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
24:1 HINEH YHVH BOKEK HA ARETS U VOLKAH VE IVAH PHANEYHA VE HEPHITS YOSHVEYHA
הִנֵּה יְהוָה בּוֹקֵק הָאָרֶץ וּבוֹלְקָהּ וְעִוָּה פָנֶיהָ וְהֵפִיץ יֹשְׁבֶיהָ
KJ (King James translation): Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
BN: Behold, YHVH makes the earth empty, and he lays it to waste, and he turns it upside down, and he scatters its inhabitants abroad.
YHVY BOKEK: The inversion of Creation - the root literally means "to make void" - so we can assume that we are in the realm of the DAVAR ELOHIM; the "Word of God" is always a natural disaster, where VA YOMER ELOHIM is always an instruction to humans to carry out the destruction.
This Creation-Destruction model is absolutely key to Y-Y's monotheism, and counters the Christian duality in which, like its progenitor Zoroastrianism, Creation and Good belong to the deity, but Destruction and Bad belong to the Devil. In the Jewish world, YHVH NATAN, YHVH LAKACH, "YHVH gives, and YHVH takes away" (Job 1:21). Ha Satan may act as the Adversary, as in Job, but the deity as both life and death, creation and destruction, good and evil, because the deity is simply Life in all its forms, E = Elohim.
ERETS: earth, as in soil, or Earth, as in planet? We shall need to read on to answer that.
24:2 VE HAYAH CHA AM KA KOHEN KA EVED KA ADONAV KA SHIPHCHAH KA GEVIRTAH KA KONEH KA MOCHER KA MALVEH KA LOVEH KA NOSHEH KA ASHER NOSH'E VO
וְהָיָה כָעָם כַּכֹּהֵן כַּעֶבֶד כַּאדֹנָיו כַּשִּׁפְחָה כַּגְּבִרְתָּהּ כַּקּוֹנֶה כַּמּוֹכֵר כַּמַּלְוֶה כַּלֹּוֶה כַּנֹּשֶׁה כַּאֲשֶׁר נֹשֶׁא בוֹ
BN: And so it shall be: as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.
The absolute equality of death, devoid (sic) of social privileges - and therefore, if this is the way of the deity, so also should it be in every aspect of life.
NOSHEH...NOSH'E: Interesting that these two words in fact come from two distinct roots. More word-games!
24:3 HIBOK TIBOK HA ARETS VE HIBOZ TIBOZ KI YHVH DIBER ET HA DAVAR HA ZEH
הִבּוֹק תִּבּוֹק הָאָרֶץ וְהִבּוֹז תִּבֹּז כִּי יְהוָה דִּבֶּר אֶת הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה
KJ: The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
BN: The Earth shall be utterly emptied, and clean despoiled; for YHVH has spoken this word.
HIBOK TIBOK...HIBOZ TIBOZ...DIBER DAVAR: These word-games have to be translated. An English reader simply wouldn't know how amazingly rich and dense and complex this text of Y-Y's is; all you get from any of the translations is meaning (and most of that's confused!). But the power, the impact, the effectiveness lies in the language, its sounds as well as its homophones, I mean on paper as well as in the ear. Awesome! (Well, DIBER...DAVAR isn't quite as good, but even so).
"Inviolably unvoided, the Earth shall unbirth, with plunder enpluralled, for YHVH has announced this annihilation..." not terribly good, I'm afraid, but at least it conveys something of the intention.
24:4 AVLAH NAVLAH HA ARETS UMLELAH NAVLAH TEVEL UMLALU MEROM AM HA ARETS
אָבְלָה נָבְלָה הָאָרֶץ אֻמְלְלָה נָבְלָה תֵּבֵל אֻמְלָלוּ מְרוֹם עַם הָאָרֶץ
BN: The earth mourns and withers, the world languishes and fades away; the lofty people of the earth are reduced to nothingness [the high places of the Earth are reduced to nothingness].
KJ: The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
And the same again here, AVLAH transformed into NAVLAH, NAVLAH repeated, and then itself transformed into TEVEL; UMLELAH becoming UMLALU... and rhythmically divided into three distinct bars.
UMLALU MEROM HA ARETS: My question from verse 1 still unanswered, though it begins to look like Y-Y wants us to understand it as both; whence my double translation here.
24:5 VE HA ARETS CHANPHAH TACHAT YOSHVEYHA KI AVRU TOROT CHALPHU CHOK HEPHERU BERIT OLAM
וְהָאָרֶץ חָנְפָה תַּחַת יֹשְׁבֶיהָ כִּי עָבְרוּ תוֹרֹת חָלְפוּ חֹק הֵפֵרוּ בְּרִית עוֹלָם
BN: So the earth [Earth] is defiled by its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statute, broken the everlasting covenant.
So which word to use here: defiled or polluted? Again both, though the emphasis of the rest of the verse is on the former: humans had already turned the world into a moral toilet, long before we unleashed the physical stuff.
AVRU TOROT: All of which exonerates the deity (despotic leaders always find ways to exculpate themselves! though making the humans take the rfesponsibility is still better than passing the buck to an invented Devil), despite his rainbow promise (Genesis 9) which he is clearly breaking. It is all Humankind's own fault for "breaking the everlasting covenant" – except that Humankind was created by the deity, so if Humankind is flawed and defective, eso va as they say in Spanish, c'est la vie: this is the portion that the deity gave him, and so the deity has to carry the responsibility as well. Man is also at fault for "changing the ordinances", in which case so is Y-Y, or rather the deity, if Y-Y is simply the mouthpiece of the deity.
24:6 AL KEN ALAH ACHLAH ERETS VA YE'SHEMU YOSHVEY VAH AL KEN CHARU YOSHVEY ERETS VE NISH'AR ENOSH MIZ'AR
KJ: Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
And this verse appears to confirm the doubleness. People behave badly, so the planet suffers (acid rain, global warming, pollution, rainforest decimation...), but at the same time Nature behaves badly and the humans suffer (volcanoes, tsunami, ice ages, COVID...)
ARETS: But this could still be the soil or the planet; or, again, both.
CHANEPH: See my note at Isaiah 10:6, which absolutely confirms and endorses the doubleness in the chapter thus far.
So which word to use here: defiled or polluted? Again both, though the emphasis of the rest of the verse is on the former: humans had already turned the world into a moral toilet, long before we unleashed the physical stuff.
AVRU TOROT: All of which exonerates the deity (despotic leaders always find ways to exculpate themselves! though making the humans take the rfesponsibility is still better than passing the buck to an invented Devil), despite his rainbow promise (Genesis 9) which he is clearly breaking. It is all Humankind's own fault for "breaking the everlasting covenant" – except that Humankind was created by the deity, so if Humankind is flawed and defective, eso va as they say in Spanish, c'est la vie: this is the portion that the deity gave him, and so the deity has to carry the responsibility as well. Man is also at fault for "changing the ordinances", in which case so is Y-Y, or rather the deity, if Y-Y is simply the mouthpiece of the deity.
24:6 AL KEN ALAH ACHLAH ERETS VA YE'SHEMU YOSHVEY VAH AL KEN CHARU YOSHVEY ERETS VE NISH'AR ENOSH MIZ'AR
עַל כֵּן אָלָה אָכְלָה אֶרֶץ וַיֶּאְשְׁמוּ יֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ עַל כֵּן חָרוּ יֹשְׁבֵי אֶרֶץ וְנִשְׁאַר אֱנוֹשׁ מִזְעָר
BN: Therefore a curse has devoured the Earth, and they who dwell there are found guilty; therefore the inhabitants of the Earth shall be reduced to ashes, and few humans will be left.
Alas, the real problem, the real cause of global warming, is the very opposite, over-population, but they didn't have that problem then - indeed they were encouraging that problem then with their fertility cults - and no one wants to admit this problem now.
If a Prophet is a man who predicts the future, rather than one who comments on the present, should this not be in the future tense? But the grammar requires the present - we have wrestled with this tense-issue for several chapters. The next verse ditto.
ACHLAH: Where ERETS means "soil", it is all about producing crops to feed humans; so the poet, inverting the outcome, uses the verb for "to eat". The earth will eat the humans this way around.
VA YE'SHEMU: Is crucial to our underdstanding. As above, this is not a Polish Death Camp, and we were forced to do it by that bully the Devil. Humans have to take the responsibility for their own actions, regardless of whether it was overt choice, passive complicity, or victimhood collaboration. Thus Spake Yesha-Yahu.
CHARU: This is more problematic, but only for someone born after the Holocaust. See Psalm 102:4 (102:3 in some versions), for example. Elsewhere what burns is simply the temper (e.g. Songs 1:6), but Yechezke-El, like Y-Y, does tend to use it for physical burning (Ezekiel 15:4/5 and 24:10).
I have gone for "reduced to ashes", not as a way of avoiding the burning, but to allude back to "dust to dust".
24:7 AVAL TIYROSH UMLELAH GAPHEN NE'ENCHU KOL SIMCHEY LEV
אָבַל תִּירוֹשׁ אֻמְלְלָה גָפֶן נֶאֶנְחוּ כָּל שִׂמְחֵי לֵב
BN: The new wine will fail on the vine; all who would be merry at heart will sigh.
Destruction comes in the form of failed Nature, which was the Mosaic way too, and logical if YHVH is Life, and therefore Nature, but also Death. There is an interesting class activity intrinsic to this, for a multi-cultural classroom. Christianity divides Life and Death, like Good and Evil, into the Duality of Hell-Devil and Heaven-God; Hinduism separates it into three, Brahma as Creator and Recreator, Vishnu as Sustainer, Siva as Destroyer; Judaism insists it is all One. Where does modern science stand on the issue?
24:8 SHAVAT MESOS TUPIM CHADAL SHE'ON ALIYZIM SHAVAT MESOS KINOR
שָׁבַת מְשׂוֹשׂ תֻּפִּים חָדַל שְׁאוֹן עַלִּיזִים שָׁבַת מְשׂוֹשׂ כִּנּוֹר
BN: The joy from the tambourines will take a day of rest; the tumult of people revelling will cease; the joy from the harp will take a day of rest.
Human desolation, but expressed in the language of what-should-be-joy: the Sabbath, and the music of the Psalms in the Temple.
24:9 BA SHIR LO YISHTU YAYIN YEMAR SHECHAR LE SHOTAV
KJ: They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
KJ: The city of confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come in.
24:9 BA SHIR LO YISHTU YAYIN YEMAR SHECHAR LE SHOTAV
בַּשִּׁיר לֹא יִשְׁתּוּ יָיִן יֵמַר שֵׁכָר לְשֹׁתָיו
BN: They shall not accompany their singing with strong wine with a song; strong drink will prove bitter to they who drink it.
…when the desolation comes, even wicked and hedonistic pleasure, the cause of this desolation, will lose its power to please? And once again we return to the vineyard, to the distinction between the sacred and the profane, for which wine serves Y-Y as an ideal image: the wine of kiddush accompanying the Psalms or other liturgy is no problem to him at all, on Shabbat Eve, at Havdalah, after the breaking of the Fast, while reciting the Haggadah on Pesach; but other types of music, and wine simply as booze...
24:10 NISHBERAH KIRYAT TOHU SUGAR KOL BAYIT MI BO
…when the desolation comes, even wicked and hedonistic pleasure, the cause of this desolation, will lose its power to please? And once again we return to the vineyard, to the distinction between the sacred and the profane, for which wine serves Y-Y as an ideal image: the wine of kiddush accompanying the Psalms or other liturgy is no problem to him at all, on Shabbat Eve, at Havdalah, after the breaking of the Fast, while reciting the Haggadah on Pesach; but other types of music, and wine simply as booze...
24:10 NISHBERAH KIRYAT TOHU SUGAR KOL BAYIT MI BO
נִשְׁבְּרָה קִרְיַת תֹּהוּ סֻגַּר כָּל בַּיִת מִבּוֹא
BN: The city of Tohu is broken down; every house is closed to those who would come in.
"the centre cannot hold...". And it does seem to me that Yeats writing that poem is in precisely the same mode of Prophesy as Y-Y in these oracles: pronouncing on the contemporary world, but using mythological language to do so. Read the full poem at the link.
KJ: There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone.
TOHU: is not a city, but yet again a mythological physical location functioning as a metaphor. See the link.
BAYIT: House or shrine?
24:11 TSEVACHAH AL HA YAYIN BA CHUTSOT ARVAH KOL SIMCHAH GALAH MESOS HA ARETS
24:11 TSEVACHAH AL HA YAYIN BA CHUTSOT ARVAH KOL SIMCHAH GALAH MESOS HA ARETS
צְוָחָה עַל הַיַּיִן בַּחוּצוֹת עָרְבָה כָּל שִׂמְחָה גָּלָה מְשׂוֹשׂ הָאָרֶץ
BN: In the streets they are protesting about that wine; all pleasure is darkened; the joy of the land is gone.
…mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."
But note that he uses the word SIMCHAH, as he used SHAVAT before; so he understands that food, drink, sex and partying are what make people happy, whereas spending one's entire life listening to Prophets preaching puritanical sermons that hate all the good aspects of life kinda loses its entertainment value after a while.
But note that he uses the word SIMCHAH, as he used SHAVAT before; so he understands that food, drink, sex and partying are what make people happy, whereas spending one's entire life listening to Prophets preaching puritanical sermons that hate all the good aspects of life kinda loses its entertainment value after a while.
And if he does indeed understand it, why does he continue to advocate this way?
24:12 NISH'AR BA IR SHAMAH U SHE'IYAH YUCHAT SHA'AR
נִשְׁאַר בָּעִיר שַׁמָּה וּשְׁאִיָּה יֻכַּת שָׁעַר
BN: There is nothing left in the city but desolation; even the gate has been smashed to pieces.
I have always found it odd that, when people get tired of whatever is making life miserable for them, and they respond by going on the rampage and burning down or tearing down, why do they always choose their own location, rather than taking it out somewhere else, preferably the location of the people who they deem responsible. So the schoolchildren of Soweto in 1976 burned down their own schools, rather than going into Johannesburg and burning those of the Afrikaaner kids. So the blacks of Baltimore in 2012 destroyed their ghetto, and never touched the suburbs of the white supremacists who had reduced them to this.
And I say this, because I suspect that this also lies behind Y-Y's observations, but also because it infers, perhaps even implies, that this is in fact a way of admitting that they are themselves the party responsible.
24:13 KI CHOH YIHEYEH BE KEREV HA ARETS BETOCH HA AMIM KE NOKEPH ZAYIT KE OLELOT IM KALAH VA TSIR
24:13 KI CHOH YIHEYEH BE KEREV HA ARETS BETOCH HA AMIM KE NOKEPH ZAYIT KE OLELOT IM KALAH VA TSIR
כִּי כֹה יִהְיֶה בְּקֶרֶב הָאָרֶץ בְּתוֹךְ הָעַמִּים כְּנֹקֶף זַיִת כְּעוֹלֵלֹת אִם כָּלָה בָצִיר
BN: For thus shall it be in the midst of the Earth, among the nations, as at the beating of an olive-tree, as at the gleaning when the harvest is done.
24:14 HEMAH YIS'U KOLAM YARONU BI GE'ON YHVH TSAHALU MI YAM
KJ: They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea.
24:14 HEMAH YIS'U KOLAM YARONU BI GE'ON YHVH TSAHALU MI YAM
הֵמָּה יִשְׂאוּ קוֹלָם יָרֹנּוּ בִּגְאוֹן יְהוָה צָהֲלוּ מִיָּם
BN: Those yonder shall lift up their voice, and sing for joy; for the genius of YHVH they will shout from the sea.
HEMAH: Presumably those who have been following YHVH assiduously, and are now gloating triumphantly at the downfall of the "pagans", "heretics", "apostates" and "heathens". T'was, sadly, ever thus, in the world of ideologies both religious and secular.
24:15 AL KEN BA URIM KABDU YHVH BE IYEY HA YAM SHEM YHVH ELOHEY YISRA-EL
KJ: Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
HEMAH: Presumably those who have been following YHVH assiduously, and are now gloating triumphantly at the downfall of the "pagans", "heretics", "apostates" and "heathens". T'was, sadly, ever thus, in the world of ideologies both religious and secular.
YARONU: Which to any Jew reading this, at least those who know their Ivrit, leads directly to this link. Why it even has the SIMCHA before it reaches RANANA.
MI YAM: because the catastrophe has occurred - see the next verse - to other people, somewhere out there across the Mediterranean.
MI YAM: because the catastrophe has occurred - see the next verse - to other people, somewhere out there across the Mediterranean.
24:15 AL KEN BA URIM KABDU YHVH BE IYEY HA YAM SHEM YHVH ELOHEY YISRA-EL
עַל כֵּן בָּאֻרִים כַּבְּדוּ יְהוָה בְּאִיֵּי הַיָּם שֵׁם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
BN: Therefore glorify YHVH in the regions of light, even the name of YHVH, the god of Yisra-El, in the islands of the sea. {S}
URIM: Are these intended as the Priestly Urim, that go with the Tumim, or the lights of Creation, the Hosts? They are definitely not fires, and "regions of light" can only be yet another metaphor.
24:16 MI KENAPH HA ARETS ZEMIROT SHAMA'NU TSEVI LA TSADIK VA OMAR RAZI LI RAZI LI OY LI BOGDIM BAGADU U VEGED BOGDIM BAGADU
מִכְּנַף הָאָרֶץ זְמִרֹת שָׁמַעְנוּ צְבִי לַצַּדִּיק וָאֹמַר רָזִי לִי רָזִי לִי אוֹי לִי בֹּגְדִים בָּגָדוּ וּבֶגֶד בּוֹגְדִים בָּגָדוּ
BN: From the furthest corners of the Earth we have heard singing: "Glory to the righteous." But I say: "What a waste! What a waste! Woe is me! The treacherous deal treacherously; oh yes, the treacherous deal very treacherously.
24:17 PACHAD VA PACHAT VA PACH ALEYCHA YOSHEV HA ARETS
KJ: Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
PACHAD...PACHAT...PACH: This, yet again, is why it is so essential to study the text in the original Yehudit (though of course this is true of any work in translation). "Terror, tears and traps" is a good try at an English equivalent, but the language just doesn't contain it. It needs something truly monstrous, like a Terradactyl, spelled deliberately that way - but alas the text doesn't allow one. "Snares, snakes and savagery" gets closer.
24:18 VE HAYAH HA NAS MI KOL HA PACHAD YIPOL EL HA PACHAT VE HA OLEH MI TOCH HA PACHAT YILACHED BA PACH KI ARUBOT MI MAROM NIPHTACHU VA YIR'ASHU MOSDEY ARETS
KJ: And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
24:21 VE HAYAH BA YOM HA HU YIPHKOD YHVH AL TSEVA HA MAROM BA MAROM VE AL MALCHEY HA ADAMAH AL HA ADAMAH
KJ: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
24:22 VE USPHU ASEPHAH ASIR AL BOR VE SUGRU AL MASGER U ME ROV YAMIM YIPAKEDU
KJ: And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
KJ: Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
BN: Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, will reign on Mount Tsi'on, and in Yeru-Shala'im, and before his elders shall be glory. {P}
…the moon disgraced, the sun ashamed, and no, it may not be a black hole after all, but a return to Tohu and Bohu, hinted at in verses 10 and 19, and what we are witnessing is either Genesis 1 in reverse - "it was evening and then morning, and it was very bad"; or more likely a return to Genesis 1 at the time of pre-Creation.
But this, this, is what has become known as Armageddon (though Har Megido does not actually get mentioned, not even hinted at, let alone named).
RAZI: The world sings "glory to the righteous", but curmudgeonly Y-Y prefers "I am ruined. Woe to me", and sounds like Nemo ranting. The challenge for us, his readers, looking at the state of righteousness in both his world then, and ours today, is: do we agree or disagree with him?
And one other comment, totally unconnected I am certain, but irresistible anyway. Two of the very greatest of the Moslem scientists, from the epoch incipited by Haroun al Rashid in Baghdad, though both actually came from Persia.
The first was Abu Bakr al-Razi, and amongst his many great contributions to science was a detailed explanation of what we would call smallpox, and its differences from measles.
The second was Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, likewise multiple contributions, the most significant - though he was totally ignored in the Christian world for the next 500 hundred years - was the demonstration that Aristotle and Ptolomy had got their picture of the Cosmos completely wrong.
Actually, on reflection, maybe that wasn't as unconnected as I thought. Indeed, in honour of both al-Razis, I shall invite you to sing with me: "TSEVI LA TSADIK, Glory to the Righteous", and then hope the words will echo back at us, even from the farthest corners of the Earth.
Actually, on reflection, maybe that wasn't as unconnected as I thought. Indeed, in honour of both al-Razis, I shall invite you to sing with me: "TSEVI LA TSADIK, Glory to the Righteous", and then hope the words will echo back at us, even from the farthest corners of the Earth.
And yes, Earth with a capital E on this occasion.
24:17 PACHAD VA PACHAT VA PACH ALEYCHA YOSHEV HA ARETS
פַּחַד וָפַחַת וָפָח עָלֶיךָ יוֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ
BN: Terror, and the pit, and the trap, are upon you, O inhabitant of the Earth.
PACHAD...PACHAT...PACH: This, yet again, is why it is so essential to study the text in the original Yehudit (though of course this is true of any work in translation). "Terror, tears and traps" is a good try at an English equivalent, but the language just doesn't contain it. It needs something truly monstrous, like a Terradactyl, spelled deliberately that way - but alas the text doesn't allow one. "Snares, snakes and savagery" gets closer.
24:18 VE HAYAH HA NAS MI KOL HA PACHAD YIPOL EL HA PACHAT VE HA OLEH MI TOCH HA PACHAT YILACHED BA PACH KI ARUBOT MI MAROM NIPHTACHU VA YIR'ASHU MOSDEY ARETS
וְהָיָה הַנָּס מִקּוֹל הַפַּחַד יִפֹּל אֶל הַפַּחַת וְהָעוֹלֶה מִתּוֹךְ הַפַּחַת יִלָּכֵד בַּפָּח כִּי אֲרֻבּוֹת מִמָּרוֹם נִפְתָּחוּ וַיִּרְעֲשׁוּ מוֹסְדֵי אָרֶץ
BN: And it shall come to pass, that he who flees from the noise of the terror shall fall into the pit; and he who comes up out of the midst of the pit shall be caught in the trap; for the windows on high are open, and the foundations of the Earth are shaking.
YIR'ASHU: Tectonic, or moral, or both? The "windows from on high" reflect No'ach; see my notes on windows and skylights throughout the commentary on No'ach; 7:11 is the starting point.
24:19 RO'AH HITRO'A'AH HA ARETS POR HITPORERAH ERETS MOT HITMOTETAH ARETS
KJ: The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
24:19 RO'AH HITRO'A'AH HA ARETS POR HITPORERAH ERETS MOT HITMOTETAH ARETS
רֹעָה הִתְרֹעֲעָה הָאָרֶץ פּוֹר הִתְפּוֹרְרָה אֶרֶץ מוֹט הִתְמוֹטְטָה אָרֶץ
BN: The Earth is broken, broken down; the Earth is crumbling, crumbling in pieces; the Earth trembles, trembles and totters.
24:20 NO'A TANU'A ERETS KA SHICHOR VE HITNODEDAH KA MELUNAH VE CHAVAD ALEYHA PISH'AH VE NAPHLAH VE LO TOSIPH KUM
KJ: The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
This definitely sounds tectonic, but ancient tectons were usually dragons, so are we in the realms of Tahamat and Behemot, as well as the Tohu-Bohu described above? Creation myths either way, to offset the destruction, or perhaps, comparing this with the Noachic, a prelude to Creation.
The language-play throughout this chapter is simply extraordinary, and several times I have thought to make the comment that none were as good as this one;
The language-play throughout this chapter is simply extraordinary, and several times I have thought to make the comment that none were as good as this one;
NOSHEH...NOSH'E is verse 2.
HIBOK TIBOK, HIBOZ TIBOZ and DIBER DAVAR in verse 3
AVLAH NAVLAH and UMLELAH UMLALU in verse 4
YISHTU YAYIN YEMAR followed by SHECHAR LE SHOTAV in verse 9
SHAMAH... SHE'IYAH ... SHA'AR in verse 12
TSEVI LA TSADIK in verse 16 is very ordinary on its own, but it is immediately followed by RAZI LI RAZI LI OY LI and then the spectacular BOGDIM BAGADU U VEGED BOGDIM BAGADU
PACHAD VA PACHAT VA PACH in verse 17, and elaborated with even more complexity in verse 18
but they just go on getting even better - until this verse really does take the prize. As though Yesh'a-Yah has gone hunting through the dictionary for all the echo-syllables he can find, and then found a way to put all of them in the same verse.
To clarify the methodology, each pair is root-based but uses the Hitpa'el form for the second part. Thus RO'AH HITRO'A'AH, POR HITPORERAH, MOT HITMOTETAH, with the word for Earth - and again, Earth, not earth - as the separator.
24:20 NO'A TANU'A ERETS KA SHICHOR VE HITNODEDAH KA MELUNAH VE CHAVAD ALEYHA PISH'AH VE NAPHLAH VE LO TOSIPH KUM
נוֹעַ תָּנוּעַ אֶרֶץ כַּשִּׁכּוֹר וְהִתְנוֹדְדָה כַּמְּלוּנָה וְכָבַד עָלֶיהָ פִּשְׁעָהּ וְנָפְלָה וְלֹא תֹסִיף קוּם
BN: The Earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and staggers and reels like a desert tent in a sandstorm; its transgression sits heavy on it, and it shall fall, and never rise again. {S}
Almost seems to wobble the Earth out of orbit, till it falls off the primum mobile altogether; but that is not Y-Y's imagery or his cosmology (actually it porobably is, but Aristotle won't write it down formally as such for another several hundred years).
NO'A TANU'A ERETS: continues the methodology of the previous verse, but in the Qal rather than the Hitpa'el on this occasion; though it leads to HITNODEDAH, which is indeed in the Hitpa'el. So can we assume that the two parts of this section of the verse should be read as one: the drunkard and the tents combined within the Qal-Hitpa'el?
HITNODEDAH... MELUNAH: The land of NOD, which is the land of nomadic wandering into which Kayin was sent like an Azaz-El in punishment for his fratricide; the nomads inhabit the MELUNAH. But HITNODEDAH poetically conveys the "reeling to and fro" of the "drunkard", unable to stay upright; which is why I have added "in a sandstorm" to my translation.
MELUNAH: Translated as "hut" or "shack" or other variants on the solid building by every other translator I have looked at. But clearly, from HITNODEDAH, we are in the desert, among the Bedou, and they did not live in solid buildings. The root here is LUN, which means "to pass the night", and can apply to any hotel, motel, AirB&B or youth hostel of the ancient world. Including tents.
CHAVAD: Why is it not CHAVED?
MELUNAH: Translated as "hut" or "shack" or other variants on the solid building by every other translator I have looked at. But clearly, from HITNODEDAH, we are in the desert, among the Bedou, and they did not live in solid buildings. The root here is LUN, which means "to pass the night", and can apply to any hotel, motel, AirB&B or youth hostel of the ancient world. Including tents.
CHAVAD: Why is it not CHAVED?
PISH'AH: "Sin" comes in three different forms, each more serious than the previous. So CHET, then, AVON, finally PESH'A. For a fuller explanation of this, and the debate about the order of the three, click here. (The "shair hamistalech" referred to at the link is another way of saying Azaz-El).
LO TOSIPH KUM: Which sounds as though Y-Y regards the outcome of global warming as total and inexorable: the ice-caps will met, the Earth will be flooded even to the summit of Mount Ararat, and this time there will be no No'ach, no Ark, no rainbow.
24:21 VE HAYAH BA YOM HA HU YIPHKOD YHVH AL TSEVA HA MAROM BA MAROM VE AL MALCHEY HA ADAMAH AL HA ADAMAH
וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה עַל צְבָא הַמָּרוֹם בַּמָּרוֹם וְעַל מַלְכֵי הָאֲדָמָה עַל הָאֲדָמָה
BN: And it shall come to pass on that day, that YHVH will punish the Host of the high heavens on high, and the kings of the Earth upon the Earth.
Two possibles for this:
i) Adonay Tseva'ot in his anagnorisis will even clean up the Milky Way.
ii) Adonay Tseva'ot will seize the opportunity to stage a Night of the Long Knives against the other members of the celestial cabinet, and establish himself as the One and Only, the Autocratic President-for-Eternity, the Omnideity.
I think, at this stage of history, it is the former, but it will eventually become the latter (and by the final verse of this chapter, it has).
I think, at this stage of history, it is the former, but it will eventually become the latter (and by the final verse of this chapter, it has).
24:22 VE USPHU ASEPHAH ASIR AL BOR VE SUGRU AL MASGER U ME ROV YAMIM YIPAKEDU
וְאֻסְּפוּ אֲסֵפָה אַסִּיר עַל בּוֹר וְסֻגְּרוּ עַל מַסְגֵּר וּמֵרֹב יָמִים יִפָּקֵדוּ
BN: And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the dungeon, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be punished.
How well did the ancients understand the workings of the Cosmos. They observed constantly, and had entire priesthoods who were the equivalent of NASA and the Observatory in Greenwich, looking out through their primitive Hubble telescopes to discern as much detail as they could. And we know from the texts how fully they understand the working of Nature on Earth, right down to the cell-divisions described in Genesis 1. But they also got much wrong, including the belief that the Earth was static, and the sun and moon did the oribiting. So, my question for this verse: is Y-Y here describing black holes? If he is going to throw the "Host of the high heavens on high" into the equivalent of a dark dungeon on Earth, what else could he mean, but a black hole?..
24:23 VE CHAPHRAH HA LEVANAH U VOSHAH HA CHAMAH KI MALACH YHVH TSEVA'OT BE HAR TSI'ON U VIYRU-SHALA'IM VE NEGED ZEKENAV KAVOD
24:23 VE CHAPHRAH HA LEVANAH U VOSHAH HA CHAMAH KI MALACH YHVH TSEVA'OT BE HAR TSI'ON U VIYRU-SHALA'IM VE NEGED ZEKENAV KAVOD
וְחָפְרָה הַלְּבָנָה וּבוֹשָׁה הַחַמָּה כִּי מָלַךְ יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת בְּהַר צִיּוֹן וּבִירוּשָׁלִַם וְנֶגֶד זְקֵנָיו כָּבוֹד
BN: Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed; for YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, will reign on Mount Tsi'on, and in Yeru-Shala'im, and before his elders shall be glory. {P}
…the moon disgraced, the sun ashamed, and no, it may not be a black hole after all, but a return to Tohu and Bohu, hinted at in verses 10 and 19, and what we are witnessing is either Genesis 1 in reverse - "it was evening and then morning, and it was very bad"; or more likely a return to Genesis 1 at the time of pre-Creation.
But this, this, is what has become known as Armageddon (though Har Megido does not actually get mentioned, not even hinted at, let alone named).
Isaiah:
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56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66
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