Isaiah 14

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The Fall of Bavel (Babylon)

14:1 KI YERACHEM YHVH ET YA'AKOV U VACHAR OD BE YISRA-EL VE HINIYCHAM AL ADMATAM VE NILVACH HA GER ALEYHEM VE NISPECHU AL BEIT YA'AKOV

כִּי יְרַחֵם יְהוָה אֶת יַעֲקֹב וּבָחַר עוֹד בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וְהִנִּיחָם עַל אַדְמָתָם וְנִלְוָה הַגֵּר עֲלֵיהֶם וְנִסְפְּחוּ עַל בֵּית יַעֲקֹב

KJ (King James translation): For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

BN (BibleNet translation): For YHVH will have compassion on Ya'akov, and will yet choose Yisra-El, and set them in their own land; and the stranger shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Ya'akov.


The tone changes again. Calm is restored after that blasting. Note the interchanging of Ya'akov and Yisra-El once again. But "they will return to their land"; others will join them – which again can only be the Babylonian exile.

ADMATAM: Surprising this; why not ARTSAM, which is the normal word for land as "country"? Does this require me to amend my earlier comment when the two words were used together?


14:2 U LEKACHUM AMIM VE HEVIY'UM EL MEKOMAM VE HITNACHALUM BEIT YISRA-EL AL ADMAT YHVH LA AVADIM VE LISHPHACHOT VE HAYU SHOVIM LE SHOVEYHEM VE RADU BE NOGSEYHEM

וּלְקָחוּם עַמִּים וֶהֱבִיאוּם אֶל מְקוֹמָם וְהִתְנַחֲלוּם בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל עַל אַדְמַת יְהוָה לַעֲבָדִים וְלִשְׁפָחוֹת וְהָיוּ שֹׁבִים לְשֹׁבֵיהֶם וְרָדוּ בְּנֹגְשֵׂיהֶם

KJ: And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

BN: And the peoples shall take them, and bring them to their place; and the house of Yisra-El shall possess them in the land of YHVH for servants and for handmaids; and they shall take them captive, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors. {S}

AMIM: Kena'an, then as now, has never been an exclusively Jewish land; dozens of other AMIM - nations, peoples, tribes, as you prefer - have lived there, or come to live there, since antiquity. The intention here is that they will happily welcome the Yehudim back, but it will become a land ruled by the Yehudim. And that is less Zionist ideology than Medean strategy: the aspiration of the Medes to extend their empire all the way to the Mediterranean, and thence into eastern Europe, sending the Yehudim home with military support to establish a "garrison-state": the plan will be foiled in 490 BCE when the Greeks defeat them at the Battle of Marathon.

SHOVIM LE SHOVEYHEM: But among the AMIM, and dominant among them since the Yehudim were taken into captivity, have been the SHOMRONIM (Samaritans), settlers and colonisers from Padan-Aram, the first set arriving as the garrisons of ASHUR in the invasion described in Book One, the larger and more significant group forced to move there by the Babylonians, when they in their turn were conquered and displaced. Those SHOMRONIM will play a hugely significant role in the history of Kena'an until Roman times, and especially in the story of Jesus.

14:3 VE HAYAH BE YOM HANIYACH YHVH LECHA MEY ATSBECHA U MI RAGZECHA U MIN HA AVODAH HA KASHAH ASHER UBAD BACH

וְהָיָה בְּיוֹם הָנִיחַ יְהוָה לְךָ מֵעָצְבְּךָ וּמִרָגְזֶךָ וּמִן הָעֲבֹדָה הַקָּשָׁה אֲשֶׁר עֻבַּד בָּךְ

KJ: And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,

BN: And it shall come to pass on the day that YHVH will give you rest from your travail, and from your trouble, and from the hard service that you were made to serve...


14:4 VE NASA'TA HA MASHAL HA ZEH AL MELECH BAVEL VE AMARTA EYCH SHAVAT NOGES SHAVTAH MADHEVAH

וְנָשָׂאתָ הַמָּשָׁל הַזֶּה עַל מֶלֶךְ בָּבֶל וְאָמָרְתָּ אֵיךְ שָׁבַת נֹגֵשׂ שָׁבְתָה מַדְהֵבָה

KJ: That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!

BN: That you will take up this adage against the king of Bavel, and say: "How has the oppressor ceased! the exactress of gold ceased!...


MASHAL: "The Book of Proverbs" is known in Yehudit as "Mishlei Shelomoh", though they were dedicated to him rather than written by him. The root is MASHAL, and, as per verse 2 of that book, their purpose is "For learning wisdom and discipline, for understanding words of discernment..." and a great deal more besides. But definitely "proverbs", though we might say "maxims", "adages", even "Pensées", or simply "Pansies". Alas, "clichés" might, all too often, be a more accurate translation.

14:5 SHAVAR YHVH MATEH RESHA'IM SHEVET MOSHLIM

שָׁבַר יְהוָה מַטֵּה רְשָׁעִים שֵׁבֶט מֹשְׁלִים

KJ: The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.

BN: "YHVH has broken the staff of the wicked, the sceptre of the rulers...

MATEH...SHEVET: fulfilling the prophecy of 9:3; see my note there, but probably more useful to see the one at 10:5.

14:6 MAKEH AMIM BE EVRAH MAKAT BILTI SARAH RODEH VA APH GOYIM MURDAPH BELI CHASACH

מַכֶּה עַמִּים בְּעֶבְרָה מַכַּת בִּלְתִּי סָרָה רֹדֶה בָאַף גּוֹיִם מֻרְדָּף בְּלִי חָשָׂךְ

KJ: He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.

BN: "He who smote the people in wrath with an incessant stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that none restrained...

BILTI SARAH: Again the phrases echo. This one takes us back to 1:5, but there are numerous other occasions, and not all identical in meaning; see chapters 4, 7 and 9 for the progeny of the May King-May Queen marriage, which will be misinterpreted as the prophesy of Jesus by the later Christians; see 10:8 and 11:13 for a very different meaning, though all are interconnected by the word's root.

14:7 NACHAH SHAKTAH KOL HA ARETS PATS'CHU RINAH

נָחָה שָׁקְטָה כָּל הָאָרֶץ פָּצְחוּ רִנָּה

KJ: The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.

BN: "The whole Earth is at rest, and is quiet; they break forth into singing.


NACHAH: What is being described is the calm after the storm. The Biblical story of the Flood, like the Shomronim and the Ashurim as nations, has its origins around Mount Ararat, as we know from the end of the tale in Genesis 9, when the captain of the unnamed ship known as the Ark but metaphoring the sun was at last able to anchor it and disembark. No'ach his name, because "he came to rest", from the root NU'ACH, the one in use here.

14:8 GAM BE ROSHIM SAMCHU LECHA ARZEY LEVANON ME'AZ SHACHAVTA LO YA'ALEH HA KORET ALEYNU

גַּם בְּרוֹשִׁים שָׂמְחוּ לְךָ אַרְזֵי לְבָנוֹן מֵאָז שָׁכַבְתָּ לֹא יַעֲלֶה הַכֹּרֵת עָלֵינוּ

KJ: Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.

BN: "Even the cypresses rejoice at you, and the cedars of Lebanon: 'Since you lay down, no feller is come up against us'...

That image of the trees again. The Temple, now destroyed. 

KORET: This is "feller" as in "a person who fells trees", a "lumberjack" in north American, an "arborist" or "tree surgeon" in modern Euphemism. But either way not a Cockney "fellow". And either way, yes, the same root that gave us "cut off" and the "covenant" on several previously punning occasions (see 11:13 - again! o the echoes, the return-references!)


14:9 SHE'OL MI TACHAT RAGZAH LECHA LIKRA'T BO'ECHA ORER LECHA REPHA'IM KOL ATUDEY ARETS HEKIM MI KIS'OTAM KOL MALCHEY GOYIM

שְׁאוֹל מִתַּחַת רָגְזָה לְךָ לִקְרַאת בּוֹאֶךָ עוֹרֵר לְךָ רְפָאִים כָּל עַתּוּדֵי אָרֶץ הֵקִים מִכִּסְאוֹתָם כֹּל מַלְכֵי גוֹיִם

KJ: Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.

BN: "The nether-world, from underneath, is moved for you, to meet you at your coming; the shades are stirred up for you, iuncluding all the chief ones of the Earth; all the kings of the nations are raised up from their thrones."

The Gideon, and others, translate this as "Hell", but this is She'ol, and the two may both lie beneath the earth, but they are entirely different concepts... see the link.

I need to go back and review this, but it seems to me the style has changed radically in this chapter, and this is a poem, a Biblical precursor of Dante's "Inferno" or Eliot's "Wasteland", where most of what came before was, not exactly prosaic, but more like one expects from a recited prophesy. It feels like there are structural things going on here, in the manner of the Psalms. Also the slightly clipped phrases. Should we also be considering the layout?


14:10 KULAM YA'ANU VE YOMRU ELEYCHA GAM ATAH CHULEYTA CHAMONU ELEYNU NIMSHALTA

כֻּלָּם יַעֲנוּ וְיֹאמְרוּ אֵלֶיךָ גַּם אַתָּה חֻלֵּיתָ כָמוֹנוּ אֵלֵינוּ נִמְשָׁלְתָּ

KJ: All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?

BN: All of them will answer, and say to you: "Have you too become as weak as us? Have you indeed become like us?..


ELEYCHA...ATAH...CHULEYTA...NIMSHALTA: "You" in the singular, as though each individual is being personally addressed. English translations cannot convey this.

14:11 HURAD SHE'OL GE'ONECHA HEMYAT NEVALEYCHA TACHTEYCHA YUTS'A RIMAH U MECHASEYCHA TOLE'AH

הוּרַד שְׁאוֹל גְּאוֹנֶךָ הֶמְיַת נְבָלֶיךָ תַּחְתֶּיךָ יֻצַּע רִמָּה וּמְכַסֶּיךָ תּוֹלֵעָה

KJ: Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.

BN: "Your pomp is brought down to the nether-world, and the noise of your psalteries; the maggot is spread under you, and the worms cover you....

The text gives She'ol, but it is described as "maggots and worms", not Dumah or Inferno or Hades; the images suggest the grave as an end, the healthy biodegradation (I am deliberately avoiding that loaded word "corruption") of the body into fertilising manure, rather than having any sense of an afterlife, with or without purgatorial waiting period, last judgement, or any of the other eschatological fantasies that will be added to western religion later on. This is what you would have found in the original tales that became humanised as David and Jesus later on. Winter, like night-time, a descent into the nether-world, because that is the cycle of life.

The sense of it being verse is here again, with some almost-rhymes in addition.

Is that "pomp" the same one that Shakespeare gave to Apemanthus in Timon of Athens?

14:12 EYCH NAPHALTA MI SHAMAYIM HEYLEL BEN SHACHAR NIGDA'TA LA ARETS CHOLESH AL GOYIM

אֵיךְ נָפַלְתָּ מִשָּׁמַיִם הֵילֵל בֶּן שָׁחַר נִגְדַּעְתָּ לָאָרֶץ חוֹלֵשׁ עַל גּוֹיִם

KJ: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

BN: "How you have fallen from the heavens, Sirius the Mourning Star! How you have been cut down to the ground, who once cast lots over the nations!..


HEYLEL BEN SHACHAR: The Gideon Bible translaes him as Lucifer, which seems rather inept to me, despite the description of his "falling from the heavens". And why is he cut down? Has the Messiah even overthrown She'ol? And of course, the answer to that is, yes: in the Davidic, as in the Osiric, the Tammuzian, the Orphean, and later the Christian, the ever-dying ever-reborn Lord of the Earth has to go down into the Underworld (She'ol) for a period of time, and there he will "supplant" the Lord of the Underworld, and assume that role himself, before being reborn on the Earth, which is the right-hand of the sun. Every night indeed, every end-of-month, every winter.

But the way this is presented is Persian-Medean angelology, the roots and sources of mediaeval demonism and "Paradise Lost"!

But all this needs some explanation: 

HEYLEL: There is HEYLAL, which is understood to mean "bright" or "shining", which would make for an accurate description of any star, though it it may not be the one intended on this occasion. Why? Because there is a root Hey-Lamed-Lamed (הלל), meaning "to shine", but there is also - see Ezekiel 21:17 and Zechariah 11:2 - a root Yud-Lamed-Lamed (ילל), meaning "to mourn" or "to wail", and - as per my pun in my translation - it is the latter that is intended here (see verse 31 for confirmation).

BEN SHACHAR: See my note at Psalm 22:1.

Whereas the original lines, which Y-Y is referencing - and Zechar-Yah also, in the link above - are Davidic, from 2 Samuel 1:25-27: "How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle! Yehonatan lies slain on your heights... How the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war have perished!"


14:13 VE ATAH AMARTA VI LEVAVECHA HA SHAMAYIM E'ELEH MI MA'AL LE CHOCHVEY EL ARIM KIS'I VE ESHEV BE HAR MO'ED BE YARKETEY TSAPHON

וְאַתָּה אָמַרְתָּ בִלְבָבְךָ הַשָּׁמַיִם אֶעֱלֶה מִמַּעַל לְכוֹכְבֵי אֵל אָרִים כִּסְאִי וְאֵשֵׁב בְּהַר מוֹעֵד בְּיַרְכְּתֵי צָפוֹן

KJ: For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

BN: "Because you said in your heart: 'I will ascend into the heavens, I will establish my throne high above the stars of El, and I will sit upon the Mount of Meeting, in the uttermost parts of the north...

But you can see why the Gideon translated him as Lucifer. This is Miltonic again; and very pagan - EL et cetera; presumably the tale of the "attempted coup" by the dawn star was very ancient. But it too needs to be read as part of the mythology, not as a "literal tale". Mythology is the ancient method of explaining the workings of the Cosmos, in an epoch that does not yet have Physics, Chemistry or Biology as formal disciplines and languages. So, every morning, when the sun is still weak but trying to get born out of the uterus of darkness, the brightest star in the sky - Sirius having taken over from Vega in Lyra by this hour - is clearly unwilling to yield its dominance in the skies, and will have to be forced by the rising, and strengthening, sun, to go down into the netherworld. And by the time the womb-blood of sunrise has vanished from the sky, and the sun is now visibly in charge, Sirius will indeed have been dispatched to the netherworld - though he will be back at the same time tomorrow. Don't tell Milton.

EL: The father-god of the Beney Kena'an, their version of Ra or Ouranos, the one who began Creation, but was literally cut off, castrated, because the constant spraying of his sperm was giving birth to ever more stars, planets, comets, life-forms. It is this god who is explicitly named in this verse.

HAR MO'ED: An Olympian equivalent of the OHEL MO'ED (for which see the link), or do we regard the Har Mo'ed as CHOREV itself?

TSAPHON: As I have pointed out on several previous occasions, the northern sky is the only quarter in which the sun can never hold dominance: it rises in the east, travels through the south, sets in the west, but by night, when it is crossing the northern sky to get back to its rising-point in the east, it is the moon, the female principle of the universe, which reigns. Ditto in its mythological equivalent for Winter. This is why it was at the north gate of the Temple (Ezekiel 8:14) that the women keened for the dead Tammuz.

14:14 E'ELEH AL BAMATEY AV EDAMEH LE ELYON

אֶעֱלֶה עַל בָּמֳתֵי עָב אֶדַּמֶּה לְעֶלְיוֹן

KJ: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

BN: "'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like El Elyon, the Most High.'


EL ELYON: Once again returning to the Av-Ramic.


14:15 ACH EL SHE'OL TURAD EL YARKETEY VOR

אַךְ אֶל שְׁאוֹל תּוּרָד אֶל יַרְכְּתֵי בוֹר

KJ: Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

BN: "Yet you shall be brought down to the nether-world, to the uttermost parts of the pit."


This condemns him to She'ol, which means he isn't there now. But the word used here for "the pit" is BOR, which takes us back to Yoseph and his brothers (Genesis 37:20 ff).


14:16 RO'EYCHA ELEYCHA YASHGIYCHU ELEYCHA YITBONANU HA ZEH HA ISH MARGIZ HA ARETS MAR'ISH MAMLACHOT

רֹאֶיךָ אֵלֶיךָ יַשְׁגִּיחוּ אֵלֶיךָ יִתְבּוֹנָנוּ הֲזֶה הָאִישׁ מַרְגִּיז הָאָרֶץ מַרְעִישׁ מַמְלָכוֹת

KJ: They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

BN: They who scarcely looked at you are now gazing at you, deep in thought: "Is this the man who made the Earth tremble, who shook kingdoms?..

Is he still speaking about HEYLEL HA SHACHAR? or is this about a human being. He uses the word "ISH", so it appears to be human. Was HEYLEL then a sobriquet of the king of Bavel, and he is actually talking about the downfall of the king?


14:17 SHAM TEVEL KA MIDBAR VE ARAV HARAS ASIYRAV LO PHATACH BAYETAH

שָׂם תֵּבֵל כַּמִּדְבָּר וְעָרָיו הָרָס אֲסִירָיו לֹא פָתַח בָּיְתָה

KJ: That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

BN: "...who turned the world into a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who refused to release any of his captives?"

14:18 KOL MALCHEY GOYIM KULAM SHACHVU VE CHAVOD ISH BE VEITO

כָּל מַלְכֵי גוֹיִם כֻּלָּם שָׁכְבוּ בְכָבוֹד אִישׁ בְּבֵיתוֹ

KJ: All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.

BN: All the kings of the nations, every single one of them, sleep in their glory, each one in his own house...

14:19 VE ATAH HASHLACHTA MI KIVRECHA KE NETSER NIT'AV LEVUSH HARUGIM METO'ANEI CHAREV YORDEI EL AVNEI-VOR KE PHEGER MUVAS

וְאַתָּה הָשְׁלַכְתָּ מִקִּבְרְךָ כְּנֵצֶר נִתְעָב לְבֻשׁ הֲרֻגִים מְטֹעֲנֵי חָרֶב יוֹרְדֵי אֶל אַבְנֵי בוֹר כְּפֶגֶר מוּבָס

KJ: But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

BN: ...but you are cast out, evicted from your own grave like some hateful piece of gorse, dressed in the raiment of the slain who have been thrust through with the sword, who go down to the pavement of the pit like a carcass trodden underfoot.

HASHLACHTA...KE NETSER: "cast out" – and again we have the image of a branch, abominable here, contrasted with the Netser of 11:1 (but also worth looking at my note at 4:2), and the Scion of Jesse, a corpse trodden underfoot...

HARUGIM: Oddity of grammar or my misunderstanding? Is it definite article and RUGIM (is there a word RUGIM? No. RAGIM, without the Vav? No. RAGAH? No.), No, it's definitely from the verb LEHAROG = "to kill" (see the next verse as well), in which case should it not be MEHURAGIM, and the Mem prefix is missing (they are "slain" after all, not "slaying")? MERE'IM in the next verse would then provide a poetic parallel, as METO'ANEY already does in this one.

CHARUV: And this word too, resonant with echoes... see my link to CHOREV at verse 13.

PHEGER MUVAS: Remarkably similar, this verse, to Dante's account of the 9th circle in Canto 32 of the "Inferno"; his treading on the head of Bocca especially.


14:20 LO TECHAD ITAM BI KEVURAH KI ARTSECHA SHICHATA AMCHA HARAGTA LO YIKAR'E LE OLAM ZERA MERE'IM

לֹא תֵחַד אִתָּם בִּקְבוּרָה כִּי אַרְצְךָ שִׁחַתָּ עַמְּךָ הָרָגְתָּ לֹא יִקָּרֵא לְעוֹלָם זֶרַע מְרֵעִים

KJ: Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.

BN: You shall not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people; the seed of evil-doers shall never acquire names.


LO YIKAR'E: Two possible readings of this: the dead man's name remembered by posterity; the naming and future of the offspring. 

For the first: if the father has died in war, overseas, and either been left unburied altogether, or buried in a mass grave (even if, by chance, he turns out to be the face on the Statue of the Unknown Soldier), then there is no meaningful memory to carry forward. Did he die a coward or a hero? In battle or in captivity? And maybe he was sadistic brute who did terrible things, raped women, murdered children... though mo doubt friends and family would like to think of him as saintly... "the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned".

For the second: we have to understand the very different way that people were - still are - given names in the world of the Middle East. Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, for example; the first his daily name, the "ibn" meaning "son of", and then the patronymic, the father's name. So with Ben in the Jewish world, Mac in the Scots, Shvili in Georgia, Ovich in Russian - and feminine quivalents, Bat, Ovna etc. But if the child is the result of the woman being raped and left pregnant by passing Crusaders, say, in mediaeval Europe, and who knows who the anonymous father was... so significant did this become in the Jewish world of that epoch that this is the reason why Jewish identity became conferred on the mother - provided that a midwife was present to witness the birth - where Biblically it was always the father who counted in this matter (think of the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah for example, who were accepted and became tribal founders, and the rejection of Kayin and Esav from the tribe, not because they married out, but because they married into matrilocal tribes, and therefore their children would be excluded). Moshe ben Fra Sadisto of Hadesopolis doesn't really work!.. "the seed of evil-doers shall never acquire names".


14:21 HACHIYNU LE VANAV MATBE'ACH BA AVON AVOTAM BAL YAKUMU VE YARSHU ARETS U MAL'U PHENEY TEVEL ARIM

הָכִינוּ לְבָנָיו מַטְבֵּחַ בַּעֲו‍ֹן אֲבוֹתָם בַּל יָקֻמוּ וְיָרְשׁוּ אָרֶץ וּמָלְאוּ פְנֵי תֵבֵל עָרִים

KJ: Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.

BN: Prepare a sacrifical altar for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers; prevent them from rising up, and possessing the land, and filling the surface of the world with cities.

MATBE'ACH: A particularly clever and interesting word-play here. There is מזבח (MIZBE'ACH), and then there is מטבח (MATBE'ACH), a difference of a single letter, but... see my notes at Genesis 8:20, to save me repeating them here. But, as far as this verse is concerned, MATBE'ACH is "slaughter", which is what happens in war, as in the previous verses; whereas SHECHITAH, which also means "slaughter", happens on the MIZBE'ACH, and is... one of those propitiatory religious acts which Y-Y has told us are no longer required, or if carried out must be done with full intensity and sincerity. So, we can deduce, there is human slaughter which is evil and wicked, and there is human slaughter which is divinely approved, and I guess which one is which depends on whose side you are on (the double-bladed rapier, which, funnily enough, is precisely the main subject of Canto 32, so it really does seem to me that Dante must have been reading Y-Y when he wrote that. I wonder which version he had access to? The Vulgate probably.

His children shall be destroyed too, to prevent them from following in their fathers' footsteps and doing... precisely what has been done: pollution, slums, global warming...

ERETS: Once again it is unclear why the text chooses ERETS over ADAMAH, for precisely the reason that is the second problem, that ERETS may be translated as "land", but it may also be translated as "Earth" (verse 25 will clarify it). Here the problem is exacerbated by TEVEL, which (see the link) is invariably used to mean the "whole wide world", or at the very least its inhabited parts.

14:22 VE KAMTI ALEYHEM NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT VE HICHRATI LE VAVEL SHEM U SHE'AR VE NIYN VA NECHED NE'UM YHVH

וְקַמְתִּי עֲלֵיהֶם נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וְהִכְרַתִּי לְבָבֶל שֵׁם וּשְׁאָר וְנִין וָנֶכֶד נְאֻם יְהוָה

KJ: For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.

BN: "For I shall rise up against them", says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, "and cut off from Bavel both name and remnant, both offshoot and offspring", says YHVH.


Which appears to leave us with both of the options from verse 20.


14:23 VE SAMTIYHA LE MORASH KIPOD VE AGMEY MAYIM VE TE'TE'TIYHA BE MAT'AT'E HASHMED NE'UM YHVH TSEVA'OT

וְשַׂמְתִּיהָ לְמוֹרַשׁ קִפֹּד וְאַגְמֵי מָיִם וְטֵאטֵאתִיהָ בְּמַטְאֲטֵא הַשְׁמֵד נְאֻם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת

KJ: I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.

BN: "I will give her as a possession to the hedgehog, with pools of water; and I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens.


SAMTIYHA: The only feminine singular in that last verse was ERETS, and my note on TEVEL at verse 21 definitely favoured "the Earth" over "the land"; but the phrasing here restricts it to Bavel itself.

The desolation echoes that in 13:20-22.

TE'TE'TIYHA BE MAT'AT'E: We have been been following the usage of MATEH and SHEVET, meaning "staff" and "tribe", throughout these chapters. Now the former appears to have become a verb. MATEH is spelled Mem-Tet-Heh (מַטֵּה), but the root of the verb here ius alnost certainly Tet-Vav-Aleph, and therefore an entirely different root, derpite the meaning, which is "to sweep". Gorgeous word though, for poets! All those Tets and Alephs!

samech break


14:24 NISHBA YHVH TSEVA'OT LE'MOR IM LO KA ASHER DIMIYTI KEN HAYETAH VE CHA ASHER YA'ATSTI HI TAKUM

נִשְׁבַּע יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת לֵאמֹר אִם לֹא כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּמִּיתִי כֵּן הָיָתָה וְכַאֲשֶׁר יָעַצְתִּי הִיא תָקוּם

KJ: The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

BN: YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, has sworn, saying: "Just as I have imagined it, so shall it be; just as I have proposed it, so shall it come to pass...


DIMIYTI: I have translated it as "imagined", which is one of several equally valid options for this word (thought, conceived...). But the root is DAMAH, and translating it this way in this verse helps us to understand better - even without needing Maimonides' help from chapter 1 of his "Guide for the Perplexed" - the use of DAMAH in Genesis 1:26.


14:25 LISHBOR ASHUR BE ARTSI VE AL HARAI AVUSENU VE SAR MEY ALEYHEM ULO VE SUBALO MEY AL SHICHMO YASUR

לִשְׁבֹּר אַשּׁוּר בְּאַרְצִי וְעַל-הָרַי אֲבוּסֶנּוּ וְסָר מֵעֲלֵיהֶם עֻלּוֹ וְסֻבֳּלוֹ מֵעַל שִׁכְמוֹ יָסוּר

KJ: That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.

BN: "That I will break Ashur in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot; then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulder."

ARTSI: Given the narrow boundaries of the war, this is now definitely "land", as in a specific place, and not "Earth" as in the planet.

But which "land", and at what dates? See my note to verse 28.


14:26 ZOT HA ETSAH HA YE'UTSAH AL KOL HA ARETS VE ZOT HA YAD HA NETUYAH AL KOL HA GOYIM

זֹאת הָעֵצָה הַיְּעוּצָה עַל כָּל הָאָרֶץ וְזֹאת הַיָּד הַנְּטוּיָה עַל כָּל הַגּוֹיִם

KJ: This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

BN: This is the plan that is proposed for the entire land; and this is the hand that is stretched out to all the nations.


The "hand stretched out" was a consistent image several chapters ago. And from the careful phrasing of this verse, we can now see the purpose of the word-play with ERETS. What is proposed for this land, locally, is also intended for the entire Earth, globally. And perhaps that word-play is devised because of the inevitable word-play on the two kings named ACHAZ, and the two events connected with them (thus does a poet, facing a poem that is in danger of having to be breach-birthed, finally cross the rubicon of doubt and decide to tell the tale of Julius of Rome using caesuras.... something of that sort... see my note at verse 28)


14:27 KI YHVH TSEVA'OT YA'ATS U MI YAPHER VE YADO HA NETUYAH U MI YESHIYVENAH

כִּי יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת יָעָץ וּמִי יָפֵר וְיָדוֹ הַנְּטוּיָה וּמִי יְשִׁיבֶנָּה

KJ: For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

BN: For YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens has proposed, and who is going to vote against or veto it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?


YAPHER: How do you "disannul" something? Worth looking at the link, because this is a root with some very precise and specific usages, the first three on the link-page especially.

pey break


14:28 BI SHNAT MOT HA MELECH ACHAZ HAYAH HA MASA HA ZEH

בִּשְׁנַת מוֹת הַמֶּלֶךְ אָחָז הָיָה הַמַּשָּׂא הַזֶּה 

KJ: In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.

BN: In the year that king Achaz died was this oracle delivered.

This tells us unequivocally that this oracle was given in the year king Achaz died – but which Achaz? click here.

The one we encountered in Book One was Chizki-Yah's (Hezekiah's) father and immediate predecessor; he came to the throne (2 Kings 18:1) in the 3rd year of Hoshe'a of Ephrayim, 6 years before Shalman-Ezer V conquered Yisra-El (see my notes at  13:1 - and decide how you are spelling the name!)

But if it was him, then this verse becomes immensely problematic, and really key to the whole process of reading it: if it was genuinely an oracle at that time, then it is a prediction of the future that has quite remarkable accuracy, but does so for three completely different events, 160 years apart for the first two, and then another 50 for the third. Even Nostradamus didn't get that accurate!

But if it is the second Achaz, and therefore not prediction..., then it has to be history, retroactively claimed as prediction, in which case Deutero-Isaiah must have written the whole thing, and not earlier than the time of the third event, around 536 BCE.

14:29 AL TISMECHI PHELESHET KULECH KI NISHBAR SHEVET MAKECH KI MI SHORESH NACHASH YETS'E TSEPH'A U PHIRYO SARAPH ME'OPHEPH

אַל תִּשְׂמְחִי פְלֶשֶׁת כֻּלֵּךְ כִּי נִשְׁבַּר שֵׁבֶט מַכֵּךְ כִּי מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ נָחָשׁ יֵצֵא צֶפַע וּפִרְיוֹ שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵף

KJ: Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.

BN: Do not rejoice, Peleshet, any of you, because the rod that smote you is now broken: for out of the serpent's root shall come forth an asp, and his fruit shall be a flying serpent.

PELESHET: Then Y-Y speaks, as if in an epilogue to the above, to the Pelishtim, warning them not to exult at the defeat of Ashur , because "out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper and its offspring will be a fiery serpent" - imagery we have encountered previously - see my notes at 11:8.

This is complex, and not only because it is probably a deliberate allusion to Judges 14:14, but because Judges 14:14 is itself a riddle. Serpents don't have roots. Roots don't parent vipers. Lucifer in Christian mythology may be a serpent, but this isn't Christian mythology (see my note at verse 12 to understand why I am saying this). However, both Tahamat and Behemot are, and self-evidently so is the serpent of Eden - how else would all that dead matter get biodegraded into fertile compost if there weren't giant worms in She'ol to effect it? But the fiery serpent is none of these; he is Nechushtan, Mosheh's banner, alluded to above already, and soon to be destroyed by Chizki-Yah.

   I leave my reader to solve this complex riddle in your own time.

But to offer some assistance, the key is the word SHORESH, which is indeed "a root" (Y-Y uses it as such in 40:24), as in those that fix shrubs and trees, and metaphorically human families, in their native soil. But you can uproot a root - for which see Psalm 52:7, Job 31:8 and 12), as has clearly been the case with the Padan-Aramians who are now living in Shomron, and the Yehudim who are now in Bavel, uprooted peoples, taken away to foreign lands because uprooting them is the best way to ensure they will never rebel against their slavery. See Ezra 7:26.

And then there is a SHARSHAH, which is precisely the chains those slaves wore, in Bavel probably, in Egypt for certain, because the word is found in Exodus 28:22, and a smaller version, a SHARSHERAH, in Exodus 28:14 and 39:15.

And finally, to complete this chain of word-plays and root them back in the text, there is Isaiah 53:2, which echoes 11:10 - the "root of Yishai".

14:30 VE RA'U BECHOREY DALIM VE EVYONIM LA VETACH YIRBATSU VE HEMATI VA RA'AV SHARSHECH U SHE'ERIYTECH YAHAROG

וְרָעוּ בְּכוֹרֵי דַלִּים וְאֶבְיוֹנִים לָבֶטַח יִרְבָּצוּ וְהֵמַתִּי בָרָעָב שָׁרְשֵׁךְ וּשְׁאֵרִיתֵךְ יַהֲרֹג

KJ: And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.

BN: And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety; and I will kill your uprooted with famine, and your remnant shall be slain.


14:31 HEYLILI SHA'AR ZA'AKI IR NAMOG PELESHET KULECH KI MI TSAPHON ASHAN BA VE EYN BODED BE MO'ADAV

הֵילִילִי שַׁעַר זַעֲקִי עִיר נָמוֹג פְּלֶשֶׁת כֻּלֵּךְ כִּי מִצָּפוֹן עָשָׁן בָּא וְאֵין בּוֹדֵד בְּמוֹעָדָיו

KJ: Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.

BN: Howl, O gate; cry, O city; melt away, O Peleshet, all of you. For smoke is coming out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.

This now turns the full assault against the Pelishtim… and from the north, from the land of Tammuz-Adonis, of Delilah... this cannot be YHVH, except by surrogate...

but it also leaves us needing to question once again where and when he is writing, and/or delivering, this oracle: in Bavel, or in Yehudah? It becomes a very different text in each location.

HEYLILI: See my notes at verse 14, and note that the Christian translators all agree with me on this occasion!

14:32 U MAH YA'ANEH MAL'ACHEY GOY KI YHVH YISAD TSI'ON U VAH YECHESU ANIYEY AMO

וּמַה יַּעֲנֶה מַלְאֲכֵי גוֹי כִּי יְהוָה יִסַּד צִיּוֹן וּבָהּ יֶחֱסוּ עֲנִיֵּי עַמּוֹ

KJ: What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.

BN: What then shall one answer the messengers of the nation? That YHVH has founded Tsi'on, and in her shall the afflicted of his people take refuge. {P}


But surely YHVH founded Tsi'on in Solomonic times? Does he then mean re-founded? When the first of the Yehudim returned with Zeru-Bavel, around 536 BCE, a rather makeshift version of the Temple was built on the site of the ruined First Temple, but it was only with Nechem-Yah, nearly a hundred years later, that the walls of Yeru-Shala'im were rebuilt, and meaningful political sovereignty established. The tale is told in full in his book.

Or is this simply asserting the superiority of Tsi'on in its role as a refuge city? It cannot be so, if Tsi'on is about to be destroyed, and the people taken off into captivity; so this can only mean re-founded, as per the Temple "fellers" above, which takes us forward to Zeru-Bavel and Ezra et al...

All of which leaves many questions unanswered, and considerable apparent confusion in the text still unresolved. I find myself wondering if, as with the folio and quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, the lost text of Y-Y wasn't reconstructed centuries later, by priests who had learned the passages they were to recite off-by-heart, but didn't know the other parts so well, and may not even have understood the sophisticated poetry but merely had the words, and those assembling a final version put it together the best they could out of these fragments.

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Isaiah 13

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BOOK TWO


New section. Is this also a new Prophet, a different person bearing the title Yesh'a-Yah ben Amots? If, as I am 90% certain, a "School of Prophets" was simply an ancient form of Yeshiva, then the Rosh Yeshiva would take the name upon appointment (or probably anointment!). We will discern from the text, and from the historical contexts established by the texts, whether it is the same or a later - or fail to do so, if the texts are unhelpful.

13:1 MAS'A BAVEL ASHER CHAZAH YESH'A-YAHU BEN AMOTS

מַשָּׂא בָּבֶל אֲשֶׁר חָזָה יְשַׁעְיָהוּ בֶּן אָמוֹץ 

KJ: The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.

BN: The oracle regarding Bavel, which Yesh'a-Yah ben Amots delivered.


MAS'A: Substance? Material? as in MAS'A U MATAN? We cannot use the word "burden" here, as KJ and many other translators do, because that English word has been used to mean something entirely different, when translating TORACH at 1:14, or SHICHMO at 9:3 and 5, and again at 10:27.

And yet... frequently (click here) we have seen the word MAS'A used for the "burden" of the slaves in Mitsrayim, while elsewhere (same link) it is used for the "tribute" paid by a conquered people; and this is Bavel, so have we gone forward to 586 BCE, and what is left of Yehudah is... but no, it can't be, we haven't travelled that far in time yet, and Y-Y was among those who were dragged off to Bavel. Let's hold on this, as per my note above. 

My sense of this is that the School of Yesha-Yah is an official part of the civil service, its trained priests having the principal task of keeping 24/7 astronomical records, and using them, alongside the reports reaching them from all the available human routes (spies, emissaries, travelling merchants, etc), to provide the leadership with detailed "reports" of the current state of the world, and the likely outcomes in the near future, with advice and recommendations. Which sounds like the job of an ambassador, or a management consultant! Except that, in this priestly world, it was also "angelic" (a MAL'ACH is a "messenger", though it gets translated in Christian texts as "angel"). I have gone for the word "oracle",  but only for lack of anything more precise, and really "oracle" sounds much too Nostradamus-like. 

CHAZAH: See my note at Isaiah 1:1.

Previously the political threat was Tiglath-Pileser III of Ashur (Assyria); see 2 Kings 15:19, and then Retsin, as per Isaiah 7:1; both before Shalman-Ezer V and then Sennacherib - all this in the latter decades of the seven hundreds BCE. 2 Kings 17:1 told us that "in the 12th year of Achaz, king of Yehudah", when Hoshe'a became king of Yisra-El, trouble started with Ashur. Hoshe'a lasted 9 years, and Achaz 16, so Yisra-El fell in the 5th year of Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah), by which time Y-Y must have been well on in years as his first vision was in the year Uzi-Yah (Uzziah) died (6:1), after which Yotam and Achaz both ruled for 16 years and then the 5 of Chizki-Yah – so at a minimum he was in his 50s here. Historically Bavel (Babylon) does not replace Ashur as the major power until the time of Jehoiakim, and in the interim Mitsrayim under Necho had subordinated Yehudah (2 Kings 23). So either Y-Y is predicting Bavel 90 years or even more ahead, or this is a later prophet (a later bearer of the title Y-Y) with the same name. The language here is more oracular than poetic, which also suggests a different writer.

YESH'A-YAHU BEN AMOTS: For an explanation of the meaning of this name, see my note at 1:1.

13:2 AL HAR NISHPEH SE'U NES HARIYMU KOL LAHEM HANIYPHU YAD VE YAVO'U PIT'CHEI NEDIYVIM

עַל הַר נִשְׁפֶּה שְׂאוּ נֵס הָרִימוּ קוֹל לָהֶם הָנִיפוּ יָד וְיָבֹאוּ פִּתְחֵי נְדִיבִים

KJ: Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

BN: Set up an ensign on the high mountain. Raise up a loud cry. Signal with your hand that they should go into the gates of the willing.

AL HAR NISPEH: Which "high mountain"? Tsi'on presumably (see 8:18), though there the "signs" and "wonders" are OTOT (אֹתוֹת) and MOPHTIM  (מוֹפְתִים). Or is this entire poem metaphorical, and not literal-hiostorical at all?

NES: For which see my note at 11:10. Once again the "banner". What was it? Remember Nechushtan, which Chizki-Yah (Hezekiah) destroyed in 2 Kings 18:4 (though perhaps we haven't reached that moment in history yet). 

NEDIYVIM: Yes, it can be used to mean nobles, but is that what it means here? Until we read on, and understood what exactly he is describing, and whether it is literal or metaphorical, we cannot know. The root, NADAV, means "generous", and is used for "philanthropy", which is a very noble thing to provide, though one doesn't have to be a member of an aristocracy to do so.

13:3 ANI TSIVEYTI LIMKUDASHAI GAM KARA'TI GIBORAI LE API ALIZEI [ALIZAI] GA'AVATI

אֲ נִי צִוֵּיתִי לִמְקֻדָּשָׁי גַּם קָרָאתִי גִבּוֹרַי לְאַפִּי עַלִּיזֵי גַּאֲוָתִי

KJ: I have commanded my sanctified ones, I have also called my mighty ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness.

BN: I have instructed those who I regard as holy, those who rejoice by worshipping me, and I have summoned my mighty warriors as well, to quench my anger.

Very different style from first Y-Y, and I confess, I haven't a clue what he is saying here. I presume he is delivering the oracle, YHVH's words through his mouth... but not so the next verse, so maybe he is speaking for himself?

Part of the problem here is word-order, which is necessary to make the rhymes work: TSIVEYTI LIMKUDASHAI, double-rhymed as KARA'TI GIBORAI, and I strongly suspect that the prosaic Masorete who pointed this failed to note the rhymes, which is why the third of these is mis-rendered as API ALIZEI, when it should be API ALIZAI - the square bracket in the transliteration is my correction; and then a final "I" ending to complete the rhymes by circling back to the first word.

13:4 KOL HAMON BE HARIM DEMUT AM RAV KOL SHE'ON MAMLECHOT GOYIM NE'ESAPHIM YHVH TSEVA'OT MEPHAKED TSEVA MILCHAMAH

קוֹל הָמוֹן בֶּהָרִים דְּמוּת עַם רָב קוֹל שְׁאוֹן מַמְלְכוֹת גּוֹיִם נֶאֱסָפִים יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת מְפַקֵּד צְבָא מִלְחָמָה

KJ: The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the LORD of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.

BN: Listen, a vast noise in the mountains, like that of a vast people! Listen, the uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens is mustering his army for war.

The fulfillment of verse 2. And maybe the mere fact of it happening is all the NES that is required.

As noted previously, YHVH is perceived as theologically changing sides, here not just using the enemy to punish his chosen people, but sending his own "hosts" to undertake the muster. Or maybe they are his human "host", and Y-Y and the people he called in verse 1 are the spokespersons for the Heavenly "host". I remain confused.

Again we need to note the internal rhymes, the verse on this occasion caesura'ed to enable them, though it is easier to see if I present it as:

KOL HAMON
BE HARIM
DEMUT AM RAV
KOL SHE'ON
MAMLECHOT GOYIM
NE'ESAPHIM

and then the final phrase standing apart.

13:5 BA'IM ME ERETS MERCHAK MI KETSEH HA SHAMAYIM YHVH U CHELEY ZA'MO LECHABEL KOL HA ARETS

בָּאִים מֵאֶרֶץ מֶרְחָק מִקְצֵה הַשָּׁמָיִם יְהוָה וּכְלֵי זַעְמוֹ לְחַבֵּל כָּל הָאָרֶץ

KJ: They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the LORD, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.

BN: They come from a far country, from the boundaries of the skies, YHVH, and the weapons of his fury, to destroy the whole Earth.

KETSEH HA SHAMAYIM: I think the intention here is "the distant horizon", a terrestrial geography of considerable distance, rather than anything to do with Heaven or the heavens.

CHELEY ZA'MO: I think "indignation" may be underestimating the extent of YHVH's anger. API in verse 3 was the familiar flaring of the nostrils, associated with bulls in these Biblical texts, probably from the Age of Taurus when the bull-god ruled supreme. But this is ZA'AM, and it isn't just the snorting of the nostrils, there is froth spuming from his mouth - see Proverbs 24:24, Malachi 1:4, Zechar-Yah 1:12- though I have translated it as "indignation" in both of those latter.

ARETS: Land, Earth or earth? The middle of those, on this occasion.

samech break


13:6 HEYLILU KI KAROV YOM YHVH KE SHOD MI SHADAI YAVO

הֵילִילוּ כִּי קָרוֹב יוֹם יְהוָה כְּשֹׁד מִשַּׁדַּי יָבוֹא

KJ: Howl ye; for the day of the LORD is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

BN: Howl. For the day of YHVH is near. In the form of destruction from the hand of Shadai shall it come.

Eschatology drawn from astrology – this is definitely oracular. Does Drummond have anything say about this this? Why is it always Nichretah (though actually he hasn't used the word even once - yet)?

HEYLILU is splendid; I want to translate that as HOWLELU, so that people who know no Yehudit can get the full impact of the word-play, the inversion of HALELU, which is the "praise" we are familiar with from the Psalms; this comes from the root YALAL, and it really does mean "howl", or "wail" in a contexct of mourning, and it is used with regularity by almost all the Prophets, not just Y-Y: a full list here.

KE SHOD is even more interesting, because, unpointed, it looks like KESED, which is an alternative name for Bavel (Babylonia) - as in Ur Kasdim, Ur of the Chaldees; and indeed it will be given this name in verse 19. But the use here is poetical again, making a splendid link to the name of the deity... see below.

SHADAI: unusual to have Y-Y use this name, which was Av-Ram's name for his god when he lived in Ur Kasdim (Genesis 17:1). Thus Av-Ram came from precisely the place where this army is being mustered, so the invocation of his god makes perfect sense. It was precisely the total destruction of his holy city of Ur that forced Av-Ram's family to flee, seeking refuge in Padan-Aram. And ironic that it will be in precisely the region of Ur that this generation will soon find itself in captivity (see Psalm 137, but also note why today's Tel Aviv is so-named).

This verse offers some help in clarifying our dates. The invasion from Bavel is indeed the one that took Yehudah into exile in 586 BCE, though it started a decade or two before that.


13:7 AL KEN KOL YADAYIM TIRPEYNAH VE CHOL LEVAV ENOSH YIMAS

עַל כֵּן כָּל יָדַיִם תִּרְפֶּינָה וְכָל לְבַב אֱנוֹשׁ יִמָּס

KJ: Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man's heart shall melt:

BN: Therefore shall all hands become slack, and every human heart shall melt.


YADAYIM: Why are YADAYIM plural, but LEVAV is singular?

13:8 VE NIVHALU TSIYRIM VA CHAVALIM YO'CHEZUN KA YOLEDAH YECHIYLUN ISH EL RE'EHU YITMAHU PENEY LEHAVIM PENEYHEM

וְנִבְהָלוּ צִירִים וַחֲבָלִים יֹאחֵזוּן כַּיּוֹלֵדָה יְחִילוּן אִישׁ אֶל רֵעֵהוּ יִתְמָהוּ פְּנֵי לְהָבִים פְּנֵיהֶם

KJ: And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

BN: And they shall be frightened. Pangs and throes shall take hold of them. They shall be in pain like a woman in labour. They shall look aghast at one another. Their faces shall be faces of flame.

CHAVALIM: Reflecting Chavah's (Eve's) punishment at the end of the Eden myth (Genesis 3), both in the simile and in the choice of homophone (Chavah-Chavalim)

13:9 HINEH YOM YHVH BA ACHZARI VE EVRAH VA CHARON APH LASUM HA ARETS LESHAMAH VE CHATA'EYHA YASHMID MIMENAH

הִנֵּה יוֹם יְהוָה בָּא אַכְזָרִי וְעֶבְרָה וַחֲרוֹן אָף לָשׂוּם הָאָרֶץ לְשַׁמָּה וְחַטָּאֶיהָ יַשְׁמִיד מִמֶּנָּה

KJ: Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

BN: Behold, the day of YHVH is near - cruel, and full of wrath and fierce anger - to make the Earth a desolation, and to destroy its sinners from it.

Whereas the "day of YHVH" at the end of Book One was very much the start of the Messianic Age, when everything will be wonderful in the human world.

13:10 KI CHOCHVEY HA SHAMAYIM U CHESIYLEYHEM LO YAHELU ORAM CHASHACH HA SHEMESH BE TSE'TO VE YARE'ACH LO YAGIY'AH ORO

כִּי כוֹכְבֵי הַשָּׁמַיִם וּכְסִילֵיהֶם לֹא יָהֵלּוּ אוֹרָם חָשַׁךְ הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ בְּצֵאתוֹ וְיָרֵחַ לֹא יַגִּיהַּ אוֹרוֹ

KJ: For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.

BN: For the stars in the heavens and their constellations shall withhold their light. The sun shall orbit in darkness, and the moon shall hold back her light from shining.

But this is not just another Flood, not even Global Warming, this is Total Apocalypse, a switching off of the lights in the heavens, a re-establishing of Genesis 1 and the rule of Tohu and Bohu, Tehom and Choshech, a familiar Isaiac ruse, but one which conflicts with Genesis 9:9-17, where Elohim stated very clearly, and sealed it with the covenant of the rainbow, that destruction of this scale and order would never be repeated. So this presents a challenge: as a person of faith, which Y-Y calls upon one to be, how can both Genesis 9:9-17 and Isaiah 13:10 be accepted; and as the Torah has the greatest weight, do we then reject Isaiah's teaching? Not necessarily a question for us today, but surely one for his listener at the time.

Note the primitivity of his scientific understanding! And this is important for our understanding of his theology: we now know that the moon is entirely subsidiary to the sun, when it comes to light, a mere dark rock reflecting the sun's light (as is the Earth, of course, to the moon and other planets). The ancients regarded the moon as being another star, which is to say intrinsically capable of generating light, and this may explain why she had equal status with the sun as husband-wife rulers of the Cosmos. (How different might the ancient religions have been, how much more subordinate the female to the male, had they known what we now know!) And of course the sun does not orbit; that is the Earth's privilege, as a subordinate planet on the periphery of the Cosmos; but then (and still today, in many parts of the world) the Geocentric Universe still prevailed.


13:11 U PHAKADETI AL TEVEL RA'AH VE AL RESHA'IM AVONAM VE HISHBATI GE'ON ZEDIM VE GA'AVAT ARIYTSIM ASHPIL

וּפָקַדְתִּי עַל תֵּבֵל רָעָה וְעַל רְשָׁעִים עֲו‍ֹנָם וְהִשְׁבַּתִּי גְּאוֹן זֵדִים וְגַאֲוַת עָרִיצִים אַשְׁפִּיל 

KJ: And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

BN: And I will visit their own evil upon the world, their own iniquity upon the wicked; and I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the tyrants.

Punishes, again in spite of the No'achic rainbow and without an Av-Raham to plead à la Sedom (Genesis 18:17 ff). But also a conflict with Genesis 1:27).


13:12 OKIR ENOSH MI PAZ VE ADAM MI KETEM OPHIR

אוֹקִיר אֱנוֹשׁ מִפָּז וְאָדָם מִכֶּתֶם אוֹפִיר

KJ: I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.

BN: I will make Mankind more rare than fine gold, and individual men than the pure gold of Ophir.

This needs a translation which makes the same distinction as the original between ENOSH and ADAM, and I am not convinced that mine has managed it.

OPHIR: See the link.


13:13 AL KEN SHAMAYIM ARGIZ VE TIR'ASH HA ARETS MI MEKOMAH BE EVRAT YHVH TSEVA'OT U VE YOM CHARON APO

עַל כֵּן שָׁמַיִם אַרְגִּיז וְתִרְעַשׁ הָאָרֶץ מִמְּקוֹמָהּ בְּעֶבְרַת יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת וּבְיוֹם חֲרוֹן אַפּוֹ

KJ: Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

BN: Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the Earth shall be shaken out of her place, for the wrath of YHVH, the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, and for the day of his fierce anger.


MI MEKOMAH: Or MIMKOMAH? There have been a number of these over the chapters, but I made the decision after pointing out so many in previous books not to become an addict to the habit.

13:14 VE HAYAH KI TSEVI MUDACH U CHE TSON VE EYN MEKABETS ISH EL AMO YIPHNU VE ISH EL ARTSO YANUSU

וְהָיָה כִּצְבִי מֻדָּח וּכְצֹאן וְאֵין מְקַבֵּץ אִישׁ אֶל עַמּוֹ יִפְנוּ וְאִישׁ אֶל אַרְצוֹ יָנוּסוּ

KJ: And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land.

BN: And it shall come to pass that, like the chased gazelle, and like the sheep that no man can gather in, so every man shall turn to his own people, and every man shall flee to his own land.

Unlike Book One, where Y-Y was addressing an actual historical predicament with thought-through responses and strategems, all this is merely a TV evangelist doing his stunts in fire and brimstone, no different really from Senator Joe saying the Commies are coming, or Enoch Powell prophesying rivers of blood, or Donald Trump trying to buy the White House. Follow me or the entire banking system may collapse, the Chinese could invade, COVID could wipe out the entire population between the ages of seventeen and forty-three... whatever rubbish you choose to make up, that works on people's proneness to hysteria, and gets you votes. Y-Y spoke earlier of fearing the deity (see 11:3 especially), and we saw a very clear distinction between PACHAD and YIR'AT; and here he is now, 2nd Y-Y we have to start calling him because this is now clearly a later version, here he is now, applying PACHAD where 1st Y-Y was only interested in YIR'AT.

13:15 KOL HA NIMTSAH YIDAKER VE CHOL HA NISPEH YIPOL BE CHAREV

כָּל הַנִּמְצָא יִדָּקֵר וְכָל הַנִּסְפֶּה יִפּוֹל בֶּחָרֶב

KJ: Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword.

BN: Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is caught shall fall by the sword.

Though actually the promises of Messianic wonderfulness were just as fantastical.


13:16 VE OLELEYHEM YERUT'SHU LE EYNEYHEM YISHASU BATEYHEM U NESHEYHEM TISHAGALNAH 

וְעֹלְלֵיהֶם יְרֻטְּשׁוּ לְעֵינֵיהֶם יִשַּׁסּוּ בָּתֵּיהֶם וּנְשֵׁיהֶם תִּשָּׁגַלְנָה (תִּשָּׁכַֽבְנָה)

KJ: Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

BN: Their infants too shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.

Whereas this, sad to say, is simply the standard norm of male behaviour in war.

I am unclear why the Mechon-Mamre version disputes TISHAGALNAH and believes it should be TISHACHAVNAH (תִּשָּׁכַבְנָה). The answer is Masoretic, which M-M has simply borrowed, and I am struck that exactly the same parenthesised correction occurs at Deuteronomy 28:30 (the second of the "blessings and cursings" episodes between Mount Eyval and Mount Gerizim, echoed in the Muslim Haj; the other version is at Deuteronomy 11), which is also the chapter that you should read if you want deeper understanding of these contrasts in the two Y-Y passages: the first 15 verses all depict the Messianic wonderfulness, the next set do what our current chapter is doing - and most of the Y-Y is word-for-word.

As to the "correction". The SHEGAL was the queen consort, the wife of the king; and no, not a concubine, but the full Queen - see Daniel 5:2 for that, but also Psalm 45:10 and Nehemiah 2:6. It is hard to see how a verb could be made from this to describe rape, whereas TISHACHAVNAH comes from the root SHACHAV, "to lie down", from which the "bedding" is easily rooted.


13:17 HINENI ME'IR ALEYHEM ET MADAI ASHER KESEPH LO YACHSHOVU VE ZAHAV LO YACHPETSU VO

הִנְנִי מֵעִיר עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת מָדָי אֲשֶׁר כֶּסֶף לֹא יַחְשֹׁבוּ וְזָהָב לֹא יַחְפְּצוּ בוֹ

KJ: Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

BN: Behold, I will stir up the Madai against them, who will have no regard silver, and as for gold, they will find no delight in it.

I promised at the start of the chapter that I would try to find evidence to date this, and at last we have something more substantial. This verse leaves me convinced that this chapter must be a very much later text, because Y-Y of Book One, at the time of Hoshe'a, could not have predicted the defeat of Bavel (Babylon) by the MADAI, which is to say the Medes, 140 years hence. For more on the Medes, and especially the dates at which they came to prominence, click here.

13:18 U KESHATOT NE'ARIM TERATASHNAH U PHERI VETEN LO YERACHEMU AL BANIM LO TACHUS EYNAM

וּקְשָׁתוֹת נְעָרִים תְּרַטַּשְׁנָה וּפְרִי בֶטֶן לֹא יְרַחֵמוּ עַל בָּנִים לֹא תָחוּס עֵינָם

KJ: Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

BN: But their bows shall dash the young men in pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

It was the war between the Medes and the Babylonians which brought the end of exile for the Beney Yehudah, dragged off to Bavel in 586 BCE, liberated within Bavel in 536 BCE, and shortly afterwards the first returnees, as described in the five books of the return from exile. It was the Medean kings Koresh (Cyrus) and Achashverosh (Ahasuerus) who supported Zeru-Bavel, Ezra and Nechem-Yah when they wanted to take the Yehudim back to Yeru-Shala'im and rebuild it.

TERATSHENAH is surely too multi-rooted to be a Yehudit word. But in fact not so, and actually we have already encountered, just two verses ago: יְרֻטְּשׁוּ - YERUT'SHU, at verse 16.


13:19 VE HAYETAH VAVEL TSEVI MAMLACHOT TIPH'ERET GE'ON KASDIM KE MAHPECHAT ELOHIM ET SEDOM VE ET AMORAH

וְהָיְתָה בָבֶל צְבִי מַמְלָכוֹת תִּפְאֶרֶת גְּאוֹן כַּשְׂדִּים כְּמַהְפֵּכַת אֱלֹהִים אֶת סְדֹם וְאֶת עֲמֹרָה

KJ: And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

BN: And Bavel, the glory of kingdoms, the pride and beauty of Kasdim, shall be as when Elohim overthrew Sedom and Amorah.

Bavel defeated (and again the parallel is the destruction of the Cities of the Plain). So we can confirm our epoch, even if not our precise date.


13:20 LO TESHEV LA NETSACH VE LO TISHKON AD DOR VA DOR VE LO YAHEL SHAM ARAVI VE RO'IM LO YARBITSU SHAM

לֹא תֵשֵׁב לָנֶצַח וְלֹא תִשְׁכֹּן עַד דּוֹר וָדוֹר וְלֹא יַהֵל שָׁם עֲרָבִי וְרֹעִים לֹא יַרְבִּצוּ שָׁם

KJ: It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

BN: It will remain uninhabited in perpetuity, unsettled from generation to generation; neither the Arab will pitch tent there, nor the shepherds set up their fold there.


NETSACH...TISHKON... DOR VA DOR: The form is symmetrical, but not so much so as the choice of language, creating symmetries of a very different kind: phrases that are central to Temple liturgy, as though merely to restate them now is sufficient to ensure their future restoration. Bavel is defeated... the return to Yeru-Shala'im is only a matter of time, and especially faith. TISHKON stands out amongst these, alongside the tents of the shepherds - the allusion to the MISHKAN, the Tent in which YHVH was carried out of his previous exile, the one in the Egyptian desert with Mosheh and then Yehoshu'a, the one that stood beside that other tent, the OHEL MO'ED.

13:21 VE RAVTSU SHAM TSI'IM U MAL'U VATEYHEM OCHIM VE SHACHNU SHAM BENOT YA'ANAH U SE'IYRIM YERAKDU SHAM

וְרָבְצוּ שָׁם צִיִּים וּמָלְאוּ בָתֵּיהֶם אֹחִים וְשָׁכְנוּ שָׁם בְּנוֹת יַעֲנָה וּשְׂעִירִים יְרַקְּדוּ שָׁם

KJ: But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there.

BN: But wild-cats shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of ferrets; and ostriches shall dwell there, and goats shall dance there.

Returns Bavel to nature, with the hyenas and jackals ruling it (or are they metaphorical too?)

SE'IYRIM: translating it as "satyrs" is naughty. Se'ir is Esav's city in Edom. These are regular goats.


13:22 VE ANAH IYIM BE ALMENOTAV VE TANIM BE HEYCHLEY ONEG VE KAROV LAVO ITAH VE YAMEYHA LO YIMASHECHU

וְעָנָה אִיִּים בְּאַלְמְנוֹתָיו וְתַנִּים בְּהֵיכְלֵי עֹנֶג וְקָרוֹב לָבוֹא עִתָּהּ וְיָמֶיהָ לֹא יִמָּשֵׁכוּ

KJ: And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

BN: And jackals shall howl in their castles, and wild-dogs in the pleasant palaces; because her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.

Which latter seems to suggest a date somewhere between 586 and 536 BCE, the same period in which Psalm 137 was written. And if so, then this too must have been written in Tel Abib, in Bavel.



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