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No use undertaking a misanthropic rant against all the bad things in the world, however rationally and logically you articulate it, however valid the proving evidence you bring to support it, if you don't have something "better" to offer as an alternative, and a means of transforming that "vision" into a reality. So we were given the "vision" in the opening chapters of the book, and repeated references and allusions to it during the rants: the Mosaic Laws, legislated at Mount Chorev. So we have heard the rant in no uncertain terms. So, now...
26:1 BA YOM HA HU YUSHAR HA SHIR HA ZEH BE ERETS YEHUDAH IR AZ LANU YESHU'AH YASHIT CHOMOT VA CHEL
בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יוּשַׁר הַשִּׁיר הַזֶּה בְּאֶרֶץ יְהוּדָה עִיר עָז לָנוּ יְשׁוּעָה יָשִׁית חוֹמוֹת וָחֵל
KJ (King James translation): In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
BN (BibleNet translation): On that day this song shall be sung in the land of Yehudah: "We have a strong city. He has appointed walls and bulwarks for our salvation....
"On that day" remains undefined; is it one of the many days of natural destruction, or the first of re-Creation? And where does the Messiah fit into this (and is that name ever actually used?) Does his coming incipit the destruction, or the re-Creation?
Take a look at Psalm 48, the latter verses especially, which since Second Temple times has been the Psalm of the Day for Mondays, the "second day towards the Shabat". Is Y-Y quoting, alluding, or is it pure coincidence of standard poetical language?
26:2 PIT'CHU SHE'ARIM VE YAV'O GO'I TSADIK SHOMER EMUNIM
26:2 PIT'CHU SHE'ARIM VE YAV'O GO'I TSADIK SHOMER EMUNIM
פִּתְחוּ שְׁעָרִים וְיָבֹא גוֹי צַדִּיק שֹׁמֵר אֱמֻנִים
KJ: Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
BN: Open up the gates, that a righteous nation which keeps the faith may enter in.
Or look at Psalm 118, verses 19 and 20 especially. Perhaps Yesha-Yah is trying his hand at Psalmistry, rather than palmistry! Though probably, as a trained priest who had officiated in the Temple rites and ceremonies before he quit to become a Navi (see chapter 6), he will have known the liturgy off-by-heart and could simply be making allusions and references.
26:3 YETSER SAMUCH TITSUR SHALOM SHALOM KI VECHA BATU'ACH
יֵצֶר סָמוּךְ תִּצֹּר שָׁלוֹם שָׁלוֹם כִּי בְךָ בָּטוּחַ
BN: You keep in perfect peace and harmony the mind that remains focused upon you ; because it trusts you.
The point at which proto-Judaism resembles Buddhism rather more than it does any other form of religion - and really a philosophy, rather more than a religion, anyway, focused on inner harmony rather more than the world peace that can only be achieved through world conquest.
YETSER: You cannot use this word in a Jewish text and not expect PhD theses as a consequence; I shall keep mine to link-length, inviting you to click here, but see also chapters 29, 45 and 46 where the word will recur, as well as numerous references elsewhere in the Tanach (but the important ones are all at the "click here" link). And in very brief: "human beings are responsible for their own decisions, their own actions, their own outcomes: don't buck the blame: deal with your issues, and achieve your own salvation from within". This, alongside the concept of the deity - as in YHVH rather than God - is the key, fundamental, quintessential difference between Judaism and Christianity, the reason why you cannot call it Judeo-Christianity; at least, not if you are Jewish.
26:4 BIT'CHU VA YHVH ADEY AD KI BE YAH TSUR OLAMIM
YETSER: You cannot use this word in a Jewish text and not expect PhD theses as a consequence; I shall keep mine to link-length, inviting you to click here, but see also chapters 29, 45 and 46 where the word will recur, as well as numerous references elsewhere in the Tanach (but the important ones are all at the "click here" link). And in very brief: "human beings are responsible for their own decisions, their own actions, their own outcomes: don't buck the blame: deal with your issues, and achieve your own salvation from within". This, alongside the concept of the deity - as in YHVH rather than God - is the key, fundamental, quintessential difference between Judaism and Christianity, the reason why you cannot call it Judeo-Christianity; at least, not if you are Jewish.
26:4 BIT'CHU VA YHVH ADEY AD KI BE YAH TSUR OLAMIM
בִּטְחוּ בַיהוָה עֲדֵי עַד כִּי בְּיָהּ יְהוָה צוּר עוֹלָמִים
BN: Place your trust in YHVH, and in Yah your rock, for ever.
TSUR: As in Tsur Yisra-El, the prayer sung immediately before the Amidah, definitely since Second Temple times - probably First Temple too, but we have no archeological evidence to confirm that so I can only speculate, not state.
“Tsur Yisra’el kumah be-ezrat Yisra’el u-phdey chinumecha Yehudah ve-Yisra’el. Go’aleynu Adonay tseva’ot shemo kedosh Yisra’el. Baruch atah Adonay, ga’al Yisra’el.”
“Rock of Yisra-El, rise to the aid of Yisra-El and liberate, as you pledged, Yehudah and Yisra-El. Our redeemer - the Lord of the Heavenly Host is his name - the Holy one of Yisra-El. Blessed are you, Lord, who redeemed Yisra-El.”
YAH: And then, what do we do with the continuing presence of the Queen Consort in this verse, when we understood that YHVH had performed the Night of the Long Knives a chapter or three back, masculinising everything, and absorbing into his Omnideity all the "powers" of the now defunct "Heavenly Host"? Well, clearly not, if Y-Y is thinking of the same liturgy that I am with the word TSUR. Does this then date this chapter earlier than it is presented in the book?
26:5 KI HESHACH YOSHVEY MAROM KIRYAH NISGAVAH YASHPIYLENAH YASHPIYLAH AD ERETS YAGIY'ENAH AD APHAR
כִּי הֵשַׁח יֹשְׁבֵי מָרוֹם קִרְיָה נִשְׂגָּבָה יַשְׁפִּילֶנָּה יַשְׁפִּילָהּ עַד אֶרֶץ יַגִּיעֶנָּה עַד עָפָר
BN: For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city, laying it low, laying it low even to the ground, bringing it down even to the dust.
KJ: The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
YOSHVEY MAROM: Is this a variant on my aphorism from many years ago, that "the poor shall inherit the earth; the rich shall live in penthouses"? Or in this case, the poor get the slums in the valley, along the river, while the rich build mansions on the hill-slopes: the nearest they can get to being gods themselves. Though probably, this being Y-Y, he intends the "dwelling on high" as "self-importance", the arrogance of the "high-and-mighty", and not just the physical location.
YASHPIYLENAH YASHPIYLAH ...YAGIY'ENAH: Three Hiph'il (causative) verbs in a single sentence; no question here that this is DAVAR, natural destruction, rather than anything proxied through humans.
26:6 TIRMESENAH RAGEL RAGLEY ANI PA'AMEY DALIM
YASHPIYLENAH YASHPIYLAH ...YAGIY'ENAH: Three Hiph'il (causative) verbs in a single sentence; no question here that this is DAVAR, natural destruction, rather than anything proxied through humans.
26:6 TIRMESENAH RAGEL RAGLEY ANI PA'AMEY DALIM
תִּרְמְסֶנָּה רָגֶל רַגְלֵי עָנִי פַּעֲמֵי דַלִּים
BN: The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
TIRMESENAH RAGEL: See my notes at 25:10; and again we can see why getting our translations as accurate as possible matters. There, it was not trodden by the feet, but crushed by the hand, and the theological implications were massive, as I explained. But here it is most definitely the feet, and most definitely a "treading down". And given the intention to bring down the high-and-mighty in the previous verse, this trampling by the poor and the peasants does sound thoroughly revolutionary!
And so we must ask: is YHVH then even willing to use the revolutionary proletariat to achieve his goals? In the world of God, where YETSER does not apply but blame does: if Communist Revolution overthrows the Christian monarchy, this too is the design of the deity, this too is the consequence of your sins! But in the Jewish world?
26:7 ORACH LA TSADIK MEYSHARIM YASHAR MA'GAL TSADIK TEPHALES
אֹרַח לַצַּדִּיק מֵישָׁרִים יָשָׁר מַעְגַּל צַדִּיק תְּפַלֵּס
BN: The way of the just is straight. You, the most upright, make level the path of the just.
MEYSHARIM: Not to be confused, except as a modern pun, with the Me'ah She'arim or "Hundred Gates", the most orthodox Jewish sector of today's Yeru-Shalayim. Nonetheless, the linguistic coincidence is unignorable.
YASHAR...TEPHALES: I don't often criticise Y-Y's choice of lexicon, but I do have a problem with this verse. "The way of the just is straight" makes it flat, and adding TEPHALES makes it level. But YASHAR is upright, and it cannot be both "level...flat" and "upright". And yes, of course I know that he is mixing up his physicals with his metaphoricals, yet again...
26:8 APH ORACH MISHPATEYCHA YHVH KIVIYNUCHA LE SHIMCHA U LE ZICHRECHA TA'AVAT NAPHESH
KJ: Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
MEYSHARIM: Not to be confused, except as a modern pun, with the Me'ah She'arim or "Hundred Gates", the most orthodox Jewish sector of today's Yeru-Shalayim. Nonetheless, the linguistic coincidence is unignorable.
YASHAR...TEPHALES: I don't often criticise Y-Y's choice of lexicon, but I do have a problem with this verse. "The way of the just is straight" makes it flat, and adding TEPHALES makes it level. But YASHAR is upright, and it cannot be both "level...flat" and "upright". And yes, of course I know that he is mixing up his physicals with his metaphoricals, yet again...
26:8 APH ORACH MISHPATEYCHA YHVH KIVIYNUCHA LE SHIMCHA U LE ZICHRECHA TA'AVAT NAPHESH
אַף אֹרַח מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ יְהוָה קִוִּינוּךָ לְשִׁמְךָ וּלְזִכְרְךָ תַּאֲוַת נָפֶשׁ
BN: Even on the way to your judgments, YHVH, we have waited for you; to your name and to your memory is the desire of our soul.
ORACH: And a similar word-play with ORACH: the physical path which is usually rendered as HALACHAH, from HALACH = "to go", and the intellectual-spiritual journey which leads to MISHPATEYCHA
MISHPATEYCHA: And again here, the MISHPAT being a "legal verdict", in one sense of the word "sentence", but also "a complete articulation of an idea through language", in the other sense of that word.
KIVIYNUCHA: To wait, but with a strong sense of anticipation, even expectation. See for example Genesis 49:18 or Psalm 25:5 and 21; though it's also worth looking at verse 4 of that Psalm, because it too has the ORECH, but also the third of the words used for the "Way", DERECH.
26:9 NAPHSHI IVIYTICHA BA LAILAH APH RUCHI VE KIRBI ASHACHARECHA KI KA ASHER MISHPATEYCHA LA ARETS TSEDEK LAMDU YOSHVEY TEVEL
נַפְשִׁי אִוִּיתִךָ בַּלַּיְלָה אַף רוּחִי בְקִרְבִּי אֲשַׁחֲרֶךָּ כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר מִשְׁפָּטֶיךָ לָאָרֶץ צֶדֶק לָמְדוּ יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל
BN: With my soul have I desired you in the night. To the very pulse beating within me have I sought you earnestly. For when your judgments are on the Earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
NAPHSHI...RUCHI: The difference between the "spirit" and the "soul" in English is one I leave to others to explain. The difference between the NEPHESH and the RU'ACH can be found at Genesis 1:20 for the former, Genesis 1:2 for the latter; but essentially (or should that be elementally, or even existentially) it is precisely the same difference that exists between YHVH and CHAVAH, the former being the elemental state, pre-existence, the other manifest existence.
MISHPATEYCHA: I return to this word because it seems to me essential to Y-Y's philosophy. The deity is not a judge in court, he/they are simply the E that equals MC2, which is why it is foolish to think thunderstorms and droughts are caused by sin, and then try to propitiate your way through them. On th`e other hand (the human YAD working in partnership with the divine YAD), as per my note above, when human beings manage to articulate in coherent sentences what the E and the M and the C actually mean, and how they work, then a meaningful understanding of the "judgements" of the deity can be achieved, and non-propitiatory ways through them developed. This is not about sin, it is about science. When human beings apply their intelligence to the optimum, rather than indulging their greed, their self-importance and their high-and-mightiness, a decent human world becomes a viable possibility (preferably with hurricane-proof glass, earthquake-proof foundations, lightning rods, and agreement not to build towns on the slopes of active volcanoes).
26:10 YUCHAN RASH'A BAL LAMAD TSEDEK BE ERETS NECHOCHOT YE'AVEL U VAL YIR'EH GE'UT YHVH
יֻחַן רָשָׁע בַּל לָמַד צֶדֶק בְּאֶרֶץ נְכֹחוֹת יְעַוֵּל וּבַל יִרְאֶה גֵּאוּת יְהוָה
KJ: Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.
BN: Let favour be shown to the wicked, though he still will not learn righteousness. Even in the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of YHVH.{P}
BN: Let favour be shown to the wicked, though he still will not learn righteousness. Even in the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of YHVH.{P}
Sarcasm! But Y-Y is correct. The man who sells dodgy goods under the slogan "the company that cares", doesn't expect you to realise that what he cares about is "how much profit can I make?", and not "how good is this for my customers?" And ditto the politician asked to come up with a solution to a national problem: his answer will not be, "what is the best solution for the country?" but "which solution will secure the most votes?". Plus ça change!
[P] The Christian texts do not change chapter at this point, but the Masoretic symbol suggests that the Rabbis think it should have done.
26:11 YHVH RAMAH YADCHA BAL YECHEZAYUN YECHEZU VE YEVOSHU KIN'AT AM APH ESH TSAREYCHA TO'CHLEM
יְהוָה רָמָה יָדְךָ בַּל יֶחֱזָיוּן יֶחֱזוּ וְיֵבֹשׁוּ קִנְאַת עָם אַף אֵשׁ צָרֶיךָ תֹאכְלֵם
BN: YHVH, your hand is raised up, but still they do not see you. They shall see with shame your zeal for the people. Yea, fire shall devour your adversaries. {S}
That YAD again - whence my comment a verse ago. But this one is a raised hand, which reminds us of Mosheh fighting against the Beney Amalek, when Chur on one side, and Aharon on the other, held up his hands so that YHVH would be with them, and when his hands were raised, the Beney Yisra-El moved towards victory, but when he needed to rest them for a while, the Beney Amalek fought back (Exodus 17:10 ff).
YECHEZAYUN YECHEZU: The root here is CHOZEH, the third of the "prophetic" words, the other two being RO'EH and NAV'I. See my note to CHAZO. Y-Y's use of it here, and in this manner, is significant to our understanding of the role of the Prophet: if he was himself simply a CHOZEH, a man who stares into a crystal ball or a palm and recounts what he "sees", then he would be mocking and criticising himself by saying this, and dishnouring his deity at the same time.
And this is significant here, not so much to Y-Y as to our reading, because the grammar has left the translators somewhat bewildered. Look at Biblehub, for example, and it will tell you that most of the verbs are in the past tense (it says "Imperfect, which is even more problematic, because there is no Imperfect tense as such in Yehudit), which they are not; they are in the present (RAMAH) and future (YECHEZAYUN, YECHEZU, YEVOSHU, TO'CHLEM); and without a Vav Consecutive either to render them as past-by-construction. Yet KJ and others all translate this - entirely correctly - into the future.
And this is significant here, not so much to Y-Y as to our reading, because the grammar has left the translators somewhat bewildered. Look at Biblehub, for example, and it will tell you that most of the verbs are in the past tense (it says "Imperfect, which is even more problematic, because there is no Imperfect tense as such in Yehudit), which they are not; they are in the present (RAMAH) and future (YECHEZAYUN, YECHEZU, YEVOSHU, TO'CHLEM); and without a Vav Consecutive either to render them as past-by-construction. Yet KJ and others all translate this - entirely correctly - into the future.
26:12 YHVH TISHPOT SHALOM LANU KI GAM KOL MA'ASEYNU PA'ALTA LANU
יְהוָה תִּשְׁפֹּת שָׁלוֹם לָנוּ כִּי גַּם כָּל מַעֲשֵׂינוּ פָּעַלְתָּ לָּנוּ
BN: YHVH, you will establish peace for us; for you have indeed wrought all our works for us. {S}
KJ: O LORD our God, other lords beside thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
TISHPOT: I wonder if Y-Y is using the verb in the same way that Yechezke-El does, at 40:43 of his book, or even as a deliberate contrast with it? There, in his rather silly "vision" in which an angel brings him the complete architectural plan for the rebuilding of the Temple (presumably he is doing it from personal memory of the one destroyed just a few years previously; Muhammad will use the same format he creates the Qur'an), Yechezke-El lays out the SHEPHATAYIM (הַשְׁפַתַּיִם), the "slabs", precisely the length of a hand each, on which the sacrifices will be placed for the act of propitiation.
So we appear to have two very different Prophetic "visions", Y-Y versus Y-E, the one all about the humans taking charge through a scientific understanding of the "Nature" of the gods, the other yielding to their superior power and wanting to restore the Temple rituals (Y-E's vision takes place in Bavel, during the exile; see Ezekiel 40:1, and note that his "vision" is a MA'AROT, yet a fourth word for our list).
But Y-Y has already rejected the Y-E version, and his YHVH will bring peace through "obedience", not "sacrifice". The Y-E will bring peace by submission: an entire world passively obedient to the same dictator is indeed a form of peace; cf Stalinist Russia in the 1930s.
The same with the second half of the verse, which in Y-E would turn Hebrewism into Islam = "submission", mere vassaldom to the Pharaonic deity: "For you have also done all our works for us." Abnegation of responsibility by the human, just as all credit for achievement was expropriated earlier. The human simply becomes an automaton, mechanically performing the rites, ceremonies and liturgies required by the ideology, blameless and uncreditworthy; not really a human at all, even when the brain is totally engaged at the most sophisticated level, but automatonically engaged only in the act of learning what rites, ceremonies and liturgies to perform, and the variations at given times (the ultimate methodology of social control). But, as we have seen repeatedly, this is not Y-Y's vision: the work that has been "done for us" was PA'ALTA, which is Homo Faber developing his Homo Sapiens, not DAVAR, which is the deity making Creation in the first place. "You have given us the means to understand your Creation, and to work out for ourselves how to develop a righteous human world, for everybody's benefit." An Aristotelian peace, where Y-E's is purely Platonic - though neither of those, I know, have yet come about.
26:13 YHVH ELOHEYNU BE'ALUNU ADONIM ZULATECHA LEVAD BECHA NAZKIR SHEMECHA
26:13 YHVH ELOHEYNU BE'ALUNU ADONIM ZULATECHA LEVAD BECHA NAZKIR SHEMECHA
יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ בְּעָלוּנוּ אֲדֹנִים זוּלָתֶךָ לְבַד בְּךָ נַזְכִּיר שְׁמֶךָ
BN: YHVH, our gods, other lords besides you have had ruled us, and in your name; but we mean you and you alone when we make mention of your name.
YHVH ELOHEYNU: so, again, we are still pre-Omnideity, though this compound does hint at its inception.
26:14 METIM BAL YICHEYU RAPHA'IM BAL YAKUMU LACHEN PAKADETA VA TASHMIYDEM VA TE'ABED KOL ZECHER LAMO
מֵתִים בַּל יִחְיוּ רְפָאִים בַּל יָקֻמוּ לָכֵן פָּקַדְתָּ וַתַּשְׁמִידֵם וַתְּאַבֵּד כָּל זֵכֶר לָמוֹ
BN: Those gods are dead, and will not revive, any more than the giants of the ancient world will return again. To that end have you overpowered and destroyed them, and made all memory of them perish.
REPHA'IM: See the link.
TE'ABED KOL ZECHER LAMO: Y-Y is wrong on this occasion. Merely to name them here, as he has done, is sufficient to keep their memory alive. And anyway, what matters is not the forgetting who they were, but the continuing to worship them once you have learned that they are falsehoods.
26:15 YASAPHTA LA GOY YHVH YASAPHTA LA GOY NICHBADETA RICHAKTA KOL KATSVEY ARETS
יָסַפְתָּ לַגּוֹי יְהוָה יָסַפְתָּ לַגּוֹי נִכְבָּדְתָּ רִחַקְתָּ כָּל קַצְוֵי אָרֶץ
BN: You have gotten yourself honour with the nations, YHVH. Yea, exceeding great honour with the nations. You are honoured to the farthest ends of the Earth. {P}
MI MEKOMO: Pronounced by elision as MIMKOMO, but I always separate in this manner to show the preposition, as that impacts on meaning.
Two very different translations!
What exactly does "increase the nation" mean anyway, if it is not his honour that has increased? A return to the gods of fertility? The key here is NICHBADETA, from KAVED, "honour".
26:16 YHVH BA TSAR PEKADUCHA TSAKUN LACHASH MUSARCHA LAMO
KJ: LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
BN: YHVH, they sought you when things were bad. They poured out their prayers only when they knew they had done something wrong.
What exactly does "increase the nation" mean anyway, if it is not his honour that has increased? A return to the gods of fertility? The key here is NICHBADETA, from KAVED, "honour".
26:16 YHVH BA TSAR PEKADUCHA TSAKUN LACHASH MUSARCHA LAMO
יְהוָה בַּצַּר פְּקָדוּךָ צָקוּן לַחַשׁ מוּסָרְךָ לָמוֹ
KJ: LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
BN: YHVH, they sought you when things were bad. They poured out their prayers only when they knew they had done something wrong.
PEKADUCHA: Which repeats the verb used in verse, but here with its other meaning: "to visit". How can the same word, its root spelled the same way, have two completely different meanings? Apparently, in Bromley-by-Bow, the people who make the sticks you use to play a violin take the applause for their skills in much the same way. And they get the wood for those sticks, not from the tree's branches but from its... oh, that's spelled boff, like cough, and thoff. Y-Y games, constant throughout these texts.
But there is also another key part of the vision here, because Y-Y wants his people to do "obedience", but he wants it with KAVANAH, sincerity-intensity, regardless of whether life is going well or badly. People only turning to YHVH in times of trouble makes for a really negative statement about religion.
26:17 KEMO HARAH TAKRIV LALEDET TACHIL TIZ'AK BA CHAVALEYHA KEN HAYIYNU MI PANEYCHA YHVH
KJ: Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
BN: Like a pregnant woman, when she draws near to the time of her parturition, and is in pain, and cries out in her pangs, so have we been at your presence, YHVH.
26:18 HARIYNU CHALNU KEMO YALADNU RU'ACH YESHU'OT BAL NA'ASEH ERETS U VAL YIPLU YOSHVEY TEVEL
KJ: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
BN: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the land; neither have any of the inhabitants of the world come to life.
26:17 KEMO HARAH TAKRIV LALEDET TACHIL TIZ'AK BA CHAVALEYHA KEN HAYIYNU MI PANEYCHA YHVH
כְּמוֹ הָרָה תַּקְרִיב לָלֶדֶת תָּחִיל תִּזְעַק בַּחֲבָלֶיהָ כֵּן הָיִינוּ מִפָּנֶיךָ יְהוָה
KJ: Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD.
BN: Like a pregnant woman, when she draws near to the time of her parturition, and is in pain, and cries out in her pangs, so have we been at your presence, YHVH.
26:18 HARIYNU CHALNU KEMO YALADNU RU'ACH YESHU'OT BAL NA'ASEH ERETS U VAL YIPLU YOSHVEY TEVEL
הָרִינוּ חַלְנוּ כְּמוֹ יָלַדְנוּ רוּחַ יְשׁוּעֹת בַּל נַעֲשֶׂה אֶרֶץ וּבַל יִפְּלוּ יֹשְׁבֵי תֵבֵל
KJ: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
BN: We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the land; neither have any of the inhabitants of the world come to life.
...in the good times we don’t even show gratitude. But worse, even those who have preached what Y-Y is preaching, and those who listen and nod their agreement, haven't actually made an iota of difference to the human world. Please don't tell him that here we are, two and a half thousand years later, and the same still applies.
26:19 YICHEYU METEYCHA NEVELATI YEKUMUN HAKIYTSU VE RANENU SHOCHNEY APHAR KI TAL OROT TALECHA VA ARETS REPHA'IM TAPIL
KJ: Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is asthe dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
26:19 YICHEYU METEYCHA NEVELATI YEKUMUN HAKIYTSU VE RANENU SHOCHNEY APHAR KI TAL OROT TALECHA VA ARETS REPHA'IM TAPIL
יִחְיוּ מֵתֶיךָ נְבֵלָתִי יְקוּמוּן הָקִיצוּ וְרַנְּנוּ שֹׁכְנֵי עָפָר כִּי טַל אוֹרֹת טַלֶּךָ וָאָרֶץ רְפָאִים תַּפִּיל
KJ: Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is asthe dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
BN: Your dead shall live, my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of light, and the Earth shall bring to life the shades. {P}
Is this the resurrection of the dead, stated for the first time, yet another break with Mosaic theology that will become mainstream Judaism (see the second paragraph - Gevurot - of the Amidah, though you will need an orthodox prayer book as Reform and Liberal have removed the reference).
Or is this a mis-reading by the Rabbis and other scholars later on, and not a resurrection of the physically dead at all, but a statement about the continuing existences of the living-dead, those who just go through life like cattle, grazing, satisfying their biological needs, but no more than that, while Y-Y's disciples arfe being exhorted to wake up from their empty lives, and begin to fulfil them meaningfully? I think the answer to this already lies in verse 14.
26:20 LECH AMI BO VA CHADAREYCHA U SEGOR DELATEYCHA BA ADECHA CHAVI CHIME'AT REGA AD YA'AVOR ZA'AM
KJ: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
לֵךְ עַמִּי בֹּא בַחֲדָרֶיךָ וּסְגֹר דלתיך (דְּלָתְךָ) בַּעֲדֶךָ חֲבִי כִמְעַט רֶגַע עַד יעבור (יַעֲבָר-) זָעַם
KJ: Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
BN: Come, my people, go into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a brief moment, until the indignation has passed away.
Didn't Tony Blair once say something very similar, when asked to wrap up the "vision" of his party's election manifesto in one sentence? He stole the format from Bill Clinton, but the phrasing might just as well have been this verse: "Education, education, education".
CHADAREYCHA: Which Blairism also makes me wonder who Y-Y is addressing, and where. I imagine this as morning assembly at his Yeshiva, the Head come in to deliver a sermon rather than just having the music teacher lead some songs and the deputy head do announcements. In which case CHADAREYCHA needs to be rendered as "classrooms" - and anyone who has been to a Jewish Sunday school will know that it is known, to this day, as CHADER (though sometimes spelled Yiddishly as CHEDER).
But this was a Yeshiva, and just as the Christian church was modelled, physically as well as ceremonially and liturgically, on the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im, there is strong evidence that the Abbeys and monasteries and convents were likewise modelled on the study-houses on the Temple campus, small cells built around the cloistered quadrant of the courtyard.
Though whether Y-Y is sending them to their cells to study, or to pray, or both, is not explicit in the verse.
Nor is it clear whose indignation this is that has passed, YHVH's at the people, or the people's at YHVH.
26:21 KI HINEH YHVH YOTS'E MI MEKOMO LIPHKOD AVON YOSHEV HA ARETS ALAV VE GILTAH HA ARETS ET DAMEYHA VE LO TECHASEH OD AL HARUGEYHA
KJ: For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
כִּי הִנֵּה יְהוָה יֹצֵא מִמְּקוֹמוֹ לִפְקֹד עֲוֹן יֹשֵׁב הָאָרֶץ עָלָיו וְגִלְּתָה הָאָרֶץ אֶת דָּמֶיהָ וְלֹא תְכַסֶּה עוֹד עַל הֲרוּגֶיהָ
KJ: For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
BN: For, behold, YHVH has gone out from his place to visit their iniquity upon the inhabitants of the Earth. So the Earth shall uncover her blood, and provide no more cover for her slain. {P}
MI MEKOMO: Pronounced by elision as MIMKOMO, but I always separate in this manner to show the preposition, as that impacts on meaning.
LIPHKOD: The third usage of this word in this chapter.
GILTAH: How does the Earth "disclose her blood"? If this chapter were about some political or military event, we might read it as opening up the trenches where the "Desaparecidos" have been machine-gunned and bulldozed. But it is not that. And we have seen Y-Y consistently using the physical landscape metaphorically. Blood in Jewish texts is the most sacred of all aspects of life, to be drained entirely before cooking, taken away in special gutters from the Temple altar and removed from the precinct, mikvehed monthly by women, etc. A full revelation, and an end to disclosure, becomes as full an understanding of the NEPHESH and the RU'ACH as it is possible to metaphor.
Isaiah:
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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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