INTRODUCTION
Yeshayahu means "YHWH is salvation"--the same meaning as Yehoshua, but with the phrasing in the reverse order. And YHWH's salvation through the Messiah Yehoshua fills a major part of his prophecy. Yeshayahu was probably from the tribe of Yehudah. A contemporary of Micha and Hoshea, he prophesied more than 200 years after the division of Israel, beginning c. 740 B.C.E. (Just prior to King Uzziyahu's death in 739), or about 18 years prior to the fall of the Northern Kingdom. But he mainly addresses the southern kingdom of Yehudah, which was now in decline as well, following the same pattern of apostasy that Israel had taken. Since he records the death of Sennacheriv, it is estimated that he continued to prophesy for some 60 year, until about 680B.C.E., when by tradition he was executed by being sawn in two. As with all the prophets, his main theme is, "Come back to the Torah!"
Yeshayahu 1-5
CHAPTER 1
1. A vision of Yeshayahu, son of Amotz, which he perceived in regard to Yehudah and Yerushalayim in the days of Uzziyahu, Yotham, Achaz, and Hizqiyahu, kings of Yehudah. Vision: oracle, prophecy received in an ecstatic state.
2. "Listen, O heavens, and cup your ear, O earth, because YHWH has spoken: `I have caused sons to grow and brought [them] up, but they have rebelled against Me!
Listen...Cup your ear: This is an allusion back to the song Moshe taught the descendants of Israel just prior to his death so that they would pass it down through all their generations. (D'varim/Deut. 32) The things Moshe warned about were coming to pass, and this was to be a vivid reminder of where the nation was headed.
3. "`The ox can tell [who] his owner [is], and the donkey [recognizes] his master's feeding trough. Israel [on the other hand] does not acknowledge; My people have not shown themselves to be able to distinguish.
YHWH told Noach that in some sense the earth was no longer cursed after the Deluge, but mankind had not changed. (Gen. 8:21) Despite man's dominion over the animals, the latter appear to better understand the authority structures YHWH has set up. His people may have assumed that because YHWH kept feeding them, they could also obtain food elsewhere, but as wit the kosher laws, YHWH has very specific things He wants us to partake of. Forming bonds with foreigners (forbidden in Ex. 23:32) is the first step toward idolatry.
4. "`Alas, O sinful nation! O people weighed down with crookedness! O offspring of mischief-makers! Children who bring ruin! They have abandoned YHWH; they have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have gone back to being estranged!
Gone back to...: or "in the hereafter they will...". Being estranged: or, "belonging to a stranger".
5. "`Why should you continue to be beaten down? You keep veering from the path! The whole head is diseased; the whole heart is unwell!
Head: Symbolic of the rulers who led Yehudah in the wrong direction. (v. 10) They are acting just like foreigners.
6. "`From the sole of the foot all the way to the head, there is no soundness in it. Bruises, scars, and fresh open wounds! They have neither been closed up nor bandaged, nor soothed by ointment.
7. "`Your land is left desolate, your cities burned with fire! As for your farmland, strangers devour it right in front of you, and [it is] desolate as when overthrown by foreigners!
8. "`The daughter of Tzion, too, is left like a temporary shelter in a vineyard, like a lean-to in a cucumber garden, like a blockaded city.'
Grapes and cucumbers must be harvested quickly when they ripen, so it was common to build rudimentary huts to spend the night in so the harvester could maximize his time in the field. They lie abandoned after the harvest is over, then become overgrown by the vines. The builder no longer dwells within them. YHWH is saying that (as we see below) the structure of Yehudah's society is still intact, but His presence has been removed since He does not share His glory with another--and they do not even realize it! Blockaded: watched-over or guarded (from outside), as in a siege. (No one can enter it anymore.)
9. "If YHWH of the Armies had not left us a surviving remnant--and very few[at that]--we would have become like S'dom, and resembled `Amorah!
10. "Listen to the word of YHWH, you dictators of S'dom; cup your ears to the instruction of our Elohim, you people of `Amorah!
11. "`What use to Me is the abundance of your slaughterings?' says YHWH. `I am overstuffed with the ascending [offerings] of rams and the fat of overfed beasts, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, sheep, or [prepared]he-goats.
He never did; His intent through them was always that we would know Him.
12. "`When you come to appear before My face, who has required this from your hands--to trample down My courts [where trumpets are sounded]? Temple offerings are all going on, but He asks why they are even coming, since they also have idols in their homes. All they are doing, in His eyes, is tracking mud across His floor!
13. "`Do not bring any more empty tribute-offerings. And incense--it's disgusting to Me! [New] moon, Sabbath, [and] summoning of assemblies, I cannot endure! Even the festival assembly is a waste of breath. Empty: worthless, vain, or false. A waste of breath: or "wickedness".
He is so fed up with their outward worship that He simply says, "Stop profaning My extra-special days!" Yehudah is mixing the worship of YHWH with paganism, and He would rather they were either hot or cold. (Rev. 3:17ff) In reality they are wicked but pretending to be righteous. And there is very little difference between this and combining Biblical teaching with pagan festivals like Saturnalia (Dec. 25), Ishtar (at the vernal equinox), etc.
14. "`My soul hates your [new] moons and appointed times. They are a burden to Me; I am tired of putting up with them.
Your: this is the key to why this does not contradict the Torah. The way they are carrying out His feasts has turned them into a creation of their own hands.
15. "`When you spread out your hands, I will conceal My face from you; also, when you increase the number of prayers, there will be no listening from Me. Your hands are full of blood!
Spread out your hands: in prayer. They may be happy with this arrangement, but He is not. All they are doing is murdering animals. Until they confess their guilt and repent, He will hide His face. (cf. Hos. 5:15)
16. "`Wash off and make yourselves clean! Take away the evil quality of your practices from [being right] in front of My eyes! Stop doing injurious things;
Clean: in most biblical imagery, this is an idiom for selflessness. This is what determines whether a certain act is "of the flesh" or "of the spirit" if not specified in Torah.
17. "`Learn to make [them] right: Demand justice, set the oppressor straight, vindicate the fatherless, contend for the case of the widow. Learn: literally, be goaded. Demand: or "seek out" in the strongest sense in which it can be understood. Learning to discern requires a return to the Torah, which teaches us to make such distinctions. (Lev. 10:10) They have the infrastructure intact, but are perishing because they lack knowledge.
18. "`Walk, now, and let [your words] be proven', says YHWH. `If your sins are like scarlet, they can become as white as snow; if they are as red as crimson, they can become like wool.
Proven: or "corrected"; alt., "let us reason together". (You say you love Me; now show it by your actions! Keep My commandments!) Scarlet...white as snow: a reference to an annual occurrence in which, on Yom Kippur one part of ascarlet cord was tied to the horn of the "scapegoat" for Azazel and the other part hung on the Temple doors. After the goat was thrown off a cliff in the wilderness east of Yerushalayim, YHWH showed His acceptance of their atoning sacrifice by turning the cord bright white. The Talmud tells us that this stopped happening 40 years before the destruction of the Temple--which would have been the year Y'shua died. In His mercy YHWH put up with Temple services which again were out of His prescribed order until Y'shua brought the fullest sacrifice, providing a permanent way out of sinful patterns for those who would accept it.
19. "`If you consent and obey, you will eat the good things of the Land. Consent: not just "are willing", but a very strong term: to pant after, to want very badly.
20. "`But if you refuse and [remain] rebellious, you will make the sword eat, because the mouth of YHWH has spoken.' A sword and mouth are again linked when Y'shua returns. (Rev. 19:15, 21)
21. "How the reliable town has become an [unfaithful] prostitute! [She was]full of justice; righteousness stayed with her. But now--murderers!
22. "Your silver has turned into dross; your strong drink has been diluted with water.
23. "Your princes have backslidden, becoming companions of thieves! Every one loves a bribe, and is running after compensation. They do not vindicate the fatherless, nor does the widow's cause reach them.
Princes: sarim; backslidden: sorarim. It is a Hebrew word play. Running after: But do they ever catch it?
24. "On account of this, the Master YHWH of Armies--the Mighty One of Israel--declares, `Woe [to you]! I will free Myself from My oppressors, and avenge Myself of My enemies.
Free Myself: ease or make Myself comfortable, i.e., not put up with this nuisance anymore.
25. "`Then I will bring My hand back onto you, and purge away your dross as with alkali, and remove all your alloy.
Alkali: or lye or potash, materials used in smelting metal. Alloy: base metal, the part to be separated away.
26. "`And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your advisors as at the beginning. After that, indeed, it will be proclaimed that you are `the city of righteousness', `the reliable town'.
Judges: or law-givers. The Torah lifestyle can only work properly when there is a wide consensus on obedience to His laws such as those of leaving fields fallow, releasing debts, etc. Until the proper authority structures are restored can the fullest redemption be possible.
27. "`Tzion will be ransomed with due process, and her returnees with ethicalvindication.
28. "But the violent shattering of [both] trespassers and those who wander from the way will be brought to an end together with those who abandon YHWH,
Violent shattering: in context, their fragmenting of justice in the court system.
29. "because they will be disappointed by the oaks that you have taken pleasure in, and ashamed of the gardens which you had chosen,
Oaks...gardens: places of pagan worship, usually for fertility rites.
30. "because you will be like a terebinth whose leaf is drooping, and a garden in which there is no water,
31. "and the mighty [in wealth] will be like the tow [shaken from flax], and his deeds like a spark, and both of them shall burn together, and there will be no one to extinguish. Compare 1 Cor. 3:14, 15.
CHAPTER 2
1. The matter that Yeshayahu, son of Amotz, perceived in regard to Yehudah and Yerushalayim,
2. and it will take place in the latter days: the mountain of YHWH's house will be established at the head of the mountains, and will be lifted up from [among] the hills, and all the nations will stream toward it.
Established: fixed securely, stable, enduring, determined. Head: from a root word meaning shaking, thus, "at the shaking of the mountains". Lifted up from among the hills: an idiom meaning it will be raised higher than all those out of which it came. This appears to have been how it was before the Noachian flood, since after the highest mountains are covered, other mountains are again mentioned. (Gen. 7:20)
3. And many peoples will proceed and say, "Come on, [all of you], and let us ascend to YHWH's mountain--to the House of the Elohim of Yaaqov! And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths!" Because from Tzion will proceed instruction, and the word of YHWH from Yerushalayim.
4. And He will judge between the nations, and will decide for many peoples. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spear-shafts into pruning tools. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war anymore.
An agricultural lifestyle is being returned, because these cycles are the most ideal for comprehending His redemptive calendar. Decide for: or correct, rebuke, reprove, prove right, convince, convict.
5. O House of Yaaqov! Come, let us walk in the light of YHWH!
6. Because You have abandoned your people, the House of Yaaqov, since they are filled up from the east, and conjure clouds like the Filistines, and cause [them] to splash [upon] the children of foreigners.
7. While his land is filled with silver and gold, and there is no end to their storehouses, and his land is well-armed with horses, and there is no end to his chariots,
His land: probably that of the foreigner mentioned in v. 6, but possibly referring to Yaaqov's land.
8. still, his land is filled with worthless [images]; he prostrates himself to the work of his [own] hands--to what his own fingers have produced!
9. So mankind is bowed down, and a man [of importance] lowers himself, so don't You lift them up.
10. Enter into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust from the dread face of YHWH and from the splendor of His majesty!
They have "dug their own graves".
11. The haughty eyes of mankind will be brought to humility, and the loftiness of mortal men will be brought low, and YHWH alone will be set on high in that day,
12. because the day for YHWH of [the] Armies is upon everyone [who is] triumphant and [who] lifts himself up, and he will be brought down--
13. and upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan,
Bashan: the present-day Golan Heights.
14. and upon all the high mountains and upon all the upraised hills,
This is the type of place idols were most commonly worshiped.
15. and upon every high tower, and upon every fortified wall,
Fortified: to the point of being insurmountable.
16. and upon all the sailors of Tarshish, and upon every beloved flag
Beloved flag: or precious craft, palace, or desirable image--i.e., any outstanding superlative symbolizing human achievement. How can we help but recall the collapse of skyscrapers and the sinking of the Titanic that "even
God could not sink", or the spacecraft that "challenged" YHWH?
17. and the haughtiness of mankind will be humbled, and the loftiness of mortal men will be brought low, and YHWH alone will be set on high in that day
18. Then the worthless [images] will completely [and quickly] vanish,
19. and they will go into the caves of the rocky cliffs and the hollows of the dust, [away] from the dread face of YHWH and from the splendor of His majesty when He arrives on the scene to make the earth tremble!
20. In that day mankind will throw his worthless [images] of silver and his worthless [images] of gold (which they fashioned to bow down before) to the moles and the bats,
Yaaqov also hid idols in the earth under an oak tree. (Gen. 35:4; cf. Yesh. 1:29-30 above.)
21. [as they] go into the crevices of the rocky cliffs and the clefts of the crags, [away] from the dread face of YHWH and from the splendor of His majesty when He arrives on the scene to make the earth tremble!
22. Forego mankind, whose breath is in his nostrils, because what does he count for?
Forego: leave behind, let go. Breath: or spirit. This has a special meaning in this day when the brave new humanistic world order is gaining ascendancy and humanity will actually worship a particular man. Nostrils: ancient images of idols often had a huge nose; because that is where the breath enters and leaves, it was considered the part of the body where the soul resides. But only "panting after" YHWH preserves us. (1:19)
CHAPTER 3
1. Because, indeed, YHWH of Armies is causing the support and the staff [on which you lean] to turn away from Yerushalayim and from Yehudah--the whole supply of grain and the whole supply of water,
Support and staff: what you rely on. He wants to be the only One to whom
we look for sustenance.
2. valiant one and man of war, judge and prophet, as well as diviner and elder,
3. the commander of fifty and the uplifted of face, the advisor, the skilled craftsman, and the expert conjurer!
Uplifted of face: i.e., one who is honored. Skilled craftsman: or "shrewd magician" (as one who deals in the secret arts). Expert conjurer: literally, "discreet whisperer".
4. "Then I will permit youths [to be] their commanders, and capricious fools will exercise dominion over them,
Youths: those who are inexperienced and brash, like Rehav'am.
5. "and the nation will be opporessed, man against man, each against his fellow man. The young will behave arrogantly against the old, and the lightweight against the important.
6. "When a man takes hold of his brother in his father's house (‘A coat! Come, you can be a ruler for us, and this overthrown ruin can be under your hand!'),
7. "in that day he will raise [his hand to swear], saying, 'I'm not one to bandage up, and there's neither bread nor clothing in my house, so don't appoint me as the people's ruler!'
8. "Because Yerushalayim has stumbled, and Yehudah has fallen, because their tongue and their actions toward YHWH [are] to rebelliously provoke the fount of His weightiness.
Stumbled: or tottered, staggered.
9. "The appearance of their faces testifies against them, and, like S'dom, they have made their sin conspicuous; they have not concealed it. Woe to their appetites, because they have dealt out evil to themselves!
10. "Tell the righteous that it is well, because they will eat the fruit of
their actions.
11. "Alas for those guilty of evildoing! Because what his hand has dealt
out will be done to him.
12. "[As for] My people, fools are their taskmasters, and women rule over it! O people of Mine! Those who are leading you are causing you to go astray, and have swallowed up your lifestyle!"
Fools: those acting severely or people who play like children. Taskmasters: or oppressors. Lifestyle: literally, "way of your journeying-paths".
13. YHWH is taking His position to bring forward His case, and is taking His stand to judge the nation.
14. YHWH will enter into litigation with the elders of His people, and its rulers: "You have consumed away the vineyard; what you have plundered from the poor is in your house!
15. "What is it to you? You are crushing My people and grinding the faces of the poor!" declares Adonai YHWH of Armies.
16. And YHWH has said, "On account of [the fact] that the daughters of Tzion are arrogant and walk with their necks held out, causing eyes to stare, and proceeding to walk with quick little steps, and with their legs making a noise [of the] rattling [of bangles],
17. "Adonai will cause the top of the daughters of Tzion's heads to scab over, and YHWH will uncover their secret openings.
Secret openings: or "hinges"; i.e., their private parts.
18. "In that day Adonai will take away the glory of their anklets, headbands, and [crescent-moon] ornaments,
19. "the pendants, the bracelets, and the veils,
20. "the head-adornments, the jingling anklets, the sashes, the soul-houses, and the amulets,
21. "the rings and the nose-rings,
22. "the removable robes, the covering tunics, the spreading cloaks, and the purses,
23. "the mirrors, the fine linen outer garments, the turbans, and the large veils.
Mirrors: literally, "revealers".
24. "Then what will happen is that instead of a sweet fragrance, there will be the stench of decay; instead of a belt, an encircling rope; instead of a well-set hairdo, baldness; instead of an expensive robe, tied-on burlap; and branding in the place of beauty.
Encircling rope: i.e., to be led away into slavery thereby. Burlap: or sack-cloth. Branding: another sign of ownershp by another.
25. "Your people will fall by the sword, and your valiant ones in the battle,
26. "and her entrances will lament and mourn, and she who is cleaned out will remain for the land.
Cleaned out: desolate, cleared, even free.
CHAPTER 4
1. "In that day, seven women will take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own clothing; just let us be called by your name, and take away our disgrace!'
In which day? The day of the calamities in chapter 3. Take hold of: or prevail upon, but it literally says, "seven women will make one man strong". Perhaps these are seven of the northern tribes, or perhaps they are the seven congregations of Rev. 1-2. The number "seven" in Hebrew is also the word for "oath" (cf. Gen. 21:30ff, when seven ewes were sacrificed to seal the oath). Thus they may simply be symbolic of the complete number of people who have made the oath of covenant with YHWH--the "7,000 in Israel who have no t bowed the knee to Baal". In any case, they are joining themselves to the Messiah
from the tribe of Yehudah. In 3:7, no other men had bread or clothing left in their houses, just as no one else but Messiah is worthy to reign. (Rev. 5:4) But the bread and clothing were paralleled in 3:8 with Yerushalayim and Yehudah. Thus, eating their own food, in this context, relates to living in their own cities, and wearing their own clothing symbolizes keeping their own tribal identity. I.e., they are not trying to be Jews, but they know they must have connections with the Jewish Messiah. One man: or "a unified man"--the restoration of Adam toward which all of Scripture points, and which became possible only through the one Man, the Messiah, who then became the Head of the whole Body. Let us be called by your name: literally, "Let your name by proclaimed [or read] over us." Yirmiyahu (Jer.) 23:6 tells us that the Messiah will be called YHWH Tziqdenu (YHWH our righteousness), and Yirm. 33:16, using parallel phraseology, tells us that Yerushalayim (which we know from Rev. 21:2 is the Bride adorned for her husband) will be called by the very same Name. Our disgrace: not so much having had all their ornaments removed (ch. 3) as the fact that they had been adorned for themselves, not
for their bridegroom. (After Aharon had some Israelites donate jewelry out of which to build the golden calf, YHWH said ornaments were no longer to be worn in His sanctuary.) Rabbinically, the name of YHWH is seen as a key that the high priests lifted up to open the heavenlies (Josephus) Once we again began using YHWH's name instead of substitutes, the shame that comes with association with the pagan titles we had used was also removed from our lips.
2. "In that Day the offshoot of YHWH will be [raised to] honor and authority, and the fruit of the Land will be majestic and splendid for the [surviving] remnant of Israel,
In that day: while there is usually an immediate point of reference in the prophet's day, when this phrase is used by the prophets, it also has the specialized reference to the "Day of YHWH", for which all of the precursors were only "dress rehearsals". Those who enter the Messianic Kingdom are the ultimate "surviving remnant of Israel", including the righteous who died throughout all of history. Offshoot of YHWH: identified in Yirmiyahu (Jer.) 23:5; 33:15 as a righteous king from David's line; and Z'charyah 3:8 as
YHWH's servant, which 52:13 below links clearly with the Messiah. Authority: or reputable dignity.
3. "And [whatever is] spared in Tsion or remaining inYerushalayim will be called "set apart", that is, all who are enrolled to live in Yerushalayim.
Enrolled: or inscribed, reminding us of the angelic scribe who, in an event that will be repeated (Rev. 7:3ff), was commanded to mark out those who would be preserved because they wept over the abominations carried out in the midst of Yerushalayim. (Y'hezeq'el/Ezek. 9) In that context, there is a very clear demarcation between those celebrating Passover and those celebrating what would later come to be called "Easter". In Rev. 3:5; 13:8ff; 20:15; 21:27 we see how the names are written in the Book of Life relate to the New Yerushalayim. Our citizenship is in heaven, from which Y'shua will come and bring us the rights this entails. (Phil. 3:15ff; cf. v. 1 above.)
4. "When Adonai has washed off the excrement of the daughter of Tsion, and rinsed away Yerushalayim's blood from its innermost part by the wind of justice and the spirit of burning,
Note the mechanics of how YHWH cleanses us: wind is the same word as "spirit" in Hebrew. "Justice" means "right-ruling (correct verdict) in judgment" (which we cannot have without established rulers); it also bespeaks the fact that Y'shua ransomed us by a fully lawful means which the Adversary can never call into question. "Burning" here can mean "kindling a fire", which takes us to Y'shua's statement that he had a fire to kindle and wished he could do so right away, but had an "immersion" to undergo first. (Luk. 12:49, 50). Amos (5:18-20) reminds us that the Day of YHWH will not begin in a pleasant way so that we should look forward to it nonchalantly. It will be a time of burning away our impurities and consuming the wicked before the Kingdom is fully established.
5. "then YHWH will form over every dwelling place of Mount Tsion and over her convocations a cloud and smoke in the daytime, and the brightness of a flaming fire at night, because over all [that is] honorable, [there is] a [wedding] canopy,
Every dwelling place: "each fixed site" or "the whole foundation". YHWH's presence will cover the whole city as He appeared over the Tabernacle. It also separated the nation from Pharaoh, and His presence will again separate us from all that Egypt represents in its paganism and enmity toward YHWH. The heavenly city that descends to earth after the Messianic Kingdom (Rev. 21) may be suspended above the earthly Yerushalayim during the Kingdom. In Rev. 3:12 Y'shua promises that the one who overcomes will be made a pillar in YHWH's Temple and he will have the name of the New Yerushalayim written on him.
6. "and there will be a sukkah for shade from the parching heat in the daytime, and as a refuge and shelter from inundation [by a maelstrom] and what falls from the sky.
Sukkah: a booth or covering that provides temporary shelter, the prominent feature of the feast of Sukkoth, which is a foreshadowing of the Kingdom, which will begin with a time of intense calamity from which YHWH will shelter His people while the rest of the world feels His indignation. This will include "stars" falling from the sky (Rev. 9:1).
CHAPTER 5
1. "Now I will sing for my Beloved my uncle's song concerning his vineyard:
'My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile spur [of ground].
Uncle: or "Beloved", but a different word in Hebrew from that which precedes it, though they share a common root. Probably both refer to YHWH. Very fertile: literally, "son of fatness/oil". Spur: literally "horn", from a root meaning "to send forth rays". Y'shua carried the parable further.
(Mark 12)
2. "'And he dug [into] it and threw the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest of vines, and built a watchtower inside it. He also hewed out a wine vat, and waited eagerly for it to produce grapes. But it produced wild, rotten fruit!'
Wine vat: traditionally built as close as possible to the vineyard so as little juice as possible is lost. The choicest of vines: California proved that the best land combined with the best vines produces the best wine. This is what YHWH expected. Rotten: includes the connotation of smelling foul.
3. "'So now, inhabitants of Yerushalayim and men of Yehudah, please judge between Me and My vineyard!
4. "'What more could have been done for My vineyard that I did not do in it? When I was expecting it to produce grapes, why did it produce wild, rotten fruit?
5. "'So, now, I'll go ahead and make known to you what I will do with My vineyard: I'll take away its protective hedge, so it can be grazed in, and make breaches in its wall, so it can be trampled down.
YHWH had given Israel special protection and care, but since it flouted this in His face, He left it open to all the forces that affect all the other nations without His special attention.
6. "'I'll let it waste away; it will not be pruned or hoed, and briers and thornbushes will come up. I will also command the clouds to keep from dropping rain on it',
Compare the forsaken sukkah in 1:8.
7. "because the vineyard of YHWH of Armies is the House of Israel, and the man of Yehudah is the plant that he handles tenderly. And He looked expectantly for justice, but what [He found] was bloodshed! For ethical vindication, but what [He found] was a cry for help!
Justice...bloodshed; ethical vindication...a cry for help: Hebrew wordplays, juxtaposing "mishpat" with "mishpach" and "tz'daqah" with "tz'aqah".
8. "Alas for those who make [one] house extend all the way to [the next] house, who cause [one] cultivated field to run up close to [another] field, until they run out of space and you are forced to dwell in your loneliness in the middle of the countryside!
Until they run out of space: or "until the Place comes to an end". "The Place" is often a euphemism for the Temple or the One who inhabits it. This is reminiscent of there being no room for Y'shua at his birth during Sukkoth, when the temporary shelters were packed so thick that he had to be born in one in the open country outside Beyth Lechem, at the Tower of the Flock. (Micha 4:8; 5:2) But each tribe was also to have its own "standard"
(banner). We are to be set apart from other nations, but then Israel is not meant to be a homogeneous "melting pot"; holiness will not look the same for everyone. Tearing down walls is not the meaning of biblical unity; rather, each part of the Body needs to fulfill its function for the good of the whole. Where houses and fields are all flush with each other, there is no room for roads to lead to Yerushalayim. And this just may be the specific intent. Bavel's dream was to stay settled when YHWH says to be pilgrims.
9. "In my ears, YHWH of Armies [has sworn], ‘if most [of these] houses don't become desolate, and big, prosperous [ones] without inhabitant...!
10. "'Because the area ten yoke [of oxen could plow in a day] will produce [only] one bath, and a homer's [worth] of seed will yield [only] an ephah!'
One bath...an ephah: the equivalent volume in liquid and dry measure. A homer: Ten times the size of an ephah, so the yield would actually be only a tenth as much as what was planted. One would have to choose between eating and planting.
11. "Woe to those who get up early to run after intoxicating beverage, hanging back in the twilight; wine causes them to hotly pursue.
12. "And there were lyre and harp, tambourine, flute, and wine in their drinking-parties, but they pay no attention to the things YHWH does, nor do they notice the works of His hands.
13. "For this reason My people have gone away into exile: due to lack of knowledge. Its important ones are persons of famine, and its boisterous crowds parched from thirst.
Gone away into exile: or "removed the covering". Remember that clothing can be a symbol of tribal affiliation (4:1), so being "unclothed" in exile means loss of identity. (Compare v.8 above.) Knowledge: as in chapter 3, the structure can be intact outwardly, but if there is no understanding of why we obey the Torah, it is easy for it to seem like a mere burdensome tradition. (Hos. 8:12)
14. "Therefore She'ol has made its appetite grow wider, and gaped its mouth to the point of having no limit, and their adornment, roaring, tumult, and the triumphant person will descend into her.
She'ol: the underworld, or the place of the dead. Remember what happened to Qorach. (Num. 16)
15. "Then humanity will be brought low and man set in a lower place, and the eyes of the haughty will be humbled,
The immediate context is Israel before her enemies crushed her, but this particular verse has a wider context in our day as "humanity" (Heb., "Adam"), rather than YHWH, is being made the measure of all things. Man: or "a man"--perhaps the counterfeit Messiah, who is also haughty. (Y'chezq'wl 29:3)
16. "but YHWH of Armies will be exalted with justice, and the El who is set apart will be shown to be separate through righteousness.
Exalted with justice: raised to prominence in an appropriate, rightful, deserving manner, through due legal process, unlike those who since Nimrod's time have tried to make a name for themselves. There are again judges and authorities in place who do right. Shown to be separate: includes the sense of being treated accordingly as in a class of His own, and the way He distinguishes Himself as unique is that He does right. We also demonstrate His sole worthiness by doing right ourselves.
17. "Then the lambs will graze as in their own pasture, while sojourners eat the places deserted by the fat ones.
Their own pasture: includes the sense of being accustomed to it, thus being at ease. Fat ones: at root, the term means "obliterators". In other words, the haughty (v. 15) who stepped on others to "get to the top" will leave their goods to the needy who come seeking temporary hospitality among YHWH's flock. But even the ones who were righteous, when satisfied with plenty, tend to forget YHWH. (Deut. 32:15; Prov. 30:9)
18. "Woe [to] those who drag perversion along with worthless cords, and [pull their] sin as with a cart rope,
19. "who say, 'Let Him hurry and finish what He is making quickly, so we may see it! And let what the Holy One of Israel has been devising approach and enter, so we may become acquainted with it!'
Reminiscent, perhaps, of the way the men of S'dom responded to YHWH's messengers, this is a perverted curiosity--expecting YHWH's work to be only spectacular excitement but not a challenge to true holiness. Though we wish for Y'shua's Kingdom to come "in our lifetimes and in our days", the first part of YHWH's work to bring it about will not be "pretty" for those who are looking for novelty. (Amos 5:18-20)
20. "Woe to those who avow that evil is good, and say good is evil, who put 'darkness' for light and 'light' for darkness, who define bitter as 'sweet' and sweet as 'bitter'.
Put...define: the same term in Hebrew; i.e., who change the definitions. Who has not likewise shuddered in our day to hear people raving about things they define as "wicked!" or "bad!"? But how much worse to call pagan holidays "blessed" or say that obeying the Torah is contrary to YHWH's will.
21. "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and holding up their own faces [conspicuously] as intelligent!
22. "Woe to those whose claim to fame is [how much] wine [they can] drink, and men whose [only area of] expertise is mixing intoxicating beverage,
23. "who vindicate the cause of the wicked for a bribe, and take the good legal standing of the just away from him!
24. "Therefore, as the fire's tongue devours the chaff, and the dry grass droops to the flame, their root will be like something rotten, and their flower will go up [in smoke] like a cloud of dust, because they have rejected the instruction of YHWH of Armies, and despised what the Holy One of Israel utters.
25. "This is why YHWH's breath has become hot upon His people, and He has stretched out His hand against it and punished it. Then the hills shook and their corpses like off-scouring in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, and His arm is stretched out still.
Punished: literally, struck. Off-scouring: or "dung" (to be swept away).
26. "Moreover, He will lift up a signal-flag to the distant nations, and will whistle for it [to come] from the ends of the earth, and indeed, it will come quickly [on] light [feet]!
27. "There is not a weary or feeble one among them; not one will be drowsy, and not one will fall asleep. The undergarment of its loins will not be loosened, nor will the thong of their sandals be undone,
Feeble: or "stumbling". Undergarment not loosened: i.e., they will not even stop to relieve themselves, so quickly will they come! Nor the thong...undone: he emphasizes that they will not stop to rest in any way!
28. "whose arrows are sharp, and whose bows bent! Their horses' hoofs will be considered to be like flint, and their [chariot] wheels like a whirlwind!
Flint: i.e., very hard. Wheels...whirlwind: How reminiscent of Eliyahu's chariot ride to the heavens.
29. "Its roaring is like a great lion, and it will roar like young lions; and it will growl and seize the prey and carry it away, and there is none to rescue.
30. "And in that day, it will roar over it like the roaring of the sea. When one considers the land, then behold! Darkness and distress, and the light is darkened by its haze."
Distress: a tight spot, oppression, or a "hard place".
Chapters 6-9
CHAPTER 6
1. In the year of the death of King Uzziyahu, [that is] when I had a vision of YHWH seated upon a throne--high and lifted up--and the train of His [robes] filled the Temple [building].
Uzziyahu: A king held up as the paradigm of what a good king was like (2 Kings 15:34), he brought Israel great gains, but let it go to his head; he overstepped his limits and usurped the role of the priests, ignoring their rebuke. He was struck with leprosy and quarantined until he died. (2 Chron. 26) Here, the imagery is of a king in His sedan chair, reminding us that, even with such a disappointment, YHWH is still on the throne and in control. YHWH: The Masoretic text says "Adonai", but this and vv. 8 and 11 are some of the 134 times the Scribes admitted to having changed "YHWH" to "Adonai". Train of his robes: or bottom edge of His throne". Temple: or palace, especially in this context of royalty.
2. Burning six-winged [angels] took their positions above it--each one having six wings: with two [each] concealed his face, and with two he concealed his feet, and with two he flew.
Burning angels: Heb., s'rafim.
3. This one called out to that one and said, "Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of Armies! The whole earth is filled with His splendor!"
Holy: in a separate class of His own. The famous complete Isaiah scroll found at Qumran says "Qadosh" (holy) only twice. Perhaps this is why it was found intact; if it was a copyist's error, it would have been "buried" in a geniza, or "graveyard" for scrolls that had YHWH's name on them. They would never be destroyed, but would not be used after a mistake was discovered, so
it would survive longer than one that had been worn out. Earth: or Land (i.e., of Israel).
4. The supporting-posts of the threshold shook at the sound of the one who called out, and the House was filled with smoke.
5. And I said, "Alas for me, because I am finished, since I myself am a man of impure lips, and I live among a nation of impure lips--since my eyes have seen the King, YHWH of Armies!"
Lips: or "language". Perhaps he heard them speaking perfect Hebrew, and after Israel had allowed so much influence from the nations to enter the Land that even the Hebrew they spoke was no longer pure. Finished: brought to an end, undone, cut off--perhaps "doomed". In common terms, "a goner". He realized he had no way of communicating with YHWH, though He was standing right in front of him! Impure: with the connotation of selfish, as it is the term for "ritually unclean". Yaaqov (James) tells us the same mouth should not bless YHWH and curse those who are in His image. Among: as part of.
6. Then one of the burning [angels] flew toward me, with a live coal in his hand, taken with tongs from atop the altar,
Live coal: or a hot stone.In his hand: thus the tongs were not due to its heat, but because he must not touch the altar. The altar was always the first
7. and he touched it to my mouth, and said, "Here, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is averted, and a covering has been effected over your sin."
Similarly, Yochanan the Immerser said Y'shua would bring a "baptism of fire".
8. Then I heard the voice of YHWH saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" So I said, "Here I am! Send me!"
9. So He said, "Go, and tell this people, 'Listen, hearing, but do not distinguish! And look, seeing, but do not perceive!
Perceive: come to know or be intmiately acquainted with. Perhaps the indistinctness is due to the Hebraic nature of the revelation, which we cannot fully understand in a translation. We must not forget that the existence of many languages came about as the result of a curse, and the fact
that we do not understand Hebrew is a reminder of our continued exile.
10. "Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and smear its eyes over, lest it [should] see with its eyes or hear with its ears, and make a distinction with its heart, and repent, and someone [should] heal it."
Y'shua's parables had the same purpose (Mat. 13:13), since he had a work to do which he could not accomplish if Israel repented too soon. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 11:8, and relates it to Israel. In fact, this verse is quoted six more times in Scripture, meaning that it appears a total of seven times. But chapter 10 had asked how the scattered "lost sheep of Israel"
would be able to hear unless someone was sent to teach them. These "smeared eyes" parallel the man Y'shua healed of blindness, but he viewed men as if they were trees. There were two stages of healing. He could see enough to avoid --much as the House of Israel has met Y'shua as Savior (thus having the most essential factor) yet missed the context in which He is best understood. When he was sent to the Pool of Shiloach ("sent") his vision was completely
restored. Those sent to regather the rest of the House will see more than those who merely bask in what we have received, since the focus is no longer on self. (The context here mainly addresses Yehudah, but still applies to both houses, since Uzziyahu died before the Northern Kingdom was fully scattered.) Lest it should: what follows is the order of the journey back after this curse is rescinded, and that is the stage where we are today; we must follow these steps very carefully.
11. So I said, "Until when, YHWH?" And He said, "Until the cities may crumble into ruins without inhabitant, and houses are without a human being, and the soil becomes a deserted wasteland.
12. "But when YHWH has removed the human [population] far away, and the abandonment of the land is abundant,
The human [population]: simply "the Adam" in Hebrew.
13. "still, there will be a tithe within it, and it will come back, though it is consumed, like a terebinth or an oak that, even when felled, [still have a memorial] stump to them. The holy seed is its stump.
A tithe: a tenth, a remnant reserved for YHWH's special use, untouched by this curse. Yaaqov promised that he would give YHWH a tenth of all that was his (Gen. 28:22), so a tenth of his descendants belong to YHWH in a special way. Holy seed: in a broad sense, the descendants of Avraham. In a narrow sense, as a lead-up to the virgin birth spoken of in the next chapter, this
is a "seed" in a class of its own (one way of describing what "holy" means). It was promised in Gen. 3:15 as being the seed of a woman--an anomaly in itself, and thus a signal of the deep significance this phrase holds. Arthur Custance's research showed that the woman carries "immortal" eggs, which begin the process of corruption and death only when fertilized by male sperm. The female lineage preserves the same seed through a series of such "perfect" eggs, so Adam's pre-fallen state was still preserved as long as Miryam's "seed" was not fertilized. Thus, though all humanity, and most specifically, Israel and the line of David in particular, were all gone astray and under a curse, still, true and complete life remained within this "stump", and could thus send forth a new shoot, and the pristine Adam could be revived. Y'shua is described as the Head of this "last Adam", and we who join ourselves to him are the rest of the Body, which will all be rejuvenated once it is brought completely together.
CHAPTER 7
1. Now in the days of Achaz, the son of Yotham, the son of Uzziyahu, king of Yehudah, R'tzin the king of Aram went up to Yerushalayim with Peqach the son of Remalyahu, king of Israel, to make war against it, but they were unable to prevail over it.
Achaz began his reign at age 20 in the seventeenth year of Peqach's reign. [c. 735 B.C.E.] So Peqach was substantially older. The story is detailed in 2 Kings 16. R'tzin means "firm", and Remalyahu, "wealth/abundance of YHWH".
2. And the house of David was informed, "Aram is resting on Efrayim." Then his heart and the heart of his people wavered as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
House of David: the current king of Yehudah, Achaz. "Resting on": an idiom for encamping on Efrayim (the Northern Kingdom)'s land, or being allied with them. Wavered: being double-minded with fear, they were" unstable in all their ways" (Yaaqov/James 1:8).
3. But YHWH told Yeshayahu, "Go out now to meet Achaz--you and your son Sh'ar-Yashuv--to the end of the conduit of the upper pool of the launderers' field toward the highway,
Sh'ar-Yashuv means "a remnant will return". This is part of his message to the king. (See 8:18) Though he is about to prophesy the fall of the Northern Kingdom, he prefaces it, for those with ears to hear, with this promise that keeps the severity of the punishment in perspective. The upper pool: the same place the Assyrians would later meet King Hizqiyahu (36:2; 2 Kings 18:17) Launderers': or "fullers"--cleansing the fibers of cloth of their natural oils and bleaching them before dyeing them.Sometimes the dyeing was done by the same man.
4. "and tell him, “Make sure you stay calm. Don't be afraid, and don't let your heart go soft from these two stumps of smoking firebrands, because of the burning anger of Retzin, Aram, and the son of Remalyahu,
Nehemyah understood this principle better than Achaz. Stay calm: or "quiet"; keeping one's mouth shut is closely tied to being unafraid. By voicing "what if's", we erode the rock that YHWH sets us on, convince ourselves of the worst scenario, and get others thinking fearfully. This misdirected energy creates additional problems that were not really there to start with. Fear is an invitation to evil spirits, if not an actual act of
worshipping them. Smoking firebrands: compare 65:5.
5. "on account of the fact that Aram has given Efrayim and the son of Remalyahu evil advice, saying,
Efrayim (the scattered Northern Kingdom while it was out of fellowship with Yehudah) under Peqach (meaning "open") teamed up with Aram, the nation of Lavan ("the white one" and a "relative" of Israel, thus a picture of the institutional Gentile church) and together they persecuted the Jews, not realizing that they were closer relatives than the pagans who masquerade as friendly, but really seek only their own advantage. By being "open" to their influence, Israel came very close to destroying his true brothers.
6. “Let's go up against Yehudah and terrorize it, and cause a division in her for our own benefit, and set the son of Tav'el up to reign as king within her!'"
Terrorize: Heb., cause to feel a sickening dread. Tav'el: means "El has been good", or "Elohim is pleasing"--a clue as to whose son the Counterfeit Messiah is seen as. ("The good Lord"?) But it is also a code name for Remalyahu through a form of Hebrew encryption in which one letter is substituted for another by substituting letters from the first half of the alphabet for those in the second half. (Missler)
7. "Thus says the Master, YHWH: 'It will not stand; it's not going to happen,
8. "'because the capital of Aram is Dameseq, and the head of Dameseq is R'tzin, and within sixty-five years, Efrayim will be broken from [being] a people,
Dameseq was where Achaz went to meet the king of Ashur (Assyria), on whose help he called in this crisis. (2 Kings 16:7) But that king then attacked Israel, taking many captive. (2 Kings 15:27) Sixty-five years: long after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, which came only about 10 to 15 years after this prophecy.
9. "'Moreover, the capital of Efrayim is Shomron, and the head of Shomron is Remalyahu's son; if you will not believe it, it is because you are not to be established.'"
Believe: or "stand firm". Shomron: Samaria. Not to be established: Because he turned out to call on the help of a human king, and ended up giving away the Temple treasury in order to pay him, rather than simply asking YHWH for help.
10. Then YHWH spoke to Achaz yet again, saying,
11. "Ask for a sign for yourself from YHWH your Elohim; make the request [as] deep [as you wish], or make it from as high above [as you wish]!"
Sign: in Heb., "what distinguishes"--i.e., something clear-cut. This was a merciful offer to a king who lacked assurance of YHWH's good intentions toward Yehudah.
12. But Achaz said, "[No], I won't ask; I don't [want to] put YHWH to the test."
Put to the test: or tempt. YHWH responded favorably to one of the greatest tests ever given Him, that of Eliyahu's soaked sacrifices on Mount Karmel. (1 Kings 18) Achaz had the opposite of this spirit of faith. Since he proved that he would not be established, Yeshayahu broadens the scope of his audience:
13. So he [Yeshayahu] said, "Then listen, O house of David! Is it too small [a thing] for you to try the patience of mortal men? Must you try the patience of my Elohim too?
He had been commanded to ask; "to obey is better than sacrifice"! This was not true humility. Apparently it was mainly the prophet he did not trust, because he thought he knew these two armies well enough to predict what they would do.
14. "Therefore, Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold! The young woman has conceived and is giving birth to a son, and she will call his name Immanu-El.
Young woman: of marriageable age, in the broadest sense of the term. It probably has an immediate point of reference to a particular young woman present to Yeshayahu and the king (especially in context of v. 16, perhaps even a betrothed of the king himself, who was quite young. But how would that be an unmistakable sign of something contrary to Achaz's expectations? What would be so special or miraculous about a young woman conceiving a son? The term is translated by the LXX (some 200 years prior to the birth of Y'shua and thus long before the controversy about the virgin birth) as parthenos, a term contrasted in 1 Cor. 7:28 with a married woman, hence, a virgin. Thus, perhaps there was even a virgin birth at the time of Achaz, because how would an event 700 years later serve as a sign to Achaz? The other signs Y'shua did had been done before by prophets, even raising the dead. Ecclesiastes says that "what has happened once will happen again." But prophecies usually have a two-pronged reference: a partial fulfillment in the prophet's own day, and a fuller one relating to the Messiah, which includes the same elements as the prior fulfillment, but more. Also, Matithyahu (1:23) takes the prophecy as relating to a virgin birth, as it is explicitly stated that Yoseyf did not have relations with Miryam until after Y'shua was born (1:25; cf. Luk. 1:27). He did not take this verse out of context, for the preservation of the royal Davidic line is also Matithyahu's theme. Immanu-El means "El [is] with us". This was meant to comfort the king, and is repeated in 8:10. Avi Ben Mordechai reports that El is a name sometimes
correlated with YHWH's attribute of mercy or lovingkindness, and this is the aspect of His nature that He incarnated in Y'shua's first coming. (In contrast, for example, Elohim is a name that emphasizes YHWH's judgment.) Y'shua indeed said that whoever saw Him had seen the Father (Yochanan 14:9), though of course, no one has ever seen the Father Himself. (Yochanan 1:18; 6:46) So the entirety of YHWH was not present when Y'shua walked the earth. Indeed, He drew some clear distinctions between himself and the Father (e.g., Yochanan 14:28), probably to counter the deductions that would one day be made about his deity when the Gospels and Paul were interpreted through Gentile grids. Everything he did perfectly communicated exactly what the Father was like; if the Father Himself were to become visible, no one could have survived the intensity of His presence. So He sent us a Mediator, fleshing out His Word, which is Himself in a way, yet is a separate entity.
15. "He will eat butter and honey, so he may learn to know [how] to refuse the evil and choose the good,
Butter and honey: in the context of the House of David (v. 13), it is interesting that some of the foods chosen to strengthen David's people when they were especially weary. (2 Shmuel 17:29) Y'shua, too, would strengthen the House of David, being the only way it is preserved from extinction. See also v. 22.
16. "because before the lad knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the ground that you are dreading will be abandoned by both of her kings. Both of her kings: Aram apparently was considered to own the Land due to a treaty.
17. "YHWH will bring upon you and upon your people, as well as upon your father's house, days that have not come since the day that Efrayim departed from Yehudah--[namely] the king of Ashur [Assyria].
18. "Now what will happen in that day [is that] YHWH will whistle for the [stinging] fly that is at the farthest reaches of the rivers of Egypt, and the bee that is in the land of Ashur,
19. "and they will all come and lie down in the steep ravines and in the clefts of the rags, and among all the thornbushes and among all the pastures [with watering places].
YHWH is telling Achaz, "You do not have to worry about stopping these two kings; I already have someone else lined up to deal with them. You just learn from what is going to happen to the House of Israel."
20. "In that day, with a razor hired beyond the river--the king of Ashur--YHWH will shave the head and the leg-hair, and it will also sweep away the beard.
Shave the head: normally not allowable, except in the cases of cleansed lepers, Nazirites terminating their period of being set apart by a vow; otherwise, only pagans did so. But it would serve as a sign of the humiliation coming for a people who had disregarded YHWH's Torah. In Hebrew, the term for "legs" is also used for the pilgrimage festivals YHWH prescribed. (E.g., Ex. 23:14) The Talmud explains that the beard is the glory of a male. "Glory" in Hebrew really has the sense of "weightiness", "importance", and thus "authority". So having the beard shaved symbolizes a loss of authority or self-rule, as well as the fact that they were no longer a set apart as a people, and that they were essentially becoming pagans. (Hoshea 7:8 vouches for this.)
21. "And what will happen on that day is that a man will preserve a cow and two sheep alive,
On that day: a common idiom that shifts the frame of reference also to the Messianic Kingdom.
22. "and because of the abundance of milk they produce, he will eat butter, because butter and honey [is what] all who are left in the midst of the Land will eat.
Left in the midst: who remain in the "inner part" alive after the "opening scene", and who are not among those in the "outer darkness", but are favored by YHWH to inhabit the Land of Israel.
23. "And what will happen on that day [is that] every place where there are a thousand vines [worth] a thousand [pieces of] silver will turn into [a place] for briars and thornbushes.
A thousand vines: an allusion back to the parable in chapter 5.
24. "He will come there with arrows and the bow, because the whole land will become briars and thornbushes,
I.e., it would be so overgrown that it would become a game-hunting ground.
25. "and [as for] all the mountains that will be dug with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briars and thorns; rather, it will be [a place] to send oxen out to pasture, and for flocks to trample down."
Compare Y'shua's parable of the thorns and weeds that choke out his words. (Mat. 13:22)
CHAPTER 8
1. Then YHWH told me, "Take a large flat surface for yourself and write on it with a mortal man's engraving tool, 'For Maher-Shalal-Chash-Baz'."
Maher-Shalal-Chash-Baz means "Plunder hurries, spoils come quickly". The context continues to be the overthrow of the Northern Kingdom and Aram by Ashur (Assyria).
2. So I summoned to myself reliable witnesses, Uriyah the priest and Z'charyah the son of Y'verechyahu.
Uriyah means "YHWH is my light"; Z'charyah, "YHWH has remembered", and Y'verechyahu, "May YHWH bless".
3. Then I approached the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and YHWH told me, "Declare that his name is Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,
4. "because before the lad knows how to cry, "My daddy!" or "My mommy!", the strength of Dameseq and the plunder of Shomron will be carried off in front of the king of Ashur."
My daddy...My mommy: Much easier to say in Hebrew than in English ("avi" and "imi"), thus the child would not need to be very old at all. They could very well be his forst words.
5. And YHWH continued to tell me still more:
6. "On account of this people despising the waters of Shiloach which proceed gently, and being excited about R'tzin and Remalyahu's son,
7. "therefore, behold, YHWH is bringing up over them the waters of the River, strong and numerous--the king of Assyria, and al his glory! And he will go up over his channels, and proceed over all his banks,
His banks: the proper boundaries of his empire.
8. "and he will trespass into Yehudah, and he will overflow and cross over. He will reach all the way to the neck, and when his wings are spread out they will fill the whole breadth of your Land, O Immanuel!"
Your Land: YHWH has deeded it specifically to him (Y'shua), but this also suggests that the immediate reference may be to someone in whose hands the Land would be in the immediate context--perhaps Hizqiyahu, the next king? In his days, the Assyrians did try to capture Yerushalayim. (2 Kings 18:13) Hizqiyahu means "YHWH is my Strength". His wings: compare 18:1.
9. Break in pieces, O peoples, then be shattered! And cup your ear, all who are from the far-off parts of the earth. Equip yourselves, then be broken in pieces! Gird yourselves [for war], but you will be shattered!
10. Take counsel and [make your] plan, but it will be frustrated. Speak a word, but it shall not stand, because El is with us--
El is with us: Heb., Immanu-El.
11. because this is what YHWH said to me with the strength of the hand, when correcting me from walking in the way of this nation:
12. "Do not say, 'A conspiracy!' for everything that this nation calls a conspiracy. Don't be afraid of what they are afraid of, and don't be terrified.
13. "YHWH of Armies--He is the One to treat as in a separate category. Let Him be the one you respect, and let Him be the One you makes you tremble with awe!
I.e., concentrate on Him, not on what men are doing. These things have to take place, much like the New World Order we see usurping our nations today, since a unified world is prophesied for the last days. He is still in control. The scattering of the Northern Kingdom was from Him (1 Kings 12:24)--part of an "expansion" that started when YHWH separated Chavvah from
Adam, and continued through Bavel and Israel's dispersion until the "fullness of time", when Y'shua appeared (Gal. 4:4), and began to "let the rubber band snap back". He initiated the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21) by sending his apostles out to start regathering the "lost sheep of the House of Israel". After we have become a cohesive people, we will again be rejoined with Yehudah (Hos. 1:11), and keep continuing back through the repetition of what happened before (Eccles. 3:15; 6:10) in the "contraction" which will culminate in the "birthpangs" of one new Man (Eph. 4:13). History thus goes through a "mirror image" until Eden itself is restored. Paul speaks of seeing Y'shua as in a mirror and becoming like him. (2 Cor. 3:18; cf. 1
Yochanan 3:2) Yaaqov (James 1:23) says that mirror is the Torah, the perfect law of liberty, because Y'shua is the "word made flesh" and thus by reading YHWH's instruction, we see what He looked like and what we really are as well. Adam ("Man" in Hebrew) and Eden itself will be restored. When all is put under Messiah (the "Last Adam")'s feet, we will continue back even to the day when YHWH was "all in all" (1 Cor. 12:6; 15:28; Eph. 1:23). That is what He is doing in our day, and this is where we must put our energy, rather than focusing on the apparent physical threats.
14. "And He shall become as a sanctuary, a stone to strike and a rock that causes stumbling for both Houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the one who dwells in Yerushalayim.
Sanctuary: a set-apart place. The teachings inherent in the Temple are the "snare" that YHWH promised to use to regather the Northern Kingdom and recapture our hearts (Y'hezq'el/Ezk. 43). It corresponds with Y'shua, our sanctuary, who is indeed described as "a stumbling-stone" (Luk. 2:34; Rom. 9:33; 1 Kefa/Peter 2:8)
15. "And many among them will stumble and fall, and become crippled, entrapped, and captured."
16. Tie up the confirmation; fix a seal on instruction to the ones I have taught,
17. and I will wait for YHWH, who causes His face to be hidden from the House of Yaaqov, and I will watch for Him with eager expectation.
18. Indeed, I and the children YHWH has given me are [to serve] as distinguishing signs and tokens in Israel from YHWH of Armies, who dwells in Mount Tsion.
19. "And since they tell you, 'Consult those who invoke the dead or those who have familiar spirits, who chirp and mutter', shouldn't a nation consult its Elohim, rather than the living praying to the dead?
20. "To instruction and confirmation! If they do not speak in agreement with this, it is because there is no dawning in them!
Instruction: Heb., Torah. This is the way we must weight and test the words of any prophec, and any proper interpretation of the Renewed Covenant will only confirm what it already says. (Mat. 5:17-18; Rom. 3:31) Why look for new revelation, when He has already written His down? What He's told us before is the truth. The main point of any prophecy is to explain the Word
that has already been given.
21. "And they will pass through it, hard-pressed and hungry. And because they are hungry, what will happen is that he will work himself into a rage, and have contempt on his king and his Elohim, and turn his face upward.
22. "And they shall turn their attention toward the Land, and behold distress and darkness, and gloom from anguish, and they will be thrust into calamity.
Calamity: or "thick darkness", from a word meaning that the sun had set on something. Compare 9:1.
23. "Yet the covering of darkness will not be what she had the distress about, like the first time He brought contempt on the land of Z'vulun and the land of Nafthali, as afterwards He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea beyond the Yarden--Galil of the Nations.
I.e., the distress would make things turn out well for those YHWH favored. (cf. Rom. 8:28) All through the epistles to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks of how the events that will come as a surprise to those who are in darkness will only benefit those who belong to the Light. Way of the Sea: a major trade route running from Mesopotamia, through the Yarden Valley, then through the Yezre'el Valley and past Megiddo, across the Karmel range, and down along the coast to Egypt. Galil of the Nations: west of Lake Kinnereth, a hilly region that by Y'shua's time had been under Gentile control, then resettled by both Jews and other Israelites, but had a strong Gentile
influence. This makes it abundantly clear that these prophecies are Messianic. Galil, the tribal lands of Z'vulun and Nafthali, would be made very important because that is where Y'shua the Messiah would spend most of his life and public ministry. (Mat. 4:13-17) In some English Bibles this verse is 9:1.
CHAPTER 9
1. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light! A light has shone on those who dwell in the shadow of death!
Note all the imagery of the feast of Sukkoth (Booths) in this chapter: great lights, joy, harvest, release from oppression, the birth of Y'shua, and his Kingdom.
2. You have greatly increased the nation. No, You have magnified the joy! They have rejoiced before You like the joy of harvest, like the gladness in distributing the plunder,
The joy of YHWH seems to transcend our limitations; growth is not always lateral. When He deepens our capacity, we still grow larger. But it is only so we can hold more of what He wants to pour out to others, like the widow who fed Eliyahu (1 Kings 17).
3. because You have shattered the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, and the scepter of the one who oppresses them [through tyranny], like the day of Midyan,
Day of Midyan: or "a day of strife".
4. because every boot of a trampler is in commotion, and a garment is rolled in blood, and it will become fuel to keep a fire burning,
In commotion: or "skaing, quaking, trembling, confused noise". A garment rolled in blood: perhaps a reference to the day of Y'shua's execution, when the earth quaked and the Adversary's yoke was thrown off anyone who joins the Second Adam's restored race.
5. because a child is born to us! A son is given to us, and the dominion will be on his shoulder! And his name is proclaimed [to be] "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty Prevailing Judge, Founder of [Eternal] Continuity, Prince of Peace.
Dominion: The position must belong to someone from the tribe of Yehudah and a descendant in particular of David. The word carries the connotation of having fought for it. This may refer to a physical end-time battle and/or Y'shua's having won back the dominion Adam had over the earth before he surrendered it to the taskmaster mentioned above. Y'shua removed haSatan's
right to the earth by allowing haSatan to kill him unjustly. HaSatan had a right to kill anyone else, but became a murderer through Y'shua's death, since he had done nothing deserving of death. Shoulder: Heb. sh'chem, the name of the city Levi and Shim'on destroyed, which Yoseyf deeded to Yoseyf and where he is buried (Nablus today). It was also the city where Y'shua met the Samaritan woman at the well, beginning to take his bride from the lost sheep of the House of Israel, just as Moshe and Yaaqov had met their wives at wells. (Yochanan 4) Wonderful: This identifies Y'shua as the Messenger who brought the news of Shimshon (Samson)'s birth (Judges 13:18), since he said his name was "wonderful" (a related form of the word, which means
"incomprehensible and hard to understand). Counselor: or advisor, consultant.
Prevailing judge: indeed he defeated the Adversary. The word "judge" is again El. The term ranges from human judges (Ps. 82:6) to angelic beings to YHWH Himself. Thoma recognized that Y'shua was this type of judge (Yochanan 20:28) after he proved his doubting to have been erroneous. As Yoseyf was given Pharaoh's signet ring and was for nearly all intents and purposes treated as if he were Pharaoh himself, this "son" would have a unique association with YHWH, which to some extent is "incomprehensible". He would be YHWH's deputy and representative, having been given all authority (Mat. 28:18) by the One greater than He. Continuity: from a word meaning "to advance onward", and Y'shua was the "founder" of this opportunity for Adam, the restored human race, to continue into eternity rather than be burned up
like the garments and boots in v. 4. Peace: Y'shua's Kingdom will be the first time true peace is known on earth, and it will be enforced with a "rod of iron". But the word "shalom" means more--complete soundness, total well-being, security, and prosperity of every type.
6. There is no end of the increase of his dominion and of peace, on the throne of David, and over his realm, to set it in order and to sustain it with a legal system and righteousness from now on and forever. Jealousy [for] YHWH of Armies will accomplish this.
Set it in order: build a "skeletal" framework on which righteousness can be fleshed out. We cannot keep the Torah in all its fullness until we have the community of Israel again, under Messiah. Though Y'shua initiated it and made it possible, YHWH cannot ratify the Renewed Covenant with the two houses of Israel (Yirmiyahu/Jer. 31:31) until there is again a House of Israel to cut the covenant with! When there is a throne established, Y'shua can take his rightful place. He is beginning to build this framework again, but we need to trust the leaders He is again setting in place as there were under Moshe. Sustain: or establish, support. Jealousy for YHWH: exemplified well through Pin'chas (Num. 25:7), the Maccabees, and Y'shua (Yochanan 2:15), who single-handedly took on large-scale opposition to YHWH while others stood idly by. This type of heroic choices will again be part of what establishes the coming Kingdom. Notice the connection with armies, as they may be utilized in setting up this Kingdom.
7. Adonai sent a word into Yaaqov, and it has come down to Israel,
8. and they will know--all of them: Efrayim and the inhabitant of Shomron, in her arrogance and greatness of heart, saying,
9. "Bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stones; sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars!"
In their arrogance, they did not recognize YHWH's punishment, and simply began to rebuild things in their own way, saying they could do even better this time. Cut stones: symbolizing being shaped by men's doctrines--the antithesis of the altars that could not have any human tool applied (Ex. 20:25), but had to be built with stones shaped only by running water, a symbol of YHWH's pure, unadulterated Word. Compare the Tower of Bavel, which also substituted humanly-processed materials for those in their natural form.
10. But YHWH has raised up the oppressors of R'tzin against him, and his enemies--
11. Aram in front, Filistines behind--and they devour Israel with the whole mouth.
Israel: In this context, only the Northern Kingdom.
12. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out, yet the people are not returning to Him who is striking them, and they do not carefully seek out YHWH of Armies.
Despite all this...: This phrase is repeated twice below as a "refrain", showing more clearly how prophets usually sang out their messages. Returning to Him who is striking them: for "whom YHWH loves He disciplines" (Prov. 3:12). Here He seems surprised that they would not come back for more correction; it only shows that they do not wish to be the best they can be. Perhaps the concept of "turning the other cheek" relates to this context of submitting to further sharpening.
13. So YHWH will cut off from Israel head and tail, frond and reed [in] one day.
14. An elder or honored one--he is the head, and the prophet who teaches falsehood, he is the tail,
Honored one: literally, "lifted of face".
15. and this people's guides will be the ones who lead them astray, and the ones in it who are led along are swallowed up.
16. Therefore, Adonai will not rejoice over its young men, nor will He have compassion on their orphans or widows, for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks foolishness. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out,
Profane: or a hypocrite.
17. for wickedness burns like a fire; it devours briars and thornbushes, and it sets the thickets of the forest ablaze, and they shall billow up like a column of smoke.
18. The Land is scorched by YHWH's outburst, and the people will become like the fire's fuel; no man will even spare his brother,
19. and he will cut off on the right hand, yet be hungry; he will eat on the left, yet they will not be satisfied. Each man will eat the flesh of his own arm.
Eat the flesh of his own arm: This may include the practice of transubstantiation, in which some claim to actually eat the body of the one called YHWH's "right arm". Having a distorted view of Him, they are still hungry, and cannibalize the Body they too are a part of, rather than asking
YHWH Himself for added sustenance.
20. Menashe [devours] Efrayim, and Efrayim, Menashe; together they [will come] against Yehudah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out.
Chapters 10-14
CHAPTER 10
1. "Woe to those who enact unjust decrees and who put in writing wearisome things that they have prescribed,
Wearisome things that they have prescribed: Aramaic, "toilsome writs", i.e., "legalese" in which the fine print is burdensome to read and simple justice is encumbered by numerous manipulative clauses. According to Torah, Israel's justice system is not to work that way; YHWH has no fellowship with injustice. (Ps. 58; 94:20) This, more than the pagan worship that was also
going on, was the main reason He was about to bring trouble upon Yehudah, as at the Flood of Noach and the destruction of S'dom.
2. "to thrust the weak away from a just verdict, and by force take away the rights of the poor of My people, so that widows may be their prey, and they may plunder orphans!
Y'shua also rebuked religious leaders for "plundering widows' houses", when the Torah tells us to afford them special protection, and making up new instructions which placed heavier burdens on people than YHWH intended. (Mat. 23:14)
3. "And what will you do for the day of reckoning, and for devastation? It comes from far away! To whom will you escape for help? And where will you abandon your reputation?
4. "Apart from Me, you would have bowed down under the prisoner, and they will fall under the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out.
Apart from Me...: The Aramaic targum interprets this as meaning, "Outside your Land, you will..."
5. "Woe to Ashur, the rod of My anger, and My rage--it is the staff in their hand!
They were oppressing their own nearest kinsmen, so He sent distant cousins to punish them (for Ashur was the second son of Shem).
6. "Against a hypocritical nation will I send him--against the people of My overflowing rage! I will commission him to take the plunder and seize the spoils, and to turn them into a trampling-place like the mud of the streets.
Hypocritical: or profaned, irreligious. He is speaking about Yehudah, who has turned away from YHWH.
7. "Yet this is not his intent, nor is this what his heart is counting on,
because [what is] in his heart is to annihilate and eliminate not a few nations,
8. "since he says, ‘Aren't my chieftains just like kings?
He: Apparently a collective reference to a series of Assyrian kings. nnacheriv, who ruled Ashur from 705-681 B.C.E., attacked Yehudah in 701 B.C.E. (See the story in chapters 36-37) By most chronologies this should be 21 years after Shomron fell to his predecessor Shalmaneser (traditionally 722), but 2 Kings 18 states that Sennacheriv attacked Yehudah only six years
after Shomron fell. (See also 2 Chron. 32) Thiele's reckoning of the chronology of kings taking into account that sometimes the same year was counted as the last year of one king's reign and the next king's first allows all the chronologies in Scripture to agree, but might thus place the fall of Shomron as late as 709 B.C.E. This might then push the date of the end of the Northern Kingdom's "not being a people" (a 2,730-year sentence) back to as late as A.D. 2019 rather than 2008. However, this time clock may have started 12 years earlier when the Kingdom first began being exiled by Ashur, rather than the year the capital finally fell.
9. "‘Isn't Kalno the same as Karchemish? Isn't Chamath the same as Arpad? Isn't Shomron just like Dameseq?
Kalno: Also called Kalneh, it was one of the cities that Nimrod founded (Gen.10:11), but was captured by Assyria during the 8th century B.C.E. Karchemish: the Hittite capital on the Ferath (Euphrates) River, until Assyria overtook it. Chamath: a major Syrian city in the Orontes Valley.
Arpad: another major city in Syria. Shomron: Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. I.e., "Aren't they all the same to me?" This boast is also chronicled in 2 Kings 18:29-35. Hizqiyahu had the wisdom to tell the people to simply remain silent in the face of his taunts.
10. "‘Just as my hand has succeeded in acquiring the dominions of the imaginary gods whose engravings [were greater] than Yerushalayim or Shomron,
He is taking inventory of these cities that have maintained their prestige under subjection to him. Apparently they had remained prosperous, and he thought he was following the most successful method of conquest. Imaginary gods: literally, "nothings", "falsehoods", or "worthless things".
11. "‘won't I do the same to Yerushalayim and her images as I have done to Shomron and her worthless gods?'
His intention was only to conquer, not to carry out YHWH's justice on Israel and Yehudah, but to add to his own repertoire of victories. Images: "shapes that grieve", "formed shapes", or "copies"; since Israel was not to make images of YHWH, any graven images in Yerushalayim would be copies of those from other nations. Was he mistaken about there being images in
Yerushalayim? Or is this an indication that idolatry (even if in the Name of YHWH) had crept in there too? Shomron:
12. "So this is what will take place when Adonai will have accomplished all His business on Mount Tsion and Yerushalayim: I will call to account the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Ashur, and [bring the consequences] upon the splendor of his haughty looks,
13. "since he says, ‘I have succeeded because of the strength of my hand and my wisdom, because I have the know-how! What's more, I have taken away the borders of nations, and plundered what they had made ready, and subdued their inhabitants like a mighty [man]!
Have the know-how: am intelligent, discerning, savvy. Taken away borders: just what every empire-builder wishes to do to others, adding them to his own territory. We hear the same calls today to unite all the nations of the world into one; the spirit of Bavel still remains.
14. "‘I have succeeded in acquiring the wealth of nations; I have collected the whole earth just as one collects eggs from an abandoned nest, and there was not one who fluttered a wing or opened the mouth or chirped!'
I.e., "It's been so easy; those other gods did nothing to stop me. They must be on my side! I must be doing something right! Yet remember that sometimes the wicked prosper by their own wickedness; if they are not receiving any correction from YHWH, it must mean He is paying them little attention (Prov. 3:12), having turned them over to their own foolishness. (Rom. 1:21ff) That He does acknowledge it even to this degree is His mercy, which we see in the account of Yonah, for he prophesied to the Assyrian capital, Nin'veh.
15. "Shall the axe glorify itself over the one who cuts with it? [As] if a saw should promote itself above the one wielding it, like a rod brandishing itself against those who take it up, as [if in] lifting itself up, the staff [was] no [longer merely a piece of] wood!"
The last phrases in Aramaic read, "When one lifts the rod to strike, the rod does not strike, but he who strikes with it." He's only a tool, but he thinks the power is his. But, as with Pharaoh, YHWH was only using Ashur's innate pride serve His purposes.
16. Therefore the Master YHWH of Armies will send scrawniness on His fat ones, and under His heaviness He will kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.
Y'shua said He had a fire to kindle after He underwent the "immersion" of His death. (Luk. 12:49; cf. 3:17) Scrawniness: Where is the Assyrian empire today?
17. Then the Light of Israel will come to serve as a fire, and His Holy One as a flame, and it will burn and consume His thornbushes and briers in a single day,
The Light of Israel: YHWH. His Holy One: the Aramaic targum identifies this as His Memra (living Word), i.e., the Messiah.
18. and it will finish off the abundance of His forest and His fruitful plantation, both soul and body, and it will be like when a sick person melts away,
Soul and body: or "life and flesh".
19. and the trees that remain in His forest will be so [few in] number [that] even a boy can record their [tally].
Apparently there were far more thorns and briars than trees.
20. And what will transpire in that Day is that those who remain of Israel and the remnant from the House of Yaaqov who are rescued will never again rely on the one who subjugated it, but rather will truly rely on YHWH, the Holy One of Israel [for support].
21. A remnant will return--the remnant of Yaaqov--to [the] Mighty Prevailing Judge!
A remnant will return: the meaning of the name of Yeshayahu's son, Sh'ar-Yashuv. Mighty Prevailing Judge: El-Gibbor, one of the names of the "child who is born, the Son who is given" (9:5), i.e., Yahshua. He is the one to whom a remnant will return.
22. For though yor people Israel should become like the sand of the sea, [only] a remnant of it will return--a conclusion [that is] decreed, overflowing [with] righteousness,
Decisive...righteousness: or "a mutilating annihilation, washing in with right-rulings”.
23. because Adonai, YHWH of Armies, is bringing about a complete, decisive end within the whole Land.
24. Therefore, thus says Adonai, YHWH of Armies, "O people of Mine, who dwell in Tsion, do not be afraid of Ashur! With the rod he will strike you, and he will lift up his staff against you on the way to Egypt,
Rod and staff: YHWH's instruments of comfort, though they are severe. (Psalm 23) On the way to Egypt: It was due to Hizqiyahu's conspiring with Egypt against Ashur that the letter attacked them both, but the phrase could also mean, "the way Egypt did". Note that the message that they should not be afraid only those in Tsion, and only those who are truly YHWH's people--i.e., those loyal to Him. Many other cities in Yehudah were besieged and conquered by the Assyrians, most notably Lachish, for their sins. (Micha 1:13)
25. "yet still in [only] a short while, indignation will come to an end, and My anger [will now be] in regard to their being used."
Or, "My anger in regard to them will be spent." Their: i.e., Israel and Yehudah's being "used up" by Ashur (Assyria).
26. Then YHWH of Armies will stir up over him a whip like the wounding scourge of Midyan at the Rock of Orev, and as His rod was over the sea when he lifted it on the way [from] Egypt.
Rock of Orev: where Gid'on slew two Midyanite kings and their armies. (The story is in Judges 7 and 8.)
27. And what will transpire on that Day is that his burden will be taken off of your shoulder, and his yoke [taken] off the back of your neck, and the yoke will be twisted [until it breaks] from the presence of [the] oil.
One yoke is traded in for another--an "easy yoke" (Mat. 11:29-30) because it is shared by "another called alongside to help" us, for oil is a symbol of the anointing of the Spirit of Holiness, especially upon Messiah (see 11:2 below). And that Spirit is upon His Body in a special way when we are assembled together.
28. He has arrived at Ayath; he has crossed over at Migron, and has entrusted his equipment to Mikhmash!
29. They have crossed the ford! Geva was where they lodged. Ramah is trembling; Giv'ah of Sha'ul has taken flight!
Mikhmash, Geva, Ramah, Giv'ah, and Gallim (v. 30) are just north of Yerushalayim along the border between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. There is a progression in these towns that depicts the army moving closer and closer to Yerushalayim.
30. Let out a shrill scream of distress, O daughter of Gallim! Get their attention in Laish, O afflicted Anathoth!
Anathoth: a town just north of Yerushalayim from which the prophet Yirmiyahu came.
31. Madmenah has fled; the inhabitants have taken refuge in the cisterns.
32. He has continued on and today has taken his stand at Nov; he brandishes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Tsion, the hill of Yerushalayim.
Nov: a town on a hill overlooking Yerushalayim itself. Daughter of Tsion: one of the hills surrounding Yerushalayim, or the villages situated on them.
33. Here YHWH of Armies allows the bough to be lopped off with an awful crash, the lofty ones of stature are cut down, and the haughty ones will be brought low!
2 Kings 19 describes how Sennacheriv came up to the walls of Yerushalayim but was kept from attacking the city. Compare the theme of branches being cut off in Judges 9 and Romans 11.
34. And with iron He will cut all around the thickets of the forest, and the Levanon will fall by a majestic one!
The Levanon: a then-wooded mountain range north of Israel, snow-capped in winter, hence its name, which means "the very white". The Aramaic targum interprets all these trees to be Ashur's armies. The other biblical accounts refer only to Sennacheriv's coming from Lachish (the last of the cities fortified chiefly to defend Yerushalayim), but the Ascent of Beth-Horon (which passes the towns mentioned in vv. 28-32) would be the only major route by which a huge army could travel from Lachish to Yerushalayim due to the mountainous terrain between them.
CHAPTER 11
1. But a twig will shoot forth from Yishai, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit,
Twig: The targum interprets this as "a king", and the "branch" specifically as the Messiah.
2. and the Spirit of YHWH will alight upon Him--the spirit of wisdom and discernment, the spirit of counsel and bravery, the spirit of knowledge and the [reverential] fear of YHWH--
The Spirit...will alight upon Him: clearly, visibly fulfilled immediately after Y'shua's immersion by Yochanan. (Mat. 3:16; Mk. 1:10; Luk. 3:22) Seven spirits are mentioned here. (cf. Rev. 1:4; 3:1; 4:5; 5:6) In Hebrew, wisdom means "shrewd" and "able to put the pieces in place"; discernment means understanding and the ability to judge between one thing and another. Counsel means being able to both plan and give advice. Bravery means "strength" and "force". Knowledge means "intimate acquaintance" which leads to "certainty"; Yesh. 5:13 says the lack of this is why His people went into exile, so the way back out will be given through the recovery thereof. As
His Body, none of us will have all of these in their completeness, but when we assemble together and all our gifts function as they are meant to, we will have an ample supply of all we need.
3. and will make Him breathe in the fear of YHWH, and He will not decide a case by what His eyes see or convict by what His ears hear,
Breathe: from the same word as "spirit", it can also mean to "smell". Rabbinic scholars therefore say the Messiah will not judge by his eyes or ears, but by what He smells. But recall also when Y'shua breathed on the disciples and told them to receive the Spirit of Holiness (Yochanan 20:22), just as YHWH breathed the spirit of life into Adam, since Y'shua was GIVEN
the power to have life in Himself like the Father already had. (Yoch. 5:26; compare "MAKE Him breathe" here.) His salient case was the woman taken in adultery (Yoch. 8), but He always spent nights in prayer and listened for His Father's will rather than bowing to the will of the people. (Luk. 4:42, 43; 6:12, 13)
4. but He will judge the poor with righteousness, and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth, and He will strike the earth with the scepter of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He will put the wicked to death.
Y'shua said His judgment was righteous, because He was not seeking His own will, but His Father's. (Yoch. 5:30) He did not entrust Himself to men, because he knew what was in their hearts. (Yoch. 2:23) Equity: from a word meaning "level", "straightforward", and "direct"; i.e., all parties are on a "level playing field" when tried: the rich are not given an unfair advantage,
and neither are the poor. (Lev. 19:15) Breath of His lips: or "Spirit of His language". The wicked: the Aramaic interpolates "Romulus", one name for the counterfeit Messiah, the head of the nations that oppose Israel, as borne out in Rev. 19:15, 21.
5. And righteousness shall become the innermost band encircling His waist, and trustworthiness the band around His loins.
6. Then the wolf will stay with the lamb, and the leopard will stretch out along with the kids, with the calf and the lion cub and the well-fed cattle all together, and a little lad leads them along.
The United Nations has made this their theme, but they are out of season. Notice it is "THEN"--after the Messiah sets up His Kingdom--that all this will take place. (The Aramaic targum specifies that this refers to "the days of Messiah".) To be specific, the wolf is linked with the tribe of Binyamin (Gen. 49:27), and part of the Temple complex, where lambs are brought for sacrifice, is in Binyamin's tribal land. The leopard is linked with the Kushite in Yirmiyahu (Jer.) 13:23, and Kush (below, v. 11) is one of the places from which YHWH will bring His scattered people back. In the same context, Efrayim is called a "calf" (Yirm. 31:18), and the lion has always been linked to Yehudah (Gen. 49:9; and especially the Messiah, Rev. 5:5). A "little lad" is specifically what David is called (several times in 1 Shmuel 17), and the Messiah is sometimes called David since he is David's son (Y'chezq'el/Ezk. 34:23; 37:25).
7. The cow and the bear will [both] graze, and their offspring will stretch out together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox!
Seven animals are mentioned, just like the seven women in ch.4 , and the seven spirits in ch. 10.
8. The nursing child will even play over the poisonous snake's den, and the weaned child over the viper's den.
9. They will neither cause injury nor destroy on any [part] of My holy Mountain, because the earth will be full of the knowledge of YHWH, just as the waters cover the sea!
Earth: or "Land". Cause injury: "break" or "do evil". Destroy: or "bring corruption", "ruin", or "pervert". Knowledge: because of Yahshua's rod of iron which does not bend, there will be absolute certainty about what YHWH is like and what he wants.
10. And what will take place in that Day [is that] the Root of Yishai that stands as a rallying point for the peoples; to it will nations resort, and His rest will be splendid.
Rallying point: standard, banner, or signal--something very conspicuous. Resort: or seek out diligently. His rest: or resting-place--the Kingdom, of which we get a preview each week in the Sabbath day. Splendid: glorious, full of abundance, dignity, and having the reputation for being important. The Root of Yishai is also called Yishai's branch. (v. 1)
11. And what will take place in that Day [is that] YHWH will again extend His hand the second [time] to acquire a remnant of His people that will be left--from Ashur, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Kush, from Eylam, from Shinar, from Chamath, and from the islands of the sea,
12. and He will lift up a signal for the nations, and gather in those driven out of Israel, and assemble the dispersed of Yehudah from the four extremities of the earth.
Signal: or signpost, insignia, banner, standard, rallying point. Gather in: or "collect back". Israel and Yehudah are distinguished. Of the first, the Northern Kingdom, YHWH promised that though He would sift the House of Israel among the nations as with a sieve, not one would be lost. (Amos 9:9)
13. Then Efrayim's envy will be removed, and those of Yehudah who cause distress will be cut off; Efrayim will not envy Yehudah, and Yehudah will not cause Efrayim distress.
The targum clarifies that "the House of Efrayim" (not the man Efrayim, the son of Yoseyf) envies Yehu-dah's connection to her roots only while he does not have it; when he is reconnected, there is no reason to envy Yehudah anymore. The term for"cause distress" is a legal one, meaning "to bind". I.e., Yehudah oppresses Efrayim as we try to return, by saying we can only be part of Israel if we abide by their interpretations of how to "walk out" Torah, and by emphasizing the letter apart from its spirit, thus, as Y'shua said, placing an unbearable burden on him. (Mat. 23:4)
14. Rather, they will fly on the shoulders of the Filistines toward the sea, and, united, plunder the sons of the east. Edom and Moav are where they stretch out their hand; the sons of Ammon will be their subjects,
Shoulders: or "mountain-slopes". Aramaic, "ally themselves shoulder to shoulder, to strike the Filistines who are in the west" (seaward from Israel). Filistines: means "immigrants" or "sojourners". The ancient Filistine territory had no mountains, but was all coastal plain; Filistines
on mountain slopes are the Palestinians of today, by their own title for themselves. And indeed the term "Palestine" was probably an epithet the Romans placed on the Land to erase the memory of Yehudah and "honor" their ancient arch-enemy, the Filistines (though the etymology is now being disputed by serious scholars). "Fly on the shoulders" may mean to chase them
to the sea--the very thing they have often threatened to do to Yehudah. Stretch out their hand: possibly"enlarge the borders of their tent" (54:2), since they will "possess the remnant of Edom" (Amos 9:12). Alt. Reading: "the ones to whom they stretch out their hand" as in giving orders, as in the parallel final phrase of this verse.
15. and YHWH will completely destroy the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and He will wave His hand over the river with the heat of His breath, and strike it into seven stream beds, and tread it down with the shoes,
The River: usually refers to the Ferath (Euphrates). But since this event is to be even bigger than the original Exodus (Yirmiyahu/Jer. 16:14), and by Jewish tradition there were twelve paths through the Red Sea when Moshe led all of Israel across, this may refer to seven tribes coming across a whole ocean dryshod from the West...
16. and there will be a highway for the remnant of His people that will be left from Ashur, just as it was for Israel in the day when he went up from the land of Egypt.
Highway: literally, a raised path. Left from Ashur: or possibly "left behind by Ashur". Steve Collins reports that only a small percentage of the Northern Kingdom were actually taken captive by Ashur; many were already abroad in colonies set up by the Phoenician alliance that included Israel as well as Tzur (Tyre) and Tsidon, and others fled by ship when the Assyrian army was approaching. Others escaped from bondage to Ashur but did not return to the Land (while a few did, some mingling with the Samaritans). But YHWH promises to bring the remnant back, which is why many of us have felt this strong pull back to Torah and the Land of Israel.
CHAPTER 12
1. And in that Day you will say, "I will thank You, YHWH, because [though] You were exasperated with me, Your anger has turned away, and You will console me.
The imagery is of a parent comforting his child after punishing him.
2. "Behold, El is my deliverance! I will have confidence and not be in dread, because ‘YHWH is my strength and my song of Yah's praise, and He has become a deliverance for me.'"
El is: Aramaic, "In the Memra of [El]..." Everything after "because" is a quote from the Song of Moshe (Ex. 15:2) YHWH is my song of Yah's praise: This appears to be telling us to sing His own name back to Him. Become a deliverance: salvation or liberation; Aramaic, "He has spoken by His Memra, and become for me a Savior". How much more clearly could this refer to Y'shua? This is the traditional opening line for the liturgy for Havdallah [distinguishing], the time when the pressures of ordinary life rush back upon one after the Sabbath's respite.
3. So you can [all] draw water with rejoicing from the wellsprings of deliverance!
This is a song traditionally sung at Sukkoth (just after harvest) as a prayer for rain for the next growing season.
4. And in that Day you will say, "Give thanks to YHWH! Call on His Name! Among the peoples, make His dealings known! Cause it to be remembered that His Name is being set [inaccessibly] on high!
Call on His Name: The name specified just beforehand, not the names of the "bride's old boyfriends", is literally the one we are meant to call on. While He may listen to the ignorant and immature using the only names they have heard, once we know better, we have no excuse. The first of the "Ten Declarations" is "I am YHWH." That in itself should set our tone. Aramaic:
"Pray in His Name."
5. [Memorialize] YHWH with a musical instrument, because He has accomplished excellent [things]; this is known in the whole earth.
Excellent: in the literal sense--excelling, swelling up majestically, rising or growing like a column of smoke. Aramaic, "He does prodigious things."
6. Squeal and let your shout ring out, O inhabitant of Tsion, because the Holy One of Israel is magnified in your innermost part!
Aramaic, "the great one has promised to rest His Sh'khinah in your midst, the Holy One of Israel".
CHAPTER 13
1. The oracle [concerning] Bavel, which Yeshayahu, son of Amotz, perceived:
Oracle: or burden; "that which is lifted up". The Aramaic targum adds
"of a cup of cursing". Bavel: Babylon. Perceived: the term specifically
pertains to his role as a seer.
2. "Lift up a banner on a barren mountain! Make the voice grow louder for
them! Wave a hand, that they may enter the doorways of the nobles.
Banner: in the rabbinical view, always a reference to the Messiah. Barren: or "wind-swept", "cleared off"--i.e., one from which a clear signal can be sent with nothing obstructing the view. But "mountain" often signals a reference to the Temple, and if its mountain is barren, it means the Muslim shrines the t now occupy it are gone. Voice: or the sound of a shofar. Wave a hand: i.e., get their attention! But the Messiah is also often called YHWH's "right hand". So all of this imagery points to Messiah's involvement in Babylon's fall.
3. "I have given orders to My holy ones; I have also commissioned My valiant ones to [carry out] My anger--those who rejoice in My triumph.
Holy ones: or in this case, poerhaps, "special forces", set apart to a particular task. Valiant ones: LXX, "giants". The same thing that happened
to Bavel that happened to Ashur, its predecessor. (Chapter 10) Like Pharaoh also, YHWH punishes an oppressor for carrying out His judgment because they enjoyed it. So YHWH's warriors will rejoice at Bavel's fall. "Rejoice" here more specifically means "jump for joy."
4. "The sound of a commotion in the mountains, as of a multitude of people! The noise of an uproar of kingdoms of Gentiles assembled together! YHWH of Armies is mustering an army for the battle.
5. "YHWH and His instruments of wrath are coming from a distant Land on the horizon, to bring ruin to the whole Land.
Horizon: literally, end of the heavens. Ruin: or twisting destruction, or being tied up.
6. "Wail, for the Day of YHWH is near! It will come as devastation from Shaddai.
Devastation: havoc or violent destruction. Shaddai is the name of YHWH in His nurturing aspect, since the word is rooted in "breast". So here He is like a mother bear attacking those who threaten her cubs.
7. "Therefore, all hands will go slack, and every mortal man's heart will faint,
8. "and they have panicked; cramps and pangs will take hold of them. They will writhe like a woman in labor. Each will be astounded at his fellow;
their faces [will be] a sight for [their] glittering!
Astounded: as confusion was brought on Bavel once before (Gen. 10), He will do so again. Glittering: LXX, "will change their countenances as a flame". Like a woman in labor: but they will not truly be a woman in labor. They "give birth only to wind" (or spirit, without substance, 26:18). The unified entity that Babyblon has always tried to build ends up being only an image of One New Man, haSatan's counterfeit, an idol which only seems real. 2 Kefa (Peter) chapter 2 details ways in which this system infiltrated YHWH's
congregations through false prophets who were only out for material gain, entangling again those who had escaped its grip once before. Tsion gives
birth to the real new Man. (66:7-8)
9. "Indeed, the Day of YHWH, fierce and furious, and with burning nostril, to transform the Land into an appalling wasteland, and to annihilate the
sinners [that are] in it,
An appalling wasteland: as in Mark Twain's 19th-century description of the Huley Valley in which "not even a chicken could scratch out a living". But the main reference point seems to be still to come.
10. "because the stars of the sky and their constellations will not shine their light. The sun has been darkened, and the moon will not shine its
light,
Constellations: or more specifically, Orion.
11. "and I will bring punishment on the evil order, and visit the perversity of the guilty upon them, and I will put an end to the arrogance of the
insolent, and bring down the swelling [pride] of tyrants!
Bring punishment on the evil order: or "visit the civilized world with trouble". Though it is not our assignment at present, as more people
recognize that they are really Israelites, we will begin to bring this impact upon the Babylonian system by keeping the Sabbath (doing no commerce on that day) and abstaining from Christmas purchases, for both of these are what prop the economy up and keep it running.
12. "I will make a mortal man more rare than refined gold, and humanity than the marked gold wedges of Ofir.
Aramaic, "I will love those who fear Me more than the gold in which the sons of men glory."
13. "Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of its [proper] place during the enraged outburst of YHWH of Armies and on the day of His fierce anger.
Shake: or unsettle, perturb, disturb; LXX: "enrage". Move out of its place: LXX, "be shaken from its foundation". On the literal level, it appears there will be a change in the orbit of the earth--perhaps back to the 360-day years that existed prior to 701 B.C. (only a few years after this prophecy was given). Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer trace it to a near passby of Mars, whose orbit used to cross earth's until the close encounter threw both into their current paths. On a deeper level, this verse is alluded to in Heb. 12:26-27, where it speaks of spiritual principles that hold men in bondage. We are seeing the beginning of this now as some of the doctrines
held precious by Christianity are proving not to stand up to proper biblical interpretation.
14. "Then it will become like a gazelle that is being hunted, and like a sheep that no one gathers up, every man will turn to face his people, and
each will tak eflight to his [own] land.
15. "Everyone who is discovered will be shot, and everyone who is caught will fall by the sword.
Shot: or wounded by somehow being pierced through or run through.
16. "Their nursing babies will be dashed to pieces before their [very] eyes, their houses plundered, and their wives raped.
17. "Indeed, I am stirring up Madai against them, who will not place any value on silver, and [as for] gold, they will have no interest in it.
Madai: the Medes, who took Babylon on the same night King Belshazzar had seen the "handwriting on the wall". (Daniel 5) Silver...gold: i.e., they
will not accept these as a ransom.
18. "But bows will dash young lads to pieces; they will not have pity on the fruit of the womb, nor spare children.
This has never yet happened, because the city was taken without a battle; the king and a few key rulers were killed, but most inhabitants of Babylon
were unaware the next day that anything had taken place. It went as smoothly as any coup d'etat. So this prophecy remains to be fulfilled. Revelation 18 speaks of a larger "Babylon"--the system that had its origin in Bavel under Nimrod, but has spread into a whole "world order" (the "evil order" spoken of in v. 11, which now encompasses the entire civilized world through paganism,
commerce, politics, and financial dependencies foisted upon the masses.)
19. "And Bavel, the prominent one among kingdoms, the splendor of the majesty of the Khasdim, has become like Elohim's overthrow of S'dom and
Amorrah:
Splendor of the majesty: Aram., "boast of the pride". Khasdim: Chaldeans (Mesopotamians).
20. "It will endure, uninhabited; from generation to generation, no one will reside in it. Not even the Arabian will pitch a tent there, nor will
shepherds [build a fold for] sheep to lie down there.
If it were not for the last portion of this verse, one might think that this prophecy had already been fulfilled, if the only analogy between S'dom and Bavel were that it would be uninhabited. But now Saddam Hussein is rebuilding it and, even if it is not dwelt in as such, it is again becoming a focus of some attention, and it appears that one day it will become quite the hub of activity again, and a future, more complete destruction awaits it.
(Yirmiyahu 50-51; Zech. 5:7ff)
21. "Rather, the yelping wild beasts of the desert shall lie down there, and their houses will be full of wailing creatures; daughters of the owl shall
settle there, and there hairy goats will skip about.
Hairy goats will skip about: Aramaic, "demons will play". Revelation 18 upholds this interpretation, saying that after Babylon's fall it will become a "abode of demons and the prison of every unclean spirit". (v. 2) I.e., the
only thing that remains in the Babylonian system will be demons and the selfish (which ritual impurity depicts). That chapter warns us strongly to come out of that system (when it is time, and not let it rule our decisions while we still need to live within it), lest we inadvertantly become
participants in the judgments that must come upon it for all its robberies and harlotries. All nations are participants, but the description in
Revelation seems to clearly include the overt institutional church because of its many compromises with this system. "Hairy goat" is the meaning also of the mountains of Seir, which Esau inherited, and Edom (Esau's other name) is
often identified with the church in many rabbinic writings.
22. "Jackals will reply from their desolate houses, and dragons in their dainty palaces. Now her time is drawing near, and her days will not be
postponed,
Jackals: or "wild island-beasts". All these terms and those in v. 21 can also refer to different types of demons in Hebrew. This is the most likely interpretation, in light of Zech. 5:5-11, where "Wickedness" personified is sent back to Shinar (where Bavel is) and a house is built for her there. Desolate houses: the same term in Hebrew as "widows". Postponed: or "drawn
out", "deferred", "prolonged". I.e., it will be right on time, and we cannot fend it off with excuses.
CHAPTER 14
1. "because YHWH will have compassion on Yaaqov, and will yet choose Israel, and give them rest in their [own] Land. Then the foreigner will be joined to them, and they shall attach themselves to the House of Yaaqov.
Y'shua saw the multitudes and had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mk. 6:34, an allusion to Y'hezq'el/Ezk. 34). Choose: The term connotes approving her after testing her by fire, and also delighting in her and preferring her over all else. Yet: or "again"--after treating her as less than significant, less than a nation, He will again turn special attention to her and focus especially on her. We are seeing this begin to take place. House of Yaaqov: the physical, natural side of the patriarch, as opposed to the spiritual, hence the more readily identifiable of the two kingdoms, Yehudah, in contrast to Israel, though the Aramaic substitutes "Israel" here (a common rabbinical tradition).
2. "And the peoples will fetch them and bring them to their own place, and the House of Israel will themselves take possession of them on YHWH's soil as servants and handmaids; thus they will take their captors captive, and dominate their oppressors.
Servants: in Israel, servants have the full right of a member of a household, except for authority. I.e., they will be better off as slaves in Israel than freemen elsewhere, except that they will have no right to make rulings within Israel.
3. "And it will come about on the day when YHWH gives you rest from your sorrow and your disquiet and the hard labor that was forced on you,
Sorrow: can also mean pain, or even an idol; YHWH will provide relief from these as well.
4. "that you will take up this proverbial saying against the king of Bavel, saying, ‘How the tyrant has come to an end, and the gold-gatherer ceased!'
Tyrant: LXX, "extortioner". Ceased: literally, "has taken a sabbath".
5. "YHWH has shattered the staff of the wicked, and the scepter of dominators!
6. "The one who attacked the peoples with arrogance, with relentless blows--the one who subjugated the nations with anger--is being pursued, and there is no one to hold them back.
7. "The whole earth is at rest and quiet; they burst forth into resounding song!
Once the wars cease and we realize that the Kingdom is fully upon us, how can we help but break out into singing? YHWH loves such contrasts in our
worship as quietness and exuberance..
8. "The cypress trees and the cedars of Levanon rejoice over you: ‘Since you have relaxed, no one will come up to cut us down!'
9. "The underworld from below is excited to welcome you at your arrival; for you it awakens those who have sunk down [into it]--all the rams of earth. It has caused all the kings of the nations to rise up from their thrones.
10. "They all testify and tell you, ‘You too are made as weak as we are! You have become just like us!'
11. "‘Your pomp has been brought down to the grave, along with the clamor of your musical instruments. The maggots make a bed under you, and the worms cover you!'
Maggots also appear in Scripture when enough manna was gathered for two days, but not on the day before the Sabbath. Those who did this were not
trusting YHWH for daily bread, so they tried to forge their own security. Bavel, too, tried to do things their own way and in their own timing, so they receive the same curse.
12. "How you have fallen from the heavens, O bright star, son of the dawn! You are chopped down to the ground, O disabler of nations!
O bright star: or, "Howl!" (Another root word can take the same form.) "Shining star": Aram., "shining star among the stars". It was translated "Lucifer" in Latin, and indeed this calumny of the king of Babylon can (like
the king of Tsur/Tyre in Y'hezq'el 28) be carried further and seen as representing the arch-Adversary (haSatan). When we compare all the jewels
that grace haSatan there with those on the New Yerushalayim that comes down from heaven (Rev. 21:19-20), it becomes clear that haSatan was once in the position of YHWH's bride. The word for "shining star" in Hebrew is Heylel, which is related to Hallel (brighten up, praise, and celebrate), so on a deeper level, when we say "HalleluYah", it can be broken down into "Hallel and Yah"--a wedding announcement. The infamous pride of Nevuchadnezzar (Dan. 4) is a microcosm of the pride--the downfall--of the former "anointed covering cheruv". So it is easy to see why the human race--and especially those of us who are in Messiah, and thus part of YHWH's new bride--are so hated by haSatan. Y'shua, too, is called the "bright and morning star" (Rev.
22:16). O disabler of nations: or "lying prostrate over nations".
13. "And now you have said in your heart, ‘I will supercede the heavens! Higher than the stars of El will I raise my throne, and I will sit on the
Mount of the Appointment in the far reaches of the north!
The heavens: sometimes an idiom for YHWH Himself. Higher than the stars of El: The meaning the builders of Bavel probably intended by their name was "Gate of El". Their tower was intended to reach the heavens, and they never lost that idea. Mount of Appointment: HaSatan co-opted worship of many of YHWH's people by replacing His holidays with different ones that glorify "her". North: or "hidden place". HaSatan gains worship through the pagan holidays by hiding within them and controlling them from behind the scene.
14. "‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be comparable to the Most High!'
This is the prospect haSatan in turn used to tempt Chavvah (Eve). But the Hebrew word for Most High is Elyon. YHWH promised Israel that if we
would be obedient, He would make us "elyon" of the nations (Deut. 28:1) --i.e., not just LIKE Elyon, but actually "elyon". As His promise to make a
name for Avram followed right after Bavel's attempt to make a name for themselves, His gifts are always superior to what we try to take from Him for
ourselves. Similarly, we often heard the church called "spiritual Israel", but it only held many Israelites captive through looking LIKE Israel, or
provided a temporary holding pattern until the time could come back around for Israel to be itself--a nation in covenant with YHWH--again.
15. "Oh, really? Actually, you will be brought down to the underworld [instead]--to the extremities of the pit!
Underworld: Heb., She'ol. Aramaic, "pit of the place of perdition".
16. "The ones who see you will gaze at you [in wonderment, trying] to figure out how this could be the man who disquieted the earth and made kingdoms
shudder,
17. "who made the civilized world into uninhabited pastureland, tore down its cities, and did not open the house of his prisoners.
18. "All kings among the nations lie down in honor--every one of them--each in his own house,
19. "but you are flung from your grave like a detested weed, like the garments of those who are slain by being pierced with a sword, who go down
into the stones of the pit, like a trampled corpse.
A detested weed: Aramaic, "a hidden miscarriage".
20. "You will not be united with them in burial, because you have corrupted your land and murdered your own people! The descendants of evildoers will
never be renowned!
Not be united: LXX, "As a garment defiled in blood cannot be clean, so neither shall you be pure." Renowned: or even "named". This wicked ruler's children would not even deserve the dignity of a decent burial. Descendants: literally "seed". Recall that, as He said He would have eternal enmity against Amaleq (Ex. 17:14-16), YHWH declared war from the start between the Seed of the Woman and the seed of the serpent. (Gen. 3:15) This gives us a clue as to what land He is talking about. As there is a "holy seed" carried on through many generations (6:13),there are lineages that YHWH wants blotted out forever. (E.g., Deut. 25:19)
21. "‘Make the slaughtering-place ready for his sons; in the guilt of their fathers, do not let them come on the scene and inherit the land or fill the face of the habitable territory with enemies!
22. "‘Then I will rise up against them', declares YHWH of Armies, ‘and cause the name and [any] remnant of progeny or posterity for Bavel to be cut
off,' declares YHWH [by His prophet].
23. "‘I will appoint it to be the inheritance of the hedgehog and watery marshes, and I will sweep it with the broom of annihilation,' declares YHWH
of Armies.
24. "YHWH of Armies has taken an oath, saying, ‘If it isn't [the case that] it indeed turns out just like the comparison I have made...! Now as I have
planned, so will it be established.
25. "‘to break Ashur in My Land and on My mountains. I will trample it, then its yoke will have been removed from being upon them, and his load taken off their shoulders.'
Now the focus shifts from Bavel back to Ashur (Assyria), the nation that exiled the northern Kingdom (the ones YHWH said He would set back on His mountains, Yirm./ Jer. 31:5; Y'hezq'el/Ezk. 34:14), just as Bavel exiled the southern. But Bavel took over the Assyrian Empire, and thus probably left the Assyrian borders intact. Thus in overthrowing Bavel, He also overthrew Ashur's right to the Land. As for Ashur being destroyed on the mountains of Israel, compare what He will do to the men of Mt. Seir (the "hairy goat") in Y'hezq'el 35 and Gog and Magog in Y'hezq'el 38-39.
26. "This is the plan that has become firm the whole world over, and this is the hand that is extended over all the nations,
27. "because YHWH of Armies has planned it, and who can thwart [it]? His hand is extended, and who can turn it back?"
28. This oracle came in the year of King Achaz's death:
This was the third year of Hoshea, the last king of the Northern Kingdom, about four years before the Assyrians began their final siege of the city of Shomron (its capital). Achaz's son Hizqiyahu, who is held up as a paradigm of what a good king should be (2 Kings 18:5), succeeded him to the throne.
29. "O Pleshet, all of you, do not be glad over the breaking of the rod that struck you, because from the serpent's root will come forth a poisonous
viper, and its fruit a fiery flying serpent!
Pleshet: Filistia, later known as Palestine. Though Ashur will fall, Babylon will arise, and after it the Medes and Persians, the Greeks, and
Rome! They become harsher and more cruel; the metals in Nevuchadnezzar's image progress from superior to inferior. The Aramaic identifies the serpent as Yishai (Jesse) and the poisonous viper as the Messiah--for such He will be to the wicked. In that case, a "fiery flying serpent" might relate to Yahshua's likening Himself to the "fiery serpent" that was lifted up on a pole so that those who looked to it might be healed from the bites of the other "fiery serpents". (Num. 21)
30. "While the firstborn of the poor graze [in the pasture], and the needy stretch out in safety, I will kill your root with famine, and it will kill
off what is left of you.
Poor: or thin, frail. Needy: Aramaic adds "in his [i.e., Messiah's] days". You: i.e., Pleshet (perhaps the Palestinians).
31. "Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! You are dissolved, Pleshet--all of you! Because out of the north comes smoke, and there is no straggler in his
ranks.
Wail: very similar to the word for "shining star" in v. 12.
32. "What, then, shall the nation's messenger say in reply? That YHWH has made Tsion's foundation firm, and the afflicted of His people will find
refuge in it."
Aramaic, "What will the messengers of the Gentiles announce as good news?" Indeed, when those who were scattered among the Gentiles and became Gentiles for a time, truly understand the Good News of the Kingdom, this is exactly what we will anounce. Make Tsion's foundation firm: Yirm. (Jer.) 33:2-18 gives many more details abnout how He will do this. Afflicted: or poor. Compare Bavel's penchant for commerce and exploitation with YHWH's invitation to come drink the water of life without cost. (55:1; Rev. 21:6.
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Chapters 15-21
CHAPTER 15
1. The oracle [concerning] Moav: "Since Ar of Moav was despoiled by night, it has been brought to an end. Since Kir of Moav was despoiled by night, it has been brought to an end.
By night: the Aramaic adds, "while they sleep".
2. "The household--Dibon, that is--goes up to the cultic platforms to weep; Moav shall wail over Nevo and over Meydeva. On all their heads [there is] baldness, and every beard is shaved off.
Dibon means "pining away", but also a city in the region of Moav (east of the Dead Sea). Nevo: the mountain where Moshe died after seeing the Promised Land. Meydeva: a major town near Mt. Nevo. Parallel passages are in Amos 2:1-3 and Yirmiyahu (Jer.) 48:36ff, where we see that having the hair and beard removed are symbols of the loss of wealth and wisdom (or loss of authority by being taken captive).
3. "In its streets they will put on burlap; on its rooftops and in its open plazas everyone will wail, sinking down with tears.
Burlap: or "sack-cloth", a traditional symbol of deep mourning.
4. "Heshbon and El'aleh cry out; their voice is heard as far as Yahatz! So Moav's armed warriors will give a cry of alarm; his life will be displeasing to him.
Heshbon is a largely-unexcavated tel today, but then was the capital of Moav and near its northern border; El'aleh is nearby. Yahatz: Close to 15 miles away.
5. "My heart will cry out for Moav! Its fugitives get as far as Tsoar. A three-year-old heifer, because on the incline of Luhith they will go up weeping, because on the way to Horonayim they will raise an outcry of destruction,
Tsoar: the town to which Moav's parents, Lot and his daughter, fled when S'dom was being overthrown. It means "insignificance". Aramaic, "In their heart the Moavites hope to flee to Tsoar." Horonayim: "the twin caves".
6. "because the pure waters will become appalling, because the herb is drying up, the vegetation is exhausted, and there will not be any greenery.
7. "Therefore, they have acquired the abundance, and what they had stored up, and will carry it over the willow brook,
8. "because the outcry has gone completely around the territory of Moav, its wailing as far as the two reservoirs, its howling to the Well of the Mighty Ones.
9. "For Dimon's waters are full of blood. Yet I will appoint even more [to come] upon Dimon: a lion for the Moavites who escape, and for what is left of the tillable soil."
All of these locations are in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan today.
CHAPTER 16
1. "Spread out a pasture from Sela in the wilderness to the mountain of the daughter of Tsion,
Spread out a pasture: or, "Send a lamb", possibly a reference to the Messiah, for reasons that will become clearer below. At one time the king of Moav did send a tribute of rams to Israel. (2 Kings 3:4) Sela: the Hebrew name for the Edomite-Nabatean city of Petra. Both names mean "large rock", and indeed this "rose-red city half as old as time" as 19th-century poet John
William Burgon described it, has its buildings and tombs carved right out of the sheer rock walls. Mountain of the Daughter of Tsion: perhaps not a suburb of Yerushalayim, but Mt. Sinai near Midyan, which is south of Petra in Saudi Arabia.
2. "because what will take place is that at the fords of Arnon, the daughters of Moav will become like a fluttering bird that is pushed out of the nest.
Fords of Arnon: In the region of Moav, the Arnon river forms a canyon that resembles the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River. In the past it effectively formed a natural border between Moav and the Emorite territory. Even today there is only one bridge across it on the King's Highway. The scenario seems to be one of their seeing the Counterfeit Messiah's armies
massed on the other edge of the sharp escarpment and having to either surrender Israel's refugees to them or depend on YHWH to rescue them as a mother eagle does when teaching its young to fly.
3. "Gather for deliberation; make your decision. Make your shadow like night in the middle of the noonday. Carefully conceal those who have been banished; do not reveal [the hiding place] of the fugitive!
Decision: or assessment. This is reminiscent of Y'shua's parable about the king counting the cost of whether he can afford to do battle against an enemy with a large army. (Lk. 14:31) Moav is up against total destruction if they do not follow this advice to provide a refuge for those who are coming. But the only option YHWH seems to give is to do it willingly and be blessed,
or have Him shelter them in their land and pay the price for their refusal.
4. "My outcasts will dwell temporarily among you, Moav; become a [secret] shelter for them from the face of the [violent] despoiler, because the one who is pressing [them] has reached his limit; the wreaker of havoc is finished; the trampler has already [come] out from the Land.
Dwell temporarily: As a "pasture" (v. 1), Sela (Petra) is well-defended and may be the sheepfold-fortress referred to in 34:6; 63:1. (Heb., "Botzrah", also the name of a city not far north of Petra) Its only entrance is a narrow, mile-long passageway between high cliffs. It could harbor well over a million people. The desert area between there and Mt. Sinai could harbor mant more. This is probably the same incident referred to in Revelation 12 when Israel (or at least Yehudah) is given a place to flee in the wilderness, probably after the Abomination that Makes Desolate is set up in the rebuilt Temple. (Mk. 13:14) But the Hebrew term for "outcasts" (or refugees) here is used in Deut. 30:1-5 to denote any from Israel who have left YHWH's covenant and are being punished by being dispersed to every part of the world, hence the Northern Kingdom as well. (compare Neh. 1:8ff). In 2 Shmuel 14:13 YHWH says He will devise a way for the outcasts to be restored, and Y'shua is just that. Indeed, He devised ways to make the fufillment of
Messianic prophecies appear less likely, so that when He brought it about nonetheless, His glory would be all the greater. One who is pressing them: The one place the Counterfeit Messiah will NOT have jurisdiction is the land of Jordan (the territory of Moav, Edom, and Ammon), though he enters the "beautiful, honored Land" of Israel. (Dan. 11:41) Thus this would be the ideal place for Israel to flee, being "next-door neighbors" who, at present, have a true peace treaty with Israel, unlike all other Arab neighbors. Reached his limit: perhaps being held off at the "grand canyon" of the Arnon River. (v. 2) Is finished: the Counterfeit Man's days are numbered, one more
encouragement YHWH gives to nudge Moav toward the right decision of whom to side with.
5. "But in mercy the throne has been established, and He will remain on it with stability in the Tent of David, executing judgment, investigating a case, then bringing justice promptly.
Perhaps this "sheepfold" is the gathering place where both houses of Israel together will have "David", the one shepherd, set over them (Hos. 1:11 or 2:2 in Heb.; Y'chezq'el/Ezek. 34:23; 37:24; Yochanan 10:16). After this, perhaps He, the antitype of the first Y'hoshua, will follow in Y'hoshua's footsteps from Mt. Sinai to Yerushalayim, minus the years of wandering in the
wilderness.
6. "We have heard of Moav's majesty (he is very proud), his haughtiness, his pomp, and his excessiveness, but this is not how his stragglers will be.
Stragglers: or lies. Apparently Moav reluctantly agreed to shelter the refugees after all, but then mocked them like the Filistines who asked David, "Why can't your Elohim protect you in your own Land? Why do you need to seek refuge from our gods?" So they will pay the price anyway.
7. "Therefore Moav will wail for Moav; every one of them will howl. You will groan for the ruins of Qir-Chareseth; indeed, they will be broken down.
Qir-Chareseth means "wall of earthenware".
8. "For the fields of Cheshbon have drooped, and [as for] the vine of Sibmah, the lords of the nations have beaten down their mother-vines. They have reached all the way to Ya'azer, and wander throughout the wilderness. Her shoots have been left fallow; they have reached the other side of the sea!
Sibmah: a region of Moav whose name means "fragrant". Mother-vines: the choicest, from which offshoots are taken to plant elsewhere. Ya'azer: a levitical city in Gil'ad, far north of Moav's northern border. Sea: here, the Dead Sea, which forms part of the western border of Moav (Jordan now as well).
9. "Therefore I will mourn the vine of Sibmah with the wailing of Ya'azer; I will drench you with my tears, O Cheshbon and El'ale, because the cheering for your summer fruits and your harvest has fallen [silent].
10. "Moreover, gladness and rejoicing are gathered up out of the [fruitful] plantation; there will be no song ringing out or shouting [heard] in the vineyards. The treaders will tread out no wine in their wine-presses. I have put an end to their cheering.
Cheering: particularly used in Scripture of those treading out wine and of a battle cry. Compare 63:2, 3.
11. "Therefore My internal organs will be stirred up like a harp for Moav, and My inward emotions for Qir-Chares[eth].
12. "But what will happen when it is seen that Moav has wearied himself on the worship-platform, that he will enter into his sanctuary to pray, but he will not prevail.
Not prevail: or "not be able to".
13. "This is the word that YHWH has been speaking to Moav for some time,
14. "but now YHWH has spoken, saying, ‘In three years, as a hired laborer [counts] years, the splendor of Moav, with all its great abundance will be despised, since what is left will be a trifling few and powerless.'"
As a hired laborer counts years: i.e., not one day longer than three years, since that is all he is paid for. Of course, the one who hired them would not let them work a day less than three years. Thus this means exactly three years. That was the exact length of time the Temple altar remained in its desecrated state in the days of the Maccabees, as recounted at Hanukkah.
CHAPTER 17
1. The oracle [concerning] Dameseq: "Behold, Dameseq is being removed from [the category] of a city; it will be a heap of ruins.
Dameseq (Damascus) is still the capital of Syria in our own day. So it is still here, and with the issue of the Golan Heights and Syria's support for Hizbullah terrorists, it is only adding to the reasons for the judgment described here. There is a word-play here: "From being a city" is me'ir in Hebrew, and "heap" is me'i. Compare Amos 1:3-5; Micha 1:6ff.
2. "[The] cities of Aroer are abandoned; they will be [a place] for flocks. They will stretch themselves out, and there will be nothing to make them afraid.
Cities of Aroer: or "ruined cities". Several towns in the region bore this name, one in Moav and one in Yehudah, but in this case the most likely candidate was in the territory of the Ammonites (and later Gad), near the Yabboq River, east of the Yarden, as it is the closest of the three to
Dameseq. Nothing to make them afraid: compare Micha 4:4.
3. "There will also cease to be blockaded cities in Efrayim when the sovereignty of Dameseq and the remnant of Aram [comes to an end]; they will become comparable in splendor to the descendants of Israel", declares YHWH of Armies.
4. "And in that day what will take place is that the importance of Yaaqov will be lowered, and the robustness of his flesh will be rendered lean,
5. "and it will be like when the reaper of a harvest of grain harvests the ears with his arm, and it will be like the one who gathers up the heads of grain in the valley of Refayim,
Refayim: a region of Bashan that means "healing" or "invigorating", but it was also the name of a race of giants.
6. "but the gleanings left in it will be like when one goes around an olive tree [and there are] two [or] three olives on the top of the uppermost branches, four [or] five on the most fruitful boughs", declares YHWH, Elohim of Israel.
7. "In that Day, mankind shall have regard for his Maker, and his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel,
Mankind: literally, "the Adam", i.e., the "one new man" that bears the restored image of Elohim.
8. "and he will not have regard for the altars, the craftsmanship of his [own] hands, nor will he look to what his fingers have made--that is, the asherim and sun-pillars.
Asherim: a grammatically improbable word in Hebrew. It is the masculine plural form of a word that is feminine in the singular (asherah, a fertility goddess). It thus signifies a male consort of this goddess, or a husband (Ba'al) for her, and hence an overtly sexual emphasis in its worship. The form it usually took was being a base so that the trees cut from the forest for this purpose could be stood upright again. This has its modern counterpart in the Christmas tree. In this light, it is especially significant that YHWH forbade any trees to be near His sanctuary. (Deut.
16:21) Sun-pillars: from a word for "heat", and this probably connected with these fornicatory rituals.
9. "In that day his fortress cities will be like an abandoned forest, an uppermost branch that they have left [unharvested]; it will become a wasteland.
Forest: or bough, possibly relating to the imagery in v. 6.
10. "Because you have forgotten the Elohim of your deliverance, and you did not call to mind the Rock of your strength, you will therefore plant pleasing pleasant plants, but sow it with foreign shoots.
Pleasing plants... foreign shoots: This may be the phrase on which Y'shua based His parable of the wheat and tares. (Mat. 13:25ff)
11. "In the day in which you plant it, you carefully build a fence around it, and on the [next] morning you cause the bud to sprout. [But] what is harvested [will be] a heap in a day of sickness and incurable pain.
12. "Alas to the crowd of great nations, who make a commotion like the roaring of the seas, and who make a din like the rumbling of [the confluence of] many [powerful] waters!
18:1 shows that the context is the "birth pangs of the Messiah", so here Babylon is linked with not just the "motherland" of Bavel, but all the nations that have "been made drunk with the wine of her fornications"--i.e., the whole world system that unifies in opposition to YHWH when He has
declared that His Anointed One is now to reign on the earth.
13. "The [gathering] nations will rumble in like the rushing of abundant waters, but He has rebuked them, and they have fled far away, and have been
chased before the wind like the chaff of the mountains, and like a tumbleweed before a windstorm.
Tumbleweed: or anything that rolls, or perhaps simply whirling dust.
14. "Then indeed, toward eveningtime, calamity [comes]! Before morning arrives, there is nothing [left] of them! This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who pillage us."
CHAPTER 18
1. "Woe to the land of whirring wings, which [comes] from beyond the river of Kush,
River of Kush: Nimrod was Kush's son, and he inhabited Shinar and founded
Bavel. (Gen. 10:8ff) But it may be Africa that is referred to, as the remainder of Kush's descendants settled there.
2. "that sends ambassadors by sea and in vessels of papyrus-reed upon the surface of the waters. Go, fleet [footed] messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people who inspire dread, from [its inception] onward--a subjugating nation, measured out [with a cord], a land whose rivers have bisected it!
Ambassadors: the word can also mean "hinge" or "door pivot" (as a harbinger of a coming transition to something new), as well as "pangs" or distress". But its root word means "to cramp". So this cramping by a massive gathering of enemies, the minions of the Counterfeit Messiah, will be what YHWH uses to push the true New Man through the birth canal and bring about
the Kingdom. But since the woe is to this place and he shifts the focus to another nation, it may be indicating that "cramped people" were sent by sea, which immediately reminds us of slave ships. Fleet-footed: or lightweight; i.e., swift. "Tall" here can also mean "postponed" or "deferred". Bavel's destruction was deferred until long after the city itself ceased to be anything significant, but its influence had to last until the end of days so that the battle between the only two actual ways of life (civilization based on rebellion against YHWH and the worldview of Israel) could come to its final head and the false system be completely obliterated. But it can also mean "scattered"; a scattered people whose kingdom is "set aside" until later would be Israel. Measured out: a reduplicated form of the word for "cord". Thus it may symbolize two cords. North America holds a proportionately high percentage of those scattered from the Northern Kingdom; indeed it seems to be a special gathering place for these three elements of Israel: those
enslaved and brought here on "cramped" slave ships, the "tall and smooth" native Americans who had settled here earlier (some colonizing this land as early as King Shlomo's day), and finally those Europeans who indeed became mighty very early in the nation's history. This may be the "appointed" place to which many of YHWH's people would come for safety from oppression (cf. 2
Shmuel 10:7), yet which is not their final settling place (1 Chron. 17:9). The second cord is Y'shua. This nation was actually founded so that these oppressed ones could worship as they felt YHWH's word mandated. So Y'shua has always been a strong element of our national identity, though he was not known in His Hebraic context. Yet only "a threefold cord is not easily
broken" (Eccles. 4:12) While there is a large percentage of Yehudah in North America as well, they know their identity yet have not embraced the open door to return to the Land YHWH gave to all Israel. The third cord that will lend this highest level of stability is the faithful of Yehudah, with whom these other two elements (the Kingdom of Israel and Y'shua its king) will yet be
united.
3. "All inhabitants of the civilized world, those of the land who have settled down: When [someone] lifts up a conspicuous signal on the mountains, you will take notice! And when he gives a blast on the shofar, you will listen!
Those of the land who have settled down: or "dwellers of the earth"--perhaps the dead who will rise at the shofar blast. (1 Thess. 4:16-17)
4. "Because this is what YHWH said to me: ‘I will settle down and focus My attention on My established Place, like a glowing heat above a light, like a cloud of mist in the heat of harvest,
Settle down: or "rest", "be quiet", "be at peace"--all indications that He is speaking of the Sabbath rest that comes in the Messianic Kingdom. My Established Place: the Land of Israel, Yerushalayim, and most specifically the Temple Mount. Mist: or dew, always a harbinger of good in Scriptrue, for it feeds tender plants that would be damaged by driving rains, causing them
to bud in the morning (v. 5).
5. "because before the harvest, when the flower has finished [blooming] and the sour grape will be ripening to a sparkle, He will both cut off the [excess] shoots with a pruning knife and take away and cut down the unfruitful tendrils.
Take away...the unfruitful tendrils: so that the other branches will bear more fruit or leave room for grafting. (Yochanan 15:1-2; Rom. 11:17-24)
6. "[All of] them together will be left to the ravenous birds of the mountains and all the beasts of the earth. The birds of prey will spend the summer over them, and all the [other] beasts of the earth will spend the winter on them.
The same is said of Bavel (Babylon) in Rev. 18, where these "birds and beasts" are identified with demons. In any case, these birds always show up at the scene of destruction or war. (Yirmiyahu 7:33; 12:9, etc.)
7. "At that time the homage-gift will be carried to YHWH of a people tall and smooth and a people from it who inspire dread, and [keep going] beyond--a subjugating nation [that is] measured out [with a cord], a land whose rivers have bisected it, to the Place of the Name of YHWH of Armies--Mount Tsion."
Though other nations will be required to do homage to Y'shua in the Kingdom (Zech. 14:16ff; Rev. 21:24), here the people brought back from this land are themselves the homage-gift to YHWH.
CHAPTER 19
1. The oracle [concerning] Egypt: "Behold! YHWH rides on a swift cloud, and has entered Egypt, so Egypt's worthless [images] will shake from His presence, and Egypt's heart will dissolve away within it.
Egypt was a refuge that initially took Israel in during a time of need, then gave Israel authority, benefitting greatly because of this, but then it turned and enslaved Israel to its own agendas. As such, in addition to whatever literal fulfillment this prophecy will have, it is also a metaphor for the organized Church, which has done all the same. Now YHWH is again saying, "Let My people go", so they can fulfill their complete calling. When He shakes all things, He can sift Efrayim back out, and though Egypt's heart is melted, it can still be recast in the right mold if the people in the
Church grasp the truth.
2. "And I will incite Egyptian against Egyptian, and they will fight, each man against his brother, and each man against his neighbor, city against city and kingdom against kingdom.
This is another evidence that there is a deeper meaning than literal Egypt, for while Egypt was divided into several kingdoms long before Yeshayahu's day, it has been a unified land ever since. But Christianity has been divided over and over again.
3. "Then Egypt's spirit will be emptied out within it, and I will swallow up its counsel. Then they will seek out the worthless images and the enchanters, the mediums, and the familiar spirits.
Spirit: not the truly Holy Spirit, but the spirit of the wicked shepherds who muddy the waters for the sheep. (Y'chezq'el/Ezek. 34:19) Enchanters: literally, "those who go softly".
4. "But I have [hemmed them in and] delivered them over into the hand of a harsh master, and a fierce king will have dominion over them", declares the Master, YHWH of Armies.
Joseph Good sees Egypt prophetically as Europe in the last days, the first area to be ruled by the Counterfeit Messiah. He will probably also be associated with the visible Church at first, but will then turn on it, and at that point it will be too late to get out. He is calling us to become Israel
now while there is still freedom to do so. In this light, compare Yahshua's statement that His "yoke is easy and [His] burden is light." (Matt. 11:30)
5. "Then the waters will be dried up from the sea, and the river will be desolate and dried up.
6. "The rivers will be pushed aside, and the siege-moats will languish and be dried up; water-reeds and bulrushes will wither away.
Pushed aside: perhaps by a major cataclysm that changes all their courses when the mountains are lowered and the valleys lifted up. (40:4) Siege-moats: or canals, which depended on the Nile. When rivers change their course, stagnant "oxbow" lakes are left, and those who built fixed houses and depended on conditions remaining the same have no livelihood left. (v. 10)
But Israel is called to "dwell in tents" as sojourners, so that we can move along with the water source. YHWH shifts it periodically so that we depend on Him, not on the patterns by which He has blessed us in the past. The Church once had the true water, but its candlestick has been taken away, and we need to follow YHWH's move.
7. "There will be bare spots by the Nile, by the mouth of the Nile, and everything sown [by] the Nile will dry up, be driven away, and no longer exist.
Sown: a reminder of the Northern Kingdom, since Hoshea said Elohim would sow it into the whole world. (2:23) But the Nile, or Egypt, represents the world from which Israel is to be cut off. Anything that has not been harvested will be done away with.
8. "The fishermen will also lament, and everyone who casts a hook into the Nile will mourn; those who spread out fishnets over the surface of the waters will grow feeble.
Grow feeble: or "be bereaved". Efrayim has "multiplied like fish" (Gen. 48:16), and Yahshua sent His envoys out to gather them. (Jer. 16:16; Mark 1:17) But once He has fished out the last that He wishes to restore to Israel, those who made money off the Gospel will have no more market. (v. 10) The day of fishing is over. For a long time it was allowable to randomly drop our nets, not being able to see what we were catching, but Yahshua's parable reminds us that we still have to sort out what is kosher and what is not. (Matt. 13:47ff) After the fishing, He says He will send out hunters (Yirmiyahu 16:16)--those who seek out specific individuals and follow them
until they are captured.
9. "Those who labor in combed flax will be ashamed, along with the weavers of white cloth.
Ashamed: or disconcerted, disappointed. They have been weaving their white cloth (in Scripture, a symbol of the works of the righteous) into more fishnets instead of garments. The goal is not to keep getting bigger, but to become holier, whichg in Scripture usually means to become smaller, as those who have the wrong motives are screened out and only what is pure remians; Y'shua said He came to seek and rescue what was lost (Luk. 19:10)--nothing else, unless others wish to become part of the Israel that was lost.
10. "Her supports will be crushed; the souls of all who earn wages will become stagnant ponds.
Earn wages: i.e., who make their livelihood from the River. Living (running) water is meant to flow through us and on to others, but when we try to dam it up so that we can contain it as security for later, it becomes undrinkable. In Israel, this pattern began with Yaravam (Jeroboam), who wanted the tithe that belonged to the Levites as his own revenue, and offered a convenient alternative to what YHWH had commanded. The Church also keeps people from growing beyond a certain point by saying they have gone too far, lest they lose the tithe as well.
11. "The rulers of Tsoan are certainly perverse, and the counsel of Pharaoh's wise advisors has been dulled. How can you say to Pharaoh, ‘I am the son of the wise ones, the son of ancient kings?'
Tsoan: Tanis (modern-day San), on the eastern bank of a branch of the Nile. The capital of the Shepherd Dynasty (Hyksos), its name means "place of departure". How can we even explain to Church leaders, whose sense of what is biblical has been altered by centuries of the wrong focus, that we are indeed heirs to the covenants of Israel and should be living according to the ancient paths?
12. "Where are your wise ones now? All right, let them inform you of what they know YHWH of Armies has planned in regard to Egypt!
13. "The rulers of Tsoan have become fools! The rulers of Nof are deceived; Egypt is misled by the cornerstone of its tribes.
Nof: Another name for Memphis, the capital city of Egypt.
14. "YHWH has produced a distorted, mixed-up spirit in the heart of her, and they have misled Egypt in its every undertaking, as a drunkard staggers through his vomit.
YHWH has produced: Is He the author of confusion? No, but for those who do not love the truth, He sends a strong delusion so that they think they are on the right track, and thus provides a backdrop against which to contrast true righteousness. (2 Thess. 2:10-11; 1 Cor. 11:19)
15. "Then Egypt will have no work that [either] head or tail, palm branch or bulrush [fiber] can do.
Head : 9:14 interprets this figuratively as "an elder or honored one", "and the prophet who teaches falsehood, he is the tail." Palm branch... bulrush fiber: also a metaphor for the highest and the lowliest. There will be no point in any of YHWH's people remaining there anymore.
16. "In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and they will be terrified and shake from the presence of the wielding of the hand of YHWH of Armies, which He is brandishing against it.
17. "And the soil of Yehudah will become a cause of reeling to Egypt; everyone who brings it to mind will be in dread from the presence of the purpose which YHWH of hosts has devised in regard to it.
I.e., YHWH plans to make Israel "the head and not the tail". (Deut. 28:13) The land that now belongs to Yehudah, but is the inheritance of all Israel, will beckon many out of their bondage to the Church. The fertile soil of Hebraic understanding of Scripture is also robbing the Church and
Babylon of their Christmas and Saturday shopping revenues, and Yerushalayim
will only become more and more of a cup of trembling to the nations that come against it. (Zech. 12:12)
18. "In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt speaking the language of Kanaan and swearing to YHWH of Armies, and one will be called the City of Destruction.
City of Destruction: or overthrow. But this was a nickname for Auschwitz. Joseph Good sees "Egypt" as an end-time prophetic code-name for Europe. Several concentration camps were never dismantled and could be re-used. Verse 20 could lend credence to this. The five virgins in Yahshua's parable who missed the wedding feast (Matt. 25) may have a "second chance" to prove their true loyalty during the time of Yaaqov's trouble through the much suffering and martyrdom that we read of in the book of Revelation. The language of Kanaan seems to be a poetic way of saying "Hebrew" since it is YHWH by whom they are taking oaths. But Kanaan also means "merchant".
19. "In that day there will be an altar to YHWH in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to YHWH near its border,
Some see both of these as describing the Great Pyramid, since two things are mentioned here, yet together they are spoken of in singular terms in v. 20. This pyramid is both at the center of an arc drawn along the Nile delta's coastline as well as at the dividing line between Upper and Lower
Egypt. It is seen to have prophetic significance in its every measurement. Perhaps, however, all it is saying is that in the Messianic Kingdom, Egypt will only be worshipping YHWH. (Compare Zecharyah 14:18) In the days of Greek rule over Israel, the Tzadoq priesthood was ousted by whomever could pay for it or whomever the new rulers wished to appoint, and some of the true
priests moved to Egypt and did build a Temple and altar there.
20. "and it will become a distinguishing token and a testimony to YHWH of Armies in the land of Egypt, because they will cry out to YHWH for help from the presence of the oppressors, and He will send them a deliverer, and a great one at that, and he will rescue them.
Deliverer: the word has the same root as "Y'shua". Rescue: literally, "snatch them out". This seems to be a repetition of the history of the Exodus.
21. "Then YHWH will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will be familiar with YHWH in that day, and they will render slaughter and offering, and vow a vow to YHWH, and make good on it.
Make good on it: literally, "complete it".
22. "When YHWH strikes Egypt, He will be [both] striking and healing, and they will return all the way to YHWH, and He will allow them to bring Him their petition, and He will heal them.
23. "In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Ashur, and the Assyrian will enter into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Ashur, but Egypt will serve Ashur.
Compare 35:6ff.
24. "In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Ashur, a blessing in the heart of the earth,
The third: i.e., in triangulation of power. If Egypt represents the Church, could Ashur represent the Islamic nations, who are also misled but full of zeal for what they think is right, and unwilling to be persuaded otherwise by Babylon? The predominant enemies of Israel may thus become her
allies, being together the three strands of a cord, after they are purged of their impurities. (See the end of chapter 21) But we aim to be the firstfruits who do not miss the wedding feast either. Heart: literally, "nearest" or "innermost part".
25. "whom YHWH of Armies has intensely blessed, saying, ‘Blessed be My people Egypt, Ashur, the product of My hands, and Israel, My inheritance."
CHAPTER 20
1. The year that Tartawn came to Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Ashur sent him), and he fought against Ashdod and captured it,
Tartawn: an Assyrian title for a field-marshal, general, or commander. Ashdod: near the coast of Judea south of present-day Tel Aviv, it was once a Filistine city where the captured Ark of the Covenant caused the inhabitants great distress. (1 Shmuel 5) When Assyrian King Sargon II replaced Ashdod's King Azuri with his brother, Ashdod rebelled, with this repercussion in 711 B.C., ten years before Sennacheriv attempted to besiege Yerushalayim, and possibly the same year Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom) was besieged.
2. at that time YHWH spoke by the hand of Yeshayahu the son of Amotz, saying, "Go and loosen the burlap from off your waist, and take off your shoe from your foot." So he did just that, walking around naked and barefoot.
3. Then YHWH said, "Just as My servant Yeshayahu has walked around naked and barefoot for three years--a warning and sign about Egypt and Kush--
4. "in the same way the king of Ashur will conduct away captives from Egypt and exiles from Kush, young and old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks stripped bare, to Egypt's shame.
Exiles: itself based on a different word meaning "uncovered" or "laid bare", which slaves taken in battle often were. To Egypt's shame: or, "leaving Egypt vulnerable". Exodus 20:26 and Lev. 18, 20 forbid letting one's nakedness be seen, as it reveals our shame (47:3), so this was an
extreme measure to get the point across to Yehudah that Egypt was in reality not something in which they could place confidence. "Naked" in Hebrew also means "undefended". Yeshayahu is to be commended for his confidence that this was really YHWH speaking!
5. "So they will be shocked and embarrassed by Kush, on which they had pinned their expectations, and by Egypt, [whose adornment had been] their boast.
They: Apparently Yehudah.
6. "Then in that day the inhabitant of this region will say, ‘Look! This is what the object of our expectation is [really] like--[the one] to whom we had run for help to be rescued from before the king of Ashur. So how can we be saved?'"
This shows that they were indeed not trusting YHWH, and thus did feel naked before the world forces that were vying for prominence all around them.
CHAPTER 21
1. The oracle [concerning] the uninhabited land in the west: "Just as the windstorms in the Negev start up afresh, from the wilderness it comes, from a fearsome land!
Uninhabited land: wilderness or pasture-land, but possibly another reference to Bavel on the mystery level, referring prophetically to another nation that shares Babylon's characteristics and is decimated by the lands described below, yet is in the west, unlike literal Bavel. That western land was largely uninhabited in Yeshayahu's day. West: or "seaward". Fearsome: or "dreadful".
2. "A severe vision is made known to me: the treacherous one deals treacherously, and the devastator devastates. Ascend, O Eylam! Begin a siege, O Madai! I have made all her groaning to cease.
Eylam: descendants of Shem's oldest son. Madai: the Medes, a Yafethite people who became, in league with the Persians, the next great regional empire after Babel. Under the rule of Zimri, the fifth king of Israel, the Northern Kingdom was allied with both Eylam and Madai. (Yirm. 25:25) Both of these lands are in present-day Iraq, east of what was then Ashur and
Babylonia. Eylam had a substantial coastlien on the Persian Gulf. Prophecies about its downfall fill Yirmiyahu 49 and Y'hezq'el 32. Ascend...: in Yeshayahu 13:17, it is Babylon that Eylam and Madai are attacking.
3. "This is why my abdomen is filled with pain. Pangs have taken hold of me, like the birthpangs of a woman in labor. I writhed when I heard it, and was alarmed when I saw it.
Abdomen: same word as "waist" in 20:2. Writhed: was bent over, distorted, or twisted. I.e., doubled over in initial shock. But may relate to Babylon's giving birth to wind, unexpectedly. (26:18; see note on 13:8)
4. "My heart staggered; I was overtaken with trembling. He has turned the twilight of the thing I desired into anxious concern for me.
Twilight:or "festive evening"; from a root word meaning "blowing". The much sought-after lover has proven treacherous. (v. 2)
5. "Set the table in order; keep watch in the watchtower! Eat, drink, rise up, princes, and anoint a shield,
In context, it seems that this refers to the night when King Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall. (Daniel 5) But the first 19 times this term "table" is used in Scripture (and every time it appears in the Torah) it refers to the Table of Showbread, which represents the unity of the 12 tribes of Israel. So this may be a command to put the twelve tribes back in their proper place, just as Yoseyf set his brothers in their birth order when he came to dine with them. Anoint: the word from which "Messiah" is derived. Since this is taking place with all twelve tribes present, it is probably in the set-apart place where Israel is hidden during the time of Yaaqov's Trouble. (16:1-5; Y'hezq'el 37:24) Shield: what YHWH said He would be to Avraham. (Gen. 15:1) It is often a symbol of YHWH's trustworthy protection of those He loves. Psalm 84:9 links the two again: "Behold our shield, O Elohim, and pay attention to Your anointed. There it is linked with ascending to the Temple. "Shield" is actually what the "star" of David is called in Hebrew. It is derived from the shape of the pomegranate blossom at the end of David's scepter, and hence is related to the Messianic throne.
6. "because this is what YHWH has told me: ‘Go, station a watchman; let him report what he sees!'
7. "Now [what] he sees [is] a chariot with a team of war-horses, a chariot of a donkey, a chariot of camels. So he listened carefully with intense attention,
8. "and he will proclaim, ‘A lion! Adonai, I myself always stand at the lookout-post by day, and I am on duty at my post every night,
Lion: or "plucker", "gatherer". Babylon is likened to a winged lion in Daniel 7:4, and this was the insignia on Babylon's Ishtar gates.
9. "‘and here, indeed, comes a man's chariot [with] a pair of war-horses!' So he replied, saying, ‘Babylon has fallen! It has fallen! And all the
carved images of its mighty ones He has dashed to the earth!'
Yochanan echoes this and expands on it in Revelation chapters 17 and 18. So this vision is also for the end times. In a sense," Babylon" sums up the evils of all of the other nations mentioned here. (cf. Zech. 5:5-11)
10. "O that which I have treaded out, and sons of My threshing-floor! What I have heard from YHWH of Armies, the Elohim of Israel [is what] I have made known to you."
Threshing-floor: where Boaz, a prototype of the Messiah, was winnowing barley the night Ruth, a picture of the returning tribes of Israel, presented herself to him. (Ruth 3:2) The site of the Temple Mount was also a threshing-floor before David bought it. (2 Shmuel 24:16ff; 1 Chron. 21) So these "sons of My threshing-floor" are "children of the Temple" and of the Messiah. There are many parallels to this passage. Yesh. 28:27-28 tells about how different plants are threshed, and this relates to the way grain is made into bread, a picture of how YHWH uses our different gifts to build up His Body (Eph. 4). Then, after being chastised for their sins and bound together, when the nations come against him, Efrayim will have become one that loves to read out grain. (Hos. 10:11) At the time of the Daughter of Tsion's birthpangs, she will be snatched back from Bavel, and the nations that are gathered against her to look upon her to defile her will themselves
be threshed by the Daughter of Tsion. (Micha 4:9-13)
11. The oracle [concerning] Dumah: "He calls to me from Seir, ‘O watchman! What [is the news] of the night? O watchman! What [is the news] of the night?'
Dumah: a son of Yishmael. (Gen. 25:14) Watchman: or guard.
12. "A watchman says, ‘The morning is arriving, but also the night! If you will inquire, [then] inquire. Turn back! Come!'"
Morning...also night: Compare Zecharyah 14:7, where all nations gather against Yerushalayim on this unique day when it is neither day nor night, but it is dark at noon.
13. The oracle on the Arab: "You shall spend the night in the forest in Arabia, O Dedanite caravans.
Dedan: one of Kush's sons. Dedan had a son named Ashurim, the plural form of Ashur, which is a Semitic race. This is a picture of how Hebraic truth may be imitated and even multiplied by the Bavel system. (Bavel was also founded by a Kushite, Nimrod.)
14. "The inhabitants of the land of Theyma have brought water to the one who is thirsty; they met the fugitive with their bread,
Theyma: "desert"; possibly the same as Theyman, which is the Hebrew name for Yemen, and a grandson of Esau.(Gen. 36:11) Its people were known for their wisdom. (Yirm. 49:7) Again, perhaps this oracle indicates hope that a small remnant will be salvaged for YHWH even from the Muslim world.
15. "because they were fleeing from the face of swords, from before drawn swords, and from the presence of the bow bent [by the feet], and from the presence of the weight of battle.
16. "Because this is what Adonai has told me: ‘Still, within a year, according to the year of a hired worker, all the splendor of Qedar will come to an end,
Qedar: a son of Yishmael. The name means "dark". These people were known for their tents.
17. "and the ones left of those who were counted archers--the mighty men of the sons of Qedar--will be few, because YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, has spoken."
Chapters 22-27
CHAPTER 22
1. The oracle [concerning] the Valley of [Prophetic] Vision: "Now then, what have you got, since all of you have gone up to the housetops?
Valley of Vision: possibly the Valley of Hinnom outside Yerushalayim, also called the Valley of Decision.
2. "Rumblings fill a boisterous city, a rejoicing city. Your slain are not mortally wounded by the sword, nor have they died in battle.
3. "All of your commanders have retreated together, taken prisoner by a bow; all that are found within you are bound together, having fled from distant
lands.
4. "Therefore I said, ‘Look away from Me; I will be bitter with weeping. Do not feel pressured to console me, because of the devastation of the daughter of my people,
5. "because [it is] a day of turmoil, [desecration by] trampling down, and perplexity for the Master, YHWH of Armies, in the Valley of [Prophetic] Vision--of breaking down walls and crying to the mountains for help.
Crying to the mountains for help: compare Psalm 121. This is the same Hebrew term used for the Holocaust.
6. "But Eylam carried the quiver on a chariot of human horsemen, and Qir unveiled the shield.
Eylam: sometimes a synonym for Persia. Qir: in Mesopotamia (Babylonia); its name means "wall".
7. "And what will take place is that your choicest valleys have been filled with chariots, and the horsemen are indeed stationed at the gate,
8. "and He has removed Yehudah's covering, and in that day you will look to the weapons of the House of the Forest.
Yerushalayim realizes she needs to prepare for war. Their last resort is the House of the Forest of Levanon, where King Shlomo stored 300 shields, but still they feel confident that this will be enough. They are looking to their own resources for protection.
9. "You have also noticed that the breaches in the City of David are many, and you will gather the waters of the lower pool,
10. "So you have taken account of the houses of Yerushalayim, and pulled down the houses to reinforce the wall.
They have promised the owners that they will rebuild their houses after they use their stones for defense. They see it only as a temporary setback.
11. "Then you made a reservoir between both walls for the water of the old pool, but you have not looked to its Maker, nor paid attention to the one who originally formed it long ago.
Reservoir: Heb., miqvah, the same word as for the ritual immersion pool. The word is based on the word for "hope". Old pool: perhaps the one Hizqiyahu built (Shiloach). Compare Yirmiyahu/Jer. 17:13. They believe they are ready for war, but have left something out of the equation--YHWH!
12. "For in that day YHWH of Armies will summon to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to putting on burlap,
Burlap: or sackcloth, traditionally worn when mourning. Baldness: i.e., shaving of the head in mourning. He has set aside a time for these things: Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
13. "yet [what I find] here is joy and gladness, slaying oxen, slaughtering sheep, eating meat, and drinking wine: ‘To eat and to drink, because tomorrow we will die!'
They are out of season, acting as if it were Purim when it is Yom Kippur. Instead of "afflicting their souls" (Lev. 16:29), they celebrate, feeling they have to resign themselves to their "fate", rather than humbling themselves and admitting they need His help.
14. "Then YHWH of Armies was revealed in my ears: ‘If this crookedness were to be covered over for you until you die...!', says YHWH of Armies.
"If...": i.e., they never will; this is one format of swearing an oath in Hebrew. Can these really be His people? Then they come under a stronger condemnation for having known better.
15. "Thus says YHWH of Armies: ‘Go ahead in to this steward, Shevna, who is in charge of the house, [and say],
Shevna (meaning "vigor") was King Hizqiyahu's secretary.
16. "‘"What belongs to you here? And who do you have here, that you have dug out a tomb for yourself here, hewing out his tomb in an elevated place, and cutting out a dwelling place for himself in a cliff?
Having some connection with royalty, he thought he deserved to be treated like a king himself. Thus he is a picture of the haSatan, and by extension, the Counterfeit Messiah, in contrast with Yahshua, who only borrowed someone else's tomb. Yet he is literally digging his own grave, and indeed he will need one!
17. "‘"Mark my words: YHWH will throw you with a great hurling, and will certainly cover you up.
Revelation 19:20 tells us that the Counterfeit Messiah and his false prophet will both be thrown alive into the Lake of Fire (probably the Dead Sea, which used to have bitumin seepage that was set ablaze by lightning until the fissures were sealed off by an earthquake; but the earthquake at
Yahshua's return was probably open them back up again.
18. "He will wind you together violently and whirl you like a ball into a country of broad hands. There you will die, and there are the chariots of your reputation, the disgrace of your master's house.
Of broad hands: i.e., liberal or vast.
19. "Then I will drive you from your office, and he will pull you down from your position.
20. "And what will take place in that Day is that I will summon My servant, Elyaqim the son of Chilqiyahu,
Elyaqim means "Elohim raises [him] up." Chilqiyahu means "YHWH is my portion". He was a high priest. (2 Kings 22:8-10; 2 Chron. 34) YHWH's portion is a tithe of the tithe, which He then gives back to the priests for their sustenance.
21. "and I have dressed him in your tunic and will strengthen him with your waistband, and I will commit your authority into his hand, and He will come to serve as a father to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and to the House of Yehudah,
In contrast to the Counterfeit Messiah, YHWH will be in full support of the one He has raised up. It is becoming clearer that this is speaking of the true Messiah. Waistband: one of the priestly garments, and part of the description of the glorified Y'shua in Rev. 1:13. Thus He is King and Priest, after the order of Melchitzedeq.
22. "and I will set the key of the House of David on his shoulder, so that what he opens no one is closing, and what he closes no one is opening.
Yahshua quotes this in Rev. 3:7, stating that he is the one to whom this is referring. I.e., H e will rule with a rod of iron; what He binds will not be loosed. "Key" also relates to music in Hebrew as in English, and specifically is used in relation to the music of the Temple.
23. "And I will drive him [fast] like a nail into a sturdy place, and he will provide a throne of honor to his ancestor's household,
His ancestor: David. Sturdy: reliable; Yahshua's kingdom is stable and firmly established. (2:2; 16:5)
24. "and they will hang on him all the honor of his ancestor's household--the offspring and the offshoots, the vessels for small matters, from ritual bowl-utensils to all the pitcher-utensils.
25. "‘In that Day', declares YHWH of Armies, ‘the nail that is driven into a sturdy place will give way, break off, and fall down, and the load that was on it will be cut off', because YHWH has spoken.
This verse seems to refer to Shevna, not Elyaqim, the one already in place and appearing firmly so, while in reality he is not.
CHAPTER 23
1. The oracle [concerning] Tzur: "Howl, shipmen of Tarshish, because it has been violently destroyed, without house, without entrance; from the land of Kittim it is revealed to them.
Tzur: Tyre, whose king is likened to haSatan in Y'chezq'el 28, a passage that parallels chapter 14 above in regard to Bavel. But Babylon eventually destroyed Tzur, just as we see the Beast's system in Revelation turning on and destroying the harlot--which is exactly how Tzur is described below. Tzur's name means "rock", because it was built offshore for a better harbor. It was small, but became one of the most powerful seaports in the then-known world because of its willingness to transport other people's goods. This trade made them very wealthy. Kittim: meaning "bruisers", it refers specifically to one of the sons of Yawan, ancestor of the Greeks, but in particular Cyprus or other islands of the northern Mediterranean. Later it became a euphemism for Rome. (See v. 12) But the term is also sometimes associated with Rome in Jewish tradition. Tarshish: a Phoenician colony in the Western Mediterranean or perhaps further west.
2. "Be silent, you island-dwellers; the traffickers of Tzidon who cross the sea have replenished you,
Island-dwellers: or "residents of the coastland". Tzidon: often called Sidon, on the levant of the Mediterranean north of Israel near Tzur. It was the hometown of Izabel (Jezebel), who acquired wealth for Israel's king, whom she married, but also dominated him. Compare the way Israel (Yehudah) today waits for permission from the United States tbefore making any major tactical decision. But the United States is also enslaved to the Babylon system which is unifying the world's economy, and if "Babylon" ever turns on her, our system, which, like Tzur's, is based on no substance of its own anymore, will have no foot to stand on. On the end-times prophetic level, this is probably (at least in part) what is being described here.
3. "and by great waters, the seed of Shikhor, the harvest of the Nile, was her revenue, and she was a merchant of nations.
This is nearly identical to what is said of Babylon in Rev. 17, 18. Merchant: could also read "bazaar" or "mall". Shikhor means "darkness", and was the name of one of the branches or canals of the Nile. On one level, in our day, the United States of America are in the same position, seemingly undefeatable like a rock (Tzur) and both master of the seas and of trade.
4. "Be ashamed, Tzidon, because a sea has answered the safe harbor of the sea, saying, ‘I do not go into labor or give birth; neither do I cause young men to grow up, nor raise maidens.
The sea is often a picture of the Gentile nations, where Efrayim and Menashe, whom Yaaqov said would "multiply like fishes" (Gen. 48:16), have been hidden. Christianity's symbol has been a fish since Yahshua told His disciples to go like fishermen to find them (echoing Yirmiyahu 16:16). But it was in the midst of the Land (after they return) that they would become
great, not in the sea; they are meant to be brought back to their land, because this "sea" does not bring Israel's children to maturity. She only derives revenue from them; they are not hers, and what she provides is empty.
5. "Like the report to Egypt, they will also writhe in pain according to the report of Tzur.
Like the report: or possibly, "When the report reaches Egypt".
6. "Pass over to Tarshish! Howl, island-dwellers!
7. "Is this your triumphant city, whose antiquity is from ancient days? Her own feet carry her far away to live as a sojourner.
As a sojourner: can connote "in fear". While prior to this she was a colonizer, she will now be a refugee. Feet: a term linked with the pilgrimage festivals in Hebrew, and indeed the festivals substituted for YHWH's have carried people far away from the truth--the reason Efrayim is in
exile.
8. "Who has devised this plan against Tzur, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honored ones of the earth?
9. "YHWH of Armies [is the one who] has devised it, to dishonor the pride of all glory, and to make of little account all the ones in the earth who are gaining glory.
10. "Pass through your land like a [mighty] river, O daughter of Tarshish; there is nothing left to hold it back.
11. "He stretched out his hand over the sea; He disturbed kingdoms. YHWH has given a command against Kanaan, to annihilate its safe harbors,
Kanaan: means "merchant", "trafficker", but also the region where Tzur and Tzidon lay.
12. "and He has said, ‘You will never again be triumphant, O maiden daughter of Tzidon who is pressed down! Rise up and cross over to Kittim, but there is no rest for you even there.'
Cross over to Kittim: Rome calls her "separated brethren" back to her, and some will indeed heed that call back to the "original church", and form one church again, but those who are true Israelites will find no satisfaction there. This is how YHWH will expose its emptiness, and many may realize that they truly belong to Israel instead, though but that time they will need to suffer much for having realized it so late.
13. "Behold, the land of the Chasdim! This is the people who never existed! Ashur founded it for the desert-dwellers. They set up its watchtowers, and they have laid bare its palaces, and made it a ruin.
Chasdim: Chaldeans, an area that includes Babylon, the city that builds its system on a lie, and so is an "unreal" place. The American colonies, likewise, were originally founded for trade purposes, and were built out of fragments of many nations which were not a particular ethnic grouping prior to this. "Out of many, one" is her motto, but this means she is in a sense an "artificial nation". Its money now is not solid wealth, but nearly all computer software, thus with no real backing--based on the Law of Admiralty, which is the law of the sea, where much is based on credit rather than real wealth.
14. "Wail, O shipmen of Tarshish, because your place of refuge is devastated!
15. "And what will take place in that Day [is that] Tzur will be forgotten for seventy years, like the days of one king; from the end of the seventy years it will be for Tzur like the song of a prostitute.
Days of one king: David lived seventy years. Song of a prostitute: the system that made her wealthy will turn and destroy her after she is "used up". (Rev. 17:16)
16. "Take up a harp; walk around the city, you forgotten prostitute! Play the stringed instrument beautifully; enlarge your [repertoire of] songs, so that you may be remembered!
She needs to attract business in other ways than through her beauty, being old, unlike Sarah, the mother of Israel, who remained beautiful in old age.
17. "Then what will happen at the end of the seventy years is that YHWH will punish Tzur, and she will return to her hire-price, and commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the earth on the surface of the ground.
18. "But her profits and her hire-price will be set apart to YHWH; it will not be stored up or hoarded, because her profits will be for those who remain in the presence of YHWH, to eat to [their] satisfaction and for splendid covering."
She will again be a merchant, but the wealth of the wicked will be laid up for the righteous. When Bavel betrays Tzur, the profits go to Israel, her erstwhile ally. Splendid: durable, eminent, surpassing. Yet a harlot's hire could not be brought into the Temple, and no priest may marry one. (Lev. 21:14)
CHAPTER 24
1. Behold, YHWH is emptying out the Land and making it a wasteland! He has changed the shape of its face, and has caused its inhabitants to be scattered abroad.
2. And the priest has come to be just like the people, the master just like the servant, the mistress just like the maidservant, the seller just like the buyer, the borrower just like the lender, and the debtor just like the creditor.
3. The land will be utterly emptied out and plundered, because YHWH has spoken this word.
The same is said of Bavel/Babylon. (Rev. 18:19)
4. The Land has mourned and withered away; the civilized world has been exhausted and the people elevated [over all the others] are drooping.
5. Even the Land is profaned under its inhabitants, because they have crossed the line [in regard to] instructions and overstepped a limit, and violated an eternal covenant.
Eternal covenant: what YHWH said all His covenants with Israel were, which were sealed by Yahshua's blood. (Gen. 17:17; Psalm 105:10; Heb. 13:20)
6. Therefore a curse has devoured the Land, and its inhabitants are [left] desolate. Therefore the inhabitants of the Land are scorched, and a trifling few are left [alive].
7. The new wine is mourning, the vine is drooping, and the joyful of heart are groaning.
8. The rejoicing of tambourines has stopped; the uproar of those who are triumphant has come to an end. The mirth of the harp has ceased.
9. With a song they will not drink wine; intoxicating drink will be bitter to its drinkers.
10. The city of unreality is wrecked; every house has been tightly shut so there can be no entering.
Unreality: emptiness, shame, formlessness, or confusion--which is what results from assimilating many peoples. On the largest scale, this is "Babylon", the counterfeit of Yerushalayim, which gains all its "reality" from being a mimicry of it. Wrecked: maimed or broken down.
11. An outcry for wine is in the streets. All joy is mixed; the rejoicing of the land is removed.
Wine: a symbol of joy. Mixed: or darkened as at evening. Removed: or uncovered, rendered naked, shown to be without substance.
12. What is left in the city is appalment and ruins; the gates are shattered,
Appalment: or desolation.
13. because this is how it will come to be in the heart of the Land, among the peoples, like the shaking around an olive tree, and like the gleaning of grapes when the vintage is finished.
Shaking around an olive tree: i.e., that causes the last of the olives to drop off.
14. They will lift up their voice; they will shout for joy at the majesty of YHWH. They will give a shrill cry from the sea.
Shrill cry: with the connotation of brightness, like the Song of Moshe and Miryam after coming from the Reed Sea. But "from the sea" here may also refer to the time after the Land is made desolate again when the Counterfeit Messiah takes it over and is conquered, many Israelites will come from outside the Land, praising YHWH for defeating the Babylonian system and re-peopling the Land with the truly obedient. (v. 16)
15. So cause YHWH to be heavily honored in the light of fire, the name of YHWH the Elohim of Israel on the seacoasts!
Lights of fire: Urim, so possibly referring to the articles by which the High Priest discerns YHWH's will.
16. From the corners of the earth, we have heard songs of praise: "Honor to the righteous!" But I said, "Leanness for me! Leanness for me! Woe to me! The treacherous have betrayed me with deceit! The treacherous have betrayed me!"
Corners: literally, "wings". Treacherous: the Counterfeit Messiah and his system.
17. Terror, the pit, and a snare-trap are upon you, O inhabitant of the earth!
There is a word play here. In Hebrew, "Terror" is pachad, "pit" is pachath, and "snare-trap" is pach. They turn out to have the same effect. Inhabitant of the earth: perhaps those who call themselves "citizens of the world".
18. Because those who escape from the noise of the terror will fall into the pit, and the one who climbs up from within the pit will be captured in the snare-trap, because the lattices from on high have been thrown open, and the foundations of the earth will shake!
Lattices: windows in the ceiling without glass to let smoke out or sluices to let rain in, but the word comes from "to lie in ambush", connoting a place from which a surprise attack can come. There is no way out.
19. The earth has completely broken itself up! The earth is cracked all the way through! The earth is slipping and tottering!
Is...broken up: or "has become utterly evil".
20. The earth will reel back and forth, staggering like a drunkard, and has been swaying like a hut! The punishment for its transgression will be heavy upon it. Then it will fall, and never rise again!
21. And what will take place on that day is that YHWH will muster the army of the heights on the heights and the kings of the earth on the ground for review,
22. and they have been gathered together as prisoners are gathered into a dungeon, and they have been locked up in the prison, and will be visited [with punishment] after many days.
Perhaps this correlates with haSatan being bound for 1,000 years. (Rev. 20)
23. Then the moon will blush and the sun will be ashamed when YHWH of Armies reigns on Mount Tsion and in Yerushalayim, and His glorious elders in front [of Him].
The sun and the moon will diminish in importance. (Rev. 21:23) They have even been worshipped in the past, but will become "has-beens". If we stand in awe of anything besides YHWH, we are not truly standing in awe of Him. Yoseyf's dream linked the sun with his father and the moon with his mother. The mother of Yoseyf's children is now for the most part the Church, which will diminish greatly after its purpose of preserving Israel in exile has been served. These elders may be the 24 elders around His throne (Revelation 4, 5, 11, 19).
CHAPTER 25
1. O YHWH! You are my Elohim! I will extol You! I will praise Your Name, for You have accomplished an extraordinary thing! [Your] purposes from long ago are steadfastness and reliability,
Long ago: or "far away". Reliability: firmly rooted, so that we need not waver or be "tossed around by every wind of doctrine".
2. because You have made a heap of stones out of a city; a fortified town [You have made] into a fallen ruin; [You have taken] from a citadel of foreigners [the status of being] a city, never to be rebuilt forever.
Aramaic: "A temple of Gentiles will never be built in the city of Yerushalayim!"
3. Therefore a fierce people will honor You; a town of the ruthless Gentiles will fear You,
Ruthless: or "terrifying".
4. because You have been a refuge for the poor, a place of protection for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm, a source of shade from the dry heat, when the wind of the ruthless is like a storm [which beats against] a wall.
Needy: one especially subject to oppression. Wind: blast, breath, or spirit.
5. Like the heat in a parched land,You will bring down the roar of those alienated--[and bring relief in] dry heat by the shadow of a cloud; the song of the ruthless will be answered.
Like the heat in a parched land: actually two words that double as proper names, so this could read, "[It is] like Chorev [Mt. Sinai] in Tsion". Both are called "the mountain of Elohim/YHWH". (e.g., Ex. 3:1; Micha 4:2; Yoel 2:1) Mystically this is also borne out by the fact that the numeric value of "Sinai" in Hebrew is the same as "stairway"--what Yaaqov saw in his dream/vision on Mt. Moryah, which is physically connected to Mt. Tsion.
6. Then YHWH of Armies will prepare for all the peoples a feast of the finest [foods], a feast of the dregs of wine--the finest [foods] full of marrow, [and] the dregs of refined wine.
Full of marrow: or "blotted out".
7. And on this mountain He has engulfed the face of the covering that envelops all peoples, and the web that is woven over all nations.
Aramaic, "The face of the great one who is master over all peoples, the face of the king who rules all nations will be annihilated on this mountain." I.e., the Counterfeit Messiah will be destroyed on Mt. Tsion (v. 5). Web: or veil. Nations: or "Gentiles". On Mt. Moryah, which is connected to Tsion and thus considered one with it, Yahshua was crucified, and the veil of His
flesh (Heb. 10:20) was torn, at which time Gentile soldiers became aware that He was Elohim's Son. (Matt. 27:51ff) Nearby, after His resurrection, it was a "face covering" that convinced His disciples that He had indeed risen from the dead. (Yochanan 20:7) Moshe had to put a veil over his face to hide the fact that the evidence of having been in YHWH's presence was fading away. (2 Cor. 3:11-14) Paul, who was blinded by a view of the unfading face of Yahshua, says the same type of veil remains over anyone who reads the Hebrew Scriptures until people turn to the Messiah. Another kind of eye-covering is to be removed when the Northern Kingdom returns to the covenant. (Rom. 11:25) He longs to reveal YHWH's presence to us, but this will not happen
magically, just as when the veil in the Temple was torn, a way was opened into the Holy Place where we can serve YHWH, but we still have to enter in. Through Y'shua, we are free to look behind the veil at the treasures YHWH hid for kings to search out. We have been made kings and priests (Rev. 1:6), but most choose not to do so, because they do not wish to look into the
depths of the Hebrew Scriptures or the Temple, which both give us multitudes of details about who He is (Luk. 24:44) and who we can now be through Him--one new man. We are called to be that man, and no longer walk like Gentiles who have a darkened understanding. (Eph. 4:17ff). Priests and kings in Israel are servants, not overlords.
8. He has swallowed up death in everlasting victory! And Adonai YHWH will wipe away tears from off every face, and He will remove the reproach of His people from off all the earth, because YHWH has spoken.
Everlasting victory: endurance, perpetuity, or simply "everlastingness". Aramaic, "They will forget death forever." Paul describes this as being "further clothed" like having a tent enclosed by a building (2 Cor. 5:4)--the "sukkah" that is in the Holy of Holies. (Psalm 18:11) Scientists might
describe it as taking on added dimensions of existence which are no longer mortal. Wipe away: or "obliterate".
9. And in that Day [someone] will say, "Behold, this is our Elohim! We have lingered, waiting eagerly for Him, and He will deliver us! This is YHWH! We have lingered, waiting eagerly for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation!"
For Him: Aramaic, "for His Memra [living Word]".
10. Because YHWH's hand will rest on this mountain, and Moav will be trodden down under Him just as straw is trampled into the water of the manure pile.
Hand will rest: Aramaic, "might will be revealed".
11. And He has spread out His hands in its midst as the swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, and He has humbled its pride along with the tricks of their hands,
12. and the inaccessibility of the secure height of your walls He has caused to bow down, laid low, and caused to touch the ground until [they are] dust.
CHAPTER 26
1. In that Day this song will be sung in the Land of Yehudah: "We have a strong city! Salvation will constitute walls and ramparts!
2. "Open [the] gates, so a righteous nation that keeps faith may enter!"
A righteous nation: Rabbinical teaching identifies this as the "lost tribes" of the Northern Kingdom--once they again constitute a nation. That is the task for today. Keeps faith: or "gives heed to the truth", "treasures up faithfulness", "protects trust". We guard the faith by laying down our lives for one another. To be ready to go to war, one must first be able to trust the one who will be beside him in the foxhole. We must thus become trustworthy to one another.
3. You will blockade in perfect soundness the mind that is rested upon You, because he has bold confidence in You.
Perfect soundness: both words are "shalom" in Hebrew. Mind that is rested upon You: literally, "framework [that is] supported [on] You." Aramaic, "on Your Memra", i.e., Yahshua, YHWH's "Word that was made flesh" . "Framework" is also the word for "inclination" and is used in Hebrew for our inclinations toward good or evil. We must "lean" both of them on Him--surrender to Him not just our propensity to do wrong, but our ideas of what is right. When Yeshayahu was commanded to walk naked to communicate a prophecy, it certainly went against his sense of what was right, yet YHWH had commanded it. When YHWH told Israel to destroy even the women and children of Kanaan, it would not seem right to the natural mind, but YHWH had His
reason for it. Our own hearts are not trustworthy foundations on which to rest our inclinations. (Yirmiyahu 17:9)
4. Have bold confidence in YHWH continuously forever, because in Yah YHWH is an eternal rock,
Rock: i.e., strength; a sure foundation.
5. because He causes those who dwell [on] the heights to be bowed down; He will lay low the town that is set securely in an inaccessible place! He will cause it to be humbled [all the way] to the ground; He will cause it to hit the dust.
Set securely: with the connotation of smugness and hostility.
6. The foot will trample it down--the foot of the afflicted, and the footfalls of the needy.
7. The pathway for the righteous is [one] of levelness. [O You who have been] upright, may You level out the track of the righteous!
Pathway: the picture is one of piers being built to support a highway. Levelness: uprightness, straightness, evenness, smoothness, equity, correctness. It gives us the sense of being balanced between all the virtues; if we have more of one than another, we become deformed. We all need each other to balance each other out, because none of us has all the characteristics of what YHWH wants in their fullness. Track: from a word for "round", thus hinting at the pathway around the year, through the festival calendar of appointments with YHWH.
8. Oh, the pathway of Your legal proceedings, YHWH! We have been eagerly lingering in expectation of You! The longing of our soul is for Your Name and for what we remember of You!
Eagerly lingering: at root, the term means "binding together". The highway is built through our binding ourselves together on the basis of justice, judgment, and the order of authority that YHWH has established. What we remember of You: our longing is to be back in His presence--the essence of Eden.
9. With my passion I have craved You by night; even more, with my spirit in my innermost being will I seek You earnestly, because when Your [just] legal proceedings [come] to the earth, those who remain of the civilized world will learn righteousness.
Earnestly: or early. Learn righteousness: it is not just something we inherit by virtue of being in Messiah, but something that one must learn (which in Hebrew means be prodded or goaded to do).
10. The guilty one has been given grace; yet he has not learned righteousness. Even in a land where everything is the way it should be, he will [still] deviate, and will still not perceive the excellency of YHWH.
In a land where...: or "in a land of honesty", "rightness", "straightness". In Yahshua's Kingdom, where all is indeed put right, and there is no injustice or any reason to complain, there will still be some who test His resolve (Zech. 14:18) and who rebel at the end when haSatan is loosed and their true colors show up (Rev. 20:7ff), though suppressed for a thousand years!
11. O YHWH, Your hand is lifted high, yet still they cannot perceive, but they will see and be ashamed of their jealous ardor against the people. In fact, the fire of Your oppressors will devour them.
12. O YHWH, You will set total well-being in place for us, because You have worked into us all our achievements as well.
The Renewed Covenant echoes this: Many people are familiar with the verses, "By [YHWH's] added provision we are rescued, through faith, and [even] that is not from ourselves; it is YHWH's gift, so that no one may boast", and rightly think that this excludes "works-salvation". But the
following verse brings the balance: "...because we are His workmanship, created in Messiah unto [particular] good works, which YHWH has ordained in advance for us to walk in." (Eph. 2:10) Many think that if we do "good works" we must not have faith, but this is very unscriptural; it is only a matter of who receives the credit. "It is YHWH who is operative in you, both [making
you] want to and [also] prove it by carrying out the good things that please Him." (Phil. 2:13) As His intent was for Pharaoh's heart to be hard in order to accomplish His purposes, He has put it within the hearts of the righteous to do what is right, so that He ultimately gets all the credit, being All in all. In other words, it is Yahshua in us who initiates and makes the works possible (as v. 13 echoes), and we only participate in them, but by all means YHWH desires the works!
13. O YHWH, our Elohim, [other] masters besides You have lorded it over us, [but] only in You will we cause Your name to be remembered.
In the past we have used other names for YHWH as well, and many of them turn out to have been the names of pagan deities after all. Though our hearts were right, we were actually giving honor to others. But now we have only one Name for YHWH; we need not have any others on our lips. Cause...to be remembered: or "make mention of..."
14. Being dead, they will never live; having sunk down, they will never arise, so You have mustered them for review, and will annihilate them, and cause all memory of them to vanish.
When the books are opened, by tradition, those who are in the "Book of the Wicked" will be blotted out of YHWH's memory--and if He has no memory of them, how can they exist at all? They were extra "stage props" created only to teach and sharpen the righteous and accomplish other purposes of YHWH's.
15. You have added to the nation; You have gained honor! You have far extended all the borders of the Land.
You have added to: Aramaic, "You were revealed to gather the dispersed of..."
16. O YHWH, in tight spots they [began to] miss You. They poured out a whisper; they had Your chastening.
Miss You: or "seek You in vain". Poured out a whisper: or "pressed out a whispered prayer".
17. Just as a pregnant woman whose delivery is drawing near writhes in pain and cries for help, so have we become from before Your face, O YHWH.
The setting is clearly "the Birthpangs of the Messiah". We have become: Aramaic, "because we are sinners before You."
18. We have conceived; we have been having birthpangs, as if we were giving birth to wind! We have not brought about any deliverance in the Land; the ‘citizens of the world' have not fallen, either!
Wind: perhaps merely indigestion from eating non-kosher foods, an empty thing--or perhaps "spirit", as in the spirit of the Torah without the letter, without the actions. Aram., "whose time to deliver speeds as the wind". Deliverance: Heb., yeshuah. It seems as if our prayers and our efforts to become the people of Israel, united under one King, have been in vain, because the enemy (the one-world order) still presses in upon us and has hemmed us in!
19. Your dying ones will be restored to life! My fallen ones will arise! Wake up and give an overcoming shout of joy, O you who are settling into the dust, because night mist is the daybreak of your dew, and the earth will cause the slackers to fall!
My fallen ones: those who have dropped, languished, drooped, withered, or faded. Dew: associated in Hebrew lore with the resurrection, based on this verse. Cause the slackers to fall: some render it, "cast out the dead". Aramaic, "They have not done wonders, nor will they be able to."
20. Come, My people! Enter into your [innermost] chambers, and shut your doors behind you; withdraw [and keep yourself hidden] for just a moment until the Indignation has passed over,
Innermost chambers: Like the Holy of Holies, but this term has a special meaning in regard to the nuptial chamber of a bride and groom, for while YHWH's wrath overthrows the wicked, the Messiah, our bridegroom, will bring us into the wedding chamber He has built in His Father's house. (Yochanan 14:6) Shut your doors: Leave outside whatever is not holy unto YHWH,
retiring further from the rest of the world to be closer to Him (Psalm 31:19), just as on the Sabbath we leave everything else undone. We affect the spirit realm by the doors we open or shut through our very words, speech, attitudes, and even thoughts. (Mat. 5:28) We are commanded to always be joyful (not happy) in YHWH at all times, so it is possible to decide what our attitude is going to be. The Indignation: a special term for YHWH's final overthrow of Babylon when the tables are turned to prepare for Yahshua's Kingdom. This appears to be just like the first Passover in Egypt, when YHWH hid Israel indoors--in Egypt--while He destroyed Egypt. (Compare Psalm 91:7-8) Only this time it will overshadow it in magnitude so greatly that Yirmiyahu 16:14 says we will no longer even remember the first one! We rehearse it now when we keep the feast, but we are preparing to be (corporately) a Holy of Holies in which He can dwell. As at the Temple, it is entered by putting off self and ascending to greater degrees of holiness.
21. because here comes YHWH out from His place to punish the occupiers of the Land for their perversity, and the earth will lay bare her blood, and no longer conceal her slain.
The bloodguilt of millennia will all come to light, and those guilty will be summoned [another translation of "punish"] before the Kinsman Redeemer as He fulfills His other role--that of the avenger of blood for His murdered relatives. The scenario appears to be that the enemies have hemmed Israel in while we are again encamped in the wilderness with all tribes together, so
all stand to be slaughtered at once. (v. 18) Then, having led them into a trap, YHWH's fire suddenly bursts forth from His tabernacle, a surprise attack that destroys them all. Yahshua's blood needs to be on our "lintel" to escape His judgment this time.
CHAPTER 27
1. In that Day YHWH will punish Livyathan, the fleeing serpent, with His unbending, great, and mighty sword--Livyathan, the distorted serpent--and He will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Fleeing serpent: like Hydra, the constellation that tells its story. (See also Revelation 12) Aramaic: "the king who exalts himself like Pharaoh the first king (cf. Y'hezq'el/Ez. 29:3), and the king who prides himself like Sennacheriv, the second", i.e., the Counterfeit Messiah. But the root word for Livyathan is "to join" or "unite", so we could call it "the Great Uniting", reminiscent of the early U.S. flag that said "Join or Die" and depicted fragments of a snake. Today Livyathan aims to join all nations together into one, hinted at by the description in Revelation 12, 13, and 17
where it has seven heads, not just one. Distorted serpent: the one who was once magnificent but became crooked, twisted, "bent out of shape". In contrast, His sword (His Word, Eph. 6:17) does not bend; it is straight and stiff, and severe to the one who does not measure up. (66:16)
2. In that Day--a vineyard of pure, foamy red wine! Be busy for it!
Be busy for it! Or perhaps, "Sing to it!" The Aramaic targum identifies the vineyard as Israel. (Ch. 5)
3. "I, YHWH, am watching over it. I will irrigate it moment by moment, lest anyone pay it attention. Night and day I will guard it.
Watching over it: guarding it, hedging it about. Pay it attention: seek it out (perhaps with the intent to damage it), come across it, or attend to it. (It is His and He is the shepherd; He will have no hireling do the job again.) Or, "number it" (i.e., count it as one of the nations, as if they
owned it).
4. "I have no fiery wrath; who would set briar of thornbush against Me in battle? I would march through them! I would set them all ablaze together!
He would like to just burn the whole field off since there are so many tares, but He has discovered a healthy vine in its midst, and will therefore pause to transplant it before carrying out His justice.
5. "Or let him tightly take hold of my place of protection that He may make peace with Me; let him make peace with Me!"
He would prefer this outcome. "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live!" (Y'hezq'el 33:11) "Mercy triumphs against judgment", but there are conditions for this:
6. Those who come in, He will cause to become the root of Yaaqov; Israel will blossom when it has sent out shoots, and it will fill the face of the inhabited world with [fruitful] increase.
Come in: i.e., surrender to His terms (v. 5). Those who were not Avraham's physical descendasnts can still be grafted into him, and become as much Israelites as any others. (See Yahshua's parable of the laborers in Matithyahu 20.) But this does not happen to Gentiles automatically, but by their own choice. Blossom: the word means to get others' attention, as a
flower gets a bee's attention.
7. Has He caused him to be beaten like the blows [given to] the one who was attacking him? Or has He been killed as His slain were killed?
I.e., did YHWH strike Israel as hard as He struck those who came against Israel? No, He showed Israel more pity.
8. By measure, by sending away, will you contend with her; He will drive out His fierce wind in the day of the east wind.
By measure: i.e., according to the measure of her sin. Aramaic, "by the measure you were measuring with they will measure against you." (Compare Mark 4:24) By sending away: reminiscent of Hagar. East wind: or "confrontation".
9. Therefore, this is how Yaaqov's guilt will be completely covered, and this is all the fruit to cause His sin to depart: in making all the altar-stones like pulverized limestone; neither consorting-groves for the goddess nor sun-pillars may remain,
There are steps Israel must take in order to be atoned for. The altar-stones spoken of here are not those of YHWH's altar, but of the pagan altars they have built to other idols.
10. because the inaccessible city [will become] isolated, a meadow forsaken and left to become like a wilderness. There the calf will graze, and there he will stretch out and use up all its branches.
What happens to this city seems to parallel the judgment on Babylon (Rev. 18:2). It probably refers to the "united city" of v. 1. YHWH tells Israel, do not hesitate to destroy its images, because it is a has-been anyway. The calf: a description of the repentant Efrayim in Yirmiyahu 31:18.
11. When its boughs dry up, they will be broken off; women come and light them [on fire], because it is a people with no discernment. Therefore He who made them will have no pity on them, and He who fashioned them will give them no grace.
Boughs...broken off: Paul appears to be alluding to this in Romans 11 when he says the grafted-in branches could yet be broken off. What has come to be known as the "Church" comprise the large part of the branches grafted in, but Paul warns that, if they bear no fruit, they have no more guarantee of remaining in YHWH's "tree" than those who were previously broken off for unbelief. A people of no discernment: describes Israel in 1:3; Deut. 32:28; Yirmiyahu 8:8; Hos. 4:6. Those who think their salvation is only about a "personal relationship" rather than something much larger--the whole house of Israel and YHWH's own benefit--will miss being treated with the mercy He promised to again have on Efrayim. But here perhaps the description of being is transferred to the "politically correct" of the New World Order (Livyathan) that avoids any hint of "discrimination" or any attempt to determine the truth because everyone's opinion must be represented. Once Israel was called "Lo-Ammi" (not My people) and "Lo-Ruhamah" (Not Pitied), but YHWH has reversed this (Hos. 1:10), and now it is the ones who counted on
"grace" who will be "Lo Am-Binoth" and "Lo-y'Rahamenu"; He uses the same terminology, without the personal relationship.
12. But what will take place in that Day is that YHWH will thresh from the flowing of the river to the wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O descendants of Israel.
The flowing of the river: the Aramaic identifies it as the Ferath/Euphrates, which never dries up except once. These delineate the Land of Israel. (Gen. 15:18) Thresh...Gathered up: picked up as when gleaning, separating the wheat from the tares. Aramaic, "brought near". One by one:
compare Yirm./Jer. 3:14.
13. Then what will happen in that Day is that a great shofar will be blown, and those who [were] perishing in the land of Ashur will come along with those who [were] outcasts in the land of Egypt and prostrate themslves to YHWH on the Mountain of Holiness in Yerushalayim!
Great shofar: an element of Yom Kippur ceremonies. Perishing: or being exterminated. Outcasts: those thrust out, or those banished. From what follows, it is clear this is speaking about the Northern Kingdom.
Chapters 28-33
CHAPTER 28
1. Alas [for the] crown of pride of Efrayim's drunkards and the shining head-plate [that is] fading, the decoration of his rank which is on the head of the valley of fatness of those who are overcome with wine!
Drunkards: LXX, hirelings. Head-plate: Aramaic, turban. Fading: or "drooping", "dropping down".
2. Behold! Adonai has a strong and courageous one, like a hailstorm or a terror of destruction, like a flood of powerful, overflowing waters [that] He lets down onto the Land by hand.
Hailstorm: or perhaps a meteorite shower. Overflowing: or "washing off, rinsing", as in cleaning it up. The Aramaic targum's interpretation is that this refers to a Gentile army.
3. The crown of pride of Efrayim's drunkards will be trampled underfoot,
4. along with the shining head-plate [that is] fading, the decoration of his rank which is on the head of the valley of fatness, like the firstfruit before the summer, which the inspector looks at; he swallows it while it is still in the palm of his hand.
5. In that Day YHWH of Armies will become the crown of decoration and the diadem of rank for the remnant of His people,
No one will boast about rank once He demonstrates His own power and authority.
6. and a spirit of justice for the one who sits on the court of judgment, and bravery for those who turn back the battle at the gate.
At the gate: metaphorically, this also refers to the strength He gives us to battle temptation at our own "eye gate", "ears gate", etc. (Gen. 4:7)
7. But even these have swerved into error through wine, and wandered off course due to intoxicating liquor. Cohen and prophet have swerved into error due to intoxicating liquor; they have been swallowed up because of wine. They have wandered off course due to strong drink. They meander in [their]
prophetic vision; they stumble when reasoning out a verdict, This may be an allusion to the "wine mixed for Meni [fate]", and the next verse to the "table set for Gad [fortune]". (65:11) I.e., those who should
have grown to maturity by being taught the Torah (v. 9) are being tossed about by every wind of pagan doctrine. Intoxicating beverage is not forbidden (Ps. 104:5; Prov. 31:6), but we need to weight he profit of using it, for it can deceive us. When we need to be clear-headed, not just for our own sakes, but for the sake of the people of Israel, it may not be wise. (Prov. 20:1; 23:31; 31:4) Interestingly, wine was not drunk in the wilderness, and YHWH tied that to knowing Him. (Deut. 29:5-6) Even the prophets are caught up in the paganism of this Bacchanalia and such paganism.
8. because every table is full of vomit and excrement, without a place.
LXX: "A curse will devour this counsel, since it is counsel for the sake of covetousness." A place: or standing-place, often an idiom for the Temple, where everyone stood while worshipping YHWH. The rabbis teach that a table is full of vomit if we eat at it without recognizing Him.
9. To whom should He direct knowledge? And to whom should He explain the message? To those being weaned from milk, [who are] moving on from the breasts.
Direct: or teach, impart. Moving on: ready to advance beyond the basics--those who are grown up.
10. Because [it is], "Tzav l'tzav, tzav l'tzav, qav l'qav, qav l'qav", a little there, a little [over] there,
Possibly, "order for order, order for order, line for line, line for line". The LXX has, "expect affliction upon affliction, hope upon hope". The targum goes into more detail about the concepts of "commands" and "hope". On the surface this may be so. But more likely, because none of them are mature enough to explain the Torah to the people, and are too drunk to listen, it sounds like babbling or baby-talk to them, when in fact it is "baby food"! (Heb. 5:12) It is the most basic knowledge one must have before he can move on to anything deeper. Paul's writings are meat, and cannot be properly understood without a strong foundation in the Torah. (2 Kefa/Peter 3:16). Meat needs to be left until we can digest it, and the "milk" of Torah makes that possible. The Holy Spirit can only bring to our remembrance (Yochanan 14:26) what we have already learned. Feeding a child too much meat too early will make him fat--which is what made Israel turn from YHWH (Deut. 32:15).
11. because with mocking lips and a different language will this people be spoken to,
12. to whom He had said, "This is the restingplace; give rest to the weary! This is the refreshing!" But they were not willing to listen.
13. So YHWH's word to them was , "Tzav l'tzav, tzav l'tzav, qav l'qav, qav l'qav, a little there, a little [over] there", in order that they may proceed, then stumble backward, and be crippled, then ensnared, then captured.
I.e., YHWH will mock them back, confounding them with the languages of the peoples to whose lands they will be exiled, to see if they still think so smugly of themselves.
14. So listen to what YHWH says, you arrogant scoffers who govern this people who are in Yerushalayim!
Now Judah is acting like the Northern Kingdom did.
15. Because you have been saying, "We have made a covenant with death, and have cut a deal with the grave: when the overwhelming scourge passes by, it will not come upon us, because we have set up a lie as our shelter [something], and have hidded ourselves within what is fraudulent."
A lie: or "what will disappoint us". I.e., the enemy will not recognize us. This sounds like "selling onbe's soul to the devil" in exchange for great riches. But "death" here could also mean "the dead", and we can also see in it the Christian emphasis on Yahshua's death more than His resurrection (as seen in crucifixes, etc.) As well as the Rabbinic Jewish practice of praying at the graves of great men. They may only be making requests in the name of the merit of these great men, and there is Scriptural precedent for that, but some teach that even if there is a voice from heaven, the rabbis can overrule it. Egypt's focus was on death, while the Torah focuses on life, so much so that the High Priest may never touch any dead
body.
16. Therefore, this is what the Master YHWH says: "Here I am, laying as a foundation in Tsion a building stone--a stone [that has been] tested and proven, a cornerstone appraised at high value, a well-established foundation; whoever firmly trusts will not act [so] hastily.
The Aramaic targum says this "stone" is a "great, mighty, and terrifying king. Compare "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone" (Ps. 118). It is the Messiah. Act hastily: Aramaic, "be shaken when distress comes".
17. "Then I will appoint justice as the measuring line, and righteousness as the plumb-bob, and hail will sweep away the disappointing shelter, and the waters will wash away your hiding place.
As the measuring line: Heb., "l'qav", one of the phrases they used above in drunken mockery. Plumb-bob: righteousness thus "hangs" on justice, or a system of right ways to rule in court, based on Torah, which upholds it. Righteousness cannot be complete in isolation.
18. "Then your covenant with death will be buried, and your deal cut with the grave will never be ratified. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be directly in its path.
Buried: or "void". Ratified: or "established", but in this context it is somewhat sarcastically used, because the word is also commonly used for "resurrected". Directly in its path: literally, "the place for it to
trample" or "stampede upon".
19. Every time it passes through, it will take you, because morning after morning it will pass through, both by day and by night, and making the message understood will be pure horror,
Making the message understood: LXX, "Understanding this report". Aramaic, "Before the moment of the curse comes, you will consider the sayings of the prophets."
20. because the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the cover is too narrow to wrap oneself in.
I.e., Egypt is inadequate; you will find no rest in her. If you are not listening to My word, you will remain cold. You will not have a covering (atonement), because faith without works is dead.
21. For YHWH will rise up like Mount Pratzim, and he will be stirred up like the Valley of Giv'on to accomplish His work--His strange work--and to bring about His servitude--His foreign servitude.
Mt. Pratzim ["breaches"]: Possibly Baal-Pratzim, the scene of David's victory over the Filistines in the Valley of Refayim between Yerushalayim and Beyth Lechem. However, the targum identifies this as "the day the mountains shook when YHWH's glory was revealed in the days of Uzziyahu the king", which
would be in the memory of those listening to Yeshayahu's prophecy. Valley of Giv'on: Giv'on is in the mountains, but was the place Y'hoshua told the sun to stand still while he was fighting in the Valley--of the Ayalon. The targum identifies this reference with that time "when YHWH listened to a man" (Y'shoshua 10:14).
22. So now, do not show yourselves to be scorners, lest the bonds [of your chastening] be made severe, because a complete destruction and one that is decisive, is what I have heard from YHWH of Armies in regard to the whole Land.
I.e., "Your punishment is guaranteed to come, but it can be minimized. Do not prove to be unteachable."
23. Cup your ear and listen to my voice! Pay attention, and listen to what I am saying!
24. Does the plowman plow all day in order to sow? Does he loosen and break the clods of his ground?
LXX: "Or will he prepare the seed beforehand, before he tills the soil?" The Aramaic targum identifies the plowman with the prophet and asked what could be done for sinners (the "clods") if they would only listen.
25. When he has made its surface level, doesn't he scatter the black cummin abroad, then toss the cummin, then set the wheat in straight rows, and mark off the barley with spelt as its border?
Black cummin: a plant with small black, acrid seeds used as a spice. Aramaic: "If the House of Israel set their face to perform the Torah, would He not turn back and gather them from among the Gentiles, among whom they are scattered, as dill and cummin which are strewn?"
26. He has even corrected it so it is fitting, as his Elohim directs him,
LXX: "So you will be chastened by your Elohim's judgment, and will rejoice." The Aramaic interpretation is similar: YHWH teaches them the correct way through judgment.
27. because black cummin is not threshed with something sharp, nor is a cartwheel rolled over cummin, since black cummin is to be beaten out with a branch, and cummin with a club.
Threshing is part of the process of making bread, which Paul says we are becoming. (1 Cor. 10:17) The different ministry gifts (Eph. 4) parallel the process of turning grain into bread. But different types of grain are prepared in different ways, and likewise different congregations have different purposes, and different people must be brought to fruitfulness through different means and methods. YHWH has made us all unique, and we each have a unique part to play in His overall plan, but all must be working toward the same goals, as in Hebraic dance we have to lean so far in one direction as to be unbalanced alone, but we hold each other up. But some people are ideal for dealing with one type of problem, or one type of person,
but not for another.
28. Grain is crushed, yet one does not always trample on it to thresh it, but impels it forward with the wheel of his cart, but his horse-team does not pulverize it.
Discernment is a must. If you want the right result, you need to use more than just one tool. One is used to get the grain to the first stage, then another to deal with the next. You can thresh all day, but you will not
have flour until it is also ground, roasted, etc. Preaching the Gospel over and over will not bring someone to maturity. We need everyone's giftings in place in order to build maturity, each in the right measure and at the right time. But unlike grain, a person has to also consent to be threshed.
29. This, too, emanates from YHWH of Armies, who has brought an extraordinary plan into being, and caused sound knowledge to increase.
CHAPTER 29
1. Alas, Ariel! Ariel! The town where David abode! Add year upon year; let the festivals run their circuit.
Ariel: "Lion of Elohim", another name for Yerushalayim, perhaps because the Temple appeared like a stylized lion from a distance, with its front facade higher than the rear part and the altar like its paws stretched in front of it. The Aramaic substitutes the word "altar". Run their circuit: i.e., one full year.
2. Then I will press Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation, and it will be like Ariel to Me.
Compare how YHWH says He will be like a lion to both Efrayim and Yehudah until they repent. (Hos. 5:14; 13:8-9)
3. So I will encamp like a circle over you, and impose a siege on you [with] entrenchment, and raise up ramparts against you.
Encamp: the same word as "abode" in v. 1. Ramparts: or battle-towers (the Assyrian style which were attached to battering rams).
4. Then you will be brought down, and will speak out of the earth, and your voice will be muffled by the dust. Your voice will come from the ground like a spiritist, and your speech will whisper from the dust.
Muffled: or "humbled", "laid low", "reduced".
5. And the great number of your enemies will be like fine dust, and the vast number of ruthless ones like the chaff that passes through, and it will come suddenly, as a surprise.
Enemies: literally, "strangers", "aliens"; the targum identifies them as "your dispersed".
6. You will be visited by YHWH of Armies, with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise, whirlwind, storm, and a flame of devouring fire.
7. And the vast number of all the nations who fight against Ariel--those who swell up against her and her stronghold--will become like a prophetic dream and an oracular vision at night.
8. It will even be like when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but then he wakes up and his appetite is in vain, or like when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but then he wakes up and is fainting [from thirst] after all. This is how it will be for all the vast numbers of Gentiles who fight against Mount Tsion.
9. Linger and be dumbfounded! Smear your eyes shut and be blind! They are drunken, but it is not wine; they stagger, but it is not intoxicating beverage,
10. because YHWH has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and will cause your eyes to be tightly shut. He has caused the prophets and your heads, the seers, to be concealed.
Spirit of deep sleep: insensibility, intense shock, dulled senses; Aramaic, "deception". The original Hebrew uses the same word as for the "deep slumber" that YHWH brought over Adam when He wished to create Chavvah/Eve (Gen. 2:21); In Romans 11, Paul quotes this verse and explains how He again uses this method to produce a bride by "putting Israel to sleep"! Compare1 Sh'muel 26:12; Yochanan/John 11:11ff; 1 Thess. 4:14.
11. So the whole vision has become for you like the words of a sealed book, which they give to one who is literate, saying, "Please read this", but he says, "I cannot, because it is sealed."
Is literate: Literally, "knows books". Only Yahshua can break the seal on a scroll in Revelation 5, which is probably the deed to the earth which Adam "sold". But it may also refer to the proper understanding of the Torah.
12. Then the book is given to one who does not know book[s], saying, "Please read this", but he says, "I am illiterate."
I am illiterate: literally, "I do not know books": But perhaps in this case it is because the book is in Hebrew, and they have already begun to think like Gentiles.
13. So YHWH says, "On account of the fact that this people has come close to Me with their mouth and honored Me with their lips, but have removed their heart far away from Me, and their respect for Me is drilled into them by the commandments of mortal men.
Yahshua quoted this in Matithyahu 15 in regard to the P'rushim (Pharisees). He quotes it as "teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (quoting from the LXX, but in a slightly altered order). We have seen many other examples of that since, such as the Roman Catholic Church as well as the Jewish rabbis, who both say they can overrule the Scriptures for the sake of human traditions. (Mark 7:13) Hoshea was told that the remedy for this is to bring words back to YHWH as the sacrifice of our lips. (14:2)
14. "So here I am, once more doing something hard to understand with this people--something hard to understand and extraordinary--because the wisdom of their learned men has been lost, and the discernment of those who have insight will hide itself.
Doing something hard: Aramaic, "striking with comprehensive strokes."
15. Woe to those who go down to the depths to conceal their motives from YHWH, and have done their business in dark places, saying, "Who notices us?" or "Who [will] recognize us?"
Compare Psalm 94:7-15 and Y'hezq'el/Ezk. 8:12ff.
16. Your turning things upside down will be considered like the potter's clay. For will the thing that is made say of its maker, "He did not make me"? Or will what is formed say of the one forming it, "He has no understanding"?
Or, "You are turning things upside down; will the clay be esteemed like the potter?" No understanding: the Aramaic targum adds, "of me".
17. Isn't it only a very short while until Levanon returns to being an orchard, and the orchard will be counted as a forest?
Will be counted: Aramaic, "will cause many cities to be inhabited".
18. And in that Day, the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of unresponsiveness and darkness, the eyes of the blind, will see!
This is one of the verses Yahshua alluded to when Yochanan the Immerser asked Him (Luk. 7:19) whether He or another like Him was the one who is to come--i.e., if He was both the first and the second Messiah (i.e., "Son of Yoseyf", the suffering Servant, and the "Son of David", the conquering King).
He answered by telling him of the miracles He was performing as signs, because they all foreshadowed the Kingdom when such healings would be the norm. Romans 11 tells us that the full understanding will not be restored to Israel until the "fullness of the Gentiles" (which is Efrayim's seed, Gen. 48:19) begins to return.
19. Then in YHWH the afflicted will again end up having joy, and the abused of humanity will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel,
Abused of humanity: literally, the "poor/needy of Adam".
20. because the ruthless has been brought to nothing, the boastful one has proven to be a failure, and all those who look for [opportunities to make] trouble have been cut off--
The boastful one: broadly, a generic term, but specifically the Counterfeit Messiah.
21. those who induce a man to sin with a word, or lay a snare for one who convicts [them] in the gate, or cause the righteous to be turned aside by a fabrication.
Convicts: or reproves. In the gate: where the city's seat of judgment is, like a courtroom. Lay a snare: we saw the religious order trying over and over to do this to Yahshua. The righteous: Aramaic, "the innocent". Turned aside: either to change their minds about the verdict, or thrust aside, i.e., to have their case thrown out due to an "empty plea", defrauding them of their rights by "a meaningless argument", or literally, "that which is unreal".
22. Therefore this is what YHWH--the One who redeemed Avraham--says to the House of Yaaqov: "Yaaqov will not be disappointed now, nor will his face grow pale now!
Be disappointed: or "blush from shame".
23. "Because when he sees his children, the product of My hands, approaching him, they will be treating My Name as sacred, having come to regard the Holy One of Yaaqov as in a class of His own, and they will regard the Elohim of Israel with awe.
He will provide shepherds who do His will and truly feed His sheep. (Yirmiyahu 3:15-18) Efrayim will then say, "What do we have to do with idols?" (Hos. 14:8-9)
24. "And those who go astray [in] spirit [will] have learned discernment by experience, and those who talk back will learn to take [control of their] words."
Take control of their words: or "accept instruction", "insight", “persuasiveness”.
CHAPTER 30
1. Woe [to the] children insistent on making plans, but not from Me, and pouring out a libation, but not of My spirit, in order to heap sin upon sin;
Insistent: "stubborn" or "rebellious". Pouring out a libation: possibly a customary part of making an alliance. But not of My spirit: Aram., "but do not ask of My prophets.
2. who set out to go down to Egypt, without asking My advice, to be secure in Pharaoh's stronghold, and to seek refuge in the shadow of Egypt.
Seek refuge: from the threat of Sennacheriv of Assyria. It was all right for Yaaqov, Yaravam (Jeroboam), and even Yahshua's family to seek refuge there, since that was YHWH's will, but do not do so on your own. Egypt is often a picture of the church as sold out to the world system as opposed to being a continuum with the Temple. By doing so, it accepts rulers that are not of YHWH. Israel today is becoming more dependent on Christians and the United States, and therefore making compromises so as to survive
economically and find ways around United Nations treaty "solutions".
3. So Pharaoh's stronghold will become an embarrassment to you, and the refuge in Egypt's shadow, a disgrace,
4. because his princes were in Tsoan, and his messengers will reach Chanes.
Tsoan: Tanis, the capital of the Hyksos dynasty in Egypt. Chanes: possibly Tahpanhes, a fortified city on Egypt's eastern frontier.
5. They were all dried up on account of a people who could not profit them--neither help nor profit--because [they brought] shame and even scorn.
6. A burden of beasts of [the] Negev is in the land of distress and pressure, a young lion and a crushing lion, a hissing snake and a fiery flying serpent. They will carry their wealth on the shoulders of
donkey-colts, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who will not benefit them--
Burden: "what they bear" (as the Aramaic takes it), but also perhaps "oracle", according to Yeshayahu's pattern (as the LXX renders it). Land of distress: Heb., tzarah, which forms part of the name of Egypt (Mitzrayim, or "two distresses", "two narrow places", perhaps referring to the two green strips between the Nile and the desert, but perhaps also alluding to two occasions when Israel was or will be in straits there).
7. that is, Egypt: in vain and idly they will help. That is why I have called this proud bustling crowd [to] stop.
In vain: "like a vapor" or "breath"--the same as the name of Hevel, Adam and Chavvah's son. I have summoned this proud bustling crowd to cease: or, "I have cried out concerning this: their strength is to sit still!" I.e., as at the Red Sea, if they would only quiet down and watch, they would see YHWH's deliverance. (Compare v. 15) The word for "proud" or "strength" is Rahav, which is a legendary sea-monster associated with Egypt as well. In this context, it could read, "I have summoned this noisy Rahav to cessation." Or, "I called them Rahav". Stop: that is, abandon your trek to Egypt.
8. Now come, write it on a slab near them and inscribe it in a book so that it may be for the lattermost day, so it continues to exist forever,
Forever: literally, "all the way up to the age", i.e., the Messianic Kingdom or the age to come following it.. So it continues to exist: Aramaic, "for a witness to me".
9. because this is a rebellious people--deceptive sons, children who will not consent to listen to YHWH's instruction,
Instruction: Heb., torah.
10. who tell the visionaries, "Do not have a vision!", and to the seers, "Do not have a straightforward perception for us; proclaim smooth things to us! Prophesy illusions!
Straightforward: or "correct". Smooth: slippery, flattering. Illusions: or "trifles", "deceit". In other words, present an unrealistic pipe dream, but give it the seal of authoritativeness by your office, so that we can imagine there is hope of it coming true. This sounds very much like today's "Visualize World Peace".
11. "Turn aside from the path; stretch out from [that] way of life. Have the Holy One of Israel take a break from being in our face!"
12. Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "On account of your rejecting this word, so that you may have bold confidence in extortion and devious ways, and may support yourselves on that,
13. "this is what will happen to you: this crookedness [will be] like a breach ready to fall, a bulge in a secure, high wall, whose crack comes upon [you] as a sudden surprise.
14. "And its rupture will be like a jar that the potters have broken in pieces. He will not have pity, so there will not be found among its fragments a shard [big enough] to snatch fire from a hearth or to skim water
from a cistern."
15. For this is what Adonai YHWH, the Holy One of Israel, says: "By repenting and quieting down will you be delivered; your strength will be in being tranquil and trusting." But you were not willing,
Repenting: or "withdrawing", "turning back", i.e., from their journey from Egypt. It is not about how much noise we can make, but about returning to YHWH, and listening to Him. He doesn't need the press, but He will allow us to participate in His plan, on His terms.
16. and you said, "No, we can flee on horseback!" So you will [indeed need to] flee. And [you said], "We will mount and ride the fleet-footed!" Therefore your pursuers will [also] be light-footed.
They want fleshly solutions, so they will have to test their natural strength against other natural powers that are superior to their own, and, as with Shimshon (Samson), their added supernatural strength would not be available once they decided to disobey.
17. One thousand [will flee] from the presence of one's roar; you will flee from before the roar of five, until you have been left like a flagpole on the top of a mountain, or like a signpost on top of the hill.
One thousand will flee: compare Psalm 91. Flagpole: or "beacon". Signpost: or "rallying-point".
18. YHWH will wait, longing to show you favor, and for this He will rise up to have mercy on you, because YHWH is an Elohim of justice; happy are those who wait for Him,
Gen. 49:17-18 contrasts the "snake" of Dan (a picture of the Counterfeit Messiah, whose ruse many will fall for) with waiting just a little longer for YHWH's true salvation (Heb., yeshuah).
19. because the people in Tzion will dwell in Yerushalayim. You will no longer cry tears; He will indeed show you pity at the sound of your cry for help, and as [soon as] He hears, He will answer you.
20. Though Adonai has given you the bread of affliction and the waters of oppression, your teachers will no longer be hidden away in a corner; but instead your eyes will see your teachers,
Your teachers: Aramaic, "the Sh'kinah in the sanctuary".
21. and your ears will hear a word from behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk on it", when you turn right or go left.
From behind: the direction from which a teacher goads one on. The way: the earliest disciples' name for the maner of "walking out the Torah" as taught by Yahshua.
22. Then you will you will declare the metal plating of your silver engraved images and the decorative covering of your golden cast images to be defiled; you will throw them away like a menstruous cloth, and you will tell it, "Get out!"
This is the first thing He had told them upon entering the Land, but they went back and rebuilt them.
23. Then He will [certainly] provide the rain [for] your seed, so you can sow the ground, and the bread of the yield of the ground, and it will be robust and plentiful. In that Day your cattle will graze spacious pastures!
24. Likewise, the oxen and young donkeys that work the soil will eat seasoned fodder that is winnowed with the shovel and the pitchfork.
I.e., they will not just eat the provender that humans would not eat, but choice grain will be plentiful enough for the animals to enjoy as well.
25. Then on every high mountain and on every uplifted hill there will be [channeled] rivulets and [irrigated] streams of water in a day of abundant slaughter, when towers fall.
26. Then the light of the moon will be like the light of the hot sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times as [bright], like the light of the seven days, on the day when YHWH binds up the fracture of His people, and heals a severe wound [from] His blow.
Binds up the fracture: or "restrains the breach" (as in vv. 13-14).
27. Behold, the Name of YHWH comes from far away; His anger has been kindled, and its burden is heavy. His lips are full of rage, and His tongue like a devouring fire!
Its burden is heavy: or "its uplift is vehement".
28. His breath also is like a torrent that sweeps in up to the neck. He will divide nations to sift [them] in the sieve of worthlessness, and a halter in the jaws of peoples that leads them off course.
29. The song you will have will be like the night when a feast is consecrated, and gladness of heart like one who marches with a flute to the Mountain of YHWH, toward the Rock of Israel.
These are customs from the feast of Sukkoth.
30. Then YHWH will make the majesty of His voice heard, and will make the lowering of His arm to be seen with [the] rage of [the] nostril, with the flame of a devouring fire, with cloudburst and flood and hailstone,
Hailstone: or a meteorite.
31. for by the voice of YHWH the Assyrian who was attacking with a club will be shattered.
32. And every [time] the foundation-laying rod which YHWH will lay on it passes over, it will be with tambourines and harps, and with battles of brandishing He has waged war,
Tambourines: or any percussion instruments. Harps: any stringed instruments that "twang". Brandishing: the same word for "wave offerings". So a spiritual battle is carried out through music and worship. (Note the example of this in 2 Chron. 20.)
33. because Tofeth is being prepared in advance; indeed, it is being made ready for the King! He has made it deep and broad; its burning-pyre [is] piled high with wood. [The blast of] YHWH's breath burns it up like a seam of brimstone!
Tofeth: the site of this future judgment at the confluence of the Hinnom Valley [Ge-henna] and the Qidron (known as the "Valley of the Shadow of Death").
CHAPTER 31
1. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses and trust in chariots because they are numerous or in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek out YHWH!
Go down: Relying on anything less than YHWH is a descent. Hagar, Sarai's servant, went down to Egypt for help, but YHWH turned her back to the household where she now belonged. (Gen. 16) In the same way, YHWH's congregations have turned back to the Babylonian-Egyptian-Roman system,
because there is power in numbers. When confronted with what Scripture really says, many say, "Let me ask my pastor about this." But pastors are often swayed by what will keep more sheep in the fold; it is YHWH whom we must seek instead. We must not even trust in any Israelite organizations, but only YHWH Himself.
2. He, too, is shrewd, and will bring what is disagreeable, and has not retracted His words, but has taken His stand against the house of evildoers and against the one who helps those who do mischief.
LXX, "Therefore He is wise in bringing evils upon them, and His word will not be frustrated."
3. Moreover, Egypt is human and not divine, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When YHWH stretches out His hand, both the helper will stumble and the one who is helped will fall down, and they will all come to an end together,
Flesh and not spirit: This is the story of Yishmael, the child born when Avram tried to fulfill a vision YHWH had given, but by his own natural ingenuity. (Gen. 16)
4. because this is what YHWH has said: "Just as the lion or young lion growls against its prey, and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, will not be discouraged by their voice or slowed down by the noise they [make], likewise YHWH of Armies will descend to wage war on account of Mount Tzion and its hill.
"Why do the nations rage, and the peoples imagine a vain thing?" (Psalm 2) Band: literally, "fullness". YHWH's intentions in regard to Israel will be opposed, and it is shepherds (pastors) who try to prevent Israel from being reunited, but that will not deter Him. (See Y'chezq'el/Ezek. 34) But we
too, must keep our eye on the prize and ignore the threats. On account of Mount Tzion and its hill: or, "against Mount Tzion and its place of illicit worship".
5. "Like flying birds is how YHWH will bring defensive cover over Yerushalayim. In shielding [it] He will also rescue it, and by passing over it, He will let it escape.
Shielding it: or "hedging it about" or "encompassing it", like a sheepfold. Becoming a dwelling place is our deliverance. Angus Wootten says this verse was in part fulfilled during World War I by British General Allenby, who sent airplanes over Yerushalayim, dropping leaflets in Arabic stating that it was time for the Arabs to surrender the city. It was taken without a battle because in Arabic his name appeared like "Allah's prophet" and there was an Arab prophecy that sais that the Muslims would occupy the city until the waters of Egypt were brought into Palestine. Allenby had done just that through a pipeline from the Gulf of Suez to Beersheva. Let it escape: or "cause it to give birth". Defensive cover: In the war on
Afghanistan, it has already become evident that even with modern weaponry, cloud cover is a major deterrent to many military maneuvers, and if Israel is again protected by a cloud and fire as in the wilderness the first time, the unified world's army will be held at bay.
6. "Turn back to Him [against whom] the sons of Israel have made a deep defection!
Defection: or "apostasy", "withdrawal", "revolt"--a deliberate rebellion, not just veering off course.
7. "Because in that Day, each [one] will despise his worthless [images] of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for yourselves--a missing of the target!
Worthless images: or "good-for-nothings", with the sense of not really existing. Modern examples might be things like artificial intelligence, credit cards, or virtual reality. Even our money is no longer really worth anything concrete. Mammon is always deceitful. Missing the target: or "sin", which is defined as breaking YHWH's law, so we might do better to think of it in terms of "crime". But despising the worthless things we have relied on is part of repentance and the road back to being counted guiltless. Of course it is better to never sin at all, but as long as we make the required restitution, Torah is upheld, and we can again, like many in the Hebrew Scriptures, be called "blameless"--and all the more so with the overwhelming atonement provided through Yahshua's blood. (Hebrews 10)
8. "Then will Ashur fall, but not by a man's sword, and a sword not of humanity will devour it, and he will flee to Him from the presence of a sword, and its choice young men will become a gang of forced laborers.
Ashur: or "the Assyrian".
9. "And it will cross over to its cliff [of safety] as a refugee, and its princes have become dismayed at the signal", declares YHWH, whose firelight is in Tzion and whose kindling-place is in Yerushalayim.
As a refugee: or "from terror", but with the sense of sojourning away from home. LXX: "They will be surrounded with rocks as with a trench, and shall be worsted." Signal: "rallying point", "banner", or "miraculous sign". Kindling-place: or "furnace", which finally burns off the dross and purifies us. It also recalls the torch and smoking furnace in Avram's covenant-vision, which was fulfilled in Yerushalayim.
CHAPTER 32
1. Behold, a king will [begin His] reign for what is right, and for princes, they will govern with right ruling[s].
Aramaic: "...and the righteous will be exalted to take a just retribution from the Gentiles."
2. Then a man will become like a hiding place from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like rivulets of water in a dry place, like the shade of a heavy rock in a weary land.
A man: the king, specifically Yahshua. Will become a hiding place: LXX, "will hide his words". A dry place: Heb., Tzion, which is how the LXX takes it. A heavy rock: Such a rock cannot be taken away.
3. And the eyes of those who see will not avert their gaze, and the ears of those who listen will incline [attentively],
LXX: "And they will no longer trust in men..."
4. and the heart of the one who acts rashly will begin to understand how to discern, and the tongue of those who speak inarticulately will be quick to speak clearly.
5. The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be generous,
Be called noble: LXX, "be told to rule". Scoundrel: literally, "one who withholds"; there are numerous proverbs that parallel this. Yahshua also reminded the leaders in His Kingdom not to be like the rulers of the Gentiles who "lord it over" those who call them "benefactors" or "philanthropists". (Luke 22:25-26)
6. because the fool will speak foolishness, and his mind will fashion mischief to carry out profane acts and to speak perverse things against YHWH, [with the effect of] keeping the hungry person's soul empty and cause the drinking vessel of the thirsty one to be lacking.
Foolishness: senselessness, disgrace, profane things. Soul: or appetite. If we twist YHWH's words, though we appear to be feeding someone, it is just "empty calories".
7. The scoundrel's tools are evil; he invents wicked plots to bring the humble to ruin with deceptive promises, even when the needy says what is proper.
Says what is proper: or perhaps, "threatens justice".
8. The generous person, on the other hand, invents noble things, and by his generosity he will be established.
Invents noble things: or "counsels giving". A Hebrew idiom for a generous person is that "He has a good eye." Yahshua said this was the key to one's whole life being full of light. (Luke 11:34) It goes far beyond
money; sons of the Kingdom are not taxed. It applies with time, patience, edification, teaching, and giving of ourselves in general. It is a kingdom law to keep giving out what we receive, both so it can flow on to others and so we have room to receive the "more" that He wants to give us. Otherwise, we become like the Dead Sea, having no outlet and no life.
9. Get up, [you] women who rest securely [in your arrogance]! Listen to My voice, complacent daughters; cup your ear to what I utter!
Women: Aramaic, "provinces". Securely: Security is the demon who perhaps receives more acclaim than any other today. But it turns out to be a cruel taskmaster that fattens us up like a calf for slaughter. YHWH has just told us (v. 8) where the real security is. We are free to choose into which our energy and resources will go. Security is no match for YHWH, unless we give it permission to be. Daughters: Aramaic, "fortresses". But Yehudah and Efrayim are also called YHWH's daughters by the prophets. Complacent: confident enough to be careless. What I utter: or "My speech"--an idiom also
for the Torah.
10. [For] days on a year will you be disquieted, O confident women, because the vintage has failed; the gathering [of the harvest] will not come.
Days on a year: LXX, "a full year", or possibly "[just a few] days over a year". We may seem to have it made, since if all else fails, the government usually picks up the basics for our survival. But this, too, will ultimately prove unreliable.
11. Tremble, you women who rest securely; be disquieted, you confident women, to [the point of] stripping and lay yourselves bare, but cover your loins of delivery [with sackcloth],
12. mourning over the breasts, over the desirable fields, over the fruitful vine.
Breasts: i.e., that are now unused (v. 11); LXX, "beat on your breasts". Fields: from a word meaning "spread out", possibly alluding to the childbirth process. Vine: perhaps an idiom for the umbilical cord.
13. Thorns and briers will spring up on My people's ground, because [they will be] upon all the houses of rejoicing in the triumphant city,
Thorns and briers: The same curse that followed Adam's sin in Eden.
14. because [the] palace has been abandoned; the city's crowd has been deserted. The towers and lookout stations have instead become dens--[the] joy of wild donkeys, a feeding-place for flocks--for an age,
Palace has been abandoned. For an age: or "perpetually", but a time limit is set (v. 15); literally, "until an age". Wild donkeys: what Yishmael was called, so perhaps this refers to the fact that Yerushalayim was
inhabited by his descendants for many centuries.
15. until the spirit from on high will be poured out on us, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful plantation, and the orchard will be counted as a forest.
This curse is thawing out already in our day, as the spring of this spirit of repentance is beginning to come.
16. Then justice will be at home in the wilderness, and righteousness will settle in the fruitful plantation,
Justice will be at home in the wilderness: there will be no more highway robbery, but the word for "justice" also means "a correct system of rulings", so this also refers to the time when both houses of Israel are back together under one king, and He puts in place or confirms a framework that is really viable.
17. and the product of righteousness will be total well-being, and the effect of the righteousness, tranquility and security forever.
18. Then My people will remain in a peaceful home, in secure dwelling places and in quiet rest without a care,
19. though it hails when the forest is felled, and the city in the lowland sinks down.
LXX: "If the hail should come down, it will not come upon you, and they that dwell in the forests will be in confidence, like those in the open country." Aramaic, "Hail will come down and kill the armies of the
Gentiles", reminiscent of Yehoshua chapter 10.
20. You who sow beside any waters are blessed, you who send forth the feet of ox and donkey.
Sow beside waters: compare Psalm 1. Isaiah spent much time in the palace, which was quite close to the Temple, so he was very familiar with many psalms and proverbs, to which he often alludes. Send forth: the Aramaic adds "to gather". When crops are plentiful and abundant, the animals can be allowed to roam the fields and eat, with no substantial loss being felt by their owners. Ox and donkey are also sometimes metaphors for the two houses of Israel.
CHAPTER 33
1. Woe to you who despoil but are not despoiled, and to the one who deals treacherously without himself having been betrayed! When you finish destroying, you will be destroyed, and when you complete your betrayal, they will betray you!
Woe...despoiled: LXX, "Woe to those who afflict you; but no one makes you miserable." Aramaic, "Woe to you who come to plunder; will they not plunder you?" When you complete...: LXX, "like a moth on a garment, so shall they be spoiled."
2. O YHWH, look upon us with favor! We have waited expectantly for You! Be their arm in the mornings, our deliverance also when [we are] in straits.
Favor: or "grace"; LXX, "mercy". Arm: i.e., strength. For You: Aramaic, "for your Memra" (living Word). We have waited: compare Yaaqov's prophecy in regard to Dan in Gen. 49:16-18. It appears he is contrasting the Counterfeit Messiah, whom tradition says will come from the tribe of Dan, with the true
Messiah, who will come only a short time afterward for those willing to persevere just a little while longer.
3. At the sound of the roaring crowd, the peoples retreated; nations were scattered because You raised Yourself up.
Raised Yourself up: when He bursts forth from the Tabernacle upon the nations who are besieging Israel in the latter days, shocking them with the fact that He is indeed real--and on Israel's side--after all. (26:21)
4. Your plunder will be gathered [like] the caterpillar gathers, running to and fro on it just as locusts run to and fro.
LXX, "...as if one could gather locusts; so shall they mock you." Aramaic, "Israel will gather the possessions of the Gentiles."
5. YHWH is inaccesibly high, because He resides on the elevated place. He has filled Tzion with just rulings and righteousness,
He resides: Aramaic, "He causes His Sh'khinah to dwell..."
6. and He has become the fixed point of your experiences--a treasure-store of deliverance, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of YHWH is His supply.
Fixed point of your experiences: Aramaic, "That which You promised, You will bring and establish in its time." A treasure-store...supply: LXX, "Salvation is our treasure. There are wisdom and knowledge and piety toward YHWH; these are the treasures of righteousness." The fear of YHWH: See Prov. 9:10.
7. Behold, their valiant heroes are crying for help on the outside; the ambassadors of peace will shed bitter tears.
This is reminiscent of the legends of the people who knocked on the door of Noach's ark, and may be the "outer darkness" to which Yahshua refers. Ambassadors of peace: i.e., they are begging with tears for a truce so that their lives will at least be spared. Also, "peace" is the Counterfeit Messiah's deceitful tactic (Dan. 8:25), and we already see this concept of "peace ambassadors" and "peace-keeping forces". Aram., "Those who went to announce peace return to weeping in soulful bitterness."
8. The highways have become deserted; [people] have stopped travelling the roads. He has violated the covenant. He has despised cities; he regards mortal man as of no account.
Travelling the roads": or "transgressing the way". Violated: Aramaic, "changed" (truly a characteristic of the counterfeit Messiah, Dan. 7:25); LXX: "The covenant with these is taken away, and you shall by no means deem them men." So while the "he" here is probably primarily speaking of the Counterfeit Messiah, the final instance may refer to YHWH. Just as some meats are not considered food for Israelites, when YHWH has decreed a particular group's destruction, they are no longer to be treated as "people".
9. The land has been mourning and growing feeble; Levanon demonstrates shame and has decayed. Sharon is like a sparsely-vegetated plain; Bashan shakes off [its fruit] along with Karmel.
Sharon: the very fruitful coastal plain. Sparsely-vegetated plain: LXX, "marshes". Bashan: the Golan Heights where some of the best rainfall and runoff water is found in Israel. Karmel: a mountain range dividing the Yezreel Valley from the Sharon. I.e., even these have become drought-ridden because those who occupied the Land were earth-worshippers and thus the earth cannot be allowed to respond to them..
10. "Now I will rise up", says YHWH. "Now I will be lifted up; now I will be exalted!
11. "You will conceive dry grass; you will give birth to stubble; your breath, like fire, will devour you.
Dry grass: Aramaic, "wicked conceptions". LXX: "...Now you will see; the strength of your breath will be vain."
12. "The peoples will be the burnings of lime; like thorns that are cut off, they will be burned with fire.
Burnings of lime: Some plaster was made by burning bones.
13. "You who are far off, listen to what I have done! And you who are nearby, acknowledge My mighty deed!"
Aramaic, "Hear, you righteous, who have kept My law from the beginning..., and you who have turned back to the law recently..."
14. The offenders in Tzion have become terrified; trembling has seized the faithless: "Which of us can remain [with] a consuming fire? Which of us can live with them burning all the time?"
Faithless: irreligious, profane, or hypocritical. They no longer consider Yerushalayim a "nice place to live"! Or perhaps, "Who among us can survive this consuming fire...everlasting burning?", with the answer found in the next verse. Therefore these verses, while having primarily a frame of reference in the days still to come, have an immediacy for us now, who need to already be preparing to be those survivors.
15. The one who walks righteously and speaks from uprightnesses, who despises unjust gain gotten through extortion, who signals with his hands that he will not take hold of a bribe, who stops his ears from consenting to bloodshed, who shuts his eyes so he will not see what is evil.
Unjust gain: Aram., "Mammon of deceit". Consenting to bloodshed includes gossip; the rabbis say unjustly bringing blood to one's face is equivalent to murder. (Mat. 5:22; Prov. 18:21; Yaqv./James 3:5-8)
16. He [is the one who] will dwell on the heights; his secure refuge will be strongholds of rocks. His bread will be provided; his waters are guaranteed.
Heights: LXX, "high cave". Rocks: the plural form of the Hebrew name of the Nabatean fortress, Petra. Thus this appears to be the time when Israel is reunited and renews the covenant of "marriage" to YHWH (through His visible Messiah) in the wilderness (v. 17). Bread: Perhaps it will be manna again! Guaranteed: faithful, lasting, confirmed, reliable.
17. Your eyes will behold the King in His pleasant appearance; they will perceive a land of far-off places.
18. Your heart will imagine a terror: "Now where is the one who does the counting? Where is the one who does the weighing out? Where is the one who takes account of the towers?"
Aramaic: "Your mind will reckon up great things... Let them come if they can reckon the number of the slain heads of the armies of the mighty ones." I.e., "towers" is an idiom for great leaders.
19. You will not see a barbarous people--a people of deeper speech than you can understand, of a stammering tongue that there's no telling [what it means].
A barbarous people: Aram., "the mastery of a strong people". Deeper: i.e., unfathomable, unintelligible; Aramaic, "obscure". Stammering...means: or, "a mocking tongue that has no discernment" (as the Aramaic does interpret it). The LXX gives the sense of not counting the growing people with whom no counsel was taken. After YHWH roars forth, those who were provided for in the wilderness will start moving toward their home (v. 20), but will expect to encounter battle on the way, but instead they will find that YHWH has already brought about their defeat, and we only need to carry out the mop-up assignments.
20. Behold Tzion, town of our appointed meetings! Your eyes will see Yerushalayim, a secure home, a tent that will not travel on; not one of its stakes will ever be pulled up, nor any of its cords ever snapped.
Secure home: a place of quietness where one can be at ease; the term "home" can mean "abode of shepherds" or "pasture", so it includes the idea of plentiful provision; LXX, "a rich city". Aramaic, "in its prosperity, in its contentedness". A tent: probably the Tabernacle, which has again been moving throughout the wilderness with His people, but now has reached its final resting-place.
21. But though the majestic YHWH is for us a place of rivers with spacious channels in both directions, no galley with oars will ever travel in it, nor any gallant ship pass through it,
Directions: literally, "hands". Galley with oars: Aramaic, "fisherman's ship". Gallant ship: Aram., "sailboat". Perhaps merchant vessels, since there will no longer be merchants in His house in that Day
(Zech. 14:21), or warships, since no one will destroy on His holy mountain anymore. (Yeshayahu 11:9) In any case, Yerushalaym will no longer depend on foreign trade, but will be brought tribute from every nation. (Rev. 21:24)
22. because YHWH is our governing judge, YHWH is the one who enacts our decrees, YHWH is our King; He will give us the victory!
Victory: or "deliverance". (Heb., Yeshuah)
23. Your tacklings have been allowed to go slack; they were too worn out to sustain their mast-pedestal. They could no longer spread out the sail. That is when the spoils of a tremendous plunder will be shared; the lame will seize the booty.
Your: Aramaic, "the Gentiles'". The lame: among the Israelites. (Aram.)
24. No one who lives [there] will say, "I have become sick." The nation that settles there will have the guilt of their perversity forgiven.
Sick: The tree of life, on both sides of the river (v. 21, brings healing to the nations (Rev. 22:2). "Nations" can also mean "tribes", and this seems to fit, since each of the gates to the city is named after one of the tribes of Israel. The Aramaic interpretation of the final sentence says, "The people, the house of Israel, will be gathered and return to their place, forgiven of their sins."
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