As noted in the introduction to this book, most scholars reckon that the first eight chapters belonged to Zechar-Yah himself - spoken by him; or written down and read by him; perhaps, for the first of the four parts, written down and presented in parchment form by him - but that the final four chapters only exist "in his name", attributed to him apocryphally, perhaps written by his disciples, members of the Guild that he may have founded, or simply imitators. We cannot know, and my notes to chapter 8 make it very clear that I think that chapter belongs in section two as well; my comments in the text that follows will attempt to tackle the question, as evidence arises.
9:1 MAS'A DEVAR YHVH BE ERETS CHADRACH VE DAMESEK MENUCHATO KI LA YHVH EYN ADAM VE CHOL SHIVTEY YISRA-EL
9:1 MAS'A DEVAR YHVH BE ERETS CHADRACH VE DAMESEK MENUCHATO KI LA YHVH EYN ADAM VE CHOL SHIVTEY YISRA-EL
מַשָּׂא דְבַר יְהוָה בְּאֶרֶץ חַדְרָךְ וְדַמֶּשֶׂק מְנֻחָתוֹ כִּי לַיהוָה עֵין אָדָם וְכֹל שִׁבְטֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל
KJ (King James translation): The burden of the word of the LORD in the land of Hadrach, and Damascus shall be the rest thereof: when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the LORD.
BN (BibleNet translation): The details of the word of YHVH, with reference to the land of Chadrach, and Damasek, his final resting-place - for the eyes of all Mankind, and those of all the tribes of Yisra-El, are looking toward YHVH.
MAS'A: Translated entirely correctly as "burden", but in its antique usage, not much understood today. "mas'a u matan" is the phrase used for "negotiations" in modern Ivrit, literally "the details and the givings".
CHADRACH: The name of an area land, according to every translator and commentator I can find. So, let us follow it through. Except that we can't. The simple truth is, this is the only reference to the place in the entirety of the Bible, or anywhere else, so for all we know it might be a made-up name to convey something metaphorically, or a mis-spelling of another name altogether. Brown-Driver-Briggs reckon it might be a Yehudit spelling of "atarakka", which they reckon is a district somewhere between Damascus and Chamat - but they offer no evidence, and no research that I have undertaken has yet come up with such a place. There is a possibility that CHADAD (Genesis 25:15) is a mis-reading of CHADAR, but that CHADAR is in the Yemen, not in Syria, so it doesn't help. There is a Yehudit root CHADAR, which means a room (the Yiddish cheder comes from it), but CHADRACH is probably not a Yehudit word, because there is a final letter Chaf which would need to be included in the root as it can't be regarded as a suffix, and there is no root CHADRACH in Yehudit.
There is then the alternate possibility, the one I have chosen, that CHADRACH was the name of the man who ruled the land of Ashur at that time, whether as king or governor, rather than the name of the land, and that it was therefore known by his name at the time; in the same way that some scholars reckon that Yeru-Shala'im is really "the City of Solomon", and we know that Leicester is really "Leir's castra", the town of King Lear. MENUCHATO for "his final resting-place" makes rather more sense with that reading.
a) North-East of Damascus takes us into Padan Aram, whence cameth the Shomronim in two stages, around 720 BCE, when they arrived as garrison soldiers or colonists after Sennacherib conquered the northern kingdom of Yisra-El, and around 586 BCE, when they were removed from their land at the time of the exile of the Yehudim to Babylon... and they more than anyone were opposed to the rebuilding of the Temple, as we know from several entries in the Book of Ezra (see for example Ezra 4 and 9).
b) North-East of Damascus takes us into Padan Aram, whence departed the patriarchs Av-Ram and Sarai at the time of Lech Lecha (Genesis 12); North-East of Damascus takes us into Padan Aram, whither fled Ya'akov from the anger of his dad as well as his brother, for stealing his blessing (Genesis 27) as well as his birthright (Genesis 25); though why either of these should be relevant to this particular oracle is anbody's guess.
d) it wasn't North-East, but due East, which lands us right in the heart of today's Iraq, then's Babylon, and the place where these Yehudim were held captive, from which they have only just returned; but again, how is that relevant to this particular oracle? Perhaps the contentof the oracle will clarify this as we read on.
MENUCHATO: Why would Damascus be YHVH's resting-place, which is the only other viable interpretation of this word in this context? It has to relate to CHAMAT.
9:2 VE GAM CHAMAT TIGBAL BAH TSOR VE TSIYDON KI CHACHMAH ME'OD
וְגַם חֲמָת תִּגְבָּל בָּהּ צֹר וְצִידוֹן כִּי חָכְמָה מְאֹד
KJ: And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyrus, and Zidon, though it be very wise.
BN: And Chamat also, which borders it, and Tsur and Tsidon, because they are very wise.
CHAMAT: Two very different options here. Click the link on the name, and you will have the first of these, connected to the word CHAM, meaning "hot", and denoting a number of towns named, like English Bath and German Baden-Baden, for their health-providing waters.
CHAMAT: Two very different options here. Click the link on the name, and you will have the first of these, connected to the word CHAM, meaning "hot", and denoting a number of towns named, like English Bath and German Baden-Baden, for their health-providing waters.
But this verse has to be the second option, also referenced at that link, the different root CHAMAT, which means a "garrison" or "fortified city", equivalent to the Latin "castra". The famous one stood on the Orontes river in Ashur, and was known by the Greeks later on as Epiphania; picking up my notes on CHADRECH, above, 2 Kings 25:21 tells us that it was "at Riblah, in the land of Chamat" that the King of Babylon flogged and executed the leaders of Yisra-El, before taking the rest of the people into captivity in Babylon. So we can begin to understand the second part of verse 1! The root of MENUCHATO is very similar in sound to the root of NAKAMAH - Nachum and Nakum, comfort and revenge.
TSOR: Usually written as TSUR in Yehudit, as Tyre in English.
TSOR: Usually written as TSUR in Yehudit, as Tyre in English.
TSIDON: With TSUR, these were the two major southern cities of the Phoenician kingdom of Eshmun-Azar hu Ram ("the Great"), known in the Bible simply as Huram, and in most translations as Hiram of Tyre, the friend of King David and King Shelomoh (Solomon). In southern Lebanon today, both south of Beirut, which did not exist in Biblical times. The other major cities of Phoenicia at that epoch were Ugarit and Byblos, both much further to the north, though also on the Mediterranean coast.
9:3 VA TIVEN TSOR MATSOR LAH VA TITSBAR KESEPH KE APHAR VE HARUTS KE TIYT CHUTSOT
וַתִּבֶן צֹר מָצוֹר לָהּ וַתִּצְבָּר כֶּסֶף כֶּעָפָר וְחָרוּץ כְּטִיט חוּצוֹת
KJ: And Tyrus did build herself a strong hold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.
BN: And Tsur built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver like the dust, and fine gold like the mire of the streets.
Picking up the imagery of the KIKAR and the scales of justice from chapter 5. Or is it? Throughout those first seven chapters, we had a clear sense of a Prophet using rich poetic language and complex allusion, which he knew his listeners would understand, to make a very specific argument: we need to rebuild the Temple and re-establish the Kohanim and Leviyim, so that we have a meaningful moral and ceremonial structure on which to rebuild this nation. Whereas this chapter reads like some psychic tarot conman, telling you from the tea-leaves that you are going to meet a handsome stranger and fall in love. Either that, or a rallying-cry for vengeance against anyone and everyone.
9:4 HINEH ADONAI YORISHENAH VE HIKAH VA YOM CHEYLAH VE HI BA ESH TE'ACHEL
הִנֵּה אֲדֹנָי יוֹרִשֶׁנָּה וְהִכָּה בַיָּם חֵילָהּ וְהִיא בָּאֵשׁ תֵּאָכֵל
KJ: Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
BN: Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
ADONAI: Not YHVH or Elohim.But are we missing something when we translate it, at all, not necessarily as "the Lord"? It is the understanding which the people of Tsur (Tyre) had of the name that matters here, and to the Beney Tsur the name was Adonis, their version of the ever-dying ever-reborn Earth-god who elsewhere is Osher, Tammuz, Jesus (a full and very beautifully written account of this can be found in Colin Thubron's book about the Levanon, "The Hills of Adonis").
And how desperately sad, as the rebuilding of the Temple is at last in progress, that there should be such negative feelings towards Tsur and Tsidon, because there would never have been a First Temple without the architects and engineers, the building workers, and especially the cedars, that Eshmun-Azar sent from Lebanon - click here.
ADONAI: Not YHVH or Elohim.But are we missing something when we translate it, at all, not necessarily as "the Lord"? It is the understanding which the people of Tsur (Tyre) had of the name that matters here, and to the Beney Tsur the name was Adonis, their version of the ever-dying ever-reborn Earth-god who elsewhere is Osher, Tammuz, Jesus (a full and very beautifully written account of this can be found in Colin Thubron's book about the Levanon, "The Hills of Adonis").
And how desperately sad, as the rebuilding of the Temple is at last in progress, that there should be such negative feelings towards Tsur and Tsidon, because there would never have been a First Temple without the architects and engineers, the building workers, and especially the cedars, that Eshmun-Azar sent from Lebanon - click here.
9:5 TER'E ASHKELON VE TIYR'A VE AZAH VE TACHIL ME'OD VE EKRON KI HOVISH ME BATAH VE AVAD MELECH ME AZAH VE ASHKELON LO TESHEV
תֵּרֶא אַשְׁקְלוֹן וְתִירָא וְעַזָּה וְתָחִיל מְאֹד וְעֶקְרוֹן כִּי הֹבִישׁ מֶבָּטָהּ וְאָבַד מֶלֶךְ מֵעַזָּה וְאַשְׁקְלוֹן לֹא תֵשֵׁב
KJ: Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza also shall see it, and be very sorrowful, and Ekron; for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
BN: Ashkelon will see it, and fear; Azah also, and she will be deeply troubled; and Ekron, for her aspirations, shall be put to shame; and the king shall perish from Azah; and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
ASHKELON... AZAH... EKRON: Three of the five principal cities of the Pelishtim, on what is today known as the Gaza Strip. The other two, both mentioned below, were Gat and Ashdod.
ME BATAH or MEBATAH?
LO TESHEV: I think this is actually talking about the annihilation of the town rather than the expulsion of the people, but either way a call for the deity to commit another act of ethnic cleansing and wanton destruction and even genocide, as alas he tends to do, and encourages doing.
ME BATAH or MEBATAH?
LO TESHEV: I think this is actually talking about the annihilation of the town rather than the expulsion of the people, but either way a call for the deity to commit another act of ethnic cleansing and wanton destruction and even genocide, as alas he tends to do, and encourages doing.
9:6 VE YASHAV MAMZER BE ASHDOD VE HICHRATI GE'ON PELISHTIM
וְיָשַׁב מַמְזֵר בְּאַשְׁדּוֹד וְהִכְרַתִּי גְּאוֹן פְּלִשְׁתִּים
KJ: And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
BN: And a "bastard" shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Pelishtim.
MAMZER: Does it mean "bastard" as we understand the term today, which is to say an "illegitimate child"? Marriage was itself understood very differently back then, with multiple wives and, at least among the kings, unwed concubines on whom more children were fathered. And then we have to remember the number of times that the Tanach describes as "whore" and "harlot" those women who participated in the "pagan" rites of Asherah, when inside those cults they were holy priestesses; so the word "Mamzer" comes heavy-laden with ideology. Deuteronomy 23:3 is the only other place to go for a Yisra-Eli usage of the word, but it comes without definition there. The probable intention here is "a foreign nation".
ASHDOD: Unlike Ashkelon, which will be obliterated in its entirety, Ashdod will be repopulated by a foreign people - though the Yehudim regarded its current inhabitants, the Pelishtim, as a foreign people too.
PELISHTIM: see the link.
MAMZER: Does it mean "bastard" as we understand the term today, which is to say an "illegitimate child"? Marriage was itself understood very differently back then, with multiple wives and, at least among the kings, unwed concubines on whom more children were fathered. And then we have to remember the number of times that the Tanach describes as "whore" and "harlot" those women who participated in the "pagan" rites of Asherah, when inside those cults they were holy priestesses; so the word "Mamzer" comes heavy-laden with ideology. Deuteronomy 23:3 is the only other place to go for a Yisra-Eli usage of the word, but it comes without definition there. The probable intention here is "a foreign nation".
ASHDOD: Unlike Ashkelon, which will be obliterated in its entirety, Ashdod will be repopulated by a foreign people - though the Yehudim regarded its current inhabitants, the Pelishtim, as a foreign people too.
PELISHTIM: see the link.
9:7 VE HASIROTI DAMAV MI PIYV VE SHIKUTSAV MI BEYN SHINAV VE NISH'AR GAM HU L'ELOHEYNU VE HAYAH KE ALUPH BIYHUDAH VE EKRON KIYVUSI
וַהֲסִרֹתִי דָמָיו מִפִּיו וְשִׁקֻּצָיו מִבֵּין שִׁנָּיו וְנִשְׁאַר גַּם הוּא לֵאלֹהֵינוּ וְהָיָה כְּאַלֻּף בִּיהוּדָה וְעֶקְרוֹן כִּיבוּסִי
KJ: And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth: but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.
BN: And I will drain his blood out of his mouth, and pull his abominations from between his teeth; and he too shall be counted as a remnant for our gods; and he shall be counted as a chieftain in Yehudah, and Ekron will be regarded as a Yevusi.
Does any of this right-wing fanatisism sound like the Zechar-Yah of the first eight chapters, with his deity who says "please", and his intellectual poeticising? To me it sounds rather more like the supporters of the 2020 Trump Conquest Plan, exultant that they are being given the military support to annexe illegally occupied land and further dominate the non-Jewish population. Enoch Powell once made a speech not terribly different from this one.
Lots of anomalies in this verse with the Masoretic Yud too.
YEVUSI: One of the seven hilltop villages which were conurbated by King David to create Yeru-Shala'im. Worshippers of Moloch and Tammuz... but this is explained in full in my notes at the link.
9:8 VA CHANIYTI LE VEITI MI TSAVAH ME OVER U MI SHAV VE LO YA'AVOR ALEYHEM OD NOGES KI ATAH RA'IYTI VE EYNAI
Lots of anomalies in this verse with the Masoretic Yud too.
YEVUSI: One of the seven hilltop villages which were conurbated by King David to create Yeru-Shala'im. Worshippers of Moloch and Tammuz... but this is explained in full in my notes at the link.
9:8 VA CHANIYTI LE VEITI MI TSAVAH ME OVER U MI SHAV VE LO YA'AVOR ALEYHEM OD NOGES KI ATAH RA'IYTI VE EYNAI
וְחָנִיתִי לְבֵיתִי מִצָּבָה מֵעֹבֵר וּמִשָּׁב וְלֹא יַעֲבֹר עֲלֵיהֶם עוֹד נֹגֵשׂ כִּי עַתָּה רָאִיתִי בְעֵינָי
KJ: And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes.
BN: And I will set a camp around my house, against the army, to make sure no one passes through, or returns; and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen it with my own eyes.
Reiterating my comment earlier that prosperity and civilised society are dependent upon peace.
samech break
9:9 GIYLI ME'OD BAT TSI'ON HARIY'I BAT YERU-SHALA'IM HINEH MALKECH YAV'O LACH TSADIK VE NOS'A HU ANI VE ROCHEV AL CHAMOR VE AL AYIR BEN ATONOT
גִּילִי מְאֹד בַּת צִיּוֹן הָרִיעִי בַּת יְרוּשָׁלַםִ הִנֵּה מַלְכֵּךְ יָבוֹא לָךְ צַדִּיק וְנוֹשָׁע הוּא עָנִי וְרֹכֵב עַל חֲמוֹר וְעַל עַיִר בֶּן אֲתֹנוֹת
KJ: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
BN: Rejoice greatly, daughter of Tsi'on. Cry out, daughter of Yeru-Shala'im. Behold, your king is coming towards you. He is just, and brings salvation. He is poor, and rides on a donkey - not even; on the colt of the foal of a donkey.
GIYLI: as in Hava Nagila.
Another of the many verses usurped by Christianity as a supposed prophecy of their main man. If this is Zechar-Yah, and we are still in the 520s BCE, then the intention is Zeru-Bavel, not some future Jesus.
Another of the many verses usurped by Christianity as a supposed prophecy of their main man. If this is Zechar-Yah, and we are still in the 520s BCE, then the intention is Zeru-Bavel, not some future Jesus.
9:10 VE HICHARTI RECHEV ME EPHRAYIM VE SUS MIYRU-SHALA'IM VE NICHRETAH KESHET MILCHAMAH VE DIBER SHALOM LA GOYIM U MASHLO MI YAM AD YAM U MI NAHAR AD APHSEY ARETS
וְהִכְרַתִּי רֶכֶב מֵאֶפְרַיִם וְסוּס מִירוּשָׁלִַם וְנִכְרְתָה קֶשֶׁת מִלְחָמָה וְדִבֶּר שָׁלוֹם לַגּוֹיִם וּמָשְׁלוֹ מִיָּם עַד יָם וּמִנָּהָר עַד אַפְסֵי אָרֶץ
KJ: And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
BN: And I will cut off the chariot from Ephrayim, and the horse from Yeru-Shala'im. And the battle bow shall be destroyed for all time. And he shall speak peace to the nations, and his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the Earth.
HICHARTI... NICHRETAH: Not Zechar-Yah at all - this is the vision of Second Isaiah, apocalyptic and maniacally destructive, a vision built out of misanthropy, hatred, anger. Why did it get attributed to Zechar-Yah, and not added to Yesha-Yahu?
HICHARTI... NICHRETAH: Not Zechar-Yah at all - this is the vision of Second Isaiah, apocalyptic and maniacally destructive, a vision built out of misanthropy, hatred, anger. Why did it get attributed to Zechar-Yah, and not added to Yesha-Yahu?
Note also that the root of this word, CHERET, meaning "to cut", is also used when covenants are made, usually with the deity - and then, see the very next verse.
YAM AD YAM: In England that might be as few as a hundred miles, in Canada as many as four thousand; in Yisra-El it depends what is intended by "sea": Mediterranean, Red, Dead or Galilee, but even from Tabgha (the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee (north-west now, because they moved it a quarter of a mile, for the benefit of tourism, in the 1950s!) to Eilat (the northern tip of the Red Sea), which is the optimum, is only 250 miles, and the shortest barely more than nine.
YAM AD YAM: In England that might be as few as a hundred miles, in Canada as many as four thousand; in Yisra-El it depends what is intended by "sea": Mediterranean, Red, Dead or Galilee, but even from Tabgha (the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee (north-west now, because they moved it a quarter of a mile, for the benefit of tourism, in the 1950s!) to Eilat (the northern tip of the Red Sea), which is the optimum, is only 250 miles, and the shortest barely more than nine.
NAHAR: Which river? The Yarden? The text does not say HA NAHAR, but simply NAHAR, which might be "a river", or simply a general term to complement the seas in the previous figure of speech.
9:11 GAM AT BE DAM BERIYTECH SHILACHTI ASIYRAYICH MI BOR EYN MAYIM BO
גַּם אַתְּ בְּדַם בְּרִיתֵךְ שִׁלַּחְתִּי אֲסִירַיִךְ מִבּוֹר אֵין מַיִם בּוֹ
KJ: As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water.
BN: The same for you. In the name of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from that pit in which there is no water.
BE DAM BERIYTECH: This is complex theology and needs precise explanation. In verse 9 the speech is directed at the "daughter of Tsi'on" and "the daughter of Yeru-Shala'im", which is to say the women of the community; and maybe he is speaking to a conference of the priestesses who will be part of the Dedication ceremony of the newly rebuilt Temple, and who will then serve in the Women's Court afterwards, or maybe he is just throwing his words out generally from a soap-box in the market-place. Their "covenant" is different from the men's, in its physicality, though both are connected to fertility. With the men, the symbol of the covenant is circumcision, the clipping of the vine so that it may run to fruit - itself a form of CHERET. With the women, dating back to Chavah in the Garden of Eden, it is the blood of menstruation and parturition. Can we then read this Messianic age as including an end of the "punishment" of Chavah - see Genesis 3:16?
MI BOR: The pit reminds us of Yoseph, thrown there by his brothers before selling him to traffickers (Genesis 37), but really, in both cases, it is She'ol, the Underworld, that is intended.
9:12 SHUVU LE VITSARON ASIYREY HA TIKVAH GAM HA YOM MAGID MISHNEH ASHIV LACH
שׁוּבוּ לְבִצָּרוֹן אֲסִירֵי הַתִּקְוָה גַּם הַיּוֹם מַגִּיד מִשְׁנֶה אָשִׁיב לָךְ
KJ: Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
BN: Turn to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope: even to-day I declare that I will pay you double
HA TIKVAH takes us to the modern Israeli national anthem; but isn't the phrasing here rather more reminiscent of the Socialist Internationale?
9:13 KI DARACHTI LI YEHUDAH KESHET MIL'ETI EPHRAYIM VE ORARTI VANAYICH TSI'ON AL BANAYICH YAVAN VA SAMTIYCH KE CHEREV GIBOR
כִּי דָרַכְתִּי לִי יְהוּדָה קֶשֶׁת מִלֵּאתִי אֶפְרַיִם וְעוֹרַרְתִּי בָנַיִךְ צִיּוֹן עַל בָּנַיִךְ יָוָן וְשַׂמְתִּיךְ כְּחֶרֶב גִּבּוֹר
KJ: When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.
BN: For I have aimed Yehudah towards me. I have filled the bow with Ephrayim. And I will stir up your sons, O Tsi'on, against the Beney Yavan, and I will make you like the sword of a mighty man.
KESHET: I presume this is an allusion to Psalm 78:9/10: "The Beney Ephrayim were the archers, the carriers of the bow, who turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep the covenant with Elohim, and refused to live by his law." Like the punishment of Chavah above, they too will be redeemed and restored when the Messianiac Age begins.
YAVAN: Dating this would be useful, but alas we can only do that very imprecisely; at the earliest, around 517 BCE, the fourth year of Dar-Yavesh, which is the date given for the first chapter. The point being that Dar-Yavesh became deeply embroiled in a war with the Greeks, and what happened next can be found in full in my notes to Ezra 7:6.
9:14 VA YHVH ALEYHEM YERA'EH VA YATS'A CHA BARAK CHITSU VA ADONAI YHVH BA SHOPHAR YITK'A VE HALACH BE SA'AROT TEYMAN
וַיהוָה עֲלֵיהֶם יֵרָאֶה וְיָצָא כַבָּרָק חִצּוֹ וַאדֹנָי יְהֹוִה בַּשּׁוֹפָר יִתְקָע וְהָלַךְ בְּסַעֲרוֹת תֵּימָן
KJ: And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
BN: And YHVH will be seen above them. His arrow will shoot forth like lightning. Then the Lord YHVH will blow the shophar, and travel on the whirlwinds of the south.
SHOPHAR: As opposed to the Chatsotsrah, which was made of metal, not carved out of a ram's horn. Important to distinguish the two, because the latter was exclusively a military trumpet, or if used for musical entertainment, then only of a secular kind. The Shophar, on the other hand, is reserved for religious contexts, specifically the great sounds of the Jubilee and the New Year, but also musical celebrations at the shrines, or indeed a holy war such as Yehoshu'a's at Yericho (Joshua 6).
9:15 YHVH TSEVA'OT YAGEN ALEYHEM VE A'CHLU VE CHAVSHU AVNEY KEL'A VE SHATU HAMU KEMO YAYIN U MAL'U KA MIZRAK KE ZAVIYOT MIZBE'ACH
יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת יָגֵן עֲלֵיהֶם וְאָכְלוּ וְכָבְשׁוּ אַבְנֵי קֶלַע וְשָׁתוּ הָמוּ כְּמוֹ יָיִן וּמָלְאוּ כַּמִּזְרָק כְּזָוִיּוֹת מִזְבֵּחַ
KJ: The LORD of hosts shall defend them; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
BN: YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, will defend them. And they shall eat, and tread down the sling-stones; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.
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| Horned altar from Megiddo |
ZAVIYOT MIZBE'ACH: Not horns as in ram's horns, nor horns as in clarinets and oboes, but horns in an entirely metaphorical sense (though many altars in the Biblical world did have miniature carvings of the animal-deities in their corners, or simply "ears"); but in the Temple, these were the spill-off points at the four corners of the altar, so that the blood from the sacrificial animals could be drained away. "Gutters", but called "horns".
וְהוֹשִׁיעָם יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵיהֶם בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא כְּצֹאן עַמּוֹ כִּי אַבְנֵי נֵזֶר מִתְנוֹסְסוֹת עַל אַדְמָתוֹ
KJ: And the LORD their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land.
BN: And YHVH their god will save them on that day as the flock of his people; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted on high over his land.
HOSHIY'AM: Yet again it is YHVH who is the Messiah; no one else, now or ever. In Judaism, the Messiah doesn't have to come; he will be there automatically when people do what the Prophets have told them that they must: love thy neighbour as thyself, in brief.
AVNEY: The first occasion in this chapter on which we have seen something like the word-games of the earlier Zechar-Yah - the stones from the slings which were trodden down into the dust some verses earlier now "restored" as "stones", which is to say "jewels" in the metaphorical crown.
HOSHIY'AM: Yet again it is YHVH who is the Messiah; no one else, now or ever. In Judaism, the Messiah doesn't have to come; he will be there automatically when people do what the Prophets have told them that they must: love thy neighbour as thyself, in brief.
AVNEY: The first occasion in this chapter on which we have seen something like the word-games of the earlier Zechar-Yah - the stones from the slings which were trodden down into the dust some verses earlier now "restored" as "stones", which is to say "jewels" in the metaphorical crown.
NEZER: Nor by chance the appearance of that word in this context. The root of Nazirut - but nothing to do with Nazareth, which comes from the root NETSER, a branch.
9:17 MAH TOVU U MAH YAPHYO [YAPHAV] DAGAN BACHURIM VE TIYROSH YENOVEV BETULOT
9:17 MAH TOVU U MAH YAPHYO [YAPHAV] DAGAN BACHURIM VE TIYROSH YENOVEV BETULOT
כִּי מַה טּוּבוֹ וּמַה יָפְיוֹ דָּגָן בַּחוּרִים וְתִירוֹשׁ יְנוֹבֵב בְּתֻלוֹת
KJ: For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
BN: For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain shall make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
MAH TOVU: The same phrase as the opening song of Shacharit, but this is not the source; the song comes from Bil'am's blessing in Numbers 23.
YAPHYO: The bracketed alternative is mine, because I honestly do not know how this is meant to be pronounced. I think the problem is yet again a Masoretic Yud, added where it should not have been. YAPHO seems to me more likely.
DAGAN...BETULOT: Inciting them to fertility! We are still in the mythological age, when the gods are all about Nature; not yet, though entering, the metaphysical age, when the gods will be all about personal behaviour.
MAH TOVU: The same phrase as the opening song of Shacharit, but this is not the source; the song comes from Bil'am's blessing in Numbers 23.
YAPHYO: The bracketed alternative is mine, because I honestly do not know how this is meant to be pronounced. I think the problem is yet again a Masoretic Yud, added where it should not have been. YAPHO seems to me more likely.
DAGAN...BETULOT: Inciting them to fertility! We are still in the mythological age, when the gods are all about Nature; not yet, though entering, the metaphysical age, when the gods will be all about personal behaviour.
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