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
31:1 HOY HA YORDIM MITSRAYIM LE EZRAH AL SUSIM YISHA'ENU VA YIVTECHU AL RECHEV KI RAV VE AL PARASHIM KI ATSMU ME'OD VE LO SHA'U AL KEDOSH YISRA-EL VE ET YHVH LO DARASHU
הוֹי הַיֹּרְדִים מִצְרַיִם לְעֶזְרָה עַל סוּסִים יִשָּׁעֵנוּ וַיִּבְטְחוּ עַל רֶכֶב כִּי רָב וְעַל פָּרָשִׁים כִּי עָצְמוּ מְאֹד וְלֹא שָׁעוּ עַל קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל וְאֶת יְהוָה לֹא דָרָשׁוּ
BN (BibleNet translation): Woe to those who go down to Mitsrayim for help, and rely on horses, and place their trust in chariots, because they are many, and on cavalry, because they wield immense power; but they do not look to the Holy One of Yisra-El, nor seek YHVH!
Is this because the current king of Yisra-El is talking about an alliance with Mitsrayim (Egypt) - probably Pharaoh Necho II - and Y-Y wants to warn him off? Or simply "don't look back to Mitsrayim" - whether Ra-Meses or Ach-Mousa?
And is this a continuation of the previous chapter, or simply very similar (might it even be that two different people wrote down their memories of the same oracle?)? Worth comparing the two line-by-line.
MITSRAYIM: Should that not be dative, MITSRAYIMAH?
MITSRAYIM: Should that not be dative, MITSRAYIMAH?
EZRAH: The preposition could as easily be rendered as them offering help to Mitsrayim as seeking help from it.
YISHA'ENU: Is Y-Y now playing word-games with his own name? The root here is actually SHA'AN (שָׁעַן), but in this grammatical form... and then, later in the verse, SHA'U, which also hints at his own name - and more importantly the reason for his name, which is the ultimate raison d'etre of the deity - but is in fact from the root SHA'AH (שָׁעָה).
31:2 VE GAM HU CHACHAM VA YAV'E RA VE ET DEVARAV LO HESIR VE KAM AL BEIT MERE'IM VE AL EZRAT PO'ALEY AVEN
וְגַם הוּא חָכָם וַיָּבֵא רָע וְאֶת דְּבָרָיו לֹא הֵסִיר וְקָם עַל בֵּית מְרֵעִים וְעַל עֶזְרַת פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן
BN: Yet he too is wise, he too can cause catastrophe, and does not call back his Words; but will rise up against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of those who work iniquity.
YAV'E RA: Brings evil himself? Brings natural disasters anyway. But what an unexpected take that is on the attributes of the deity! If YHVH is One, then we have to expect both sides, because he too has the Yetser ha Tov and the Yetser ha Ra, and we are made "in his image and likeness" (don't tell that to Christians!)
DEVARAV: Yet one more time the DAVAR: natural events caused by the natural workings of the Cosmos, but which happen to be catastrophic for humans. But in the plural here (DEVARIM SHEL LO elided as DEVARAV), which is most unusual, and a second early recognition of the Omnideity in the same verse.
31:3 U MITSRAYIM ADAM VE LO EL VE SUSEYHEM BASAR VE LO RU'ACH VA YHVH YATEH YADO VE CHASHAL OZER VE NAPHAL AZUR VE YACHDAV KULAM YICHLAYUN
וּמִצְרַיִם אָדָם וְלֹא אֵל וְסוּסֵיהֶם בָּשָׂר וְלֹא רוּחַ וַיהוָה יַטֶּה יָדוֹ וְכָשַׁל עוֹזֵר וְנָפַל עָזֻר וְיַחְדָּו כֻּלָּם יִכְלָיוּן
KJ: Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.
BN: Now the Mitsrim are men, and not gods, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit; so when YHVH stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they shall all be brought to an end together. {S}
ADAM: Rather than ENOSH on this occasion. And actually it doesn't say that they are "men, not gods", it says "they are Adam, not El", which means the same thing eventually, but is a very fastidiously precise way of stating it, and with powerful theological implications.
ADAM: Rather than ENOSH on this occasion. And actually it doesn't say that they are "men, not gods", it says "they are Adam, not El", which means the same thing eventually, but is a very fastidiously precise way of stating it, and with powerful theological implications.
See also verse 8, where a similar separation is made, but even more complexly.
YATEH YADO: See my note on the "raised arm" at 30:30. I assume this has the same intention. YATEH also links to MATEH at 30:32.
31:4 KI CHOH AMAR YHVH ELAI KA ASHER YEH'GEH HA ARYEH VE HA KEPHIR AL TARPO ASHER YIKAR'E ALAV MELO RO'IM MI KOLAM LO YECHAT U ME HAMONAM LO YA'ANEH KEN YERED YHVH TSEVA'OT LITSB'O AL HAR TSI'ON VE AL GIV'ATAH
YATEH YADO: See my note on the "raised arm" at 30:30. I assume this has the same intention. YATEH also links to MATEH at 30:32.
31:4 KI CHOH AMAR YHVH ELAI KA ASHER YEH'GEH HA ARYEH VE HA KEPHIR AL TARPO ASHER YIKAR'E ALAV MELO RO'IM MI KOLAM LO YECHAT U ME HAMONAM LO YA'ANEH KEN YERED YHVH TSEVA'OT LITSB'O AL HAR TSI'ON VE AL GIV'ATAH
כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה אֵלַי כַּאֲשֶׁר יֶהְגֶּה הָאַרְיֵה וְהַכְּפִיר עַל טַרְפּוֹ אֲשֶׁר יִקָּרֵא עָלָיו מְלֹא רֹעִים מִקּוֹלָם לֹא יֵחָת וּמֵהֲמוֹנָם לֹא יַעֲנֶה כֵּן יֵרֵד יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לִצְבֹּא עַל הַר צִיּוֹן וְעַל גִּבְעָתָהּ
BN: For thus has YHVH said to me: Just like the lion, or the young lion, growls over his prey, in spite of the multitude of shepherds who have been called out against him, will not be affected in the slightest by their voice, nor yield in any way to the noise they make. So, too, will YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, come down to wage war upon Mount Tsi'on, and on its surrounding hills.
KI CHOH AMAR: How many times through these chapters have we witnessed this: first DAVAR, which is the "Word", the actions of the deity; then AMAR, "the explanation through language" which is the "word" of the Prophet? Worth a PhD just on this one aspect.
HA ARYEH: cf Ari-El at chapter 29:1.
YEHGEH: The lion growls, but look at the link to see how this word is used, dozens of times, throughout the Tanach. And if our lion is more symbolic than literal...
KJ: As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.
BN: Like birds circling around their prospective prey, so will YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, protect Yeru-Shala'im. He will deliver it as he protects it. He will rescue it as he passes over.
YEHGEH: The lion growls, but look at the link to see how this word is used, dozens of times, throughout the Tanach. And if our lion is more symbolic than literal...
GIV'ATAH: I have repeatedly commented on the connection between GEB the Egyptian father-god, who inhabited its mountainous equivalent of Valhalla and Olympus, and who was usually enshrined in the tumuli, the burial mounds designed to look like natural hills; the connectuon between that, and the Yehudit words GEVA or GIVA or GIV-YAH or GIV-ON, all of which refer to hills of some kind. And now the seven hills that conurbate into the city of Yeru-Shala'im, focused on Tsi'on itself, where YHVH is enshrined (and of course the number seven is itself the deity's sacred number), confirming the connection.
31:5 KE TSIPARIM APHOT KEN YAGEN YHVH TSEVA'OT AL YERU-SHALA'IM GANON VE HITSIL PASO'ACH VE HIMLIT
31:5 KE TSIPARIM APHOT KEN YAGEN YHVH TSEVA'OT AL YERU-SHALA'IM GANON VE HITSIL PASO'ACH VE HIMLIT
כְּצִפֳּרִים עָפוֹת כֵּן יָגֵן יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת עַל יְרוּשָׁלִָם גָּנוֹן וְהִצִּיל פָּסֹחַ וְהִמְלִיט
BN: Like birds circling around their prospective prey, so will YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, protect Yeru-Shala'im. He will deliver it as he protects it. He will rescue it as he passes over.
GANON: The root that gives us the modern HAGANAH.
PASO'ACH: But look at the verb that is used here! Reflecting the PESACH, and thereby completing the Egyptian allusion; but PESACH also has a very different intrinsic meaning, which takes us back to Ya'akov at Penu-El, crowned as his tribe's king, limping from his ritual immolation! See my commentaries on that at Genesis 32... and if you still don't believe me about the limping, see my note at Genesis 41:46 (with further links to Leviticus 21:18, 2 Samuel 4:4, Isaiah 33:23 ), and Deuteronomy 15:21.
31:6 SHUVU LA ASHER HE'EMIYKU SARAH BENEY YISRA-EL
KJ: Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted.
PASO'ACH: But look at the verb that is used here! Reflecting the PESACH, and thereby completing the Egyptian allusion; but PESACH also has a very different intrinsic meaning, which takes us back to Ya'akov at Penu-El, crowned as his tribe's king, limping from his ritual immolation! See my commentaries on that at Genesis 32... and if you still don't believe me about the limping, see my note at Genesis 41:46 (with further links to Leviticus 21:18, 2 Samuel 4:4, Isaiah 33:23 ), and Deuteronomy 15:21.
31:6 SHUVU LA ASHER HE'EMIYKU SARAH BENEY YISRA-EL
שׁוּבוּ לַאֲשֶׁר הֶעְמִיקוּ סָרָה בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
BN: Turn, Beney Yisra-El, to him against whom you have deeply rebelled.
SHUVU: This will require the assistance of a theologian, because I am unclear why Y-Y would say SHUVU, and not TESHUVU. If they were once committed followers, and then rebelled, their return would be TESHUVAH, as at 29:5 and 30:15. But this is SHUVU, not TESHUVU, "turn", rather than "return". Do we then understand their "rebellion" as being a refusal and rejection from the outset? And the "depth" of HE'EMIYKU then endorses that?
31:7 KI BA YOM HA HU YIM'ASUN ISH ELIYLEY CHASPO VE ELIYLEY ZEHAVO ASHER ASU LACHEM YEDEYCHEM CHET
כִּי בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִמְאָסוּן אִישׁ אֱלִילֵי כַסְפּוֹ וֶאֱלִילֵי זְהָבוֹ אֲשֶׁר עָשׂוּ לָכֶם יְדֵיכֶם חֵטְא
BN: For on that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made for you, for a sin.
This one I find very difficult, because it seems to me that Y-Y is rejecting Art in all its forms: ceramics, paintings, sculptures, etc, and I personally regard the creation of these things as being the equivalent of a rose producing petals or a tree blossom: the creative output that is driven by our "natural" condition, and therefore, surely, not just acceptable to the "gods", but a requirement of the Covenant. Yet this rejection is stated as early as Exodus 20:3-4, and remains in theoretical force in Judaism to this day.
But Y-Y isn't thinking Art, he's thinking idol-worship, and probably singing to himself verses 15 onwards of Psalm 135.
31:8 VE NAPHAL ASHUR BE CHEREV LO ISH VE CHEREV LO ADAM TO'CHELENU VE NAS LO MI PENEY CHEREV U VACHURAV LA MAS YIHEYU
וְנָפַל אַשּׁוּר בְּחֶרֶב לֹא אִישׁ וְחֶרֶב לֹא אָדָם תֹּאכְלֶנּוּ וְנָס לוֹ מִפְּנֵי חֶרֶב וּבַחוּרָיו לָמַס יִהְיוּ
BN: Then shall Ashur fall with the sword, but not one made by Humankind; rather a sword shall devour him, but not one made by Adam. And he shall flee from the sword, but his young men shall be taken as forced labour.
…Ashur will fall, its men will be enslaved (so much for the just, merciful and righteous Messianic world; though we saw, in the previous chapter, that a Messianic world requires the removal of the... shall we say, thinking of Voltaire's dream of cultivating his garden, that it will first of all be necessary to dig out all the weeds and nettles).
MAS: See any of the links at this link: this is not defeat, but enslavement in forced labour, of precisely the sort that dominates the book of Shemot (Exodus).
31:9 VE SAL'O MI MAGOR YA'AVOR VE CHATO MI NES SARAV NE'UM YHVH ASHER UR LO BE TSI'ON VA TANUR LO BIYRU-SHALA'IM
KJ: And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
BN: And his rock shall pass away through sheer terror, and his princes will be devastated when they see the banner, so said YHVH, whose fire is in Tsi'on, and whose furnace is in Yeru-Shala'im.{P}
Every translation that I have looked at has failed to understand what is actually a very simple play on words. We are in the realm of the volcano-god, and he has been breathing fire throughout these last several chapters. Set him on a wheel of fire, one of the world's most ancient symbols of the power of deity, and it is known, in Sanskrit anyway, as a swastika - but in Yehudit, in Genesis 3:24 to be absolutely precise, as LAHAT HA CHEREV, "the flaming sword", placed at the closed gate of the Garden of Eden, to keep Adam banished, but Chavah protected, alongside the Tree of Life itself.
So there will be the sword forged by humans, but it will be of no use; and there will even be the sword forged by the precursor of humans, Adam himself, but but it too will be of no use; the only sword that can possibly protect Yiru-Shala'im, Tsi'on, the seven hills, is the one that protected Eden itself, the sword forged by the gods... a most dreadful irony too, in the wake of the epoch of the Nazis.
MAS: See any of the links at this link: this is not defeat, but enslavement in forced labour, of precisely the sort that dominates the book of Shemot (Exodus).
31:9 VE SAL'O MI MAGOR YA'AVOR VE CHATO MI NES SARAV NE'UM YHVH ASHER UR LO BE TSI'ON VA TANUR LO BIYRU-SHALA'IM
וְסַלְעוֹ מִמָּגוֹר יַעֲבוֹר וְחַתּוּ מִנֵּס שָׂרָיו נְאֻם יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר אוּר לוֹ בְּצִיּוֹן וְתַנּוּר לוֹ בִּירוּשָׁלִָם
BN: And his rock shall pass away through sheer terror, and his princes will be devastated when they see the banner, so said YHVH, whose fire is in Tsi'on, and whose furnace is in Yeru-Shala'im.{P}
SAL'O: This for "rock" rather than "Tsur" - presumably to differentiate the "false rock" of the gods of Ashur from Tsur Yisra-El, the "Rock of Yisra-El", the one we just encountered at 30:29.
YA'AVOR: Not the word me might expect here, but it comes from the root that also yields... Ivrim, Hebrews.
SARAV: is that "princes", or is this the verb that we saw at verse 6, for "rebellion". No, that came with a Samech (ס), this with a Seen (ש). "Princes" is correct.
NES: A miracle, in some usages. And if a banner, which banner? Nechushtan? Logical enough to have the divine serpent of Eden alongside the swastika - and note again the fire images in this verse.
But if that is correct, why did Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah) destroy it? Or maybe Y-Y disapproved of that act – check its detail in 2 Kings 18:4 and then its origins in Numbers 21).
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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