers 24:24 and is clearly the military armada of (most likely) the Hyksos or (but later than the Numbers passage) the Pelishtim.

33:22 KI YHVH SHOPHTENU YHVH MECHOKEKENU YHVH MALKENU HU YOSHIY'ENU

כִּי יְהוָה שֹׁפְטֵנוּ יְהוָה מְחֹקְקֵנוּ יְהוָה מַלְכֵּנוּ הוּא יוֹשִׁיעֵנוּ

KJ: For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

BN: For YHVH is our judge, YHVH is our lawgiver, YHVH is our king; he will save us.

This verse is in parentheses in my Gideon Bible, but not in any other version I have looked at since. Does Gideon think that this is simply an aside or perhaps an afterthought?

And isn't there something just like this in the Yom Kippur liturgy? And also a famous chant in the Amidah - except that the words to that are not precisely the same as these. "Hu Adoneynu", for another example, part of the Shabat liturgy, for which click here; and there is the song "Ein Keloheynu", which you can find here; but "Ki anu amecha" is the one I am thinking of. Though I guess the sobrqiuets are repeated throughout both liturgy and scripture, so Y-Y does not have to be quoting here. 

But note once again the final phrase here: YHVH is the Messiah - not Jesus, not Theodor Herzl or David Ben Gurion or the Lubavitcher Rebbe... not even Yesha-Yah himself, though he bears the name.


33:23 NIT'SHU CHAVALAYICH BAL YECHAZKU CHEN TARNAM BAL PARSHU NES AZ CHULAK AD SHALAL MARBEH PISCHIM BAZEZU VAZ

נִטְּשׁוּ חֲבָלָיִךְ בַּל יְחַזְּקוּ כֵן תָּרְנָם בַּל פָּרְשׂוּ נֵס אָז חֻלַּק עַד שָׁלָל מַרְבֶּה פִּסְחִים בָּזְזוּ בַז

KJ: Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey.

BN: Your tent-flaps have come loose; they could not keep a grip on their tent-pole; the banner could not communicate its message; so what should have been a treasure has ended up divided; the lame have taken it as plunder.

This verse is apparently [I shall return to that statement shortly] a continuation of verse 21, which makes me wonder if, perhaps, verse 22 is an error - or, less likely but why not, that this was recited as some form of liturgy, or mantra, and the students/disciples/listeners responded with verse 22?

And if so, does that also explain why the Gideon Bible placed verse 22 in parentheses?

But what if it isn't a continuation of verse 21, and the translators have mixed up their ships with their tents?

NIT'SHU: So many variant usages of this root (click here to see them all), but only one official meaning: "to spread out" (see my note at Numbers 11:31). And the CHAVLAYICH are obviously the same "cords" that we saw at verse 20, except that there they were the cords of a tent. Next comes TARNAM, and the TOREN when last we encountered it, at Isaiah 30:17, had nothing to do with masts, but was some kind of obelisk set up as a beacon on a hill; from which we could perfectly well read it in this verse as the central pole holding up the tent. Which leaves NES, which has absolutely nothing to do with sails unless you have decided to translate this verse this way. A NES is a "banner" at Exodus 17:15, and quite specifically a banner "set on a pole" at Numbers 21:8 and 9. So let us go back and look again at the translation, which is not about the ships of verse 21 at all, but is about the tent of verse 20.

PISCHIM: But these are not simply "the lame", even though that is the strict meaning of the word. See my notes at Genesis 41:46 and Deuteronomy 15:21, though this has already come up in Isaiah, at 31:5.

33:24 U VAL YOMAR SHACHEN CHALIYTI HA AM HA YOSHEV BAH NES'U AVON

וּבַל יֹאמַר שָׁכֵן חָלִיתִי הָעָם הַיֹּשֵׁב בָּהּ נְשֻׂא עָו‍ֹן

KJ: And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.

BN: And the inhabitant shall not say: "I have fallen sick"; the people who dwell there shall be forgiven their iniquity. {S}

No more complaining, and forgiveness for all sins (requiring, of course, the belief that all sickness is the consequence of sin).

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