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
12:1 VE AMARTA BA YOM HA HU ODECHA YHVH KI ANAPHTA BI YASHOV APCHA U TENACHAMENI
וְאָמַרְתָּ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא אוֹדְךָ יְהוָה כִּי אָנַפְתָּ בִּי יָשֹׁב אַפְּךָ וּתְנַחֲמֵנִי
KJ (King James translation): And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
BN (BibleNet translation): And on that day you shall say: "I will give thanks to you, YHVH; for though you were angry with me, your anger is now turned away, and you comfort me...
The heavenisation of the world confirms the goodness of the deity, but, and this is what appears to be the major complaint of the lapsed-believers, as well as the non-believers, that - for an example - the crashing of the aeroplane is regarded as an "act of God" (at least by the insurance companies, and in secular law), which means that the deity is responsible for the hundreds who died, but instead of berating him, it is the handful who survived who he is said to have "saved", and therefore his goodness is extolled (the Justification of the Judgment - צידוק הדין - Tsiyduk ha-Din - in the Jewish world; see my note at Psalm 49), while amongst the bereaved, rather than recrimination for taking the deceased: "you comfort me".
12:2 HINEH EL YESHU'ATI EVTACH VE LO EPHCHAD KI AZI VE ZIMRAT YAH YHVH VA YEHI LI LIYSHU'AH
הִנֵּה אֵל יְשׁוּעָתִי אֶבְטַח וְלֹא אֶפְחָד כִּי עָזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ יְהוָה וַיְהִי לִי לִישׁוּעָה
KJ: Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
BN: "...Behold, El is my deliverer. I will place my trust, and not be afraid; for YAH YHVH is my strength and song; and he will deliver me.
EL: And I shall go on pointing it out, each time that it recurs. EL, the father of the Kena'ani pantheon. For all Y-Y's commitment to YHVH, his name commits him to YAH, and his construct of the workings of the Cosmos has not yet reached the Unity of Monotheism. The E of EL may well equal M and C and even Squared, but each of those has its own deity, and sub-deities too. The Omnideity remains a long way in the future.
LIYSHU'AH is the Yehudit word for "salvation", and again we recognise Y-Y's own name, as well as those of Yehoshu'a and Jesus. But do we understand what "salvation" actually means? Because it is not the Christian concept of "redemption from sin", nor the eschatological Dilmun-world that we saw two chapters of this book ago. The root is YASH'A, and in Psalm 7:2 it is very clear what the word means; see also Psalm 34:7, Judges 2:16 and 6:14...
YAH YHVH is particularly interesting (unless it's just a scribal error, originally YAH, changed to YHVH in the Redaction, but the scribe forgot to remove the name), especially as the two names are combined without a conjunction, making them as if a single name. This appears to be the moment at which YAH is theologically absorbed into YHVH, transforming her into an aspect of the male deity; and the name YAHU will be invented soon to accommodate this more readily.
YAH YHVH is particularly interesting (unless it's just a scribal error, originally YAH, changed to YHVH in the Redaction, but the scribe forgot to remove the name), especially as the two names are combined without a conjunction, making them as if a single name. This appears to be the moment at which YAH is theologically absorbed into YHVH, transforming her into an aspect of the male deity; and the name YAHU will be invented soon to accommodate this more readily.
But even that will be insufficient, and she will later be reduced again, ending up as the mere Shechinah*, the mere "feminine side" of the male deity, "the divine radiance", the even more masculinised "holy ghost" or "holy spirit" of Christianity.
And this is perhaps the most significant of all the theological shifts that take place in the Book of Isaiah, for she was previously, in the Davidic world of the Psalms at least, the female deity, the Yud-Hey of her spelling being the correct form of the number 15 (from this time 15 has always been rendered as Tet-Vav, 9+6 instead of 10+5, because of the divine association), and the significance of 15 lies in the dates of the three Pilgrim or originally Harvest Festivals of Pesach (Passover-spring), Shavu’ot (Pentecost-summer) and Sukot (Tabernacles-autumn), all of which fall on the full moon of their respective months, which is the 15th day of the month. Yah, or Yoh, or Io, was the sister of Phoroneus (etc etc see TheBibleNet notes), who becomes Ephron of the Beney Chet in Genesis 23 and 25, and appears to be a variant of the Greek Orpheus.
* The link is to a decidedly feminist take on the Shechinah; for a rather more conventionally patriarchal take, click here.
* The link is to a decidedly feminist take on the Shechinah; for a rather more conventionally patriarchal take, click here.
… and for your homework, go to the Books of Kings and Chronicles, and count up the number of king-names of this period which carry Yahu as part of them, as well as the number of previously Yah-names which suddenly become Yahu, including Y-Y himself.
12:3 U SHE'AVTEM MAYIM BE SASON MI MA'AYENEI HA YESHU'AH
וּשְׁאַבְתֶּם-מַיִם בְּשָׂשׂוֹן מִמַּעַיְנֵי הַיְשׁוּעָה
KJ: Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
BN: And thus, joyfully, will you draw water from the wells of deliverance.
Joy in deliverance again feels Psalm-like, but even a masculinised Yah is still a moon-god, simply because the numbers add up, and not the Mount Tsi'on-inhabiting universal god of righteousness and abstraction that Y-Y normally presents; so we have inner contradiction within the text again.
Where the previous chapter was most definitely about the Mashiyach, this is just as definitely about the Moshi'a.
Where the previous chapter was most definitely about the Mashiyach, this is just as definitely about the Moshi'a.
12:4 VA AMARTEM BA YOM HA HU HODU LA YHVH KIR'U VISHMO HODI'U VA AMIM ALIYLOTAV HAZKIYRU KI NISGAV SHEMO
וַאֲמַרְתֶּם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא הוֹדוּ לַיהוָה קִרְאוּ בִשְׁמוֹ הוֹדִיעוּ בָעַמִּים עֲלִילֹתָיו הַזְכִּירוּ כִּי נִשְׂגָּב שְׁמוֹ
KJ: And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
BN: And on that day you will say: "Give thanks to YHVH, proclaim his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted."
NISGAV: Translating it as "exalted" suggests an early form of the Kaddish, but really the method and language and form here is pure Psalms (cf 69:30, 148:13 especially; et al), and NISGAV is not one of the descriptive verbs used in the Kaddish though it does mean "exalted" and it is still part of liturgy today - Yehalelu et shem YHVH, ki nisgav shemo levado... - while returning the Torah scrolls to the Ark.
BN: And on that day you will say: "Give thanks to YHVH, proclaim his name, declare his doings among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted."
NISGAV: Translating it as "exalted" suggests an early form of the Kaddish, but really the method and language and form here is pure Psalms (cf 69:30, 148:13 especially; et al), and NISGAV is not one of the descriptive verbs used in the Kaddish though it does mean "exalted" and it is still part of liturgy today - Yehalelu et shem YHVH, ki nisgav shemo levado... - while returning the Torah scrolls to the Ark.
12:5 ZAMRU YHVH KI GE'UT ASAH MEYUDA'AT (MUDA'AT) ZOT BE CHOL HA ARETS
זַמְּרוּ יְהוָה כִּי גֵאוּת עָשָׂה מידעת (מוּדַעַת) זֹאת בְּכָל הָאָרֶץ
BN: Sing to YHVH; for he has done gloriously; let this be made known throughout the Earth.
KJ: Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
BN: Cheer and celebrate, you inhabitants of Tsi'on, for the Holy One of Yisra-El is the Greart One in your midst.
An unusually short chapter. Check this and others against the Dead Sea Scrolls version for variations:
Is Y-Y trying to add to or update the liturgy? Can we read changes, especially the Yah ones, back into the Psalms from here?
MEYUDA'AT (MUDA'AT): Questioning the original is inevitable, because it definitely looks wrong. But how does it get solved as this? DA'AT ("knowledge") in the Huphal? The standard colloquialism for things becoming or being known is MADU'A; Huphal makes it passive causative, and therefore "it is made known". So too have I done with my explanation and my translation!
12:6 TSAHALI VA RONI YOSHEVET TSI'ON KI GADOL BE KIRBECH KEDOSH YISRA-EL
MEYUDA'AT (MUDA'AT): Questioning the original is inevitable, because it definitely looks wrong. But how does it get solved as this? DA'AT ("knowledge") in the Huphal? The standard colloquialism for things becoming or being known is MADU'A; Huphal makes it passive causative, and therefore "it is made known". So too have I done with my explanation and my translation!
12:6 TSAHALI VA RONI YOSHEVET TSI'ON KI GADOL BE KIRBECH KEDOSH YISRA-EL
צַהֲלִי וָרֹנִּי יוֹשֶׁבֶת צִיּוֹן כִּי גָדוֹל בְּקִרְבֵּךְ קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ: Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
BN: Cheer and celebrate, you inhabitants of Tsi'on, for the Holy One of Yisra-El is the Greart One in your midst.
An unusually short chapter. Check this and others against the Dead Sea Scrolls version for variations:
And it does indeed appear that this is all there is.
Isaiah:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55
56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
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