Isaiah 34

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34:1 KIRVU GOYIM LISHMO'A U LE'UMIM HAKSHIYVU TISHM'A HA ARETS U MELO'AH TEVEL VE CHOL TSE'ETSA'EYHA

קִרְבוּ גוֹיִם לִשְׁמֹעַ וּלְאֻמִּים הַקְשִׁיבוּ תִּשְׁמַע הָאָרֶץ וּמְלֹאָהּ תֵּבֵל וְכָל צֶאֱצָאֶיהָ

KJ: Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.

BN: Approach, you nations, to hear; and pay attention, you peoples. Let the Earth hear, and everything that is in it; the world, and every thing that grows on it.

The start of a new piece, apparently addressing the entire world - and if he is using GOYIM and LE'UMIM as we do today, then specifically the non-Yehudi world. Is this yet another Head of the Guild, bearing the name Yesh'a-Yah to denote his office, or still one of the previous? We need to date it to know. But will the text enable us to do that?

LISHMO'A...HAKSHIYVU: A favourite distinction in Y-Y's world, for which see several previous notes: the difference between happening to hear sound because it is unavoidably there, and actually paying cognitive attention. Aristotle will write entire treatises on this subject, several centuries later; and Bloom will taxonomise it in the 20th century.

HA ARETS U MELO'AH TEVEL VE CHOL TSE'ETSA'EYHA: Note that he is also speaking to the crops and the flora and the fauna who can neither hear nor listen: is this, then, poetic language to introduce an explanation of the concepts of YHVH and CHAVAH? We shall see.

34:2 KI KETSEPH LA YHVH AL KOL HA GOYIM VE HEMAH AL KOL TSEVA'AM HECHERIYMAM NETANAM LA TAVACH

כִּי קֶצֶף לַיהוָה עַל כָּל הַגּוֹיִם וְחֵמָה עַל כָּל צְבָאָם הֶחֱרִימָם נְתָנָם לַטָּבַח

KJ: For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.

BN: For YHVH is seething with anger about all the nations, and furious about their armies. He intends to destroy them. He will hand them over for slaughter.

YHVH is angry with everyone, especially with armies, which is why there are so many dead in war. This merits psychologically deconstructing - is he angry with himself for creating them the way he did, but taking it out on them? Or is he angry with them for failing to live up to his aspirations? The former would be DAVAR, the latter VA YOMER - for an explanation of this difference see, for one of many examples in these pages, my notes at Isaiah 28:17.

TAVACH: Which is either the abattoir or the kitchen, as opposed to SHECHITAH or MIZBE'ACH, which would denote the altar and ceremony of religious sacrifice, as in ZEVACH in verse 6, below. So the first hint that this will be VA YOMER - human beings will slaughter each other, unneeding of divine interference through nature


34:3 VE CHALELEYHEM YUSHLACHU U PHIGREYHEM YA'ALEH VA'SHAM VE NAMASU HARIM MI DAMAH

וְחַלְלֵיהֶם יֻשְׁלָכוּ וּפִגְרֵיהֶם יַעֲלֶה בָאְשָׁם וְנָמַסּוּ הָרִים מִדָּמָם

KJ: Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcases, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood.

BN: Their slain too shall be cast out, and the stench of their carcasses shall rise up, and the mountains shall be rendered sterile by their blood.

CHALELEYHEM: Yes, "slain" (Genesis 34:27). But they were slain in that tale because of their wickedness (the rape of Dinah by Shechem), which makes them "profane", as are the folk in this oracle; and "profane" is how the word is used in, for example, Leviticus 21:7 and 14. 

   How convenient too, for a poet, especially one who loves playing with that tiny variation between the Hey (ה) and the Chet (ח) - see 33:22 for the most recent of these - that the opposite of "profane", which is "praised", should be HALEL, as in Halelu-Yah.

YA'ALEH: To make aliyah, whether to the land, the city, the Temple! The smoke from the shechitah sacrifices rises to placate the nostrils of the deity. But no, this is just the deep stench of self-annihilated humanity.

   To modern Jews (post 70 CE) there is another inference, which Y-Y probably intended, though it isn't formally in the text. This is Selichot, the prayers for forgiveness, and specifically the Selichot of Yom Kippur, a section of liturgy known precisely by this word, Ya'aleh:

May our supplications rise from the evening,
and may our cry come from the morning,
and may our praise find favour by the evening.

For more on this, see my book "Day of Atonement", p64ff.

VA'SHAM: Pronunciation issues! Does that shva beneath the Aleph count as second syllable, and therefore silent, or is VA a prefictual preposition, and the shva therefore first syllable, and pronounced? Normally the answer lies in the root, but on this occasion the root simply perpetuates the problem: some think באש should be pronounced BE'OSH, others BE'ASH. I have gone for the former. The latter would be pronounced VA'OSHAM or VA'ESHAM.

NAMASU: How does KJ get this to mean "melted"? Is it misreading VA'SHAM as an elision of VA ESH SHEL HEM - the fire extruding from them. If they are being burned to death, whether TAVACH or otherwise, there would indeed be flame. It is not an unreasonable alternate reading.

   Unfortunately it isn't the reason for the error. As per the link, it is seeing the root as MASAS, which does indeed mean "to melt". But the root is HIMES (המס), and is to do with brushwood and other dry thorns and shrubs, which break of their own accord when the sun is strong, or indeed aid-and-abet wildfires; and presumably this too is Y-Y playing Hey-Chet games, because the opposite of this silent collapse of Nature would be the same by human violence, and human violence in Yehudit is CHAMAS (חמס).

   And is this the source for that modern idiom of fedupness, NIMAS LI? (See 2 Samuel 17:10)


34:4 VE NAMAKU KOL TSEVA HA SHAMAYIM VE NAGLU KA SEPHER HA SHAMAYIM VE CHOL TSEVA'AM YIBOL KI NEVOL ALEH MI GEPHEN U CHE NOVELET MI TE'ANEH

וְנָמַקּוּ כָּל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם וְנָגֹלּוּ כַסֵּפֶר הַשָּׁמָיִם וְכָל צְבָאָם יִבּוֹל כִּנְבֹל עָלֶה מִגֶּפֶן וּכְנֹבֶלֶת מִתְּאֵנָה

KJ: And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.

BN: And all the Host of the Heavens shall moulder away, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; and all their Host shall wither away, as a leaf withers on a vine, and like a fig withering on a fig-tree.

TSEVA: The "Host" in question being the remainder of YHVH's "Round Table", and its "junior ministers" - the twelve stellar constellations, the planets, comets, moons, black holes, asteroids...

NAMAKU: Many scholars will dispute my explanation of NAMASU, and will make the same case for NAMAKU in this verse, pointing out that the Samech (ס) in NAMASU, like the Kuph (ק) here, are medugash (have a dot in the middle), the intention of the Masoretic scribe being to let the reader know that this is a double letter. And they may very well be correct (but the purpose of commentary is to comment on every possibility, and a dagesh-error by the Masoretic scribe has to be considered).

KA SEPHER: For those unfamiliar with a rolled up scroll, see the illustration (this one is a Moroccan Torah scroll, late 18th century).

YIBOL...NEVEL...NOVELET: He made the same play-on-words at 32:5. How foolish of those who did not notice!

34:5 KI RIVTAH VA SHAMAYIM CHARBI HINEH AL EDOM TERED VE AL AM CHERMI LE MISHPAT

כִּי רִוְּתָה בַשָּׁמַיִם חַרְבִּי הִנֵּה עַל אֱדוֹם תֵּרֵד וְעַל עַם חֶרְמִי לְמִשְׁפָּט

KJ: For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment.

BN: For my sword has whetted its blade in the heavens. You will see, it will come down upon Edom, and upon the people for whom I have decreed destruction.

YHVH whetting his blade in heaven (in heaven? Are you sure? Is it not simply "the skies"?). 

CHARBI: What would the sword of YHVH in the heavens be anyway? Any connection between YHVH and a CHEREV must always take us first to Genesis 3:24, and from there the reminder that "the flaming sword" was originally a swastika - a suggestion then, perhaps, of the sword here being lightning. But then we need to journey on, full forty years indeed and more, zigzagging as we go, until we reach wherever Mount Chorev might have been, the holy mountain on which Mosheh received the Torah. Yes, the same root, Chet-Reysh-Bet, though it is a connection that has been fastidiously avoided by Jewish scholars down the ages.

EDOM: The traditional first-enemy of Yisra-El.

CHERMI: See my commentary on Exodus 22:19.


34:6 CHEREV LA YHVH MAL'AH DAM HUDASHNAH ME CHELEV MI DAM KARIM VE ATUDIM ME CHELEV KILYOT EYLIM KI ZEVACH LA YHVH BE VATSRAH VE TEVACH GADOL BE ERETS EDOM

חֶרֶב לַיהוָה מָלְאָה דָם הֻדַּשְׁנָה מֵחֵלֶב מִדַּם כָּרִים וְעַתּוּדִים מֵחֵלֶב כִּלְיוֹת אֵילִים כִּי זֶבַח לַיהוָה בְּבָצְרָה וְטֶבַח גָּדוֹל בְּאֶרֶץ אֱדוֹם 

KJ: The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

BN: The sword of YHVH is filled with blood. It is turned to ashes with sacrificed fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For YHVH has carried out a sacrifice in Batsrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

HUDASHNAH MI CHELEV: There has to be a difference between the two sorts of fat, but I am not expert in this subject. HUDASHNAH comes from DASHEN, and based on Exodus 27:3, Numbers 4:13 and Psalm 20:4, I am taking this to be what happens to the fat on the animal after it has been KURBAN, which is to say completely burned as a sacrifice, and that CHELEV is the living fat. The trouble with that distinction is that it doesn't really work for the KJ translation of our current verse; Deuteronomy 31:20 is much closer to that.

Or is Y-Y returning to the theme of his opening chapters, that the gods are not open to propitiation, and so sacrifice is useless, even worthless; what the gods want is obedience to a set of values, ethics, morals and principles? But this inverts sacrifice rather than opposing it (or inverts it to show how ludicrous it is), with YHVH now the Shochet and the nations as paschal lambs. Again Edom the first victim, and specifically now Batsrah (Bozrah), its capital, whose destruction both Yirme-Yah (Jeremiah 49:13) and Amos (1:12) also prophesied; Y-Y will prophesy (63:1-6) that redemption (GE'ULAH) in the form of the Messiah (MOSHI'A at the end of verse 1, not MASHIYACH) will come from Batsrah; and of course it is already associated with prophesy, as this was the throne-city of Balak ben Tsipor, who hired B'l'am ben Be'or to prophesy against Yisra-El (Numbers 22-24).

ZEVACH...TEVACH: deliberate rhymes, but again making the distinction between a holy act and a mere pieceof barbarism (the outcome, it should be pointed out, is the same for the victims either way).

34:7 VE YARDU RE'EMIM IMAM U PHARIM IM AVIYRIM VE RIVTAH ARTSAM MI DAM VA APHARAM ME CHELEV YEDUSHAN

וְיָרְדוּ רְאֵמִים עִמָּם וּפָרִים עִם אַבִּירִים וְרִוְּתָה אַרְצָם מִדָּם וַעֲפָרָם מֵחֵלֶב יְדֻשָּׁן

KJ: And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

BN: And the wild-oxen will come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be rendered sterile with blood, and their dust shall be piled even higher with the ashes of the sacrifices.

Wild beasts will do YHVH's work for him (the fact that nothing but DAVAR is ever done by YHVH, but always through an agent, human or otherwise, adds weight to my suggestion that the Yisra-Eli deity was actually perceived as a verb and not a noun)…

RE'EMIM: Psalm 29:6. Definitely not unicorns, though it is amusing to find them in the KJ translation.

RIVTAH: As it was the skies in verse 5, so now the earth.


34:8 KI YOM NAKAM LA YHVH SHENAT SHILUMIM LE RIV TSI'ON

כִּי יוֹם נָקָם לַיהוָה שְׁנַת שִׁלּוּמִים לְרִיב צִיּוֹן

KJ: For it is the day of the LORD'S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

BN: For this is YHVH's day of vengeance, his year of recompense for the strife over Tsi'on.

SHILUMIM: From the root that gives SHALOM, which is understood as "peace", but is really about "wholeness", even "perfection". So Yeru-Shala'im, his capital, is implied.


34:9 VE NEHEPHCHU NECHALEYHA LE ZEPHET VA APHARAH LE GAPHRIT VE HAYETAH ARTSAH LE ZEPHET BO'ERAH

וְנֶהֶפְכוּ נְחָלֶיהָ לְזֶפֶת וַעֲפָרָהּ לְגָפְרִית וְהָיְתָה אַרְצָהּ לְזֶפֶת בֹּעֵרָה

KJ: And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.

BN: And its streams shall be turned into pitch, and its dust into brimstone, and its earth shall become burning pitch.

So no need for Hel, or Hell, Dante can meet Eliot above ground! And as to an exemplar for the definition of DAVAR, the "Word" of the deity, none better than this: a holocaust of trees and the non-human as well as the human inhabitants of the land, caused either by wildfires or a volcanic eruption. Natural disaster either way.

ZEPHET: Pitch, which is a kind of asphaltum, which just happens to be what you will find to this day as the sea-bed of the Yam ha Melach, the Dead Sea, which just happens to be where Chorev was located in the Mosaic version of the volcanic eruption (Exodus 13:21 ff), and even more definitely the location of the tale of Lot (Genesis 19)

34:10 LAILAH VE YOMAM LO TICHBEH LE OLAM YA'ALEH ASHANAH MI DOR LA DOR TECHERAV LE NETSACH NETSACHIM EYN OVER BAH

לַיְלָה וְיוֹמָם לֹא תִכְבֶּה לְעוֹלָם יַעֲלֶה עֲשָׁנָהּ מִדּוֹר לָדוֹר תֶּחֱרָב לְנֵצַח נְצָחִים אֵין עֹבֵר בָּהּ

KJ: It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

BN: It shall not be quenched either night or day; its smoke shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste: none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

LO TICHBEH: Which choice of vocabulary drives us inexorably to Leviticus 6:5 and 6 (12 and 13 in the KJ), and you can work out why for yourself when you get there (but start at verse 1 to get the full fire and energy and burning force of this). Y-Y at his literary best!

So Eden and Edom become contra-parallels, like Tohu and Bohu. This is of significance to Christianity, because Herod was an Idumean, the name of Edom at the time of Jesus.

And of course it was ever thus, because Edom is the land of Adam, and so is Eden!

Various bits of this verse resurface in liturgy later: Yomam va Lailah (reversed from here), Netsach Netsachim... or was Y-Y himself quoting already extant liturgy?

34:11 VIYRESHU'AH KA'AT VE KIPOD VE YANSHOPH VE OREV YISHKENU VAH VE NATAH ALEYHA KAV TOHU VE AVNEY VOHU

וִירֵשׁוּהָ קָאַת וְקִפּוֹד וְיַנְשׁוֹף וְעֹרֵב יִשְׁכְּנוּ בָהּ וְנָטָה עָלֶיהָ קַו תֹהוּ וְאַבְנֵי בֹהוּ

KJ: But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.

BN: But the pelican and the porcupine shall inherit it, and the owl and the raven shall dwell therein; and he shall stretch over it the line of nullity, and the stones of emptiness.

Start at the end, with KAV TOHU VE AVNEY VOHU: Are the beasts named here symbolic? Yes, they most certainly are. Tohu and Bohu themselves! Just as I didn't realise I was predicting when I wrote my note to verse 10. (See Genesis 1:2)

But they are also real creatures, employed here as metaphors. KA'AT in Aramaic and Arabic has to do with "vomit", and it is known that the pelican plucks sea-shells, eats any meat, and vomits back the remainder (lots more on this here). Much argument over whether the KIPOD is the hedgehog or the porcupine - but what does it matter, since the point is the spikes, and the point of the spikes at that. I have gone for porcupine because it alliterates. YANSHUPH doesn't really exist as a genus-name; but means "unclean", in the Levitical sense - see my note at Leviticus 11:17 and you will understand that better. And as to the OREV (which is also in Leviticus 11, at verse 15), I have so many notes on this and its word-games, I hardly know which one to direct you to. Try Psalm 10:8 and follow its links.

So what are "the line of nullity, and the stones of emptiness"? Probably the only geographical points that will be discernible when the world is reduced to pre-Creation. Roll on global warming!

VIYRESHU'AH: The root (probably the only root left in this burned-out wilderness!) is YARASH (cf Genesis 15:3/4), but the way it is employed here, sound as well as grammar, hints at the ROSH, which is the source of all life, in the beginning (Genesis 1:1, first word, and First Word) especially, but, based on verse 10, throughout eternity as well. So maybe the "line of nullity" is the one that joins, or fails to join, the beginning with the end; and "the stones of emptiness" are what you will fail to find because you have failed to reach it. Genesis 1, reversed!

34:12 CHOREYHA VE EYN SHAM MELUCHAH YIKRA'U VE CHOL SAREYHA YIHEYU APHES

חֹרֶיהָ וְאֵין שָׁם מְלוּכָה יִקְרָאוּ וְכָל שָׂרֶיהָ יִהְיוּ אָפֶס

KJ: They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing.

BN: As for her nobles, none shall be there to be called to the kingdom; and all her princes shall be nothing.

So, after Dante's Inferno and Eliot's Wasteland, we join Shakespeare's King Lear upon the heath. Though the word-order is very strange, the verb (YIKRA'U) coming after the follow-up clause: "her nobles, and there will be none there to be called to provide governance, and the total number of her princes will be zero" is how it should be rendered (except that APHES can't really be rendered as "zero", as that concept won't be invented for several centuries yet - will it?)


34:13 VE ALTAH ARMENOTEYHA SIYRIM KIMOS VA CHO'ACH BE MIVTSAREYHA VE HAYETAH NEVEH TANIM CHATSIR LIVNOT YA'ANAH

וְעָלְתָה אַרְמְנֹתֶיהָ סִירִים קִמּוֹשׂ וָחוֹחַ בְּמִבְצָרֶיהָ וְהָיְתָה נְוֵה תַנִּים חָצִיר לִבְנוֹת יַעֲנָה

KJ: And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls.

BN: And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and thistles in their fortresses; and it shall be a habitation of wild-dogs, a courtyard for ostriches.

ALTAH: The only things that will be making ALIYAH from now on! See verse 3.

NAVEH...CHATSIR...YA'ANAH: Y-Y never uses words without being in full control of their ambivalences and ambiguites. So a NAVEH hints homophonously at a NAVI, the CHATSIR reflects the one where the sacrificial altar stood in the Temple, and the BANOT YA'ANAH, according to Job 30:28/29 and especially Micah 1:8, are literally female ostriches, but in fact this was the idiom for the priestesses trained in the art of keening, which is to say the professional wailers and howlers on behalf of the mourners at every funeral - the name presumably echoing the cry of the desert ostrich.

BN (alternate translation): And thorns will be the only creatures left making aliyah, while nettles and thistles occupy the fortresses; and wild-dogs will deliver oracles, and professional keeners will fill the courtyard.

But wait, are those TANIM really "wild dogs"? Click here.

34:14 U PHAGSHU TSIYIM ET IYIM VE SA'IR AL RE'EHU YIKRA ACH SHAM HIRGIY'AH LIYLIT U MATS'AH LAH MANO'ACH

וּפָגְשׁוּ צִיִּים אֶת-אִיִּים וְשָׂעִיר עַל רֵעֵהוּ יִקְרָא אַךְ שָׁם הִרְגִּיעָה לִּילִית וּמָצְאָה לָהּ מָנוֹחַ

KJ: The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.

BN: And the wild-cats shall meet with the jackals, and the wild goat shall cry out to his fellow; yea, Lilit herself shall settle there, and find for herself a place to roost.

TSIYIM...IYIM: Rhyme-games on this occasion. And paralleling TOHU with BOHU of course. For the TSIYIM, and confirmation that the KJ's slightly extended translation is spot-on, see Psalm 72:9 and 74:14. And then look at Jeremiah 50:39, where the same confirmation applies - and then wonder who wrote this oracle first, Yesha-Yah, or Yirme-Yah!

LIYLIT: Why is this translator so reluctant to name the names. Like the BANOT YA'ANAH of verse 13, this is indeed a screech owl, but it metaphors the "night spirit" somewhat monstrously, just as those ostriches gave their name to the keening women; nor is this just any old "night monster"; this is Lilit herself, Adam's first wife. And these verses are as close as we will ever get to a detailed portrait of She'ol.


34:15 SHAMAH KINENAH KIPOZ VA TEMALET U VAK'AH VE DAGRAH VE TSILAH ACH SHAM NIKBETSU DAYOT ISHAH RE'UTAH

שָׁמָּה קִנְּנָה קִפּוֹז וַתְּמַלֵּט וּבָקְעָה וְדָגְרָה בְצִלָּהּ אַךְ שָׁם נִקְבְּצוּ דַיּוֹת אִשָּׁה רְעוּתָהּ

KJ: There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.

BN: There shall the arrowsnake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and brood under her shadow; there too shall the kites congregate, every one with her mate.

KIPOZ: This is the only occasion in the entire Tanach when the word occurs, and not even a variant to confirm the root. Gesenius makes a case for that root meaning "to contract oneself", and from this draws the conclusion that it is an arrow-snake - follow this link while looking at the illustration, and the why will be self-explanatory from the physics. But do arrow-snakes make nests, and if so, would you use the root KANAH, which is very much about bird-nests, and therefore an endorsement of the KJ's preference for an owl, as are the kites (for which see Deuteronomy 14:13 and then Leviticus 11:4) seeming to roost in the same trees?

TEMALET: See the link, and then please tell me how this gets to be "laying eggs" (though of course it does, because Y-Y is still playing his literal-metaphorical games in every verse)? And indeed, the same applies to VAK'AH, for which see this link. Escape, break out... and then DAGRAH, "re-gather" - see this link - presumably in some safe place - the root TSEL  is the protective shadow of the wings of the deity in several Psalms (36:8, 63:8...), and a physical shelter in Genesis 19:8. And finally, they don't just "gather"... they  NIKBETSU, and given my notes here, and on the ironic parallels in earlier verses, I think "congregate" is the only viable translation!

   And the verse that follows confirms every detail of it: the portrait of the world reduced to nothingness, then reborn as wild, uncultivated Nature, but embracing the deity who created it, and then, from there, building a human world in harmony. Y-Y's idealism and ideology, expressed to perfection.

34:16 DIRSHU ME'AL SEPHER YHVH U KERA'U ACHAT ME HENAH LO NE'DARAH ISHAH RE'UTAH LO PHAKADO KI PHI HU TSIVAH VE RUCHO HU KIBTSAN

דִּרְשׁוּ מֵעַל סֵפֶר יְהוָה וּקְרָאוּ אַחַת מֵהֵנָּה לֹא נֶעְדָּרָה אִשָּׁה רְעוּתָהּ לֹא פָקָדוּ כִּי פִי הוּא צִוָּה וְרוּחוֹ הוּא קִבְּצָן

KJ: Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.

BN: Seek out in the scroll of YHVH, and read; not one of these shall be lacking, none shall want her mate; for my mouth has commanded it, and its breath has gathered them in.

SEPHER: As always with this word, a "scroll" please, not a "book" - there is even a brief description of it being rolled in verse 4 of this chapter.

   But what precisely is this "scroll of the Lord"? Not the full Tanach obviously - that wouldn't be created for another century and more. Torah perhaps. We simply do not know which parts, if any, were written down before the scribe Ezra in the middle of the 5th century BCE, and we don't even have an original copy of that.

KIBTSAN: Yes, as in the modern kibbutz, whether the charedi communities of eastern and central Europe who first used the term, or the socialist collective farms of modern Israel, which adopted and adapted it.

RUCHO: See Genesis 1:2 again - the very same verse that speaks about TOHU and BOHU.


34:17 VE HU HIPIL LAHEN GORAL VE YADO CHILKATAH LAHEM BA KAV AD OLAM YIYRASHU'AH LE DOR VA DOR YISHKENU VAH

וְהוּא הִפִּיל לָהֶן גּוֹרָל וְיָדוֹ חִלְּקַתָּה לָהֶם בַּקָּו עַד עוֹלָם יִירָשׁוּהָ לְדוֹר וָדוֹר יִשְׁכְּנוּ בָהּ

KJ: And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it unto them by line: they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.

BN: And he has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it unto them by line; they shall possess it for ever, from generation to generation shall they dwell therein.{S}

GORAL: For which see Leviticus 16:7 ff and Numbers 26:55 and 33:53/54. I do like the idea that the owls will get their portion, and the ostriches theirs - in perfect harmony of course, with the lion happily lying down with the lamb if they are given a shared portion. As to the method of drawing lots, the breastplate of the Kohen Gadol was adorned with the Urim and Tumim, for which see the link? 

Lot-casting also connects to Purim, but Purim is a Judaisation of the Persian Ishtar (Easter) rituals, which they only encountered very much later even than Deutero-Isaiah, so Y-Y cannot be alluding to that. 

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Isaiah 29

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29:1 HOY ARI-EL ARI-EL KIRYAT CHANAH DAVID SEPHU SHANAH AL SHANAH CHAGIM YINKOPHU

הוֹי אֲרִיאֵל אֲרִיאֵל קִרְיַת חָנָה דָוִד סְפוּ שָׁנָה עַל שָׁנָה חַגִּים יִנְקֹפוּ

KJ: Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! add ye year to year; let them kill sacrifices.

BN: Oi, Ari-El, Ari-El, the city where David encamped! Add one year to the next, let the feasts come round!

"Woe to Ari-El", described as "the city where David dwelt", which could as well have been Beit Lechem or Tsiklag or Chevron as Tsi'on, but we have to presume this is an epithet or sobriquet for Tsi'on, as nothing in any Bible text tells us that David lived in a place actually named Ari-El, or even "encamped" there; unless this is not the human king David, but the cosmological Adonis, and Ari-El a point on the map of the heavens, a star somewhere close to Lyra. "The lion of El" is how the Gideon Bible prefers to translate it. EL, anyway, is not YHVH, though Ari-El may well be one of the "host". Is it then a sobriquet for Yehudah? I suggest this because Ya'akov's oracular blessings, the Hikavtsu of Genesis 49, describe Yehudah (49:9) as "a lion's whelp" and he has come down in proverb as "the lion of Yehudah".

And if it really does mean "encamped", then maybe the intention is Adul-Am? No other city fits that particular bill.

Is the verse not somewhat self-contradictory? In the first part if pronounces the oi veis mir, but in the second it can't wait for the next round of festivities.


29:2 VA HATSIYKOTI LA ARI-EL VE HAYETAH TA'ANIYAH VA ANIYAH VE HAYETAH LI KA ARI-EL

וַהֲצִיקוֹתִי לַאֲרִיאֵל וְהָיְתָה תַאֲנִיָּה וַאֲנִיָּה וְהָיְתָה לִּי כַּאֲרִיאֵל

KJ: Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be heaviness and sorrow: and it shall be unto me as Ariel.

Gideon: Then I will distress Ari-El, and there shall be mourning and moaning; and she shall be to me as a hearth of God.

BN: Then I will distress Ari-El, and there shall be mourning and moaning; and she shall be to me like the altar to El.

TA'ANIYAH VA ANIYAH: the word-games go on and on; we think of this sort of thing as Joyceian or maybe Nabokovian, as though no one had ever done this until the 20th century!

KA ARI-EL: I have included the Gideon translation, but only because it appears to suggest a meaning that is different from all the other translators, and it must have found it somewhere. Looked up in Gesenius, he tells us that "Ari-El... used of Jerusalem as 'the city of heroes', which is to be unconquered; although others, comparing the passage of Ezekiel about to be cited, render it hearth, ie altar of God." And as to his reading of "hearth": "from the root ARAH (ארה), used of the altar of burnt offering (Ezekiel 43:15/16)."

   And if the Yechezke-El is indeed what Y-Y intends here, then it reaffirms our earlier commentaries on the basic philosophy of this book: "the gods do not want your sacrifices, they want your obedience". So Yeru-Shala'im will become, so to speak, "the sacrifice of the first-born of cities", which could be any of the Karbanot, but in this context can only be one of those, the Kurban itself, the burnt offering.

Which is why my translation follows the Gideon, not the KJ.


29:3 VE CHANIYTI CHADUR ALAYICH VE TSARTI ALAYICH MUTSAV VA HAKIYMOTI ALAYICH METSUROT

וְחָנִיתִי כַדּוּר עָלָיִךְ וְצַרְתִּי עָלַיִךְ מֻצָּב וַהֲקִימֹתִי עָלַיִךְ מְצֻרֹת

KJ: And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee.

BN: And I will set my camps so that they completely surround you, and I will set the siege against you with a mound, and I will set up siege-engines against you.

Addressed in the feminine, as cities generally are in Yehudit.

Siege and a mound; again the I of YHVH as an agent of the invading enemy; so this must either be the early historical conquest by Sennacherib, when Chizki-Yah successfully staved off the siege, or the later one of Nebuchadnezzar, which led to the destruction of the city in 586 BCE.


29:4 VE SHAPHALT ME ERETS TEDABERI U ME APHAR TISHACH IMRATECH VE HAYAH KE OV ME ERETS KOLECH U ME APHAR IMRATECH TETSAPHTSEPH

וְשָׁפַלְתְּ מֵאֶרֶץ תְּדַבֵּרִי וּמֵעָפָר תִּשַּׁח אִמְרָתֵךְ וְהָיָה כְּאוֹב מֵאֶרֶץ קוֹלֵךְ וּמֵעָפָר אִמְרָתֵךְ תְּצַפְצֵף

KJ: And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.

BN: And being brought down, you shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall emerge from the dust where you lie prostrate; and your voice shall be like some mad mystic out of the ground, and your speech shall tweet out of the dust.

ME ERETS: Does this phrase go with VE SHAPHALT, as in "you shall be brought down from the Earth", or with TEDABERI, as in "you shall speak from the earth". I have gone for the second in my translation, because a translator has to make a choice, but I am by no means convinced it is this way around.

TEDABRI: Modern Ivrit would point this differently: TEDABRI.

TETSAPHTSEPH: And yes, I have chosen this word, rather than, say, "chirp" or "mutter", for a very deliberate contemporary reason.

OV: as in Ba'alat ov?

There is a definite sense of sadistic pleasure in the tone of this verse.


29:5 VE HAYAH KE AVAK DAK HAMON ZARAYICH U CHE MOTS OVER HAMON ARIYTSIM VE HAYAH LE PHET'A PIT'OM

וְהָיָה כְּאָבָק דַּק הֲמוֹן זָרָיִךְ וּכְמֹץ עֹבֵר הֲמוֹן עָרִיצִים וְהָיָה לְפֶתַע פִּתְאֹם

KJ: Moreover the multitude of thy strangers shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones shall be as chaff that passeth away: yea, it shall be at an instant suddenly.

BN: And that vast number who are your enemy shall be reduced to the smallness of small dust, and the vast number who are tyrannising you shall be like chaff that rots; and it will happen quite suddenly, and in an instant.

ZARAYICH: ZAR came up in a most complex form at 28:21, and its repetition here only adds to that complexity. "Strangers" in some translations; but meaning what: foreigners, immigrants, enemies, or simply neighbours that you don't happen to know? "Foes" in other translations, but what makes them that? Are they perhaps the besiegers of verse 3? But if so, were they not the ones doing the grinding down, rather than being ground down themselves, as here? Perhaps he is suggesting a major turn in the tide: pagan-heathen Yeru-Shala'im getting what it deserves for worshipping foreign gods and failed ethics; then Ba'al Teshuvah, the full repentance and redemption, the full return to YHVH; and lo and behold, LE PHET'A PIT'OM, the enemy is already in flight. Lovely fantasy! (And clearly Y-Y agrees with me on that latter comment - see verse 7).

29:6 ME IM YHVH TSEVA'OT TIPAKED BE RA'AM U VE RA'ASH VE KOL GADOL SUPHAH U SE'ARAH VE LAHAV ESH OCHELAH

מֵעִם יְהוָה צְבָאוֹת תִּפָּקֵד בְּרַעַם וּבְרַעַשׁ וְקוֹל גָּדוֹל סוּפָה וּסְעָרָה וְלַהַב אֵשׁ אוֹכֵלָה

KJ: Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.

BN: There shall be a visitation from the Lord of the Hosts of the Heavens, with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.

…storm and earthquake and fire, which brings the two forms – natural and man-made – together.


29:7 VE HAYAH KA CHALOM CHAZON LAILAH HAMON KOL HA GOYIM HA TSOV'IM AL ARI-EL VE CHOL TSOVEYHA U METSODATAH VE HA METSIYKIM LAH

וְהָיָה כַּחֲלוֹם חֲזוֹן לַיְלָה הֲמוֹן כָּל הַגּוֹיִם הַצֹּבְאִים עַל אֲרִיאֵל וְכָל צֹבֶיהָ וּמְצֹדָתָהּ וְהַמְּצִיקִים לָהּ

KJ: And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, shall be as a dream of a night vision.

BN: And the vast numbers of all the nations who wage war against Ari-El, every single one of them who wages war against her and the bulwarks that protect her, every one of those that are causing her such distress, shall be like a dream, or perhaps I should say a nightmare.

TSOV'IM...TSOVEYHA: The army - even today: Tseva Haganah Le Yisra-El, which translates into English as the IDF, the Israel Defense Force. Though in our verse, it is the enemy's attack-force which is being described.

Having said which, is there not a difference between TSOV'IM and TSOVEYHA, conveyed in my transliteration by the apostrophe in the first, but not needed in the second, because one has an Aleph, but the other does not.

TSADE-BET-ALEPH is unquestionably military; hundreds of instances, but see Numbers 31:5 or 2 Kings 25:19 (two usages in the latter, the noun for the army, and the verb for the conscripting: הַצָּבָא, הַמַּצְבִּא). But the concept of "service" applies to the priesthood as much to the military, so look at Numbers 4:23 or 1 Samuel 2:22.

TSADE-BET-HEY, on the other hand, becomes a "swelling" (לַצְבּוֹת) in Numbers 5:22, and my translation is an attempt to demonstrate that Y-Y is using this root, alongside TSAV'A, as a metaphor. Most translations agree that there is a word-play between METSODATAH (bulwarks) and METSIYKIM (distress) in the same verse, so why do they not also make this connection?

29:8 VE HAYAH KA ASHER YACHALOM HA RA'EV VE HINEH OCHEL VE HEKITS VE REYKAH NAPHSHO VE CHA ASHER YACHALOM HA TSAM'E VE HINEH SHOTEH VE HEKITS VE HINEH AYEPH VE NAPHSHO SHOKEKAH KEN YIHEYEH HAMON KOL HA GOYIM HA TSOV'IM AL HAR TSI'ON

וְהָיָה כַּאֲשֶׁר יַחֲלֹם הָרָעֵב וְהִנֵּה אוֹכֵל וְהֵקִיץ וְרֵיקָה נַפְשׁוֹ וְכַאֲשֶׁר יַחֲלֹם הַצָּמֵא וְהִנֵּה שֹׁתֶה וְהֵקִיץ וְהִנֵּה עָיֵף וְנַפְשׁוֹ שׁוֹקֵקָה כֵּן יִהְיֶה הֲמוֹן כָּל הַגּוֹיִם הַצֹּבְאִים עַל הַר צִיּוֹן

KJ: It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: so shall the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion.

BN: And it shall be as when a hungry man dreams, and, suddenly, there's food; but he wakes up, and his soul is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, suddenly, there's drink; but he wakes up, and, suddenly he's tired, and it's his soul that is thirsty - so shall the vast numbers of all the nations be, who fight against Mount Tsi'on. {P}

29:9 HITMAHMEHU U TEMAHU HISHTA'ASH'U VA SHO'U SHACHRU VE LO YAYIN NA'U VE LO SHECHER

הִתְמַהְמְהוּ וּתְמָהוּ הִשְׁתַּעַשְׁעוּ וָשֹׁעוּ שָׁכְרוּ וְלֹא יַיִן נָעוּ וְלֹא שֵׁכָר

KJ: Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.

BN: Stupefy yourselves, and be stupid! Blind yourselves, and be blind! You who are drunk, but not with wine, who stagger, but not with strong drink.

Not really accurate, but absolutely splendid, that Gideon Bible translation which I have marked BN!

The image functions rather cleverly in fact: the deity is promising a vineyard, which is beautiful to look at, produces grapes which are good to eat fresh or dry, which can be turned into healthy juice; or fermented into mind-and-life destroying alcohol, and consumed at orgies of sexual lust… or indeed sacramentally, as Eucharist and Kiddush, at the shrine. Good and evil once again wrapped together, choosable, both from the same source, Yetser ha Tov versus Yetser ha Ra. This is the true monotheism, Omnideism, where good versus evil is separated, dualistic.


29:10 KI NASACH ALEYCHEM YHVH RU'ACH TARDEMAH VA YE'ATSEM ET EYNEYCHEM ET HA NEVIY'IM VE ET RA'SHEYCHEM HA CHOZIM KISAH

כִּי נָסַךְ עֲלֵיכֶם יְהוָה רוּחַ תַּרְדֵּמָה וַיְעַצֵּם אֶת עֵינֵיכֶם אֶת הַנְּבִיאִים וְאֶת רָאשֵׁיכֶם הַחֹזִים כִּסָּה

KJ: For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.

BN (extended translation): Because YHVH has poured out upon you the spirit of deep, creative sleep, and has strengthened your ability to see; the visions of your Prophets, the insights of the seers, are like the cloud over the Mishkan as it awaits transportation across the wilderness.

RU'ACH TARDEMAH: In KJ, and somewhat sarcastically, a contrast with the RU'ACH poured out by Elohim when the Cosmos (Genesis 1:2), and Humankind, first came into existence; then it was decidedly wide-awake, full of impetus; here it is simply couch-potatoed.

Or is it? Translating YE'ATSEM as "shut" appears to make it that; but since when did the root ATSAM have anything to do with "shutting"? ATSAM is all about "vastness" and "power" (Genesis 26:16, Exodus 1:7, Psalm 38:20, many others). 

But the root also yields the word ETSEM for "a bone", for which see Genesis 2:23, but not yet, because, first, the most famous occasion for TARDEMAH was precisely that moment when Womankind came into being, moulded from one of Adam's bones, his fifth rib: two verses earlier, at Genesis 2:21.

So which is it? One option might be a spelling error, because ATSAR (עצר) could definitely including "shutting" among its usages (Deuteronomy 11:17 the most apposite of references on this occasion). But we also need to keep in our mind's eye the vision behind the word KISAH, which closes the verse. Numbers 9:15 is the place to go for an understanding of my extended translation.

So to sum up: KJ and others have this completely wrong, completely backwards: the Yehudim have a choice: go on with your laissez faire, or come back to Kavanah. Everything you need to know, if you wish to build a successful and endurable civilisation, is already there, in the words of the Prophets, in the laws of Mosheh. The moment of creative awakening is yours to seize, or squander.


29:11 VA TEHI LACHEM CHAZUT HA KOL KE DIVREY HA SEPHER HE CHATUM ASHER YITNU OTO EL YODE'A HA SEPHER LEMOR KER'A NA ZEH VE AMAR LO UCHAL KI CHATUM HU

וַתְּהִי לָכֶם חָזוּת הַכֹּל כְּדִבְרֵי הַסֵּפֶר הֶחָתוּם אֲשֶׁר יִתְּנוּ אֹתוֹ אֶל יוֹדֵעַ הספר (סֵפֶר) לֵאמֹר קְרָא נָא זֶה וְאָמַר לֹא אוּכַל כִּי חָתוּם הוּא

KJ: And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

BN: So this entire vision has become to you like the words of a scroll that has been sealed, which men deliver to one who is able to read such scrolls, saying: "Please read this"; and he replies, "I cannot, because it is sealed".

Isn't this precisely how Muhammad responded to Jibril on the night of the first revelation, the Night of Power (click here)? I wonder if he was quoting! The point being: as with Mosheh, so with Muhammad: there was no written text. In Mosheh's case, this was because alphabetic writing had not yet yet been invented (one of the great anomalies of Jewish faith this, that it is entirely focused on a Torah whose text, if there even was one, can only have been the pictograms of Egyptian hieroglyphics). In Muhammad's case it was because Jibril brought oral speech (though many Moslems have mis-read the text and allowed themselves to believe that Muhammad was admitting his own illiteracy).


29:12 VE NITAN HA SEPHER AL ASHER LO YADA SEPHER LEMOR KERA NA ZEH VE AMAR LO YADA'TI SEPHER

וְנִתַּן הַסֵּפֶר עַל אֲשֶׁר לֹא יָדַע סֵפֶר לֵאמֹר קְרָא נָא זֶה וְאָמַר לֹא יָדַעְתִּי סֵפֶר

KJ: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

BN: Then the scroll is delivered to one who is capable of reading scrolls, saying: 'Please read this"; and he replies : "I cannot read." {S}

But this is about spiritual illiteracy, not alphabetic… To me, a book that explores the world of quarks and quants and bosons and fermions is like a book that is sealed; I have never studied science; I recognise the names of the words; I do not know what they mean.

And well worth noting that the word "mystery" derives from precisely this. A "mysterium" in Latin was simply a craft that required an apprenticeship, because it involved technical knowledge and specific skills that a person needed several years to learn; those who had never served such an apprenticeship could not be expected to understand the esoteric workings of, say, basket-weaving, plumbing, clay-brick masonry or fishmongering. So, yet again, we hear Y-Y telling his people what their priority in life must be: Education. Education. Education. Unseal those scrolls!


29:13 VA YOMER ADONAI YA'AN KI NIGASH HA AM HA ZEH BE PHIV U VIS'PHATAV KIBDUNI VE LIBO RICHAK MIMENI VA TEHI YIR'ATAM OTI MITSVAT ANASHIM MELUMADAH

וַיֹּאמֶר אֲדֹנָי יַעַן כִּי נִגַּשׁ הָעָם הַזֶּה בְּפִיו וּבִשְׂפָתָיו כִּבְּדוּנִי וְלִבּוֹ רִחַק מִמֶּנִּי וַתְּהִי יִרְאָתָם אֹתִי מִצְוַת אֲנָשִׁים מְלֻמָּדָה

KJ: Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

BN: And my Lord said: Because this people approaches me, and with its mouth and lips pays homage to me, but has removed its heart far from me, while its fear of me is simply a requirement of others learned by rote...

KAVANAH again, both the sincerity and the intensity… and its opposites, false speech and hypocrisy... and a phrase reminiscent of the munafiqun or nifaq in the Qur'an - 63:3 especially (and how odd that this chapter should have two Qur'anic comparables; clearly Muhammad was entirely capable of reading, and had read this!).

U VIS'PHATAV: Or U VI SEPHATAV?

29:14 LACHEN HINENI YOSIPH LEHAPHLIY ET HA AM HA ZEH HAPHLE VA PHEL'E VE AVDAH CHACHMAT CHACHAMAV U VIYNAT NEVONAV TISTATAR

לָכֵן הִנְנִי יוֹסִף לְהַפְלִיא אֶת הָעָם הַזֶּה הַפְלֵא וָפֶלֶא וְאָבְדָה חָכְמַת חֲכָמָיו וּבִינַת נְבֹנָיו תִּסְתַּתָּר

KJ: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall come to nought, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

BN: Therefore, watch, I shall again perform a marvellous work among this people, both a marvellous work and a wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their intellectuals shall be concealed. {S}

LEHAPHLIY...HAPHLE...PHEL'E...: Three developments of the same root, and it is precisely the root that gives us the grammatical structure of language itself, the means by which humans are capable of articulating the universe, the means by which the closed book can be unsealed. To see how this works as grammar, click here (simple) or here (even simpler), or here (complex). To see how this works as Isaiac philosophy, just keep reading (you can read!).

What then is the "marvellous work" that YHVH will perform? If men were only approaching him with Kavanah, it would have been the bestowing upon human beings of the capacity to use their brains, to work out complex grammatical forms for the articulation of language, and then (remember these are verbs about verbs) the ability to turn that understanding into deeds and actions. But alas, they come without Kavanah, and so, instead - another layer of seal added to the book.

AVDAH: With an Aleph (א), meaning "rendered void"; not with an Ayin (ע), which would be a different kind of work (עבודה).

TISTATAR: Which "covers up" in a manner very different from KISAH at verse 10. And in the Hitpa'el, so they will have done this to themselves. And this verb, not any other - the same one that yields HISTIR PANAV, the divine "turning aside" (cf Isaiah 59:2). Though it is the human "turning aside" that is core to the verse that follows.

29:15 HOY HA MA'AMIYKIM ME YHVH LASTIR ETSAH VE HAYAH VE MACHSHACH MA'ASEYHEM VA YOMRU MI RO'ENU U MI YOD'ENU

הוֹי הַמַּעֲמִיקִים מֵיְהוָה לַסְתִּר עֵצָה וְהָיָה בְמַחְשָׁךְ מַעֲשֵׂיהֶם וַיֹּאמְרוּ מִי רֹאֵנוּ וּמִי יֹדְעֵנוּ

KJ: Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

BN: Woe to those who seek the deepest depths to hide their bones from YHVH, who carry out their deeds in darkness, and then they say: "Who sees us? who knows us?".

LASTIR ETSAH: Why do the translators treat ETSAH as "advice" or "counsel", of which the deity has absolutely no need, even if did follow orthodoxy? The language has been playing with "bones", most particularly in verse 10, creating the metaphorical skeleton of a belief system, and a system of social organisation, one that can stand upright in the world because it has a strong backbone. And, according to Leviticus 3:9, the ETSAH is precisely that "backbone" (though pronounced there as ATSEH).


29:16 HAPHKECHEM IM KE CHOMER HA YOTSER YECHASHEV KI YOMAR MA'ASEH LE OSEHU LO ASANI VE YETSER AMAR LE YOTSRO LO HEVIN

הַפְכְּכֶם אִם כְּחֹמֶר הַיֹּצֵר יֵחָשֵׁב כִּי יֹאמַר מַעֲשֶׂה לְעֹשֵׂהוּ לֹא עָשָׂנִי וְיֵצֶר אָמַר לְיֹצְרוֹ לֹא הֵבִין

KJ: Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

BN: O your habit of turning everything upside down! Should the potter not be esteemed by the clay, or should the object made say of him who made it: "He did not make me", or the creature formed by breathing life into it say of him who fashioned him : "He did not understand what he was doing"?

YETSER: Interesting play on this! These past chapters, we have repeatedly seen the YETSER as "inclination", the human capacity to make choices that are good or bad. But this is the verb used for the making of Humankind - see my notes as Genesis 2:7. And when you do that, as per the link to Genesis 1:26, it becomes clear that OSEY and MA'ASEY are also being used in the same manner.

29:17 HA LO OD ME'AT MIZ'AR VE SHAV LEVANON LE KARMEL VE HA KARMEL LA YA'AR YECHASHEV

הֲלוֹא עוֹד מְעַט מִזְעָר וְשָׁב לְבָנוֹן לַכַּרְמֶל וְהַכַּרְמֶל לַיַּעַר יֵחָשֵׁב

KJ: Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest.

BN: Will it not be very soon, that Levanon shall be turned back into a land rich with agriculture, and that rich land shall be reckoned to provide for forestry?

Sudden shift: Levanon will become so richly fertile that not only agriculture, but entire forests, will sprout from its soil - this is the epoch of the fertility gods, after all, so it is what they have to bestow as a reward - reversing the previous destruction of its cedars, restoring it to the House of the Forest of 22:8. And why this image? Because it was from that forest that the wood was timbered for the building of the Temple in Yeru-Shala'im.

MIZ'AR: Playing with ZAR earlier in the chapter (see my notes on this at verse 5).

29:18 VE SHAM'U VA YOM HA HU HA CHERSHIM DIVREY SEPHER U ME OPHEL U ME CHOSHECH EYNEY IVRIM

וְשָׁמְעוּ בַיּוֹם הַהוּא הַחֵרְשִׁים דִּבְרֵי סֵפֶר וּמֵאֹפֶל וּמֵחֹשֶׁךְ עֵינֵי עִוְרִים תִּרְאֶינָה

KJ: And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.

BN: And on that day shall the deaf hear the words of the scroll, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.

"In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book" completes the metaphor above, as "the eyes of the blind" completes the second metaphor above.

HA CHERSHIM: Have I missed a dot in there somewhere? Chereshim? Cherashim? Apparently not, but I think the pointer has. The root is CHERESH (חֵרֵשׁ), with a TSEYREY not a SHVA under the Reysh, so masculine plural must be CHERESHIM.

OPHEL: the place, or the reason why the place had that name?

IVRIM: with a Vav (ו) not a Vet (ב), second letter, but the homophonic pun is truly splendid on this occasion.

29:19 VA YASPHU AVANIM BA YHVH SIMCHAH VE EVYONEY ADAM BIKDOSH YISRA-EL YAGIYLU

וְיָסְפוּ עֲנָוִים בַּיהוָה שִׂמְחָה וְאֶבְיוֹנֵי אָדָם בִּקְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל יָגִילוּ

KJ: The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

BN: The humble too shall increase their joy in YHVH, and the neediest among men shall exult in the Holy One of Yisra-El.

Victory is now being achieved, the humble can sing their joy, and the poor can rejoice. This is the social contract side of Y-Y's preaching, and it is very much in the mode of the Enlightenment philosophers of the epoch of the French Revolution: based on the fullest possible understanding of the workings of the Cosmos, both Nature and Human, use the optimum of human intelligence to create a structure for society which can work for everyone, from the rulers to the lowest ranks of urban and rural peasants, one that includes the economic and the political, but also the cultural and the spiritual, and in which everyone has their rights, but also understands that these come with responsibilities. Does it need a belief in God, or gods? No - not in today's world. But back then it did, because the gods, as we have seen, were the only means available to explain the workings of the Cosmos, both Nature and Human. Once scientific language replaces the mythological, all that is needed is the Humanistic.

29:20 KI APHES ARIYTS VE CHALAH LETS VE NICHRETU KOL SHOKDEY AVEN

כִּי אָפֵס עָרִיץ וְכָלָה לֵץ וְנִכְרְתוּ כָּל שֹׁקְדֵי אָוֶן

KJ: For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off:

BN: For violence will lead nowhere, and scorn will prove futile, and all who sit vigil for sin will be rejected from the covenant...

"The terrible one" who is brought to nothing, and "the scornful one" are who? Satan? Lucifer? Or are these humans too? Sounds to me like people looking over hedges or peeking through curtains, suffering from Mary Whitehouse Syndrome. But this only applies to the Christian translations, which superimpose their theology upon the text. ARIYTS is violence per se, not some outside force - the same applies here as with the YETSER: there is no separated dualism in Y-Y.

NICHRETU: The root is CHERET, and it is with this root that the BRIT, the covenant between the human and the divine, was established (Genesis 15:18, 21:27 and 32, Exodus 23:32, many others). But there is also Genesis 17:14, Exodus 12:15 and 19, Leviticus 7:20, many others) which use the same root to "cut a person off from his people". That verb can only have two such seemingly different usages if it is the covenant that connects them. And why does it apply here? Because "to sit vigil for sin" is either to spend your time looking for it in others, rather than dealing with your own, or else sitting up all night doing neurosis over it, rather than taking responsibility for redemption and repentance by doing something about it. Once again, personal responsibility and active engagement at the core of Y-Y's philosophy.

29:21 MACHATIY'EY ADAM BE DAVAR VE LA MOCHIYACH BA SHA'AR YEKOSHUN VA YATU VA TOHU TSADIK

מַחֲטִיאֵי אָדָם בְּדָבָר וְלַמּוֹכִיחַ בַּשַּׁעַר יְקֹשׁוּן וַיַּטּוּ בַתֹּהוּ צַדִּיק

KJ: That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.

BN: ...[as will they who] make a man an offender by words, and raise a suit against him in the gate to trap him, and turns aside the just with a thing of nought. {P}

DAVAR: The image of the word "word" again.

MACHATIY'EY...DAVAR: the Biblical equivalent of finding your reputation damaged by some unreasearched piece of negative gossip in the tabloids, and of course no one apologises when it turns out that the gossip was all false.

MOCHIYACH BA SHA'AR YEKOSHUN: Or somebody bringing a lawsuit just to get some negative publicity against you, and their name in the public eye, and then the judge tells you to withdraw the suit because it has no substance...

BA TOHU: Yes, vacuity, emptiness, zero, any of those words. But TOHU is also TOHU - see the link.

29:22 LACHEN KOH AMAR YHVH EL BEIT YA'AKOV ASHER PADAH ET AV-RAHAM LO ATAH YEVOSH YA'AKOV VE LO ATAH PANAV YECHEVARU

לָכֵן כֹּה אָמַר יְהוָה אֶל בֵּית יַעֲקֹב אֲשֶׁר פָּדָה אֶת אַבְרָהָם לֹא עַתָּה יֵבוֹשׁ יַעֲקֹב וְלֹא עַתָּה פָּנָיו יֶחֱוָרוּ

KJ: Therefore thus saith the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale.

BN: Thus therefore says YHVH to the house of Ya'akov, which redeemed Av-Raham: Ya'akov shall not now be ashamed, neither shall his face now wax pale...

This appears to speak of the "redemption of Av-Raham" – where in the Bible is that to be found?! Av-Raham, of course, "redeemed" Yitschak his son, by sacrificing a ram in his place at the Akeda (Genesis 22:1-19); and that act became the incipit for the end of child sacrifice, its replacement by PIDYON HA BEN - yes, the same verb that is being used here - which theologically is placed at Exodus 13:13, and then again at Numbers 18:16.

   But from what did Ya'akov redeem Av-Raham? And is it not a strange coincidence, that the text says Av-Raham, and not Av-Ram? Because, when we first met him (Genesis 11:26), in Ur Kasdim, his name was Av-Ram; it only changed to Av-Raham (Genesis 17:5) when he moved to... well, after he had moved on to a place with a very odd name that no one has ever been able to explain... PADAN ARAM! (Gesenius insists it is an error for PADAD ARAM; everyone else for the last two thousand years has copped out and accepted "plains" or "fields"...)

   But that is me adding an extra dimension, though it is clearly there in the text to be added. Av-Ram becomes Av-Raham in Genesis 17, aged 90 and living in Kena'an; but the key to the text is the key to this chapter: the BRIT, the CHERET; look at 17:6 and following, and then re-ask the question: from what did Ya'akov redeem Av-Raham? From his inability, the fault of historical circumstances and conditions not his own unwillingnerss, to fulfill the terms of the covenant. But Ya'akov can now fulfill those terms...

29:23 KI VIR'OTO YELADAV MA'ASEY YADAI BE KIRBO YAKDIYSHU SHEMI VE HIKDIYSHU ET KEDOSH YA'AKOV VE ET ELOHEY YISRA-EL YA'ARIYTSU

כִּי בִרְאֹתוֹ יְלָדָיו מַעֲשֵׂה יָדַי בְּקִרְבּוֹ יַקְדִּישׁוּ שְׁמִי וְהִקְדִּישׁוּ אֶת קְדוֹשׁ יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל יַעֲרִיצוּ

KJ: But when he seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel.

BN: Because, when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, that they sanctify my name, then, indeed, they shall sanctify the Holy One of Ya'akov, and stand in awe of the god of Yisra-El...

29:24 VE YAD'U TO'EY RU'ACH BIYNAH VE ROGNIM YILMEDU LEKACH

וְיָדְעוּ תֹעֵי רוּחַ בִּינָה וְרוֹגְנִים יִלְמְדוּ לֶקַח

KJ: They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine.

BN: And those who err in spirit shall come to understanding, and those who criticised shall acquire knowledge. {S}

BIYNAH: The top left of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.


LEKACH: Fascinating that the Christian translators all render this as "doctrine", as though "a fully-fledged education" and "brain-washing" were simply synonyms.

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