The extraordinary variegation of the books of the Hebrew Bible in style, genre, and outlook is one of the most exciting aspects of this anthology that spans nearly a millen nium. But even against that background, the Song of Songs stands out in its striking distinctiveness—a distinctiveness that deserves to be called wondrous. The delicate yet frank sensuality of this celebration of young love, without reference to God or covenant or Torah, has lost nothing of its immediate freshness over the centuries: these are among the most beautiful love poems that have come down to us from the whole ancient world. Famously, the erotic nature of the Song constituted a challenge for the framers of the canon, both Jewish and Christian, and their response was to read the poems allegorically—in the case of the early rabbis, as the love between the Holy One and Israel, and in the case of the Church fathers, as the love between Christ and the Church. “If all the writings are holy,” Rabbi Akiva proclaimed in a discussion of the Song’s canonicity, “the Song of Songs is holy of holies.” Both religious traditions, however fervently they clung to this allegorical vision, never succeeded in entirely blocking the erotic power of the text. There are, for example, medieval Hebrew liturgical poems that earnestly follow the theological plot of the allegory yet knowingly or sometimes unwittingly let the young lovers’ delight in the carnal consummation of love make its presence felt.
Little is known about the origins of these poems. Different elaborate theories have been proposed about them: that they are wedding poems, that they should be read as drama, that they originated in poems to a pagan love goddess, that they constitute a single architectonic poetic structure, that they are direct adaptations of Egyptian or Mesopotamian love poetry. All such theories should prudently be rejected. The book as a whole has an anthological look, though a case might be made for certain recurrent configurations constituting a kind of unity. It is conceivable that embryonic versions of some of these poems were in oral or perhaps written circulation for centuries, but there is no way of proving that hypothesis. The evidence of the language of the poems—some of the vocabulary and certain grammatical forms—clearly indicates a relatively late date of composition; the fourth century B.C.E. seems a reasonable guess, though some would put it a little later. It may be that one or two of the poems were in fact written as wedding poems, but the content of most of them leads one to conclude that the free enjoyment of the pleasures of love and not marriage is what the poets had in view. Several of the poems have an urban setting, with the young woman addressing “the daughters of Jerusalem” or confronted by the town watchmen, but the predominant background of the poems is bucolic or sylvan—luscious gardens, verdant forests, vineyards, rolling hills, and mountains. Solomon is mentioned more than once, but the intention seems to be to draw a contrast between the two young lovers delighting in each other in the vernal lushness of nature and the luxuries of the royal court.
These poets are finely aware of the long tradition of Hebrew poetry, but notably there is little in the way of allusion to earlier Hebrew texts. This is hardly evidence that the poets were unfamiliar with those texts, only that the antecedent biblical literature did not much suit their own purposes.
The formal system of parallelism between versets—that is, parts of the line—that governs Hebrew poetry from its earliest extant texts going back to around 1100 B.C.E. is still very much in evidence, although in quite a few lines the parallelism is looser than in earlier eras. The first line of the book, for example, like a good many after it, is not constructed on semantic parallelism: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, / for your loving is better than wine.” In this instance, the second verset does not parallel the first but instead explains it. Other lines that appear to diverge from the convention of poetic parallelism actually follow a precedent well attested in earlier Hebrew poetry. Thus the first poetic line of 1:4 reads: “Draw me after you, let us run. / The king has brought me to his chamber.” Here, as in many lines in the Prophets, Psalms, and elsewhere, the second verset traces a narrative development of what is introduced in the first: the young woman first declares her eagerness to run off after her lover; in the second verset, they have completed their running and come to his bedchamber, reported in a verb that indicates a completed action. More generally, however, these poets deploy the millennium-old convention of poetic parallelism inventively and vividly. When the beloved describes her dark complexion (1:5) as “like the tents of Kedar, / like Solomon’s curtains,” she uses the parallelism to make an argument against those who would mock her for her peasant’s suntan. Yes, I am dark, she says, like nomads’ tents woven from black goat’s hair (the name Kedar puns on a Hebrew root that means “dark”), but if I seem to belong to a rough Bedouin setting, my darkness is also something lovely, like Solomon’s tent hangings, which might well be dyed, in royal fashion, in deep blue or purple.
The predominant use of semantic parallelism in the poetic corpus of the Bible is to concretize, focus, or intensify material from the first verset in the second. This strategy is vividly evident in line after line here. Chapter 8, for example, begins with the following line: “Would that you were a brother to me, / suckling my mother’s breasts.” It is possible to construe the second verset as a participial phrase, which is done in this translation in part for the sake of readability in English. But it is equally possible that it is a noun phrase, “a suckling of my mother’s breasts,” which would be in keeping with the procedure of parallelistic verse to substitute in the second verset a paraphrase or epithet for the plain noun (here, “brother”) of the first. We should note what is effected through the substitution. The general fraternal relationship marked by “brother” becomes something biological and intimately physical: the beloved fantasizes her lover sucking the same breasts that she has sucked. This fantasy of shared physical closeness in infancy then becomes a vivid anticipation of another kind of physical closeness in adulthood. One can see that the poet had a subtle sense of how the inherited poetic system worked as he put the system to a rather different use from what one finds in the earlier poems that have been preserved in the canon.
Much of the enchantment and the sensual richness of the celebration of love in the Song inhere in its metaphoric language. Some of the metaphors drawn from the animal kingdom and from architecture—teeth as newly bathed ewes, a neck as a tower—may seem a little strange to modern readers, though that probably was not true for the ancient audience. Other figurative comparisons—eyes like doves, breasts like twin gazelles, kisses sweeter than wine—retain all their lovely expressiveness after more than twenty-two centuries. What is remarkable is how consistently the figurative language of these poems evokes the experience of physical love with a delicacy of expression that manifests the poet’s constant delight in likening one thing to another. (The Hebrew verb damah, “to be like,” is repeatedly flaunted.) There is a recurrent shuttling between the metaphor and its referent, in some instances creating a sense of virtual interchangeability between the two that enables the poet to speak candidly of sexual gratification without seeming to do so. In a related kind of poised ambiguity, we often don’t know, because of the figurative language, whether we are inside or outside. Here is an exquisite metaphor from the first chapter: “A sachet of myrrh is my lover to me, / all night between my breasts. / A cluster of henna, my lover to me, / in the vineyards of Ein-Gedi” (1:13–14). A young woman making herself desirable might possibly wear a sachet of fragrance between her breasts. Reading the lines, we of course realize what the lover, playfully miniaturized as a sachet, is doing in that place, but the realization is nuanced in feeling by the charming metaphor. And the concluding verset, “in the vineyards of Ein-Gedi,” leaves us pleasantly hovering between possibilities: has the henna of the metaphor been grown at the Ein-Gedi oasis overlooking the Dead Sea, or rather, in a slide through the metaphoric to the literal, are the lovers actually enjoying their love in the vineyards of Ein-Gedi, as elsewhere vineyards or gardens become their bower?
These ambiguities, always evocative, never arch, between figure and referent are most brilliantly deployed in the relatively long poem that starts at 4:8 and runs to 5:1. The flourishing natural landscape, beginning with the wild and distant mountains of Lebanon, is the apt background for the young lovers, who are themselves vernal, like the world though which they move. But there is a fine transition inaugurated at 4:12 from the literal realm of green things to a figurative one. Now the beloved’s body is a “locked garden” filled with luscious fruit and fragrant plants, and she invites her lover to enter the garden and enjoy its fruits. The audience of these lines is of course expected to know exactly what she is talking about, but the delicacy of expression is sustained by the harmonious continuity between outside and inside. This distinctive use of metaphor does not explain everything, but it is surely one of the features of the Song of Songs that makes it among the most beautiful collections of love poetry in the Western tradition.
1The Song of Songs, which is Solomon’s.
2Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,
for your loving is better than wine.
3For fragrance your oils are goodly,
And so the young women love you.
4Draw me after you, let us run.
The king has brought me to his chamber.
Let us be glad and rejoice in you.
Let us extol your loving beyond wine.
Rightly do they love you.
5I am dark but desirable,
O daughters of Jerusalem,
6Do not look on me for being dark,
for the sun has glared on me.
My mother’s sons were incensed with me,
they made me a keeper of the vineyards.
My own vineyard I have not kept.
7Tell me, whom I love so,
where you pasture your flock at noon,
after the flocks of your companions.
8—If you do not know, O fairest of women,
go out in the tracks of the sheep
and graze your goats
9To my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots
I likened you, my friend.
10Your cheeks are lovely with looped earrings,
your neck with beads.
11Earrings of gold we will make for you
with silver filigree.
12While the king was on his couch
my nard gave off its scent.
13A sachet of myrrh is my lover to me,
all night between my breasts.
14A cluster of henna, my lover to me,
15O you are fair, my friend,
O you are fair, your eyes are doves.
16—O you are fair, my lover, you are sweet,
17Our house’s beams are cedar,
our rafters evergreens.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. The Song of Songs. In biblical idiom this formation indicates a superlative—the best of songs. The exquisite poetry that follows surely justifies the title.
which is Solomon’s. The attribution is strictly editorial, following a practice of attributing Late Biblical books to famous figures from earlier Israelite history. The identification is encouraged by the appearance of Solomon’s name in verse 5 (see the last comment there) and by the reference to “the king” in verse 4 (again, see the first comment there) and elsewhere.
2. Let him kiss me. The Hebrew yeshaqeini puns on yashqeini, “let him give me drink,” since the kisses are likened to wine.
loving. The Hebrew dodim suggests lovemaking, a sense already understood in the Middle Ages. The medieval Hebrew poet Yehudah HaLevi concludes an allegorical poem clearly based on that Song of Songs with this explicitly sexual line, spoken by the beloved (Israel) to God: “Put your strength in me, for I will give you my loving [dodai].” One should note that the young woman begins by imagining her desirable lover from a certain distance, in the third person, and then in the second half of the line closes the gap by addressing him more intimately in the second person.
3. For fragrance. The Song of Songs revels in the pleasures of all five senses. This initial poem begins with taste and here moves on to smell. Touch is implied in verse 13, sight in verse 15, and later sound will enter as well.
poured oil. The Hebrew modifier turaq is problematic because grammar requires a masculine verb, but the form here is feminine. Some interpreters want to see the word as the name of a kind of oil, but it probably makes more sense to understand it as an image of poured oil emitting a pleasing scent, as the lover’s good name projects in public an attractive sense of him. The Hebrew shows wordplay, which also appears in Proverbs, between shemen, “oil,” and shem, “name.”
4. The king. Here and elsewhere this is a designation for the lover. The beloved is never called queen, perhaps because of the asymmetry between the sexes in the biblical world: he is her glorious king, and she is the one in whom he continually delights, but she is not his queen.
has brought me to his chamber. In a palace, there would be inner chambers, but the chamber of which he speaks is clearly a secluded place in which to make love. Marriage is not mentioned. The Hebrew shows a plural, probably reflecting poetic usage.
Let us. It is noteworthy that she switches back and forth from direct address to third-person reference to her lover. Verse 2 begins with a third-person wish, then moves into intimate address. The “us” here may be the daughters of Jerusalem, introduced explicitly in the next verse, which however begins a new poem.
5. desirable. While the adjective naʾwah comes to mean something like “lovely” in standard Hebrew usage, it derives from the verbal stem ʾ-w-h, “to desire,” and given the erotically fraught world of the Song, that meaning is probably activated here.
the tents of Kedar. Kedar is an Arab tribe, and Bedouins to this day make their tents out of black goat hair. The name also puns on the Hebrew root q-d-r, “to be dark.”
like Solomon’s curtains. The curtains are tent hangings. Some scholars revocalize the Hebrew for “Solomon” in order to make it the name of a desert tribe, thus yielding a neater parallelism. But the point of the line is precisely its paradox: I am as dark as a nomad’s tent but as desirable as the lovely curtains of a king. This would be an especially effective rejoinder to the elegant urbanite daughters of Jerusalem who might mock her for her suntanned skin, the sign of a peasant.
6. dark. Instead of the primary term with which she began, sheḥorah, she now uses the same word with a diminutive suffix, sheḥarḥoret, “darkish,” “dusky.”
My mother’s sons. She does not call them “my brothers” but uses a designation that suggests a certain distancing from them. Later, she will invoke a woman’s attachment to her mother.
were incensed with me. The Hebrew verb suggests heat, thus linking with the glaring sun of the previous line. The brothers are incensed with her because she has not kept her vineyard, that is, she has not preserved her virginity. She on her part expresses no misgivings—quite the contrary—at having exercised sexual freedom.
they made me a keeper of the vineyards. Her brothers have exiled her from the comforts of home (perhaps an urban home) and made her perform this rough peasant task in order to punish her.
My own vineyard I have not kept. The reference is double—metaphorically, to her virginity, and physically to her complexion, which she has been unable to preserve in its desired fairness while working in the vineyard.
7. whom I love so. Many translations, following the King James Version, render this as “whom my soul loves,” but the Hebrew nafshi does not mean “my soul.” Rather, it is an intensive alternative to the first-person pronoun. Since English does not have intensive personal pronouns, this translation here and elsewhere compensates by adverbial intensification, “so.”
go straying. The Hebrew ʿotiyah appears to mean “cover up, wrap,” a meaning that is problematic both because of the context and because the transitive verb would normally require a grammatical object. It is best construed as a reversal of consonants (whether by usage or scribal error) for toʾah, to wander or go astray.
8. If you do not know. This is the first of a series of dialogic exchanges between the lovers. (The switch from her speech to his is indicated in our text by the dash.) In this poem, they are both shepherds, and she has asked him exactly where she may find him lest she wander into the company of his male friends, who might well be tempted to take advantage of her beauty. His response looks like a lover’s tease: if you really don’t know where to find me, use some ingenuity and follow the tracks of my flock until you come to where I am.
shelters. Although most translations represent mishkenot as “tents,” the term is not restricted to tents and could also refer to a lean-to or some similar kind of temporary dwelling.
9. To my mare among Pharaoh’s chariots. Some scholars think the suffix added to the word for “mare” is not a possessive but an archaic form occasionally used in construct combinations. Ariel and Chana Bloch argue against this on philological grounds, accepted here, and it makes more sense for the lover to claim possession of the metaphorical mare. Marvin Pope has proposed that the reference of this image is to the strategy of Thutmosis III, at the battle of Qadesh, of sending mares in heat among the enemy cavalry in order to drive them into disarray. Alternatively, since Egypt was known as an exporter of horses, this could simply mean that the beloved, compared to a fine mare, would stand out among the best of horses. Egyptian horses, one should note, were sometimes decked with ornaments around their necks.
10. looped earrings. This translation adopts the solution to torim proposed by the Blochs, as it does with “silver filigree” at the end of the next verse.
12. While the king was on his couch / my nard gave off its scent. This is an appropriately sexy beginning to this richly sensual poem: the lover is lying in bed waiting for her, and as she approaches, she is aware of the fragrance with which she has scented her body. In the next line, it is the lover who metaphorically becomes the fragrance. Nard, or spikenard, was imported to the ancient Near East all the way from the Himalayas, where the plant was grown, so it is clearly a luxury item.
13. A sachet of myrrh is my lover to me. The combination of delightfulness and sensuality in this metaphor is one of the hallmarks of the Song of Songs. The lover is playfully miniaturized as a sachet of perfume strung around the neck of the beloved on a cord and resting between her breasts even as their night of sweet physical intimacy is beautifully evoked.
14. in the vineyards of Ein-Gedi. There is an ambiguity here between the metaphorical and the literal that is another characteristic of the poetry of this book. The lover is figuratively a cluster of henna, pressed to the beloved’s body, henna being an aromatic plant grown at the oasis of Ein-Gedi near the Dead Sea. At the same time, the wording leaves open the possibility that the two lovers are actually together at the oasis.
15. O you are fair, my friend. The male lover is speaking, something altogether clear in the Hebrew because “my friend,” raʿyati, is feminine. In the next line, she answers in kind.
16. our bed is verdant, too. Another pleasing ambiguity of the Song is between inside and outside. She probably means to say that the bed on which they will enjoy love’s pleasures is a forest floor, but she could be saying that an actual bed inside on which they lie partakes of the verdancy of the flourishing realm of nature outside. The ambiguity continues with the cedar beams and evergreen rafters of the next line, which are either literal, because they are making love in the forest, or metaphorical, because their house is redolent of the green world outside.
17. Our house’s beams. The Hebrew shows a plural, “houses,” but as Yair Zakovitch notes, there are other instances in biblical usage where when two nouns are joined in a construct form, a plural second term converts the first term to a plural, even though the sense is actually singular.
1I am the rose of Sharon,
the lily of the valley.
2—Like a lily among the thorns
so is my friend among the young women.
3—Like a quince tree among the trees of the forest
so is my lover among the young men.
In its shade I delighted to sit
and its fruit was sweet to my taste
4He has brought me to the house of wine
and his banner over me is love.
5Stay me up with raisin cakes,
cushion me with quinces,
6His left hand beneath my head,
his right hand embracing me.
7I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem
by the deer or the gazelles of the field,
that you shall not rouse not stir love
8Hark! Oh, my lover is coming,
bounding over the mountains,
leaping over the hills.
9My lover is like a deer
or like a stag.
peering through the windows,
peeping through the crannies.
10My lover spoke out and said to me:
“Arise my friend, my fair one, go.
11For, look, the winter has passed
the rain has gone away.
12Buds can be seen in the land,
the nightingale’s season has come
and the turtledove’s voice is heard in our land.
13The fig tree has put forth its green fruit
and the vines in blossom waft fragrance.
Arise and go, my friend,
my fair one, go forth.”
14My dove in the rock’s crevices,
show me how you look,
let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet
and your look desirable.
15Seize us the foxes,
the little foxes,
despoiling the vineyards,
but our vineyards are in bloom.
16My lover is mine and I am his,
17Until morning’s breeze blows
and the shadows flee,
turn round, be like a deer, my love,
or like a gazelle
on the cloven mountains.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. rose … / lily. Like a good many items of biblical flora, the identification of these two flowers remains uncertain, so it seems sensible to follow the traditional English equivalents here, which may be as good a guess as any others.
2. Like a lily among the thorns. This particular poem unfolds through statement and response in a lovers’ dialogue. She announces herself as a flower; he goes her one better by answering that she is like a flower among the thorns in comparison to other young women. She then responds by likening him to a fruit-bearing tree, with the contrast between tree and flower neatly corresponding to the anatomical difference between the two sexes.
3. quince tree. The traditional rendering of “apple tree” cannot be right because apple trees were not cultivated in the ancient Near East. (The term used here would nevertheless become the standard word for “apple” in later Hebrew.) The Blochs opt for “apricot,” which does make sense in regard to its succulence, but it remains conjectural. Quince, a harder fruit, has at least a metrical advantage. Quinces have been used in Greece and perhaps elsewhere in the Mediterranean for many centuries to perfume bedsheets, and that association might be in play in the Song of Songs.
its shade … / its fruit. Because the Hebrew possessive suffix is masculine, “it” could equally refer to the tree or to its metaphorical referent, the young man. In the apt image, he offers her two things—protection (a standard meaning of “shade” in biblical usage) and sensual pleasure. Fruit, wine, and honey throughout the Song are associated with sexual gratification.
4. He has brought me to the house of wine. Egyptian love poetry, which many scholars think is an antecedent to the Song of Songs, often makes a banquet house a place for the lovers’ tryst. But since wine is metaphorically identified with sexual pleasure (see 1:2, 4), the house of wine might be entirely metaphorical—that is, the chamber or bower to which the lover has brought his beloved in order to make love to her.
his banner over me is love. Several scholars have argued that the noun here, degel, reflects an Akkadian cognate that means “to see,” but there is scant evidence in the Hebrew Bible of the use of this word with the sense of sight. Everywhere else, degel indicates a “banner” or “flag.” The image would be consonant with a heroic representation of the lover as a strong, even triumphant figure, here leading her to his bower under a flag that signals not tribal or military identity but, quite eloquently, love.
5. Stay me up with raisin-cakes. She is faint with desire and so asks for these delicacies to revive her.
I am in a swoon of love. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “lovesick,” but that sounds too pathetic, or adolescent, in English. The King James Version “sick of love” sounds like a blunder, or at least has become that for twenty-first-century usage.
6. His left hand beneath my head, / his right hand embracing me. The chronological steps of this poem need to be sorted out. First, in verse 4, she recalls a moment when her lover led her off to “the house of wine.” Now, however, she is away from him, weak with desire for him (verse 5), and as we learn from verse 7, she is speaking to a group of young women in Jerusalem. This verse, then, is either a flashback to the moment when he embraced her or a wish-fulfillment fantasy of what she now desires.
7. I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem. The implication seems to be that they have somehow been pestering her with questions about her absent lover: Where is he? If he is as wonderful as you say, why aren’t you together with him now? Her rejoinder to such implied challenges is that love will attain its fulfillment in its own good time, and you must not urge its consummation until that time has come.
by the deer or the gazelles of the field. This is a beautiful reflection of the worldview of the Song. Typically, it is God who is invoked in such oaths in the Bible, but God is never mentioned in the book. Instead the young woman invokes beautiful creatures of wild nature, creatures she repeatedly uses as metaphors for her lover.
until it pleases. The Hebrew verb here usually means “to desire” or “to like.” The Blochs render this as “until it is ripe,” which stretches the sense of the Hebrew term a bit but is quite apt.
8. Hark! The Hebrew qol usually means “voice” or “sound,” but it is also sometimes an interjection corresponding to “hark” in English. That sense may be more likely here because she would scarcely hear the voice of her lover (unless he were shouting her name or yodeling), and the sound of his footsteps would scarcely be audible as he bounds over the mountains.
9. Oh, he stands behind our wall / peering through the windows, / peeping through the crannies. This entire line exemplifies the delicate and witty interplay between tenor and vehicle in the use of metaphor in the Song. The scene can be read two ways. As metaphor, it invites us to imagine a deer that has come leaping down the hills and now stands outside the house, peering in through the window (an occurrence quite familiar to many who live in American suburbs near wooded areas). As the referent of the metaphor, it is the vigorous young lover who has come running in his eagerness to be with the beautiful woman he loves, pausing for a moment outside before he crosses the threshold.
11. the winter has passed. The love poetry of the Song of Songs is preeminently poetry of the verdant world of spring. Jewish tradition fixed it to be read on the Sabbath of springtime Passover because of the allegorical interpretation in which the two lovers are identified with God and Israel celebrating their nuptials after the exodus from Egypt, which occured in early spring. But the framers of the tradition were also aware of the vernal efflorescence affirmed in the Song, with a good many liturgical poems composed for this Passover Sabbath invoking the flourishing world of spring.
12. the nightingale’s season. Some interpreters choose to take the Hebrew noun zamir as a homonym that means “pruning,” but birdsong sounds more appropriate to the mood of the poem.
14. My dove in the rock’s crevices. In this particular poem, the young woman appears to be playfully hiding from her lover, an act registered in the image of a dove nesting in the rock’s crevices.
the cliff. While the Hebrew madregah comes to have the general meaning of “stair,” in the context of this line, evoking a scene in nature, it probably refers to a cliff or similar rock formation in which there would be small concavities or cracks in which a dove could hide.
15. Seize us the foxes. This verse, like a few others in the Song, is no more than a fragment, and consequently its meaning is uncertain. Since vineyards tend to be metaphorical in the Song (see 1:6) and are figuratively associated with the body of the beloved, one may propose the following reading: there are in the world pesky agents of interference that seek to obstruct love’s fulfillment, as foxes despoil a vineyard, but our own special vineyard remains flourishing and intact, our love unimpeded.
16. who grazes among the lilies. The implicit metaphor, made explicit in the next verse, is a deer, but the lilies are associated elsewhere with the delights offered by the body of the beloved.
17. turn round, be like a deer, my love. This line pivots on still another of the ambiguities in which the poetry of the Song revels. Momentarily, the young woman appears to be sending her lover away to go running across the mountainous landscape. But in the preceding line (“until morning’s breeze blows …”) she clearly invites him to spend the night. The equation between the woman’s body and the landscape that appears elsewhere (compare the extended poem in chapter 4) is manifested here, and “the cloven mountains” are in all likelihood a figurative reference to her breasts.
1On my couch at night
I sought him I love so.
I sought him but did not find him.
2Let me rise and go round the town,
in the streets and in the square.
Let me seek him I love so.
I sought him but did not find him.
3The watchmen who go round the town found me.
“Have you seen him I love so?”
4I had barely passed on from them
when I found him I love so.
till I brought him to my mother’s house,
and to the chamber of her who conceived me.
5I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
by the deer or by the gazelles of the field,
that you shall not stir nor rouse
love until it pleases.
6Who is this coming up from the desert
like a pillar of smoke
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
from all the merchant’s powders?
7Look, Solomon’s bed—
of the warriors of Israel.
8All of them wielding the sword
trained in battle,
each with his sword on his thigh
out of terror in the nights.
9A palanquin did King Solomon make
Its posts he made of silver,
its curtains crimson,
by the daughters of Jerusalem.
10Go out and behold, O daughters of Zion,
with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his heart’s rejoicing.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. On my couch at night. Many interpreters understand this entire sequence as a dream. That reading is plausible but not inevitable since it is perfectly possible that she is tossing in her bed because her lover is not lying by her side and that she then rises to go out and look for him.
2. Let me rise and go round the town. This act, whether dreamed or real, is an expression of great daring on the part of the beloved because it would be dangerous for a young woman to go wandering through the streets of the town in the dark of the night. Compare Ruth 3:13, where Boaz keeps Ruth from walking home at night.
3. The watchmen who go round the town found me. As yet, she does not find her lover but is found by the watchmen. In the parallel poem in chapter 5, they attack her. Here they are merely the audience for her plaintive question about her lover’s whereabouts.
4. I held him and did not let go. The lover’s response is not registered, nor is there any dialogue between them. All that is reported is her passionate clinging to him and her bringing him to her mother’s house. This is, we should note, a young woman who takes the initiative, first daring to go out into the dark streets in search of her lover, then grasping him and leading him to her mother’s house.
to my mother’s house, / … to the chamber of her who conceived me. This translation preserves the literal sense of the Hebrew in poetic parallelism, the standard term (“mother”) is generally used in the first verset, and a substitution—often it is a metaphor or an unusual synonym—is used in the second. The reference to conception here may intimate the sexual act that the young woman has in mind. The figure of the mother often appears in Sumerian love poetry, which could be in the distant background of this poem. In many cultures, it is the mother’s role to instruct her daughter about what to do in the act of love, and that may also be a reason for introducing the mother here. Notably, the biblical corpus is dotted with references to the father’s house, which is a fixed social unit, but in the Song only the mother’s house appears. Another feature of poetic parallelism in the Bible can be observed in the other pair of nouns in this line: quite often, when a spatial term appears in the first verset, the parallel term in the second is a smaller space or an object contained within the space demarcated by the first term. She leads him, then, to the house and then, entering the house, to a chamber within it. This standard procedure of poetic parallelism here indicates a move into secluded intimacy.
5. I make you swear. See the first comment on 2:7. There the vow she imposes on the daughters of Jerusalem addresses the plight of separation from him, her longing to join him. Here it is a kind of coda to her nocturnal search for her lover, in the end crowned with success—you must not rouse love, she tells the young women, until it is ripe and ready, but now, as I bring my lover to the inner chamber of my mother’s house, the moment of ripeness has come.
6. Who is this coming up from the desert. There is some debate as to whether this verse belongs with the lines that follow. The use of “who,” as the Blochs argue, makes it unlikely that it refers to Solomon’s bed or to his palanquin, and so the entire verse, two lines of poetry, should probably be seen as an independent fragment. What is clear, however, is that the editor, by placing these two lines here, meant to encourage readers to see a connection with what follows. The image of someone—the Hebrew uses a feminine form—coming up from the desert perfumed, in a grand procession, looks like a reminiscence of the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon, offering an associative link with the figure of Solomon in the poem that runs from verse 7 to the end of the chapter.
7. Solomon’s bed. The subject of this poem appears to be quite different from the poetry about two pastoral lovers in a sylvan setting that constitutes the bulk of the Song of Songs.
sixty warriors round it / of the warriors of Israel. This line, together with the next two, looks like a grand epic flourish, describing the formidable array of guards around Solomon in his palace bedchamber. But Yair Zakovitch proposes that the whole sequence is satiric, representing King Solomon quaking in his bed “out of terror in the nights,” in striking contrast to the young woman in the preceding poem, who does not hesitate to go out in the night, with no armed guard, in search of her lover.
9. A palanquin. The Hebrew term ʾapiryon appears only here and is borrowed from either the Greek or the Persian. Some construe it as a fixed royal structure (“pavilion”), but in rabbinic literature, which is only a few centuries removed from our text, it is understood as “palanquin” or, perhaps less grandly, “sedan chair.” A palanquin as well as a pavilion would be grandly furnished, and the fact that it has ‘amudim, in some contexts “pillars,” is not proof of architectural identity because that word could also mean “posts,” as in this translation.
Lebanon wood. This would be expensive cedarwood.
its padding gold. Gold would not make a very comfortable padding, so the reference is probably to padding covered with cloth woven from gold thread.
its inside paved with love. There is no need to emend the noun here. As Zakovitch notes, the sequence here exhibits a familiar biblical pattern of three similar terms and then a switch: silver, gold, crimson, love. The effect of surprise at the end is exquisite.
10. the diadem. Though the Hebrew ʿatarah might simply mean “crown,” it is not the standard term for a royal crown, and on the evidence of the Talmud, there was a practice to adorn the bridegroom with some sort of special diadem. This might well have been put on by the bridegroom’s mother, whereas there are no historical grounds for a procedure in which the mother places the crown of the kingdom on her son.
with which his mother crowned him. As in the previous poem, it is the mother who presides over the nuptials.
on his wedding day. Although no explicit citations occur, it looks as though this poem, evoking the pomp and circumstance of Solomon’s wedding day, has in mind Psalm 45, which is an epithalamium for a royal wedding.
1O you are fair, my friend,
O you are fair.
Your eyes are doves
through the screen of your tresses.
Your hair is like a herd of goats
that have swept down from Mount Gilead.
2Your teeth like a flock of matched ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of them alike,
and none has lost its young.
3Like a scarlet thread, your lips,
Like cut pomegranate your cheekbones
through the screen of your tresses.
4Like the tower of David your neck
A thousand shields are hung on it,
all the warriors’ bucklers.
5Your two breasts are like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle,
6Till morning’s breeze blows
and the shadows flee,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh
and to the hill of frankincense
7You are wholly fair, my friend,
there is no blemish in you.
8With me from Lebanon, bride,
Gaze from the peak of Amanah,
from the peak of Senir and Hermon,
from the lions’ dens,
from the leopards’ mountains.
9You have captured my heart, my sister, bride.
You have captured my heart with one glance of your eyes,
with one bead of your necklace.
10How beautiful your loving, my sister, bride,
how much better your loving than wine,
and the scent of your unguents than all perfumes.
11Nectar your lips drip, bride,
honey and milk are under your tongue,
like Lebanon’s scent.
12A locked garden, my sister, bride,
a locked well, a sealed spring.
13Your branches, an orchard of pomegranates
with luscious fruit,
henna and spikenard,
14spikenard and saffron,
cane and cinnamon
with every tree of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes
with every choice perfume.
15A garden spring,
16—Arise, O north, and come, O south,
blow on my garden, let its perfumes flow,
Let my lover come to his garden
and eat its luscious fruit.
5:1—I have come to my garden, my sister, bride,
I have gathered my myrrh with my perfume,
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey,
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
be drunk with loving.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. through the screen of your tresses. The Hebrew says merely “through your tresses,” but “the screen of,” essentially implied, has been added for poetic legibility. A long interpretive tradition, going back to the Septuagint and embraced by some modern scholars, understands the noun tsamah to mean “veil.” The Blochs make a compelling philological argument against this construction on three grounds: the form of the noun is one used for body parts; in Isaiah 47:2, this same noun is the object of the verb “to lay bare,” which is consistently used for exposing parts of the body, not for the removal of garments; introduction of a veil would interrupt the sequence of references to the beloved’s face and body out of which the whole poem is composed. The Blochs also note that covering the beautiful young woman with a veil gives her an aura of modesty, or reflects an inclination to prudery, that is not in keeping with the frank eroticism of the poem. In modern Hebrew, tsamah, in accord with the biblical sense of the word, means “braid [of hair].” “Tresses,” then, the last word of this line, neatly overlaps with “hair,” the first Hebrew word of the very next line.
a herd of goats / that have swept down from Mount Gilead. The hair of the goats would be black, like the hair of the beloved cascading over her shoulders.
2. Your teeth like a flock of matched ewes. This image, which may look incongruous to the modern eye, would probably have seemed natural to the ancient Hebrew pastoralists. The white plays against the black of the hair, to which a third color, the scarlet of the lips, will be added. In an era millennia before dentistry, most people’s teeth would be yellowed and gapped by early middle age, if not sooner. This, then, is an impressive feature of the beloved’s beauty: her teeth are perfectly white, like sheep coming out of the water, and every tooth is perfectly matched, with none missing, like the flock of ewes in which “none has lost its young.”
3. and your tongue—desire. Literally, “your tongue [is] desirable [or lovely].” The metaphoric location later of milk and honey under the tongue, verse 11, suggests that the lover is thinking of openmouthed kisses.
cheekbones. Though this same word clearly means “temple” (that is, forehead) in the Song of Deborah, Judges 5:26, there is a long and plausible exegetical tradition, going back at least to Rashi, that understands it as “cheekbones.” (Rashi, citing an Old French word, calls it the “apple” of the cheek). The temple would probably be too high on the head because the description is making its way downward, according to the convention of the wazf, the vertical celebration of the loved one’s beautiful body.
4. Like the tower of David your neck. This simile, like a good many others in the poem, is “Oriental,” reflecting an aesthetic in which the poet pursues the momentum of the object of comparison, half forgetting the thing to which it is compared. Long necks—think of Nefertiti—were obviously thought of as beautiful.
built gloriously. The adverbial letalpiyot has defied decipherment or convincing etymological explanation. All that is clear is that it constitutes a superlative.
A thousand shields are hung on it. At this point, the image of the woman disappears in the image of the tower. Nevertheless, the shields hung on the tower allude to links of shining jewelry that the woman wears around her neck.
5. Your two breasts are like two fawns. The description continues its vertical descent, though in this particular poem, this is as far down as it will go. After the architectural and military images of the neck, the breasts are represented through soft and gentle animal imagery.
that graze among the lilies. While the reference is to the fawns, not to the breasts, there is a suggestion that the breasts are surrounded by floral fragrance.
6. I will go to the mountain of myrrh / and to the hill of frankincense. In biblical poetry, “mountain” and “hill” are a formulaic pair, with “mountain” (usually in the plural) almost always appearing in the first half of the line and “hill” (again, generally in the plural) in the second half. But the poet here takes advantage of the familiar pair in a subtly erotic metaphor. We have already noted a metaphoric equivalence between mountains and breasts (2:17) in the recurrent evocation of the beloved’s body as landscape. (There is one mountain, not two, here in order to match “hill,” which in the anatomical hint has to be singular.) If that is intimated here, then the hill would be a smaller anatomical convexity, the mons veneris. As elsewhere, the poet manages to be perfectly decorous in his figurative language and yet hint at sexual actualities.
7. You are wholly fair, my friend. The poem concludes in an envelope structure that invokes the opening line and adds something to it in what amounts to an incremental repetition.
8. with me from Lebanon come. Why Lebanon? It is, of course, a place of deep forests and natural fragrances. It is also far away to the north and wild, a locus of adventure and perhaps danger, as the introduction of lions and leopards at the end of this verse may suggest. This wild setting for the lovers makes a piquant contrast to the enclosed garden in the second part of the poem.
9. You have captured my heart. The verb libavtini might be an ad hoc invention, derived from levav, “heart.” The King James Version renders this a bit more strenuously as “ravished my heart.”
one glance of your eyes. The translation adopts the solution of the Blochs. The literal sense is “one of your eyes,” which sounds peculiar in English.
11. Nectar your lips drip. The Hebrew is a lovely blur of alliteration: nofet titofna siftotayikh. The internal rhyme of “lips drip” seeks to provide a small equivalent of this effect. The same sequence of words occurs in Proverbs 5:3, though there the context is negative because the reference is to the lips of a seductress.
honey and milk are under your tongue. Milk and honey, most readers will recall, are repeatedly associated with the bounty of the promised land. Here the order of the two terms is reversed, perhaps because the poet wanted to stress sweetness; and the beloved’s open mouth, eager for kisses, becomes the lover’s promised land.
and the scent of your robes / like Lebanon’s scent. The landscape of Lebanon, where he invited her to roam with him at the beginning of the poem, now clings through simile to the fragrance of her robes.
12. A locked garden. This interpretation has triggered, perhaps understandably, reams of mystical-allegorical interpretation. In the first instance, however, the locked garden is the body of the beloved and the sealed spring her intimate part. For the metaphoric equation between spring or well and female sexuality, see Proverbs 5:15–18.
a locked well. The somewhat unusual Hebrew for “well,” gal, is close to the word for “garden,” gan, and may be a scribal error. Many manuscripts as well as the Septuagint show gan here.
14. frankincense. The Hebrew for this fragrance, levonah, puns on levanon, “Lebanon.”
15. a garden of fresh water. The first noun here in the Masoretic Text is gal, which everywhere else means either “pile of stones” or “wave” and which only by a considerable stretch do various translators render as “spring” or “well.” (Gulah, a word that has this latter meaning, appears in Joshua 15:19 but is far from phonetically the same as gal.) Many Hebrew manuscripts as well as three ancient versions show gan, “garden,” and the inadvertent substitution of lamed for gimmel is one a scribe could easily have made.
and streams from Lebanon. This presumably means fresh-flowing streams like the ones in the mountains of Lebanon. But it is almost as though there were an underground channel leading from the landscape of Lebanon at the beginning of the poem to this enclosed garden far to the south.
16. blow on my garden, let its perfumes flow. The delicate dance between outer and inner, between metaphor and its referent, is beautifully performed here. We are invited to envisage a real garden, blooming with luscious fruit and redolent of natural fragrances, in which the beloved awaits her lover. But because the garden is also a metaphor for her body, her invitation to him to enter the garden is a sexual invitation, and the flowing of perfumes a hint of her physical readiness for him.
5:1. Despite the chapter break, the first verse of chapter 5 is clearly the conclusion of this poem.
I have gathered my myrrh. The verb ʾarah is a specialized term for “collecting honey.” The lover’s declaration in these two lines is a clear statement that he has heeded her beck oning and entered her garden.
Eat, friends, and drink, / be drunk with loving. This concluding line of the poem is formally anomalous because a third person is now speaking, urging the two lovers to revel in the consummation of their love. If we keep in mind the anthological character of the Song of Songs, we may infer that this particular poem was originally an epithalamium, and in accordance with the conventions of this genre of wedding poem, the bride and groom are exhorted by a wedding guest or by a kind of chorus to enjoy the pleasures of love.
2I was asleep but my heart was awake:
Hark! my lover knocks.
—Open for me, my sister, my friend,
my dove, my perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.
3—I have put off my gown,
how can I don it?
I have bathed my feet,
how can I besmirch them?
4My lover pulled back his hand from the latch,
5I rose to open for my lover.
and my fingers liquid myrrh,
over the handles of the bolt.
6I opened for my lover,
but my lover had slipped off, was gone.
my breath left me when he spoke.
I sought him but did not find him.
I called him but he did not answer.
7The watchmen who go round the town found me.
They struck me, they wounded me.
They pulled my veil from me,
the watchmen of the walls.
8I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
should you find my lover, what shall you tell him?
that I am in a swoon of love.
9—How is your lover more than another,
O fairest among women?
How is your lover more than another,
that thus you make us vow?
10—My lover is shining white and ruddy,
standing out among ten thousand.
11His head is purest gold,
his locks are curls
black as a raven.
12His eyes are like
by streams of water
13His cheeks are like beds of spices
His lips are lilies,
dripping liquid myrrh.
14His arms are coils of gold
inset with ruby.
His loins are fine-wrought ivory,
with sapphire inlaid.
15His thighs are ivory pillars
set on pedestals of gold.
16His mouth is sweetest drink,
This is my lover and this is my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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2. I was asleep but my heart was awake. Those who read this poem as a dream take this double indication as a signal of sleeping consciousness. But as with the poem in 3:1–5, it is equally plausible to understand this as an actual state: she sleeps lightly, restlessly, anxiously awaiting the arrival of her lover, who comes in the middle of the night.
Open for me. The clear reference is to the door, but the sexual hint is also palpable.
For my head is drenched with dew. He mentions this as the reason that she must let him in at once, so that he need not linger anymore in the heavy damp of the night. Of course, there is quite a different reason that he so urgently wants her to open the door for him.
3. I have put off my gown, / how can I don it? Obviously, she is eager to open for him but momentarily plays this coy game of teasing her lover, which, to her dismay, has the effect of driving him away.
4. the latch. This translation adopts an English equivalent for the Hebrew used by several previous translators. The literal meaning of the original is “hole,” a relatively large aperture into which a wooden key was introduced to loosen the bolt locking the door.
my heart raced within me. The Hebrew noun means literally “innards,” thought to be the seat of strong feelings. The received text reads ʿalaw, “for him,” but the Septuagint and many Hebrew manuscripts show ʿalay, literally “for, or upon me,” and that is the reading reflected in this translation.
My hands dripped myrrh / and my fingers liquid myrrh, / over the handles of the bolt. The close focus of her hand on the door vividly dramatizes her eagerness to open for her lover. Perhaps those hands are even fumbling in excitement, adding another moment to her delay. The fact that she has perfumed herself suggests that she has been waiting for her lover to join her. The dripping of fragrant unguent over a lock about to be undone subtly hints at the prospect of female arousal, though no metaphorical equation is put forth.
6. had slipped off, was gone. The doubling of the verbs expresses the dire finality of his absence as she looks into the night from the open door.
I sought him but did not find him. These words, which also occur in the poem in chapter 3, point to the fact that she has gone out into the darkened town to look for him, but that narrative fact is made explicit only in the next verse.
7. They struck me, they wounded me. We now realize how dangerous it is for a woman to go out in the streets at night. The watchmen evidently take her for a prostitute, wandering alone at night. (The story of Tamar, in Genesis 38, who disguises herself as a roadside whore, suggests that prostitutes in the ancient Near East sometimes covered their faces because Tamar’s father-in-law, Judah, does not recognize her. In a moment, we will learn that the young woman is wearing a veil.) The watchmen decide to punish her for her brazenness by beating her and humiliating her through the stripping away of her veil.
8. I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem. One should probably assume narrative continuity with the immediately preceding encounter with the night watchmen. If all this is a dream, then she simply escapes the watchmen and then encounters the daughters of Jerusalem. If it is not a dream, there would have to be a narrative ellipsis: since these young women would not be out in the town in the middle of the night, one would have to infer that, breaking free of the watchmen, she continues to seek her lover through the night and then, still searching, meets the daughters of Jerusalem on the morrow.
9. How is your lover more than another. After she has announced that she is positively faint or ill with longing for her lover, as she did in a previous poem (2:5), the daughters of Jerusalem want to know what is so extraordinary about her lover that should drive her to impose this vow and that should trigger such extreme emotions. This question then becomes the pretext for a wasf, a celebration of the beauty of the body of the one beloved that moves down from head to legs.
10. shining white and ruddy. This is a little enigmatic: “ruddy” must refer to his complexion because it cannot refer to his hair, which is black (verse 11). Perhaps the word for “shining white,” tsah,̣ is meant to convey a general sense of dazzling purity in his appearance. That would accord with the image of the lover as a kind of statue that is developed later in the poem.
12. bathing in milk. As elsewhere, the realization of the metaphoric image develops its own momentum. Presumably, the milk bath would be the whites of the eyes and the doves the irises.
dwelling by a pool. The word for “pool” occurs only here. This seems the most plausible construction, though some interpreters relate it to a word that involves the inlaying of jewels.
13. sprouting aromatic scents. The Masoretic Text has migdelot, “towers of,” which could be the right reading, even though it is hard to imagine flower beds as towers or a beard (if that is what is on his cheeks) as a tower. The Septuagint and the Vulgate read megadlot, “growing” or “sprouting,” which this translation follows.
14. His arms are coils of gold / … His loins are fine-wrought ivory. In contrast to his celebration of her beauty (4:1–7), in which animal imagery and landscape imagery predominate, with one architectural metaphor, the second half of this poem is a cluster of images of jewels and precious substances, appropriately male in their hardness. The lover becomes a kind of statue so resplendent that it seems virtually the statue of a god. As Ron Hendel has suggested to me, this is one of the poetic features of the Song that encourages allegorical readings in which the lover is in fact God.
15. Like Lebanon his look. Since Lebanon was so intimately associated with the cedars grown there and exported to surrounding lands, the clear reference of this verset is to the lover’s lofty stature.
he is choice as the cedars. There is a pun in the Hebrew because the word for “choice,” baḥur, also means “young man.”
16. His mouth is sweetest drink. The reversion to the mouth does not really violate the vertical movement of the poem downward because it is a kind of summary at the end: the beloved, having canvassed her lover’s beauty from head to foot, returns to the physical site of those kisses that epitomize physical intimacy with him and give her such gratification. Mamtaqim, “sweetest drink” (which in modern Hebrew means “candy”), is in biblical usage something sweet that is drunk, as its appearance in Nehemiah 8:10 makes clear. This links the phrase with the beginning of the first poem of the Song, in which the lover’s kisses are better than wine: the first thing she says about her lover in the whole sequence of poems is also what she says about him, summarizing what she feels, at the end of this poem.
all of him, delight. “All of him” points to the summarizing gesture here: everything I have said of him, from his golden head to the pedestals of gold on which he stands. The word for “delight” is, more literally, “desirable things,” “precious things.”
This is my lover and this is my friend. This concluding flourish is a direct rejoinder, triumphant after her enthralled description of him, to the question of the daughters of Jerusalem: “How is your lover more than another?”
1Where has your lover gone,
O fairest among women.
Where has your lover turned
that we might seek him with you?
2—My lover has gone down to his garden,
to the spice beds,
to graze in the garden
and to gather lilies.
3I am my lover’s and my lover is mine,
who grazes among the lilies.
4—You are fair, my friend, as Tirzah,
lovely as Jerusalem,
daunting as what looms on high.
5Turn away your eyes from me,
for they have overwhelmed me.
Your hair is like a herd of goats
that have swept down from Mount Gilead.
6Your teeth are like a flock of ewes
that have come up from the washing,
all of them alike
and none has lost its young.
7Like cut pomegranate your cheekbones
through the screen of your tresses.
8Sixty are there queens
and young women beyond number.
9Just one is my dove, my pure one,
The girls saw her and called her happy,
queens and concubines, and they praised her.
10Who is this espied like the dawn,
fair as the moon,
dazzling as the sun,
daunting as what looms on high?
11To the walnut garden I went down
to see the buds of the brook,
to see if the vine had blossomed,
if the pomegranate trees were in flower.
12I scarcely knew myself,
she set me in the noblest chariot.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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1. Where has your lover gone. Despite the chapter division (a late medieval intervention in the text), the first three verses of this chapter are in all probability the conclusion of the poem that began at the beginning of chapter 5. The young woman has roamed through the streets of the town in search of her lover. When she encounters the daughters of Jerusalem (5:8–9), they ask her what it is about her lover that should have made her so overwrought. She responds by praising her lover’s beauty (5:10–16). Hearing this, they now ask her: Well, if he is so extraordinary, where is he? We are ready to go out in search with you, so we can see for ourselves if he is really as you say.
2. My lover has gone down to his garden. This is an oblique reference to sexual fulfillment. Her body has been vividly equated with a garden of luscious fruit (4:12–5:1). What she is telling them is that there is no need for them to join her in seeking her lover—she has already found him, and he has been with her in rapturous consummation. If this is a true report and not a boast or fantasy, one can reconstruct the following sequence of events, filling in the narrative hiatus between 5:7 and 5:8: after the assault by the watchmen, she continues her search, finds her lover, and spends the night with him; now on the next day, she meets the daughters of Jerusalem, who may know something about her wandering on the previous night; momentarily, she goes along with their assumption that she is distraught because she is looking for her lover; now, at the conclusion of her speech to them, she joyfully announces that she has in fact found him.
4. You are fair, my friend. These words begin a new poem, spoken by the lover. In the understanding on which this translation is based, the poem continues through verse 10.
fair … as Tirzah, / lovely as Jerusalem. Tirzah was for a brief time the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel as Jerusalem was capital of the southern kingdom of Judah. By the time this poem was composed, Tirzah and the northern kingdom had long vanished, so this city as a byword for beauty either was a distant memory or reflects an old line of poetry (or perhaps a proverbial saying) in this poem that was written centuries later.
daunting as what looms on high. The adjective ʾayumah suggests something like “inspiring awe or trepidation,” an emotion that a man might well feel in beholding the ravishing beauty of the woman he desires. The happy solution of “daunting” is borrowed from the Blochs. The simile (a single word in the Hebrew, kanigdalot) has perplexed interpreters. It is derived from the same root as dagul, “standing out,” in 5:10. The Blochs make an elaborate argument that this is a poetic epithet for the stars and hence render the term in their translation as “the stars in their courses.” That is a lovely flourish but makes the word more explicitly stellar than the Hebrew warrants because there is no set equation between the root d-g-l and stars in biblical usage. It may be preferable to preserve the resonant ambiguity of the Hebrew: she is daunting as something grand and lofty, which might indeed be the stars or might be the two cities just mentioned, both set on promontories.
5. Turn away your eyes from me, / for they have overwhelmed me. This line transforms the daunting beauty of the previous line into a vividly concrete response to her.
Your hair is like a herd of goats. This line, together with everything in verses 6 and 7, is a reprise of 4:1–3, though here 4:3a does not appear. This sort of near verbatim recurrence of lines may reflect the anthological nature of the Song of Songs, in which two or more lines of poetry might have migrated from one poem to another. For elucidation of this line and of verses 6 and 7, see the comments on 4:1–3.
8. Sixty are there queens. The Hebrew style here reflects a kind of epic flourish, and the syntactic inversion of the translation seeks to emulate that effect. (One may note that the Hebrew for “they,” heimah, shows an extra syllable at the end, a form of the word usually reserved for poetry; “are there” in the translation is meant as a stylistic equivalent.) The ascent from sixty to eighty to “beyond number” follows a structural procedure in biblical poetry, in which when a number is introduced in the first verset, it is somehow increased in the second (and here, in the third as well).
concubines. Following “queens,” these are probably the king’s concubines. The poet could have Solomon in mind.
young women. The Hebrew is ʿalamot, which others translate as “maidens.” That choice is in keeping with the quasi-epic style of the line, but the English term could imply virginity, which is not true of the Hebrew. The first two versets invoke a large number of royal consorts; this third adds the whole vast set of nubile young women—all of whom cannot compare to the one and only beloved.
9. her mother / … her who bore her. The parallelism in these two versets follows the standard procedure of biblical poetry in which the normal term is used in first verset, and in the following verset a metaphoric or paraphrastic substitution or an unusual synonym is employed. Again in keeping with biblical poetics, the second term here concretizes the general designation “mother” by focusing on the act of birth, as if the mother were saying: This dazzling beauty has come out of my womb!
dazzling. The Hebrew barah means both “pure” and “bright,” but the sense of brightness may be more salient here because of the imagery of brilliance in the next verse, where barah again appears.
The girls. Literally, “daughters.”
queens and concubines. The sequence reverses the order of verse 8: it begins with the general category of “girls” (banot) and then proceeds to queens and concubines.
10. dawn, / … moon, / … sun. Zakovitch proposes that at dawn both sun and moon can be visible. In any case, the progression moves, as one would expect in biblical poetry, from pale light (the moon) to intense light (the sun). The words for both “sun” and “moon” are feminine, in contrast to their more common synonyms in earlier biblical Hebrew, and the grammatical gender makes them more apt as similes for the beautiful young woman.
11. To the walnut garden I went down. This verse and the next, no longer a celebration of the beauty of the beloved, appear to be a new poem or, given their brevity, the fragment of a poem. As elsewhere, there is a studied ambiguity between literal and figurative, outside and inside. At first, the lover’s declaration looks like a straightforward report of having gone down into a garden to enjoy the spring landscape, and in light of the vernal ambience of the Song, this is a perfectly plausible reading. The next verse, however, invites us to see the garden as a metaphor.
12. I scarcely knew myself. The idiom suggests ecstatic confusion. Shalom Paul has likened it to an Akkadian expression that refers to a condition of mental confoundment.
she set me in the noblest chariot. The Hebrew collocation ʿami-nadiv is a famous crux. Literally, it would seem to mean “my people-noble.” The combination nedivey-ʿam, “the people’s nobles,” appears a number of times in biblical poetry, especially archaic poetry (for example, in the Song of the Well, Numbers 21:18, and in the Song of Deborah, Judges 5). The Blochs propose emending the text by reversing the order of the two words; Zakovitch reads it as having the same meaning as nediv-ʿam even though the order is reversed. The word for “chariot” is in the plural, but plural for singular, perhaps as an epic gesture, is not uncommon in biblical poetry. But what is this chariot? Especially given the statement of ecstasy in the first half of the line, the contention of the Blochs that the noble chariot in which she places him is her body seems convincing. Retrospectively, then, we conclude that the garden of the previous verse is, like the garden in chapter 4 and above in 6:2, also a metaphor for the beloved’s body.
1Turn back, turn back, O Shulamite,
turn back, that we may behold you.
—Why should you behold the Shulamite
in the dance of the double rows?
2—How fair your feet in sandals,
O daughter of a nobleman.
The curves of your thighs like wrought rings,
the handiwork of a master.
3Your navel a crescent bowl,
hedged about with lilies.
4Your two breasts like two fawns,
twins of a gazelle.
5Your neck like an ivory tower,
your eyes like pools in Heshbon
by the gate of the town of grandees.
Your nose like the tower of Lebanon
looking out toward Damascus.
6Your head upon you like Mount Carmel,
and the locks of your head are purple.
A king is caught in the tangle.
7How fair you are, how sweet,
8Your stature was like a palm tree
and your breasts were like the clusters.
9I thought: I will climb the palm,
I will grasp its stalks,
and let your breasts be like grape clusters,
and the scent of your breath like quince,
10and your mouth like goodly wine.
—It flows to my lover smoothly,
stirring sleepers’ lips to speak.
11I am my lover’s
and for me his desire.
12Come my lover,
Let us go out to the field,
There will I give my love to you.
13Let us rise early in the vineyards.
We shall see if the vine is in flower,
if the blossoms have opened,
if the pomegranate trees have budded.
There I will give my loving to you.
14The mandrakes give off fragrance
and at our door all luscious fruit,
fresh picked and stored as well,
I have laid up for you, my love.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. Turn back, turn back. The imperative verb shuvi does not mean “turn around,” as it is understood in some translations. The Shulamite has been dancing and evidently has begun to move away from the group of other dancers, so now these plural speakers—a kind of chorus—invite her to dance again.
Shulamite. The meaning of her name has been disputed. The most probable derivation is from Shalem, a shortened form of “Jerusalem,” though one should not exclude a punning association with Solomon (Shelomoh in Hebrew) and with the verbal root that suggests wholeness.
Why should you behold. This seems to be the speech of a second group. The poem, then, would be composed of an antiphonal exchange between two (presumably male) choruses.
the dance of the double rows. Or “the dance of the double camps.” Its choreography is beyond retrieval, but one may imagine two rows of dancers with the Shulamite as the star performer moving between them. The two rows may even be the two choruses.
2. How fair your feet in sandals. Although the first Hebrew noun can also mean “steps,” the poem is focused on her body parts, not on her movements. As has often been observed, this particular poem in praise of the beauty of the beloved moves from feet to head rather than the other way around because the chorus is watching her dancing; and their eyes are first caught by her moving feet. The antiphonal voice has just challenged this group with a question—why should we gaze on the Shulamite?—and now an answer is provided in the celebration of her beauty.
The curves of your thighs like wrought rings. In this instance, the beauty of the lovely woman is first likened to exquisite artifacts, as in her celebration earlier of her lover’s beauty, and only afterward to growing things, animals, and architectural elements. It is worth noting that her thighs, navel, and breasts appear to be visible as she dances, so she may be wearing some sort of diaphanous dress or skimpy tunic. That would give special point to the entreaty, “Turn back, turn back, … that we may behold you (verse 1).”
3. Your navel a crescent bowl. Sometimes, as Freud famously said of cigars, a navel is just a navel, despite the inclination of some interpreters to see it as an image of a different body part. Nevertheless, the filling of a receptacle with liquid has a certain erotic resonance. But the intention of the line is more general: just as the crescent concavity of her navel should always be filled, she is never to be arid and empty.
mixed wine. The ancient Hebrews, like the Greeks, often mixed strong wine with water.
a mound of wheat. One should note that this poetics has no particular commitment to metaphoric consistency. In the previous line, the navel was likened to a finely crafted bowl; now the belly around it is compared to a mound of wheat. Visually, the two lines trace a counterpoint between the navel’s concavity and the gentle convex curve of the belly.
5. your eyes like pools in Heshbon. Heshbon is a Moabite city. Perhaps it was proverbial for its beauty, though if that is the case, the tradition has been lost to us. The simple exoticism of a distant place may have appealed to the poet, as with Lebanon and Damascus.
the town of grandees. The Hebrew bat-rabim is literally “daughter of the great ones” or, equally possible, “daughter of the many.” These two words are often construed as a place-name, but this translation follows the argument of the Blochs that “daughter” is an epithet for the town (cities are often imagined as women in biblical language) and that rabim has the meaning it sometimes shows elsewhere of “important persons,” “masters.” It would be in accordance with the use of parallelism in biblical poetry for the poet to introduce a poetic epithet for a place-name that appears in the preceding verset.
Your nose like the tower of Lebanon. Even more than the image of the neck as a tower, this simile is likely to seem incongruous to modern readers, but it reflects both the value set on a long, architecturally elegant nose as a sign of beauty and the tendency of this poetry to follow the momentum of the term of comparison in the simile.
6. like Mount Carmel. Mount Carmel, overlooking the site of present-day downtown Haifa, is lofty and wooded and thus is an appropriate image for the grandeur of the Shulamite’s head. Because the word “mount” does not appear in front of “Carmel” in the Hebrew, some interpreters have taken karmel as a homonym that means “farmland,” but surely a luxuriant high place is a more apt image for the head. The word is also close to karmil, “purple,” and so may punningly point toward the color that appears in the next verset, even though a different term is used for the color.
the locks of your head are purple. What is probably meant is a black sheen that has purple highlights, but the color is also chosen because ʾargaman is associated with royal raiments, which would be an appropriate link for this “daughter of a nobleman.”
A king is caught in the tangle. The king is probably an epithet for the lover, as in 1:4. The other noun in this clause, rehatim, is obscure. It might refer to the beams of a loom. The translation choice of “tangle” is dictated by context.
7. O Love. The word for “love,” ʾahavah, is capitalized in the translation because it cannot be a designation for the human object of love. Love itself is said to be the sweetest of delights.
8. Your stature. These words signal the beginning of a new poem, in which the lover recalls contemplating the fine stature of his beloved and longing to embrace her.
9. let your breasts be like grape clusters. As he evokes physical intimacy, the comparison moves from date palm to grapes, perhaps because of the general association of wine with kisses and lovemaking.
the scent of your breath like quince. This second verset exhibits the general tendency of poetic parallelism in the Bible to move from a large object or space to something smaller. The word for “breath” is literally “nose,” but by metonymy that becomes in biblical usage a term for “breath.”
10. your mouth. Literally, “your palate.”
It flows to my lover smoothly. She now responds to him in midsentence (her response is indicated here typographically by the initial dash). Though the verb used usually means simply “go,” in conjunction with this adverb it has the sense of “flow.” The “it” appears to refer to the goodly wine of the mouth that he has just mentioned: yes, she says, it is delectable wine that flows straight to my lover, exciting those who sleep to speech where actual wine might be a soporific.
11. I am my lover’s / and for me his desire. This line is plausibly read as her summarizing affirmation of their love after she has evoked in the previous line the potent effect of her kisses. Some interpreters, however, prefer to see it as the initial line of the next poem.
12. the henna. The Hebrew kefarim has a homonym that means “villages,” which is also possible here, but it seems more likely, as the next verse indicates, that she is inviting him to spend a night in the open air, and kefarim in the sense of “henna” is associated earlier with love’s pleasures.
14. mandrakes. This plant was thought to be an aphrodisiac, as is evident in the story of the mandrakes found by Reuben (Genesis 30:14–16). It is also quite obvious in the Hebrew that dudaʾim, “mandrakes,” plays on dodai, “my love” (in the sense of “lovemaking”) that she has just used. Either the phonetic closeness of the two words led to the belief that mandrakes were aphrodisiac, or the belief in their power to stimulate desire generated the name for the plant.
give off. The use of this verb pointedly picks up “give” at the end of the previous line.
our door. The Hebrew shows a plural, again a poetic usage.
all luscious fruit, / … I have laid up for you, my love. This is still another instance of the delightfully teasing play between outside and inside, literal and figurative, in which the Song abounds. She has invited him to look at the blossoming world with her. Now they come back to her house, where she announces that she has set aside delicious fruit for him, which could be taken literally. But the concluding verset strongly intimates that the fruit is the delectable pleasures of love that she has scrupulously kept for him alone—“stored” (literally, “old”) because she has carefully held these for him, “fresh picked” (literally, “new”) because these fruits will have the freshness of the spontaneous gifts of her body.
1Would that you were a brother to me,
I would find you in the street, would kiss you,
and they would show no scorn for me.
2I would lead you, I would bring you
to my mother’s house, she would teach me.
I would give you spiced wine to drink,
from my pomegranate wine.
3His left hand beneath my head,
his right hand embracing me.
4I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem,
that you shall not rouse nor stir love
until it pleases.
5Who is this coming up from the desert
leaning on her lover?
Under the quince tree I roused you.
There your mother conceived you,
there she who bore you conceived you.
6Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm.
For strong as death is love,
Its sparks are fiery sparks,
7Many waters cannot
put out love
nor rivers sweep it away.
Should a man give
all the wealth of his house for love,
they would surely scorn him.
8We have a little sister
What shall we do for our sister
on the day she is spoken for?
9If she is a wall,
we will build on her a silver turret.
If she is a door,
we will besiege her with cedar boards.
10—I am a wall
and my breasts are like
11A vineyard Solomon had
He gave the vineyard to the keepers:
each would get from its fruit
12My vineyard is my own.
You can have the thousand, Solomon,
and two hundred for the keepers of its fruit.
13You who dwell in the garden,
friends listen for your voice.
14—Flee my lover and be like a deer
or like a gazelle
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. suckling my mother’s breasts. This could also be read as a noun phrase: “a suckling of my mother’s breasts.” That construction would be in keeping with the logic of the biblical parallelism, where the general term in the first verset (here “brother”) is followed by some sort of epithet or paraphrase as the equivalent in the second. Second-verset equivalents usually concretize the term that appears in the first. In this instance, we are given the sensual concreteness of the lover sucking the breasts of the beloved’s mother, which then is a kind of prolepsis of kissing or sucking the breasts of his beloved.
I would find you in the street. There may be an echo of her desperate search through the streets to find her lover in 3:1–4. In the fantasy of a fraternal bond here, of course, since they are brother and sister, they are free to embrace in full public view, without censure. Her desire for him is so imperative that she wishes she could have unimpeded access to his embraces even when they are out in the streets.
2. I would lead you, I would bring you. As elsewhere, it is she who plays an unabashedly active role. The implied narrative sequence is that after having encountered him in the street and having kissed him, she takes him by the hand and leads him back to her mother’s house, where they can make love.
she would teach me. Though emendations have often been proposed for this verb in the received text, it makes sense as it stands. In many cultures, as several commentators have argued, it is the traditional duty of the mother to instruct her daughter in the art of love, and it looks as if that is what the young woman has in mind here. That role resonates with the initial image of the fantasy, in which the mother’s breasts suckle the lover.
spiced wine … / my pomegranate wine. In biblical Israel and elsewhere in the ancient Mediterranean, spices were sometimes added to wine. As in previous poems in the Song, the wine is a metaphor for the pleasures of love that she now offers him.
3. His left hand beneath my head, / his right hand embracing me. This line, which repeats 2:6, is a discreet expression of the sexual consummation that she has promised in the previous line or might even refer to their embrace after the consummation. This poem becomes a nice companion piece to the poem in 2:4–7. There it was the lover who brought the beloved to the bedchamber; here it is she who brings him. The parallelism strongly suggests that “the house of wine” in 2:4 is an epithet for the private place where they make love, as here; in her mother’s house, she offers him her “spiced wine.”
4. I make you swear, O daughters of Jerusalem. This recurring line, in the present context, concluding this particular poem, suggests something like the following: I make you swear not to interfere and not to urge love’s fulfillment before the time is ripe; now I have enjoyed that ripeness in the intimate privacy that is only for me and my lover.
5. Who is this coming up from the desert / leaning on her lover? This line, the first verset replicating 3:6a, sounds like the beginning of a poem that has been lost. The next, triadic line is also a fragment lacking context. Although there are occasional brief fragments earlier in the book, two fragments in immediate sequence here may reflect a quandary of the editor as he came to the end of his collection of poems: in the material at his disposal, he had a couple of snippets of poems, perhaps on torn pieces of parchment, that he did not want to discard because he either felt that they had authoritative status or saw them as good lines of poetry.
Under the quince tree I roused you. The quince, if that is what the Hebrew tapuaḥ is, was earlier associated (2:5) with reviving the young woman faint with passion. Here it is she who addresses him, as the grammatical forms of the Hebrew makes clear. The verb “rouse”—again the woman takes sexual initiative—is probably intended in an erotic sense. Thus Rashi: “she says this seeking her lover’s affection … and it is the language of the wife of one’s youth rousing her lover at night as he slumbers, embracing him and kissing him.”
There your mother conceived you. This verset and the one that follows are enigmatic. Elaborate explanations have been proposed, from mythological to zoological. The simplest possibility is that an act of love was once consummated under this tree, and the young woman now proposes a new consummation—in a way, a reenactment. The editorial placement of this line here was probably encouraged by the role of the mother in verses 1 and 2 above.
she who bore you. The vocalization of the Masoretic Text indicates a verb, “she bore you” (yeladetkha), but the conventions of parallelism would lead us to expect a poetic substitution for the noun “mother” in the preceding verset (thus the translation supposes yoladetkha), and this is in fact the vocalization reflected in the Septuagint and in one version of the Syriac.
6. Set me as a seal on your heart, / as a seal on your arm. Some commentators see this line as still another fragment, but it works perfectly well as the initial line of the poem that follows.
fierce as Sheol is jealousy. Many modern interpreters prefer to understand the noun qinʾah as “passion,” but most of its biblical usages indicate jealousy, which makes perfectly good sense here.
a fearsome flame. The word for “flame” has the theophoric suffix yah, but this translation follows the scholarly consensus that it is used here as an intensifier, with no theological implication. This would be consistent with the rest of the Song of Songs, where God is neither mentioned nor at issue in the poems.
7. Many waters cannot / put out love. The “many waters” may have some mythological resonance as the primordial waters of creation and (as in Psalms) of the great cosmic sea. This poem differs somewhat from the others in the collection because it is less a direct address by one of the lovers to the other than a celebration of the power of love, though this does not preclude the possibility, if verse 6a is the beginning of the poem, that it is spoken by the beloved to her lover.
8. We have a little sister. This poem, too, differs from the others: here a group of brothers, acting as a kind of chorus, contemplates, perhaps apprehensively, the conjugal future of their prepubescent sister. We may be invited to recall the spiteful brothers who punished their sexually active sister by making her a keeper of vineyards (1:6). It is quite possible that this verse and the one that follows amount to a flashback: the decidedly nubile sister (verse 10) thinks back to the moment when her brothers were nervous about her approaching puberty.
and she has no breasts. The supple, beautiful breasts of the young woman are a recurrent feature of the love poems.
9. If she is a wall. The reference is probably to being closed off from the dangers of the potential suitors or seducers. (The locked garden of chapter 4 is a partial analogy.)
we will build on her a silver turret. Though the precise meaning of the Hebrew noun is in dispute, it is most plausibly understood in this context as some sort of ornament, perhaps to be given as a reward for her protecting her virginity. Zakovitch cites the Talmudic “city of gold,” an ornament worn by brides, as a possible analogue.
we will besiege her with cedar boards. This verset is obscure. The most likely sense is an expression of hostility by the brothers toward their sister, as in 1:6. That is, if she is a door, which unlike a wall opens up to let people in, instead of bedecking her with silver ornaments, we will lay siege against her with siege engines made of cedarwood. Despite the efforts of some interpreters to understand the verb here as indicating something less hostile, the plain meaning of tsur ʿal is “to lay siege against.” The brothers, then, cast themselves as guardians of the family honor, prepared to punish their sister if she betrays it.
10. I am a wall / and my breasts are like towers. She now offers a vigorous rejoinder to the remembered speech of her brothers. She is a wall, she knows perfectly well how to protect herself from unwanted suitors; and contrary to the moment years earlier when she was a physically undeveloped little sister, she is a sexually mature woman with palpably prominent breasts of which she is proud.
in his eyes. The implied antecedent to “his” must be her one true lover.
like a town that finds peace. The Hebrew merely has “like one [feminine] who finds peace.” Towns are invariably feminine in biblical Hebrew and are sometimes referred to as mother or daughter or personified as a woman. In the context of “wall” (the term for the wall of a city, not of a house) in the previous line, it seems plausible that she who finds peace is the city. To complete the walled-city metaphor of her rejoinder to her brothers: for her lover the town opens its gates, allowing him to enter peacefully—there is neither siege nor conflict, only a happy welcoming.
11. the Vale of Wealth. The Hebrew ba’al hamon definitely looks like a place-name, but it is probably meant to be thematically significant. For this reason, the name is translated rather than transliterated. Ba’al does not actually mean “vale” but is a component of many biblical place-names, probably because the Canaanite god Baal was once worshipped at these places. The word for “wealth,” hamon, is phonetically akin to hon, “wealth” in verse 7.
a thousand silver shekels. The Hebrew says only “a thousand silver.”
12. My vineyard is my own. Given the way “vineyard” is used in 1:6 and “garden” elsewhere, she is almost certainly referring to the precious treasures of her body. Vineyards, of course, were economically important in ancient Israel. The idea that her private vineyard is worth far more than King Solomon’s large revenue-producing vineyard is clearly in keeping with “Should a man give / all the wealth of his house for love, / they would surely scorn him (verse 7).”
13. You who dwell in the garden. The conjugated verb is feminine, so we know it is the lover addressing the young woman. As with a few other nouns in the Song, the Hebrew for “garden” shows a poetic plural. The beloved, as in chapters 4 and 5, is in a garden and is also herself a garden.
friends listen for your voice. This is a little obscure. The probable meaning is that friends—his, hers, anyone amicably disposed—are eager to hear her sweet voice, as is the lover himself in 2:14.
Let me hear it. But he seems to want her to speak for him alone. The single Hebrew word represented by these four English words is really not metrically sufficient to constitute a verset in a line of poetry, and the syntax is somewhat problematic. All of this makes the whole line look textually suspect.
14. Flee my lover and be like a deer. It is appropriate that the book ends with a lovers’ dialogue. He speaks one line of poetry (verse 13), and she answers with an antithetical line of poetry (verse 14). Both lines are triadic, a kind of line often used in biblical poetry to mark some sort of closure.
on the spice mountains. Like so much in the Song, this phrase and the imperative verb that precedes it point in two directions. Again, the purposeful ambiguity between outside and inside, literal and figurative, is invoked. Ostensibly, she is saying that he must run away to the distant mountains (perhaps after a night of love, though that is by no means clear). But her breasts have been represented figuratively as mountains, and “spice mountains” (or more literally, “mountains of fragrances”) would be an apt designation for them. This entire line recalls 2:17 (see the comment on that verse), with harey besamim, “spice mountains,” similar in form to harey bater, “cloven mountains,” in 2:17. In what might be understood as a lover’s teasing invitation, she urges him to run away—to the amorous haven of her waiting body.
Is Ruth in fact a Late Biblical book? Although this is the consensus of biblical scholars, there are some vocal dissenters. These tend to take at face value the assertion of the opening verse that we are reading a story that goes back to the period of the Judges—an assertion that led, as perhaps the author of Ruth intended, to the placement of the book between Judges and Samuel in the Septuagint and consequently in the Christian canonical order of the Bible. Some of the dissenters evoke the pure classical style of Ruth that in many ways sounds like the Hebrew of the early first millennium B.C.E.
But style is actually the clearest evidence of the lateness of Ruth. The writer took pains to create a narrative prose redolent of the early centuries of Israelite history, but it is very difficult to execute such a project of archaizing without occasional telltale slips, as one can see in the Hebrew of the frame-story of Job. Here, there are at least a dozen terms that reflect distinctive Late Biblical usage—as, for example, the verbs used for taking a wife (1:4), for wait or hope (1:13), and for removing a sandal (4:7), and another ten idiomatic collocations occur that never appear in earlier biblical texts.
The other strong sign of Ruth’s composition in the period after the return from Babylonian exile in the fifth century B.C.E. is its genre. The book is still another manifestation of the veritable explosion of new narrative genres that characterizes the Late Biblical period. For all the polemic thrust of this text (to which we will turn momentarily), it is basically an idyll, quite unlike any of the narratives written during the First Temple period. The setting is bucolic—Bethlehem is a small town, scarcely a city, and the action of the two central chapters takes place outside the town, in the fields and on the threshing floor. Harvesting and agriculture are a palpable presence in the story. Unlike the narratives from Genesis to Kings, where even pastoral settings are riven with tensions and often punctuated by violence, the world of Ruth is a placid bucolic world, where landowner and workers greet each other decorously with blessings in the name of the LORD, and where traditional practices such as the levirate marriage and leaving unpicked ears of grain for the poor are punctiliously observed. The idyllic nature of the book is especially evident in its characters. In the earlier biblical narratives, character is repeatedly seen to be fraught with inner conflict and moral ambiguity. Even such presumably exemplary figures in the national history as Jacob, Joseph, David, and Solomon exhibit serious weaknesses, sometimes behaving in the most morally questionable ways. In Ruth, by contrast, there are no bad people. Orpah, who turns back to Moab, leaving Naomi, is devoted to her mother-in-law and is merely following Naomi’s exhortation. She is a good person, only less good than Ruth. The unnamed kinsman of the last chapter is also not a bad person, merely less exemplary than Boaz in his unwillingness to take on a Moabite wife with all that might entail. In sum, this idyllic narrative is one of the few truly successful stories in any literature that concentrates almost exclusively on good people.
Ruth’s Moabite origins have led many interpreters—convincingly, in my view—to see this story as a quiet polemic against the opposition of Ezra and Nehemiah to intermarriage with the surrounding peoples when the Judahites returned to their land in the fifth century B.C.E. The author may have picked up a hint from 1 Samuel 22:3–4, where David, said here to be Ruth’s great-grandson, is reputed to have placed his parents under the protection of the king of Moab to keep them safe from Saul. Readers should note that for biblical Israel, Moab is an extreme negative case of a foreign people. A perennial enemy, its origins, according to the story of Lot’s daughter in Genesis 19, are in an act of incest. The Torah actually bans any sort of intercourse, social, cultic, or sexual, with the Moabites. Against this background of hostility, Moab in this book provides refuge for the family of Elimelech fleeing from famine (like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), and the two Moabite daughters-in-law are faithful, loving women, with Ruth’s moral nobility altogether exemplary. It is this that Boaz is aware of from the outset, and he is in no way put off by Ruth’s identity as a Moabite, unlike the kinsman who declines to perform the levirate obligation. Ruth is a perfectly virtuous Moabite—ʾeshet hayil, a “worthy woman”—who becomes the progenitrix of the royal line of the Judahite kingdom. It is hard not to see in the boldly iconoclastic invention of this plot an argument against the exclusionary policy on foreign wives propagated by Ezra and Nehemiah. This would also make the fifth century B.C.E., at the moment when intermarriage was an urgent issue, a plausible time for the composition of the book.
It is remarkable that a story in all likelihood framed for a polemic purpose should be so beguiling. Charm is not a characteristic that one normally associates with biblical narrative, but this idyll is charming from beginning to end, understandably making it one of the most perennially popular biblical books. If the writer set out to make Ruth the Moabite a thoroughly good person in order to implement his argument for openness to exogamy, he also had a rare gift for making good characters convincing, manifested from the very beginning in Naomi’s solicitous speech to her daughters-in-law and then in Ruth’s unforgettable pledge of devotion to her. This author was finely aware of the conventions of earlier biblical narrative as he was sensitive to the prose style of his predecessors, but he subtly adapted those conventions to his own artistic and thematic ends. He clearly is familiar with the betrothal type-scene that plays an important role in Genesis and early Exodus, but in his canny version, it is a young woman, not a young man, who encounters her future spouse near a well in a foreign land, and the foreign land, paradoxically, is Judah, which she will then make her homeland, “coming back” with Naomi to a place where she has never been.
Another recurrent device of classical biblical narratives is the use of the first piece of dialogue assigned to a character to define the distinctive nature of the character. That procedure is splendidly realized in Ruth’s first speech, addressed to Naomi, in chapter 1. The lyric suasive force of her speech should be noticed, for it is the first signal instance of one of the appealing features of the prose of the Book of Ruth. Earlier biblical narrative often introduces brief poetic insets into the prose—formal poems, sometimes just a line or two in length, that mark a portentous juncture of the story, a blessing or a prayer or an elegy (the valedictory words of Rebekah’s family to her as she leaves to become Isaac’s bride, Jacob’s cadenced cry of dismay when he believes Joseph has been torn apart by a wild beast). In Ruth, on the other hand, the dialogue repeatedly glides into parallel structures that have a strong rhythmic quality and sound rather like verse but do not entirely scan as formal poetry. Naomi’s relatively long speech to her daughters-in-law abounds in loose parallel structures and emphatic repetitions, culminating in one parallelism that actually scans as verse in the Hebrew: “would you wait for them till they grew up? / For them would you be deprived of husbands?” Ruth’s beautifully cadenced response is still closer to poetry: “For wherever you go, I will go. / And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. / Your people is my people, / and your god is my god.”
These gestures toward poetry continue to mark the speech of the characters down to the words of blessing of the townswomen near the end of the last chapter. The balance, the rhythmic poise, the stately symmetries of the language are an apt manifestation of the harmonious world of the Book of Ruth: the characters express a kind of moral confidence ultimately stemming from a sense of the rightness of the traditional values of loyalty, love, and charity and of the sustaining force of providence even in the face of adversity. All this taken together, consummated with the most finely managed artistry, makes the Book of Ruth one of literature’s most touching stories with a happy ending.
CHAPTER 1
1And it happened in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem to sojourn in the plains of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2And the man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. And they came to the plains of Moab and they were there. 3And Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she, together with her two sons, was left. 4And they took for themselves Moabite wives. The name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled there some ten years. 5And the two of them, Mahlon and Chilion, died as well, and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband. 6And she rose, she and her daughters-in-law, and turned back from the plains of Moab, for she had heard in the plains of Moab that the LORD had singled out His people to give them bread. 7And she went out from the place where she had been, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on the way to go back to the land of Judah. 8And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law: “Go back, each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD do kindness with you as you have done with the dead and with me. 9May the LORD grant that you find a settled place, each of you in the house of her husband.” And she kissed them, and they raised their voice and wept. 10And they said to her, “But with you we will go back to your people.” 11And Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters, why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could be husbands to you? 12Go back, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. Even had I thought ‘I have hope. This very night I shall have a husband and bear sons,’ 13would you wait for them till they grew up? For them would you be deprived of husbands? No, my daughters, for it is far more bitter for me than for you because the LORD’s hand has come out against me.” 14And they raised their voice and wept once more, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people. Go back after your sister-in-law.” 16And Ruth said, “Do not entreat me to forsake you, to turn back from you. For wherever you go, I will go. And wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people is my people, and your god is my god. 17Wherever you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. So may the LORD do to me or even more, for only death will part you and me.” 18And she saw that she was insisting on going with her, and she ceased speaking to her. 19And the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem, and it happened as they came to Bethlehem that the whole town was astir over them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20And she said, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for Shaddai has dealt great bitterness to me. 21I went out full, and empty did the LORD bring me back. Why should you call me Naomi when the LORD has borne witness against me and Shaddai has done me harm?” 22And Naomi came back, and her daughter-in-law with her who was coming back from the plains of Moab. And they had come to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. when the judges ruled. The “judges” (shoftim) are tribal chieftains, as in the Book of Judges. This initial notice led the Septuagint, and the Christian canon afterward, to place the Book of Ruth in the Former Prophets, after Judges.
2. And the man’s name. All the names appear to have symbolic meaning, though perhaps that is not entirely certain. Elimelech means “my God is king.” Naomi, as she herself points out in verse 20, suggests “sweet” or “pleasant.” Unlike these two names, which have some sort of general currency, the two sons’ names, Mahlon and Chilion, mean “sickness” and “destruction” and so are manifestly schematic names pointing to the fate of their bearers and would not have been used in reality.
Bethlehem of Judah. “Bethlehem” signifies “house of bread,” a meaning that will be fully activated in the grain harvest during which the main action takes place. Because it is a generic name for any town in a region where grain is cultivated, the writer stipulates “of Judah” to distinguish it from at least one other Bethlehem.
4. Orpah. Orpah points to the word for “nape,” ʿoref, another name dictated by plot function, because in the end she necessarily turns her back on Naomi to head back to Moab. Elsewhere, turning the nape is a sign of flight; here it merely focuses on Naomi’s vision of Orpah as she turns around, after all a devoted daughter-in-law only following her mother-in-law’s exhortation.
Ruth. There is some uncertainty about the meaning of this name. It might be a defective spelling of reʿut, “friendship,” or it might derive from the verbal stem r-w-h, which suggests “well-watered” or “fertile.” It is also possible that the name has no thematic meaning.
dwelled. First they came merely to “sojourn” (verse 1). Now they “dwell” in Moab for a decade, threatening to become expatriates.
6. turned back. The whole story turns on four thematic key words—three are verbs, lashuv, “to go back or return,” lalekhet, “to go,” and lidboq, “to cling.” These verbs, as we shall see, will acquire complicated and even paradoxical meanings. The fourth term is a noun, ḥesed, “kindness” (but also implying something like “faithfulness” or “loyalty”). The word first appears in verse 8.
bread. This Hebrew term, leḥem, is probably a synecdoche for “food” as it often is elsewhere, though there is special emphasis on bread because of the barley harvest in the fields around Bethlehem.
9. a settled place. The literal meaning of the Hebrew word manoaḥ is “rest.” In combination with naḥalah, “inheritance,” the word menuhah implies “settling down somewhere in comfort and security.”
11. Do I still have sons in my womb who could be husbands to you? Naomi here refers explicitly to the practice of yibum, levirate marriage: when a husband dies, leaving no male offspring, one of his brothers is obliged to marry the widow and beget children with her, serving as a kind of proxy for his deceased brother. The obligation of levirate marriage is at issue in the story of Tamar in Genesis 38. It is worth noting that she becomes the progenitrix of the line that will lead to David, like Ruth, who is only three generations removed from David. In chapter 4 here the practice of yibum is extended beyond brothers-in-law to kinsmen, which differs from Genesis.
13. would you wait for them till they grew up? For them would you be deprived of husbands? These clauses are the first manifestation of a pronounced tendency in Ruth to cast dialogue in cadenced parallel statements that are loose approximations of parallelistic poetry. This approximation will become tighter in Ruth’s first speech.
bitter. In verse 20, Naomi will explicitly say this is the antonym to her name.
the LORD’s hand has come out against me. The wording suggests something close to an attack.
14. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. In context, the obvious implication is that this is a farewell kiss as she turns her “nape,” ʿoref, to Naomi and heads home. She is a good woman but less resolute than Ruth.
15. Go back. This is the plain meaning of this verb, for Moab is Ruth’s place of origin; then, paradoxically, she will be said to “go back” to Judah, a land where she has never been.
16. lodge. The verb lun means “to spend the night while traveling or wandering,” so Ruth scarcely envisages a comfortable and stable lot in following Naomi.
Your people is my people, and your god is my god. There was no real process of conversion in the ancient Near East. If a person considered residence in a different country, he or she would in the natural course of things embrace the worship of the local god or gods. One should therefore not imagine that Ruth has become a theological monotheist, only that she is recognizing that if she follows Naomi to her people in Judah, she will also adopt the god of the country.
17. Wherever you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. Ruth’s moving speech, with its fine resonance of parallel clauses, appropriately ends on the note of death: she will always remain with Naomi in the trajectory of a whole life until death. The procedure of biblical narrative of defining a character by his or her initial speech is vividly deployed here, showing Ruth as the perfect embodiment of loyalty and love for her mother-in-law.
19. the whole town. This is a perfect illustration of the fact that biblical ʿir usually means “town,” not “city.” Bethlehem, far from being a walled city, is a modest agricultural town with small cultivated fields on its outskirts.
was astir. It would have been a notable event in this small town that Naomi, having entirely disappeared for ten years, should suddenly reappear, with a young woman in tow. This would have triggered gossip and speculation among the townswomen. The women focus on Naomi, not paying attention to the young woman with her.
the women. The Hebrew merely says “they,” but the plural verb is conjugated in the feminine. It is noteworthy that throughout the first chapter women alone have been active characters, the men briefly introduced only to die. This is surely a point of departure from the patriarchal norm of classical Hebrew narrative, where there are some strong female characters but the men predominate.
20. Mara. This name would mean “bitter,” the antithesis of the sweetness suggested by the name Naomi.
21. the LORD has borne witness against me and Shaddai has done me harm. These two parallel clauses are entirely scannable as poetry, with three accented syllables in each half of the line in Hebrew. Because of the poetic requirement of synonymous substitution, Naomi, after invoking the standard term, “the LORD” (YHWH) in the first verse, uses a poetic or archaic alternative in the second verse, “Shaddai” (in traditional translations, “the Almighty”). In fact, elsewhere “Shaddai” unattached to ʾel, “God,” appears only in poetry.
22. Naomi came back, and her daughter-in-law with her who was coming back. The paradox here is thematically pointed. Naomi is of course coming back to her homeland. Ruth is “coming back from the plains of Moab,” which is her homeland, because she is united in purpose with Naomi and has in a sense already made the land of Judah, to which she comes for the first time, her new homeland. This paradox will be further enriched by the allusion in the next chapter to Abraham’s migration from a land in the east to Canaan.
And they had come to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. This notation clearly sets the agricultural scene where all the subsequent action will unfold. The harvesting bears out the word Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had remembered his people to give them bread, and the fertility of the land also adumbrates Ruth’s destined fertility.
CHAPTER 2
1And Naomi had a kinsman through her husband, a man of worth from the clan of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. 2And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go, pray, to the field, and glean from among the ears of grain after I find favor in his eyes.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3And she went and came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers, and it chanced that she came upon the plot of Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. 4And look, Boaz was coming from Bethlehem, and he said to the reapers, “May the LORD be with you!” and they said, “May the LORD bless you!” 5And Boaz said to his lad who was stationed over the reapers, “Whose is this young woman?” 6And the lad stationed over the reapers answered and said, “She is a young Moabite woman who has come back with Naomi from the plain of Moab. 7And she said, ‘Let me glean, pray, and gather from among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ And she has come and stood since the morning till now. She has barely stayed in the house.” 8And Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter—do not go to glean in another field, and also do not pass on from here, and so shall you cling to my young women. 9Your eyes be on the field in which they reap and go after them. Have I not charged the lads not to touch you? Should you be thirsty, you shall go to the pitchers and drink from what the lads draw from the well.” 10And she fell on her face and bowed to the ground and said to him, “Why should I find favor in your eyes to recognize me when I am a foreigner?” 11And Boaz answered and said, “It was indeed told me, all that you did for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death, and that you left your mother and your father and the land of your birth to come to a people that you did not know in time past. 12May the LORD requite your actions and may your reward be complete from the LORD God of Israel under Whose wings you have come to shelter.” 13And she said, “May I find favor in the eyes of my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken to the heart of your servant when I could scarcely be like one of your slavegirls.” 14And Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come here and eat of the bread and dip your crust in vinegar.” And she sat alongside the reapers, and he bundled together roasted grain for her, and she ate and was sated and left some over. 15And she rose to glean, and Boaz charged his lads, saying, “Among the sheaves, too, she may glean, and you shall not harass her. 16And also she may certainly take her share from the loose ears of grain and glean, and you shall not chide her.” 17And she gleaned in the field till evening and beat out what she had gleaned, and it came to almost an ephah of barley. 18And she carried it and came to the town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she took out and gave to her what she had left over after being sated. 19And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who recognized you be blessed!” And she told her mother-in-law how she had worked with him, and she said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed is he to the LORD, Who has not forsaken His kindness with the living and with the dead!” And Naomi said to her, “The man is related to us, he is of our redeeming kin.” 21And Ruth the Moabite said, “Moreover, he said to me, ‘To the lads who are mine shall you cling until they finish all the harvest that is mine.’” 22And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you shall go out with his young women, and that they not trouble you in another field.” 23And she clung to Boaz’s young women to glean till the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. And she stayed with her mother-in-law.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. a man of worth. The original meaning of gibor ḥayil is “valiant warrior,” but in the idyllic setting of the Book of Ruth, its meaning is extended to an entirely pacific sense—a landholder of substantial means. It is the same designation that is applied to the “worthy woman” of Proverbs 31:10, and later this feminine form of the epithet will be attached to Ruth.
his name was Boaz. Though the meaning of the name is not altogether transparent, and though it may not be meant to be symbolic, a tradition going back to Late Antiquity associates it with a Hebrew root signifying “strength.”
2. Ruth the Moabite. She is explicitly identified as a Moabite to underscore the seeming contradiction of a foreign woman going out to take advantage of the Israelite law (Leviticus 19:9) enjoining agriculturalists to leave what the reapers failed to garner for the poor to pick up.
after I find favor in his eyes. Ruth exercises a kind of nervous reticence in regard to Naomi’s prosperous relative, who has no doubt been pointed out to her by her mother-in-law, in not mentioning him by name. She realizes that she will be dependent on Boaz’s goodwill and so says she will not glean until he has shown himself favorable toward her. In the event, she begins gleaning before that happens.
3. it chanced that she came upon the plot of Boaz. This is hardly an accident because that is precisely where she intended to go. The peculiar formulation may be meant to suggest that there is a concordance between human initiative and God’s providence.
4. And look, Boaz was coming from Bethlehem. His home would be in town and the cultivated fields he owns outside the town.
May the LORD be with you!The exchange of greetings here perfectly expresses the harmonious and traditional world of the Book of Ruth: master and workmen bless each other cordially in the name of the LORD.
5. lad. Though the Hebrew noun naʿar does designate a young man, it is very often extended, as here, to refer to anyone in a position of subservience. Boaz’s overseer of the reapers is surely not a stripling and may well be a man of mature years.
Whose is this young woman? We now learn that the widow Ruth is young, appearing to Boaz as a naʿarah, a nubile young woman. He of course does not know until his overseer tells him that she is a Moabite. The use of “whose” reflects his assumption that she must be under the authority of her father’s house.
6. has come back. In the words of the overseer, Ruth’s emigration from Moab is again assimilated to Naomi’s coming back to Judah.
7. gather from among the sheaves. She would not be picking up sheaves but rather ears of grain that had fallen from the sheaves.
she has come and stood since the morning till now. This is obviously testimony to Ruth’s assiduousness at her task of gleaning.
She has barely stayed in the house. The Hebrew text, which reads literally, “This is her staying in the house a bit,” seems garbled, and so the translation is no more than a guess.
8. Have you not heard, my daughter. This form of address appears to imply that Boaz is a mature man, perhaps a decade or two older than Ruth, who may be in her early twenties.
and so shall you cling to my young women. First Ruth clings to Naomi. Now, in this thematically fraught word, which will be repeated, she is enjoined to cling to Boaz’s servant girls.
9. Your eyes be on the field. “Be” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
Have I not charged the lads not to touch you? A nubile young woman (and, probably, an attractive one) might well be subjected to sexual advances from these farmhands.
drink from what the lads draw from the well. “The well” is merely implied by the verb, which is used only for drawing water from a well. What we have here is a piquant reversal of the traditional betrothal type-scene: instead of a future bridegroom encountering a young woman, naʿarah, at a well in a foreign land, there is a young woman, naʿarah, in a land foreign to her but homeland to the others, for whom neʿarim will draw water.
10. when I am a foreigner. These words are fraught with poignancy and thematic point. As a foreigner, Ruth feels she has no right to expect favors from the Judahites. In fact, the plot will manifest how she “clings” to this new community and becomes an integral part of it.
11. you left your mother and your father and the land of your birth. These words are the most significant literary allusion in the book. They explicitly echo God’s first words to Abraham in Genesis 12:1, “Go forth from your land and your birthplace and your father’s house.” Now it is a woman, and a Moabite, who reenacts Abraham’s long trek from the east to Canaan. She will become a founding mother of the nation as he was the founding father. Ruth’s paradoxical journey outward from home that proves to be a “going back” to home has been aptly summarized by Herbert Marks: these “brief chapters outline the two principal archetypes of Western narrative, the Abrahamic myth of definitive rupture and the Odysseian myth of ultimate return, the journey home.”
14. mealtime. The meal after the arrival of a stranger at a well in a foreign land is still another motif of the betrothal type-scene.
dip your crust in vinegar. This homey detail neatly catches the pastoral quality of the idyll.
15. Among the sheaves, too, she may glean. Boaz makes a point of offering Ruth the opportunity to collect a generous abundance of grain, not just solitary ears left by the reapers in the standing barley.
16. take her share. The use of the verb sh-l-l here is unusual because it usually means “to take booty.” The evident idea is that she will have a windfall of good takings, like someone who reaps booty after a victory.
17. beat out what she had gleaned. This would be to get rid of the chaff.
18. what she had left over after being sated. This refers to what she had left over from the midday meal, as reported in verse 14. What she gives to Naomi here is not the garnered grain but prepared food. This story that began in hunger now manifests an abundance of food.
19. recognized. The sense of the verb is obviously to single out or show special attention, as in verse 10 above. But it is a key verb in the Joseph story, and there is an underlying sense in which Boaz “recognizes” Ruth as a true daughter of Naomi and a fit mate for himself.
20. Who has not forsaken His kindness with the living and with the dead. All this echoes, with perfect thematic appropriateness, Orpah’s and Ruth’s exemplary behavior observed by Naomi in 1:8.
he is of our redeeming kin. “Redeemer” throughout the story signifies a legal, familial function. If a childless woman is widowed, a male kin can “redeem” her through marriage, assuring that through him her inheritance will not be lost and providing her offspring. Naomi is careful to say “of our redeeming kin,” properly implying that there may be other candidates in the family, as proves the case in Chapter 4.
22. trouble you. The verb here has almost a sense of “interfere with,” but that British usage is a little too explicitly sexual to adopt in the translation.
CHAPTER 3
1And Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek for you a settled place for you, that it be well for you? 2And now, is not Boaz our kinsman with whose young women you were winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight? 3And you must bathe and anoint yourself and put on your garments and go down to the threshing floor. Do not let yourself be known to the man till he has finished eating and drinking. 4And it will be, when he lies down, that you will know the place where he lies down, and you shall come and uncover his feet and lie down, and as for him, he shall tell you what you should do.” 5And she said to her, “Whatever you say to me I will do.” 6And she went down to the threshing floor and did all that her mother-in-law charged her. 7And Boaz ate and drank, and he was of good cheer, and he came and lay down at the edge of the stack of barley. And she came stealthily and uncovered his feet and lay down. 8And it happened at midnight that the man trembled and twisted round, and, look, a woman was lying at his feet. 9And he said, “Who are you?” And she said, “I am Ruth your servant. May you spread your wing over your servant, for you are a redeeming kinsman.” 10And he said, “Blessed are you to the LORD, my daughter. You have done better in your latest kindness than in the first, not going after the young men, whether poor or rich. 11And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. Whatever you say I will do for you, for all my people’s town knows that you are a worthy woman. 12And now, though in fact I am redeeming kin, there is also a redeeming kin closer than I. 13Spend the night here, and it shall be in the morning, should he redeem you, he will do well to redeem, and if he does not want to redeem you, I myself will redeem you, as the LORD lives. Lie here till morning.” 14And she lay at his feet till morning and arose before a man could recognize his fellow man. And he said, “Let it not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” 15And he said, “Give me the shawl that you have and hold it out.” And she held it out, and he measured out six shares of barley and he set it on her, and she came into the town. 16And she came to her mother-in-law, and her mother-in-law said, “How is it with you, my daughter?” And she told her all that the man had done for her. 17And she said, “These six shares of barley he gave me, for he said, ‘You should not come empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” 18And she said, “Stay, my daughter, till you know how the matter will fall out, for the man will not rest if he does not settle the matter today.”
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. a settled place. See the note on 1:9. In both instances, Naomi associates the Hebrew term manoaḥ with the security and tranquillity of married life.
3. you must bathe and anoint yourself and put on your garments. These instructions initiate a chain of details in the nocturnal encounter between Ruth and Boaz that almost teasingly hint at an erotic experience, but such an experience is pointedly not consummated. Here Ruth is enjoined to wash her body and anoint it (perhaps with fragrant oils) and dress herself (perhaps finely).
Do not let yourself be known to the man. The verb “to know” is reiterated in the episode. In its active form, it can have a sexual meaning in biblical usage, so it plays a role in the erotic tease of the narrative.
till he has finished eating and drinking. In this, Naomi is calculating that Boaz will be in a good mood after eating and drinking, a calculation confirmed in verse 7, when these two verbs are followed by “he was of good cheer.”
4. uncover his feet. Alternately, the Hebrew noun could mean “the place of his feet.” In any case, it is an odd detail. Since the verb of uncovering is the one used in biblical prohibitions of uncovering the nakedness of someone—that is, engaging in sexual intercourse—the erotic tease of the narrative is again manifested. (But the proposal of some interpreters that “feet” is a euphemism for the penis is highly dubious.) Ruth lies down not alongside Boaz but at his feet, an expression of her lower social status and of the subservient role of wives in relation to their husbands in biblical society. The uncovering may simply be an act to show that someone is present, and so when Boaz awakens in the middle of the night, perhaps what first startles him—though it is unreported—is his exposed feet, after which he realizes that a woman is present.
he shall tell you what you should do. Naomi certainly appears to leave open the possibility that Boaz will ask Ruth to have sex with him, but she is counting on the likelihood that he will instead virtuously devise a plan to do social and matrimonial justice to his kinswoman by marriage.
7. she came stealthily. The implication of the adverb is not a surreptitious act but an entrance on tiptoe, so as not to wake Boaz.
8. trembled and twisted round. Since only after this does he see that a woman is there on the threshing floor with him, one may infer that the momentary physical contortion is from suddenly awaking in the night, perhaps even from a nightmare.
9. Who are you? The question is brusque, unadorned by any polite form of address, as if to say: Woman, what are you doing here on my threshing floor in the middle of the night? He of course has met Ruth during the day, but in the dark of the night he does not immediately recognize her, especially after just having awakened.
spread your wing. The Hebrew kanaf means both “wing” and “corner of a garment,” and most translations render it in the latter sense because the reference is to a man. But Ruth is echoing Boaz’s words in 2:12, “the LORD God of Israel under Whose wings you have come to shelter,” and as a metaphor, a man can certainly extend a sheltering wing. Zakovitch observes, citing both Rashi and Ezekiel 16:8, that sheltering wings can be a symbol of marriage. In that case, Ruth delicately avoids explicit reference to marriage, instead using an image that also has the more general connotation of shelter.
a redeeming kinsman. Not “the” redeemer, because she knows there may be another candidate for the role.
10. your latest kindness. The immediate context suggests that the more salient meaning of hẹ sed here is “act of loyalty.”
the first. While this might mean Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi in Moab, the mention that follows of her not going after the young men makes it more likely that he is referring to her discretion during the day in keeping a distance from the young men.
whether poor or rich. Ruth stayed away from everyone in the group of gleaners, regardless of social standing.
11. Whatever you say I will do for you. These words pointedly echo Ruth’s to Naomi in verse 5. Though she has placed herself in a posture of subservience to him, he now affirms that he is prepared to do whatever she bids him.
all my people’s town. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “all my people’s gate,” but “gate” is a synecdoche for the town, because it is both the entrance to the town and the area where courts of justice are held when the town’s elders convene.
a worthy woman. This feminine equivalent of the epithet earlier used for Boaz, “a man of worth,” intimates that the two are perfectly suitable mates.
13. Spend the night here. There is both a practical and a symbolic reason for Boaz’s urging Ruth to spend the night with him on the threshing floor. He is concerned that it might be dangerous for her to make her way back through the town in the dark of night—in the event, she will leave at the first crack of dawn, when just a bit of light shows but not enough to distinguish one face from another (verse 14). But the night spent together is also an adumbration of marital union, though here, in the most likely reading, still unconsummated. The verb used for “spend the night” is the same in Ruth’s “wherever you lodge, I will lodge,” but this “lodging” is one that cannot be together with Naomi.
he will do well to redeem. The redemption of the widowed kinswoman is his prerogative and his obligation, so if the relative chooses to do it, Boaz can only lend his assent and approval.
I myself. In the Hebrew, the otherwise unrequired first-person pronoun is added as a strong emphasis on the part of the speaker.
14. Let it not be known that a woman came. Boaz is, of course, concerned for Ruth’s reputation.
15. six shares of barley. The Hebrew simply says “six barley,” not specifying the unit of measure, but it would have to be relatively small for Ruth to carry it.
and he set it on her. Boaz evidently wraps up the measure of barley in the shawl and then places it either on Ruth’s shoulder or on her head.
16. How is it with you. The Hebrew appears to say “who are you,” but mi, usually “who,” as in Boaz’s words in verse 8, also sometimes means “what” or “how.”
17. You should not come empty-handed. The Book of Ruth is all about the transition from emptiness to fullness—from famine to abundance, from bereavement and childlessness to marriage and children. Naomi has told the women of the town “I went out full, and empty did the LORD bring me back” (1:21), and now the same Hebrew word, reiqah, appears in Ruth’s report of Boaz’s speech to her. The fullness of the shawl bearing the barley is a hint of the fullness of offspring that Ruth will enjoy and bring to Naomi.
18. Stay, my daughter. This reiterated form of address is a token of Naomi’s constant affection for Ruth.
the man will not rest. Now that the two women have taken this initiative, the responsibility for action lies with Boaz, and Naomi trusts his dependability, and his good faith.
CHAPTER 4
1And Boaz had gone up to the gate, and he sat down there, and look, the redeeming kin of whom Boaz spoke was passing by, and he said, “Turn aside, sit down here, So-and-so.” And he turned aside and sat down. 2And he took ten men of the town elders and said, “Sit down here,” and they sat down. 3And he said to the redeeming kin, “Naomi, who came back from the plain of Moab, sold the parcel of the field that was our brother Elimelech’s. 4And as for me, I thought, I shall alert you, saying, ‘Acquire it in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of my people’s elders.’ If you would redeem, redeem, and if you will not redeem, tell me, that I may know that there is none except you to redeem and I am after you.” And he said, “I will redeem.” 5And Boaz said, “On the day you acquire the field from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabite to raise up the name of the dead man on his estate.” 6And the redeeming kin said, “I cannot redeem, lest I spoil my estate. You—redeem my obligation of redemption, for I cannot redeem.” 7And thus it was in former times in Israel concerning redemption and concerning exchange to fulfill every condition: a man would remove his sandal and give it to his fellow man. And this was the practice in Israel. 8And the redeemer said, “You—acquire it,” and he removed his sandal. 9And Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s from the hand of Naomi. 10And also Ruth the Moabite, wife of Mahlon, I have acquired for myself as wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his estate, that the name of the dead be not cut off from his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.” 11And all the people who were in the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman coming into your house like Rachel and like Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. And do worthy things in Ephrathah and proclaim a name in Bethlehem. 12And may your house be like the house of Perez to whom Tamar gave birth by Judah, from the seed that this young woman will give you.” 13And Boaz took Ruth the Moabite, and she became his wife, and he came to bed with her and the LORD granted her conception and she bore a son. 14And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed is the LORD, Who has not deprived you of a redeemer today, and let his name be proclaimed in Israel. 15And may he be a restorer of life for you and a support for your old age, as your daughter-in-law, whom you love, has born him, who has been better to you than seven sons.” 16And Naomi took the child and placed him in her lap and became a nurse for him. 17And the neighbor women called a name for him, saying, “A son is born to Naomi,” and they called his name Obed—he was the father of Jesse father of David. 18And this is the lineage of Perez. Perez begat Hezron. 19And Hezron begat Ram and Ram begat 20Aminadab. And Aminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmah. 21And Salmah begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed. 22And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. the gate. The town gate, with some sort of square or plaza in front of it, is both the principal public place of the town and the site where courts of justice are held. Boaz exploits both these aspects of the gate, first taking a seat there in the expectation, which proves correct, that the redeeming kin is likely to pass through this frequented space; then convening a quorum of the elders to serve as witnesses to the legal act that will be executed.
sit down here, So-and-so. The Hebrew peloni ʾalmoni, which appears twice elsewhere in the Bible, seems to derive from peleʾ, “mystery” (so Rashi proposes), and the root ʾ-l-m, suggesting “mute.” The point of refusing this character a name is that by declining to exercise his obligation of redemption, he essentially withdraws from playing any role in the plot except to stand aside for Boaz. One notes that he immediately assents to Boaz’s command to take a seat, as do the elders in the next verse—both testifying to Boaz’s authority in the community.
3. Naomi … sold the parcel of the field that was our brother Elimelech’s. Presumably, she was compelled to do this in her destitution. Zakovitch observes that since a widow does not inherit from her husband, this would have to be after the deaths of Mahlon and Chilion, for a mother can inherit from her sons.
4. if you will not redeem. The received text shows “if he will not redeem,” but many Hebrew manuscripts as well as the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the Peshitta have the more coherent second-person singular.
there is none except you to redeem. Mr. So-and-so is the only known kin of Naomi besides Boaz, so his refusing to redeem will clear the way for Boaz.
I will redeem. At this point the kinsman imagines that the redemption solely involves acquiring the parcel of land so that it can be restored to the possession of Naomi’s clan, to which he belongs. Since Naomi has been left without offspring, he thinks that by providing the purchase price, he will retain permanent possession of the parcel of land.
5. On the day you acquire. As Zakovitch notes, this idiom puts temporal pressure on the kinsman because it refers to this very day when they are sitting before the gate in the presence of the elders and the townspeople.
you will also acquire Ruth the Moabite to raise up the name of the dead man. This is the more challenging aspect of the obligation of redemption that until now Boaz has held in reserve—the duty of yibum or levirate marriage (see Deuteronomy 25:5–6). When a man dies without male offspring, his brother is obliged to marry the widow (“levirate” derives from the Latin levir, “brother-in-law”) and, acting as a kind of proxy for the deceased, beget a child with the widow, who will thus continue the name of the dead brother. In this case, the kinsman is not actually the brother of Ruth’s dead husband but his relative (perhaps, a first cousin), and the Hebrew word ʾaḥ means both “brother” and “kinsman.” The received text here reads “from [meʾet] Ruth,” but this is almost surely a scribal error for ʾet, the sign of a direct object in Hebrew. One should note that Boaz makes a point of identifying Ruth as a Moabite, calculating that this will trouble the kinsman, for the Moabites are not merely foreigners but traditional enemies with whom contact has been proscribed. The introduction of the levirate obligation also pointedly recalls the story of Tamar and the sons of Judah in Genesis 38. One son marries her and dies, leaving Tamar childless. The same fate befalls his brother after marrying her, leading Judah to withhold his third son from carrying out the levirate duty. Tamar, like Ruth, is a foreigner (in her case, a Canaanite), and when she contrives through deception to conceive twins by Judah, Perez and Zerah, she becomes the progenitrix of the line that will lead to Boaz, as we are reminded in the genealogical notice at the end of the book (verses 18–22).
6. I cannot redeem, lest I spoil my estate. He leaves unstated why this should be the case. Many commentators conclude that he does not want to contaminate his family by introducing a Moabite woman. The Midrash Ruth Rabba proposes that he fears he will suffer the fate of Mahlon and Chilion, who died after marrying Ruth and Orpah. In any case, if he begets a son with Ruth, the estate will stand in the name of her dead husband, not of the kinsman, as is indeed the aim of the levirate law.
7. And thus it was in former times in Israel. This formula (compare 1 Samuel 9:9) clearly indicates that the writer and his audience are removed in time from the era when the levirate obligation was practiced, and it is thus another reflection of the lateness of the book.
to fulfill every condition. The language here is explicitly legal.
a man would remove his sandal and give it to his fellow man. There is no certainty as to who gives the sandal to whom or what exactly it signifies. In the enunciation of the levirate law in Deuteronomy 25:9, it is the widow who removes the sandal from the brother-in-law who has refused to marry her, and she then spits in his face, so the removal of the sandal in Deuteronomy is clearly a sign of disgrace. (There the verb is ḥalats; here, in the Late Biblical usage, it is shalaf, a term that in earlier Hebrew refers only to “the unsheathing of a sword.”) In our text, there is no indication of disgrace. The removal of the sandal seems to be a legal ritual for the transfer of an obligation, or of property—perhaps from the kinsmen to Boaz. The seeming confusion here about the details of the yibum ritual may reflect the writer’s distance from the time when it was practiced.
8. You—acquire. By emphatically designating Boaz with the second-person pronoun before the verb in the imperative, the kinsman relinquishes all rights of redemption to Boaz.
9. I have acquired all that was Elimelech’s. Since Naomi has sold her late husband’s land, Boaz is declaring that he is about to pay whatever sum is required for buying back the property.
Chilion’s and Mahlon’s. Zakovitch shrewdly observes the way the difference in the meaning of the two names plays out in the story. “Chilion” implies utter destruction, and with no offspring, this son’s name will be lost. “Mahlon” suggests a lesser condition of illness, and his name will be revived through Ruth.
10. Ruth the Moabite. If this national epithet put off the kinsman, Boaz on his part unambiguously affirms his readiness to marry the foreign woman.
from the gate of his place. This combination of terms is unusual but is dictated by the fact that they are assembled in the square in front of the gate.
11. like Rachel and like Leah. Their blessing transforms Ruth into a kind of adopted matriarch.
do worthy things in Ephrathah and proclaim a name in Bethlehem. In a benedictory flourish, their speech glides into formal verse, though it is unusual that the standard designation, “Bethlehem,” appears in the second half of the line, and the less common synonym, “Ephrathah,” in the first half. The phrase “do worthy things” incorporates the same term, ḥayil, that occurs in the designation of Ruth as a “worthy woman.”
12. Perez to whom Tamar gave birth by Judah. The underlying allusion to the story of Judah and Tamar is now made explicit.
13. The LORD granted her conception. The phrase does not ordinarily occur in reports of conjugal union and conception. It is probably dictated by the fact that Ruth had remained childless in her years of marriage to Mahlon.
14. And the women said. The story began with three women (and three dead men), then with the unflagging loyalty and love between two women. When Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem, they were greeted by a bevy of astonished, and gossiping, women. Now the women become a chorus to celebrate the birth of Naomi’s grandchild.
16. And Naomi took the child and placed him in her lap and became a nurse for him. To cuddle the child and become a caregiver for him is, of course, a natural expression of a grandmother’s love, but it also strongly suggests how the child has become a vivid replacement for the two sons Naomi has lost. It is by no means necessary to see this act, as some interpreters have done, as a formal ceremony of adoption, and it would be both odd and unnerving for a grandmother to adopt her grandchild while his mother was alive.
17. the neighbor women. This designation, as Zakovitch, with his characteristic sensitivity to nuances of word choice, observes, points to a closeness to Naomi in this group that does not characterize the more general chorus of townswomen.
and they called his name Obed. Only here is the name given to a child by neither father nor mother but by neighbor women. It is probably a reflection of the importance of the community of women in the story. The name Obed, which occurs elsewhere, means “worshipper” and is probably a shortened form of Obadiah, “worshipper, or servant, of the LORD.”
18. And this is the lineage of Perez. In careful emulation of the Book of Genesis, the writer weaves together narration with genealogy to pointed thematic purpose. Here he aligns the son Ruth bears both back to Judah’s son, Perez, and forward to the founder of the divinely authorized dynasty, David. As with some other genealogical lists, there are exactly ten generations from Perez to David. Ruth the Moabite, who “comes back” to the region of Judah and, in the words of her vow to her mother-in-law, takes Naomi’s God as her own, at the end becomes the great-grandmother of David king of Israel.
The only reasonably safe conclusion one can draw about the origins of the Book of Lamentations is the likelihood that it was composed in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of the kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C.E. A tradition that goes back to Late Antiquity attributes the book to the prophet Jeremiah. The obvious grounds for this attribution, embraced by both Jews and Christians, are that Jeremiah repeatedly and grimly prophesied the demise of the kingdom and the exile and that he himself lived through the Babylonian conquest with all its depredations. Jeremiah’s authorship has not been accepted by modern scholars, and the poetry of these laments over the fate of Zion is altogether different stylistically and formally from the poetry one finds in Jeremiah.
Lamentations is unique among books of the Bible in that four of its five chapters are composed as alphabetic acrostics, with the third chapter being a triple acrostic, showing three lines that begin with each of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet in their conventional sequence. Even the fifth chapter, which is not an acrostic, comprises twenty-two lines of poetry, the number of letters in the alphabet. The formal differences among the five chapters have led some analysts to conclude that this is a collection of poems by five different poets, but that is not an absolutely necessary inference because the same elegist might have easily been impelled to try his hand at somewhat different forms. Another possible hypothesis is that the editor of the work of a single acrostic poet concluded the book with a poem of his own in which, perhaps not feeling up to the formal challenge of the acrostic, he made do with a poem that had the same number of lines as there were letters in the alphabet. In any case, it is unclear why the alphabetic acrostic form was felt appropriate for these laments. Could it be that the progress from aleph to taw was felt to imply a comprehensive listing of all the disasters that had befallen the people? Might it reflect the presence of a single elegist who simply was drawn to alphabetic acrostics? Might it be a mnemonic to facilitate public recitation?
If we look across at the psalms that are composed as alphabetic acrostics, we may conclude that the acrostic form encouraged the deployment of a great deal of formulaic language, giving us boilerplate where we might hope for poetry. The most egregious instance is Psalm 119, a sevenfold alphabetic acrostic that is little more than conventional formulas from beginning to end. Interestingly, the acrostic form for the most part does not have this consequence in Lamentations. Some of the language definitely echoes phraseology and imagery of the poetry of doom in the Prophets—the ways of Zion mourning and desolate, the implacable enemy gloating in his triumph, virgins ravished, babes wasting away in the famine. Yet, as the poems drive inexorably from the first letter of the alphabet to the last, they accumulate many powerful images of devastation. Representing God as an implacable enemy drawing His bow against Israel sounds more like an anticipation of Job than a reminiscence of the Prophets. The notion of the surrounding peoples called to Jerusalem like festival pilgrims to destroy rather than to celebrate, to raise in the sacred precincts a fierce cry instead of the festive songs, is a bitter expression of the pain of the loss of the Temple, even without images of crashing roofs and flaming walls. Cannibalism under the duress of starvation in time of siege is a recurrent theme in prophecies of doom, but here that ghastly act is twice given a horrifying immediacy: “Should women eat their fruit, / the dandled babes?” The speaker in these laments, who is sometimes a horror-stricken observer and sometimes the collective voice of the people, conveys his sense of distress through an anguished physicality: “He wasted my flesh and my skin, / He shattered my bones.” Or again, “He made my teeth crunch down on gravel, / crushed me in the dust.” Repeatedly, the poet conveys arresting images of a once glorious nation reduced to utter wretchedness, scarcely alive: “Their mien was darker than black, / they are not recognized in the streets. / Their skin is shriveled on their bones, / become as dry as wood.” If sometimes the poems look like the deployment of the familiar formulas of the Hebrew poetry of disaster, lines such as the ones just quoted express a sense of a poet who has seen with his own eyes all the horrors of the siege and the consequent destruction of Jerusalem. The figures of the blind in the streets of the city, smeared with blood from the corpses they stumble over at every step, whether based in actual observation or, more probably, poetic invention, are another kind of vivid vehicle for representing the terrible extent of the slaughter as the city is overrun by murderous invaders.
Against this panorama of horror, the elegist, not limiting himself to keening over the destruction, repeatedly affirms his faith in a just God Who has punished Israel for its transgressions but Who in the end will redeem it and exact retribution from its enemies for their cruel excesses. Lamentations, like most good literature, is a strong response to the historical circumstances for which it was framed while at the same time speaking to analogous situations in other times and places. Its catalogue of horrors is something that, alas, we continue to see reenacted in various guises across the globe. Its faith in the prospect of a restored order of justice is a sustaining belief that humankind may always need in the face of massive devastation and the traumatic displacement of exile. One readily understands why it is that Jewish tradition fixed the recitation of these five laments as an annual ritual, not merely in commemoration of the destruction of the First Temple or the Second but also as a way of fathoming the ghastly recurrent violence that has darkened two millennia of history.
CHAPTER 1
1How she sits alone, ℵ
the city once great with people.
Great among nations,
mistress among provinces,
reduced to forced labor.
2She weeps on through the night, ב
and her tears are on her cheek.
She has no consoler
All her friends have betrayed her,
have become enemies to her.
3Judah is exiled in affliction ג
and in hard labor.
She dwells among the nations,
she finds no rest.
in straits.
4The roads of Zion mourn ד
her priests are groaning,
her virgins are sorrow-stricken
and she—it is bitter for her.
5Her foes are at the head, ה
her enemies are tranquil,
for the LORD has stricken her with sorrow
because of all her trespasses.
before the foe.
6And from Zion’s Daughter is departed ו
all her glory.
Her nobles have become like stags
that find no pasture,
and they go without strength
before the pursuer.
7Jerusalem recalls ז
in the days of her affliction and her wandering
that were in days of yore,
as when her people fell to the foe’s hand
with none to help her.
The foes saw her and they laughed
over her disasters.
8An offense did Jerusalem commit, ח
therefore she became despised.
All who honored her degrade her,
for they have seen her nakedness.
She on her part groans
and has fallen back.
9Her uncleanness is in her skirts, ט
she has no mind of her future,
and she plunges wondrously,
there is none to console her.
See, O LORD, my affliction,
10The foe has laid his hand י
for she has seen nations
come into her sanctuary
of whom I charged they must not come
into assembly with you.
11All her people groan כ
seeking bread.
They gave their treasures for food
to revive their failing lives.
See, O LORD, and look,
for she has become cheapened.
12Not upon you, all passersby! ל
Look and see,
is there pain like my pain
that He inflicted upon me,
that the LORD struck me with sorrow
on the day His wrath flared?
13From on high He sent out fire, מ
into my bones He brought it down,
Spread a net for my feet,
made me fall back.
14The yoke of my trespasses is tight, נ
twisted by His hand,
climbing round my neck—
The LORD has given me into the hand
of one I cannot stand against.
15The Master has spurned ס
all my champions in my midst,
has proclaimed an appointed time against me
to break my young men.
A winepress the Master has trampled
for the Virgin Zion’s Daughter.
16For these do I weep. ע
for the consoler is far from me,
the reviver of my failing life.
My children have become desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.
17Zion spread her hands.פ
There is none to console her.
The LORD has summoned for Jacob
round about him his foes.
Jerusalem has become
despised among them.
18Righteous is the LORD, צ
for I have rebelled against Him.
Hear, pray, all you peoples,
and see my pain.
My virgins and my young men
have gone off captive.
19I called out to my lovers— ק
they deceived me.
My priests and my elders perished in the city
when they sought food
that would revive their failing lives.
20See, O LORD, for I am distressed, ר
my innards are roiled,
my heart churns within me.
For I have surely rebelled.
Outside, the sword slays sons,
21They have heard that I groan, ש
I have none to console me.
All my enemies heard of my harm, were gladdened.
But it was You who did it.
You brought the day You summoned.
22Let all their evil come before You ת
and do to them as You did to me
for all my trespasses.
For my groans are many
and my heart aches.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
1. How she sits alone, / the city once great with people. The translation follows the Hebrew syntax, which inscribes a process of revelation: first we see a woman sitting solitary, then the woman is identified as a metaphor for the city.
She has become like a widow. The simile of the widow of course builds on the metaphoric equivalence of city and woman. The widow is a grieving woman alone, without her husband and, as many biblical texts make clear, legally and socially vulnerable.
2. and her tears are on her cheek. This is a vivid instance of focusing in the second verset of the poetic line: first we have the general acts of prolonged weeping, then the close-up of tears running down the cheeks.
all her lovers. These are the purported allies to whom the kingdom of Judah looked for help when the Babylonians invaded. Calling them “lovers,” in keeping with a usage in Prophetic poetry, suggests that Judah’s turning to them was a kind of promiscuity.
3. All her pursuers overtake her / in straits. The image is of fleeing Judah trapped in a narrow passageway or in a cul-de-sac.
4. without festival pilgrims. This phrase is an oblique reference to the destruction of the Temple.
All her gates are desolate. It is through these gates that the pilgrims would have entered the city to go to the Temple.
5. Her babes have fallen captive. Though it is conventional in prophecies of doom to invoke the suffering of babes (sometimes bracketed with elders), their mention here has a special bite because now we see that the widowed woman has small children who, to compound her plight, have been taken into captivity.
7. all her treasures. The treasures (etymologically, “desired things”) probably refers particularly to the precious vessels of the Temple looted by the invaders.
8. she became despised. The Hebrew word nidah, a root that suggests banishment, is associated with a menstruant woman, considered unclean and not to be touched.
for they have seen her nakedness. This phrase extends the sexual metaphor because it is generally used to refer to taboo sexual relations and their shamefulness. The image is of Zion as a woman flung down, her skirts pulled up, her nakedness exposed.
9. Her uncleanness is in her skirts. This palpably focuses the metaphor of the menstruant: the uncleanness is menstrual blood.
for the enemy is boasting. The Hebrew appears to say “for the enemy makes big,” but this is an ellipsis for “makes his mouth big,” an idiom for boasting.
10. on all her treasures. Again, this refers to the Temple vessels, as a reference to “her sanctuary” in the next line makes clear. But the foe laying his hand on her treasures also continues the sexual metaphor, suggesting violation of her body.
they must not come / into assembly with you. The prohibited peoples, using this very phrase, are spelled out in Deuteronomy 23:4–5.
11. They gave their treasures for food. These are now private possessions that the starving people barter for food.
to revive their failing lives. “Failing” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
14. is tight. The Hebrew verb nisqad occurs only here, and its meaning, necessarily conjectural, can only be inferred from context. Some emend it to a recognizable verb, nishqad, “is carefully watched,” but that meaning scarcely fits this context.
He made my strength stumble. With the yoke twisted round her neck, Zion is unable to walk properly and, in the next verset, cannot stand before her enemies.
16. My eyes, my eyes are flooded. As in verse 2, first we have the general report of weeping, then the concrete focus on the eyes. The literal sense of this clause is: “My eye, my eye comes down with water.”
17. Zion spread her hands. This is a conventional gesture of supplication.
despised. The poet again uses the term nidah that refers to a menstruant.
18. Righteous is the LORD. In the midst of the anguished complaint over the bitter fate of the devastated nation, the poet justifies the catastrophe as the necessary consequence of Judah’s rebellion against God.
19. I called out to my lovers— / they deceived me. Here the implied sexual metaphor of verse 2 is clearer. The woman who has consorted with sundry lovers cries out for help from them in her hour of distress, but they turn their backs on her. Once again, the reference is political: Judah’s allies, Egypt in particular, failed to provide any assistance during the Babylonian attack.
perished in the city. What the poet has in view is starvation during the siege of Jerusalem.
20. the sword slays sons. The literal sense is “the sword bereaves.”
inside, very death. Though the Hebrew seems to say “like death,” the particle ka, which usually means “like,” also sometimes has a reinforcing or intensifying sense, and that seems likely here. Some interpreters claim that the noun mawet shows its occasional meaning of “plague,” but it is by no means necessary to introduce that sense here.
21. May they be like me. This line and the preceding one incorporate an implied causal sequence: first the enemies gloat over the destruction of Judah; then the speaker registers the fact that the catastrophe was God’s doing and that the foe was only His instrument; finally, the speaker hopes that the same dire fate will overtake Zion’s conquerors. This is in fact a recurrent idea in Prophetic literature: that Judah’s enemies may be God’s “rod” of punishment but will in turn suffer for the terrible harm they have inflicted on Judah. This theme is continued in the next verse.
22. do to them as You did to me / for all my trespasses. The poet is constrained to perform a balancing act. It is God Who has inflicted all the suffering on Judah as just punishment for all its offenses. Yet the enemy, killing and raping and burning, has acted viciously and should have to pay the price for his cruelty.
CHAPTER 2
1How has the Master beclouded in His wrath ℵ
the daughter of Zion,
has flung from the heavens to the ground
the splendor of Israel,
nor did He recall His footstool
on the day of His wrath.
2The Master obliterated, had no mercy, ב
all of Jacob’s dwellings,
brought to the ground, profaned,
a kingdom and its nobles.
3He hacked down in smoldering wrath ג
pulled back His right hand
from before the enemy,
and burned in Jacob like a white-hot fire
consuming all around.
4Like an enemy He bent His bow, ד
poised with right hand like a foe
and slayed all precious to the eye
in the tent of Zion’s Daughter,
poured forth like fire His fury.
5The Master became like an enemy, ה
obliterated Israel,
obliterated all her citadels,
laid in ruins her fortresses,
and made abundant in Judah’s Daughter
6And He stripped bare His shelter like a garden, ו
laid in ruins His appointed place.
The LORD wiped out the memory in Zion
of festival and sabbath,
and spurned in His raging wrath
king and priest.
7The Master abandoned His altar, ז
cast aside His sanctuary,
handed over to enemies
the wall of her citadels.
They raised a sound in the house of the LORD
as on a festival day.
8The LORD contrived to lay in ruins ח
the wall of Zion’s Daughter.
He stretched out the measuring line,
did not pull His hand back from obliteration,
and rampart and wall did mourn,
together they were bleak.
9Her gates sunk into the ground, ט
He destroyed and shattered her bolts.
Her king and her nobles were among the nations,
Her prophets, too, were not vouchsafed
vision from the LORD.
10They sat on the ground, were silent, י
the elders of Zion’s Daughter.
They covered their heads with dust,
they girded sackcloth.
They lowered their heads to the ground,
Jerusalem’s virgins.
11My eyes were worn out with tears, כ
my innards were roiled.
My bile spilled out on the ground
for the breaking of my People’s Daughter
when the babe and the suckling grew faint
in the squares of the city.
12To their mothers they say, ל
“Where is grain and wine?”
as they faint like the slain
in the squares of the city.
13How can I bear witness for you, what can I liken to you, מ
O Daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I compare to you and console you,
O Virgin, Zion’s Daughter?
For great as the sea is your breaking.
Who can heal you?
14Your prophets saw visions for you— נ
empty and insipid,
and did not lay bare your crime
to restore your fortunes
and saw visions for you
of emptiness and delusion.
15They clapped their hands over you, ס
all passersby.
They hissed and wagged their heads
over Jerusalem’s Daughter:
“Is this the city of which was said
‘The perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth’?”
16They opened wide their mouths to mock you, פ
all your enemies.
They hissed, they gnashed their teeth,
they said, “We obliterated her.
Why, this day for which we hoped
we have attained it, we have seen it.”
17The LORD has done what He had planned, ע
that He charged in days of old.
He destroyed and had no mercy,
and the enemy rejoiced over you—
He raised the horn of your foes.
18Their heart cried out to the Master. צ
O wall of Zion’s Daughter,
shed like a brook your tears
day and night.
Give yourself no respite,
19Arise, sing out in the night ק
at the beginning of the watches.
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the LORD.
Raise your palms to Him
over the life of your babes
faint with famine
at the corner of every street.
20See, O LORD, and look: ר
To whom have you acted thus?
the dandled babes?
Should priest and prophet be slain
in the sanctuary of the Master?
21They lay on the ground in the streets, ש
lad and elder.
My virgins and my young men
fell by the sword.
You slew on the day of Your wrath,
You slaughtered, had no mercy.
22You called in as on festival days ת
my neighbors from all around,
and on the day of the LORD’s wrath
there was neither refuge nor survivor.
Those whom I dandled and raised up
my enemy destroyed.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. beclouded. The unusual Hebrew verb yaʿiv is evidently derived from ʿav, “cloud.”
footstool. Ancient Near Eastern kings are often depicted sitting on their thrones with their feet on footstools. In this case, God’s throne would be on high and the footstool would be the Jerusalem Temple.
2. obliterated. The verbal stem means “to swallow,” here rendered in the intensive conjugation, suggesting total destruction.
3. the whole horn of Israel. As elsewhere in biblical poetry, a horn is a symbol of strength. pulled back His right hand. That is, God did not exert His power to battle Israel’s enemies. a white-hot fire. The two nouns joined here in the construct form, ʾesh and lehavah, are synonyms, a form that indicates intensification, hence “white-hot” in the translation.
4. Like an enemy He bent His bow. In the previous verse, God is represented refusing to confront the enemy. Now He becomes an active enemy, attacking Israel.
all precious to the eye. This epithet may refer in particular to the children. In the next verset, “the tent of Zion’s daughter” is Jerusalem.
5. wailing and woe. The wordplay in the Hebrew is taʾaniyah waʾaniyah.
6. His shelter. The Hebrew term often refers to a temporary shelter set up in a vineyard or field, but here it is an epithet for the Temple, parallel to “His appointed place.” The choice of the term emphasizes its fragility. The destruction of the Temple is elaborated in the next verse.
7. They raised a sound in the house of the LORD / as on a festival day. The statement is bitterly ironic. On a festival day, the Temple would be filled with the singing and the hubbub of the celebrants. Now it rings with the battle cries of the troops who have come to destroy it.
8. He stretched out the measuring line. Ordinarily, the measuring line would be used in construction. Here, the structures of Jerusalem are measured out for unsparing destruction.
9. there was no teaching. The first verset indicates the fate of the nobility and the royal line. Since “teaching” is generally the prerogative of the priests, that group is now added by implication.
10. They sat on the ground, were silent. In the first and third lines of this verse, we get the act of abjection in the initial verset, then, in a small revelation, the subject of that act in the second verset. Thus we see elders and virgins bracketed in despair, two opposite categories that imply the entire people.
11. My eyes were worn out with tears. Here, at the exact midpoint of the poem, the speaker introduces his own anguished reaction to the catastrophe.
My bile spilled out on the ground. The literal sense is “my liver.”
12. To their mothers they say. Babes and sucklings of course can’t speak, so one must assume that both terms refer hyperbolically to vulnerable small children. Though it may also seem odd that little children would ask about wine, they are made to invoke two principal staples, grain and wine.
14. did not lay bare your crime. The false prophets promised only good things for the people (“empty and insipid”) and failed to castigate them so that they might turn away from their evil actions and avert the destruction.
15. They clapped their hands over you. This is not, obviously, applause but a gesture of derision.
16. They opened wide their mouths to mock you. Throughout biblical poetry, the pain of defeat is imagined to be made more acute by the gloating of the triumphant enemies.
17. He carried out His utterance / that He charged in days of old. Presumably, what the poet has in mind is the stipulation, especially reiterated in Deuteronomy, that if Israel fails to keep its covenantal obligations, terrible disasters will overtake it.
18. your pupils. The Hebrew bat-ʿeyneikh—seemingly, “the daughter of your eye”—is almost certainly a shortened form of bavat-ʿeyneikh, “your pupil.”
19. sing out. Although this Hebrew verb is generally used for joyful song, here it is obviously close to “wail.”
20. Should women eat their fruit, / the dandled babes? This horrific specter of cannibalism under the duress of starvation in the time of siege repeatedly haunts biblical literature, and there are grounds to infer that it sometimes actually happened.
22. You called in as on festival days / my neighbors from all around. This line repeats the bitter irony of verse 7, using different language: the neighboring peoples were summoned by God to Jerusalem, as the Israelites had been summoned on festival days, not to celebrate but to kill and to destroy.
Those whom I dandled and raised up. The two verbs used make this a pointed reference to the children.
CHAPTER 3
1I am the man who has seen affliction ℵ
by the rod of His wrath.
2Me He drove off, led away—
darkness and no light!
3Just to me He comes back,
turns His hand against me all day.
4He wasted my flesh and my skin. ב
He shattered my bones.
5He built up against me, encompassed me
with misery and suffering.
6He made me dwell in darkness
like those long dead.
7He walled me in, I could not go out, ג
piled heavy bronze fetters upon me.
8Even though I cried out and shouted,
he blocked my prayer.
9He walled in my way with hewn stone,
He twisted my paths.
10A lurking bear He was to me, ד
a lion in hiding.
11My ways He led astray and He ripped me apart,
He made me desolate.
12He bent His bow
and stood me up as a target for the arrow.
13He drove into my innards ה
the shafts of His quiver.
14I became a laughingstock to all my people,
the theme of their taunts all day.
15He fed me full with bitterness,
gave me wormwood’s draught.
16He made my teeth crunch down on gravel, ו
crushed me in the dust.
17My life abandoned peace,
I forgot what was good.
18And I thought, “My strength
and my hope are lost before the LORD.”
19Recall my affliction and my wandering— ז
wormwood and poison.
20My very life does recall
and bends down upon me.
21Thus I answer to my heart,
therefore I yet hope:
22The LORD’s kindness has not ended, ח
for His mercies are not exhausted.
23They are renewed every morning.
Great is Your faithfulness.
24“My portion is the LORD,” I said.
therefore I yet hope for Him.
25Good is the LORD for those who look to Him, ט
for the person who seeks Him out.
26Good that he hopes in silence
for rescue from the LORD.
27Good is it for a man that he bear
a yoke in his youth.
28Let him sit alone and be silent י
29Let him put his mouth into the dust—
perhaps there still is hope.
30Let him offer his cheek to him who strikes him,
let him take his fill of disgrace.
31For the LORD will not abandon forever. כ
32Though He strikes with sorrow,
He will show mercy in His great kindness.
33For He does not afflict on purpose
and aggrieve the sons of men
34to crush beneath His feet ל
all the prisoners of the earth,
35to sidetrack the case of a man
before the presence of the Most High,
36to deflect a person in his plea—
the Master would not brook this.
37Who can speak and it comes about מ
if the Master has not decreed it?
38From the Most High’s mouth shall not issue
the evil and the good?
39Of what shall a living person complain,
a man for his offenses?
40Let us seek out and plumb our ways נ
that we come back to the LORD.
41Let us lift up our heart on our palms
to God in the heavens.
42We trespassed and rebelled—
You did not forgive.
43You enveloped us in anger and pursued us, ס
You slew and showed no pity.
44You enveloped Yourself in a cloud,
that prayer could not pass through.
45Filth and disgust You made us
in the midst of the peoples.
46They gaped with their mouths upon us, פ
all our enemies.
47Terror and trap they were for us,
48Rivers of tears my eye does shed
for the shattering of my people.
49My eye streams and is not still, ע
without respite
50till the LORD look out
and see from the heavens.
51My eyes have dealt ill to me
for all the daughters of my city.
52They have ensnared me like a bird, צ
my enemies for no cause.
53They have cut off my life in a pit
and cast stones at me.
54Waters whelmed over my head,
I thought, “I am gone.”
55I called Your name, O LORD ק
from the bottommost pit.
56My voice You have heard—
do not shut Your ear to my sigh, to my cry.
57You drew close on the day I called You,
You said, “Do not fear.”
58You pleaded, O Master, my cause, ר
You redeemed my life.
59You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done me.
Grant me justice!
60You have seen all their vindictiveness,
61You have heard their insults, O LORD, ש
all their schemes against me,
62the slurs of my foes and their prattle
against me all day.
63Look on their sitting and their rising—
I am the theme of their taunts.
64Pay them back their deserts, O LORD, ת
according to their own acts.
65Give them anguish of the heart,
Your curse upon them.
66Pursue in wrath and destroy them
from beneath the heavens of the LORD.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. I am the man who has seen affliction. Unlike the three other acrostic chapters, this alphabetic acrostic has three lines for each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Thus, for the letter aleph, it begins with ʾani, “I,” then has ʾoti, “me,” and ʾakh, “just” (or “only”). This form leads to even more syntactic inversions than is common in biblical Hebrew, with the object of the verb “fronted” at the beginning of many lines, but the poet exploits this pattern for expressive emphasis.
5. He built up against me. No object of the verb is supplied in the Hebrew, but by implication what is suggested is the building up of siege-works. In this case, the building material of the siege-works is misery and suffering.
7. He walled me in. The imagery here manifestly complements the image of siege-works in verse 5. The speaker (Israel) cannot move both because his way is blocked by large stones (verse 9) and because he is weighed down with heavy fetters.
11. He ripped me apart. The unusual Hebrew verb for violent rending picks up the image of bear and lion.
14. a laughingstock … / the theme of their taunts. The language used to characterize a condition of abjection is formulaic, and it will be repeated with minor variations later in the poem, but it generates a certain power through the force of reiteration.
16. He made my teeth crunch down on gravel. Being fed bitterness and drinking worm-wood are conventional terms for suffering. The crunching down on gravel is a shockingly concrete image (chewing what cannot be chewed after drinking poison) for unspeakable distress.
21. Thus I answer to my heart. This indication of inward debate marks a turning point: the speaker’s suffering is intolerable, but, in introspection, he recovers his long-standing belief in God’s kindness and so is led to hope that the suffering will come to an end.
25. Good is the LORD. After the profession of faith in the previous line (“My portion is the LORD”), the speaker goes on as he reaches the letter tet, to proclaim God’s goodness in three lines that begin with tov, “good.”
27. Good is it for a man that he bear / a yoke in his youth. “Yoke” is a standard epithet for burden or suffering. A person who is forced to undergo suffering in his youth will come out the better for it. By analogy, the speaker, who is not necessarily in his youth, will gain inner strength or depth through the anguish he is now undergoing.
28. when He has set it upon him. The Hebrew formulation is somewhat cryptic, but it is best construed as a reference to God in the subject-pronoun and to the yoke in “it,” the object of the verb.
29. Let him put his mouth into the dust. Abraham ibn Ezra plausibly construes this as a bending down to fill the mouth with dust so that he cannot speak.
31. For the LORD will not abandon forever. Given the absence of any sort of parallelism, it is difficult to scan this sentence as a poetic line.
33. He does not afflict on purpose. The literal sense is “He does not afflict from His heart.” This line and the surrounding ones continue the affirmation of God’s goodness, despite the catastrophe that He has brought on His people.
35. to sidetrack the case of a man / before the presence of the Most High. The phrase that constitutes the second verset here clearly suggests a celestial court. Legal proceedings are thus used as a metaphor to represent the issue of divine justice in history: if one believes that the God of Israel is a just God, one must cling to the faith that despite the present dire moment, He will render justice to Israel.
36. would not brook this. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is “would not [or did not] see this,” but this is the most likely meaning.
40. Let us seek out and plumb our ways. The assertion continues the concern with divine justice: although our acute suffering seems unreasonable, we need to examine our acts to see if we have done things to bring such a catastrophe upon ourselves. Only then can we be reconciled with God.
41. Let us lift up our heart on our palms. Lifting the palms is a gesture of prayer, but this prayer must be heartfelt. The lines that follow are a confession of guilt, justifying God’s cruelty to His people.
47. Terror and trap. The Hebrew has a more pronounced sound-play, paḥad wafaḥat.
shearing and shattering. The Hebrew alliteration is hashʾeit wehashever.
51. dealt ill to me. The verb ʿoleleh means “dealt,” but the sense is often negative, hence “ill” in the translation.
53. They have cut off my life in a pit / and cast stones at me. What may be represented here is flinging someone into a pit and then stoning him to death.
54. Waters whelmed over my head. The image of drowning is common in Psalms for death or near death. It may be triggered associatively by the metaphor of the pit in the preceding line.
56. My voice You have heard. The conjugation of the Hebrew verb indicates some sort of past action. Either the speaker is remembering that in the past God heeded his supplications or, in the urgency of the present moment, he imagines God’s hearing as an accomplished fact.
61. all their schemes against me. It is unclear whether this verbatim repetition of the last half of the previous line is meant for expressive effect (anaphora) or whether a scribe has inadvertently duplicated the phrase where different words stood in the original text.
63. their sitting and their rising. The translation follows the Hebrew idiom, which has the general sense of “all their sundry activities.”
66. Pursue in wrath and destroy them. After the focus on the suffering of the people and the question of divine justice, the poem concludes with an expression of rage against the enemy: a just God will not only restore the fortunes of Israel but also will wreak vengeance upon those who have perpetrated such horrors on His people.
CHAPTER 4
1How has gold turned dull, ℵ
how tarnished finest gold!
The sacred gems spilled out
at the corner of each street.
2Zion’s precious children, ב
worth their weight in gold,
how are they reckoned as earthenware jars,
the work of the potter’s hands!
3Even jackals offer the breast, ג
suckle their own cubs.
My People’s Daughter is now ruthless
as ostriches in the desert.
4The suckling’s tongue has cleaved ד
to his palate out of thirst.
Babes ask for bread—
none offers it to them.
5They who ate delicacies ה
are desolate in the streets.
They who were reared on purple,
embrace the refuse heaps.
6And the crime of my People’s Daughter ו
is greater than the offense of Sodom
that was overturned in a moment
and no hands were laid on her.
7Her elite were purer than snow, ז
they were whiter than milk.
Their limbs were ruddier than coral,
8Their mien is darker than black, ח
they are not recognized in the streets.
Their skin is shriveled on their bones,
become as dry as wood.
9Better the slain of the sword ט
than the slain by famine.
For those run through ooze blood
more than the crop of the field.
10The hands of compassionate women י
cooked their own children—
they became nourishment for them
in the shattering of my People’s Daughter.
11The LORD has spent His fury, כ
poured out His smoldering wrath,
and lit a fire in Zion,
and her foundations it consumed.
12The kings of the earth did not believe, ל
nor all the world’s dwellers,
that a foe and enemy would enter
the gates of Jerusalem
13because of her prophets’ offenses, מ
the crimes of her priests,
who shed in her midst
the blood of the just.
14The blind wandered through the streets, נ
that none could touch their garb.
15“Turn away, you unclean,” they called to them, ס
“Turn away, turn away, do not touch!”
So they flew off, they wandered.
It was said in the nations, “They shall dwell no more.”
16The LORD’s presence has set them apart, פ
no more shall one look on them.
They showed no favor to the priests,
no mercy to the elders.
17Our eyes still pine ע
in our hope that we harbored
from a nation that cannot rescue.
18They stalked our steps צ
to block walking through the streets.
Our end drew near, our days played out,
for our end had come.
19Swifter were our pursuers ק
than the eagles of the heavens.
On the mountains they raced after us,
in the desert ambushed us.
20Our very life-breath, the LORD’s anointed, ר
of whom we had said,
“In his shade we shall live among the nations.”
21Exult and rejoice, Edom’s Daughter, ש
you who dwell in the land of Uz.
To you as well shall the cup pass on,
you shall be drunk and naked be.
22Your guilt is done with, Zion’s Daughter, ת
He no more shall exile you.
He makes a reckoning of your guilt, Edom’s Daughter,
your offenses He exposed.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. How has gold turned dull. The first two verses of this lament are an interesting instance of literal statement that is then revealed to be a metaphor. Verse 1 appears to present a concrete image of precious materials debased—gold tarnished, gems spilled on the ground. Then, in verse 2, with the representation of Zion’s children “worth their weight in gold” (literally, “weighed in gold”), it becomes evident that they are the treasures now counted as worthless, their lives without value as they are slaughtered in the streets.
3. My People’s Daughter is now ruthless / as ostriches in the desert. There appears to have been a folk tradition about the cruelty or indifference of ostriches to their young (compare Job 39:13–17). Zion is ruthless toward her young because she can do nothing to save them from starving to death.
5. They who ate delicacies / are desolate in the streets. This amounts to an explanation of the metaphor of gems spilled out in verse 1.
6. no hands were laid on her. Sodom was devastated by fire and brimstone rained down by God, not by an enemy.
7. their body. The Hebrew gizrah appears only here, and its precise meaning is not certain. In modern Hebrew, it came to mean “shape” or “form,” based on one understanding of this text.
8. Their skin is shriveled on their bones. This is a case in which the general pattern of concretization from the first verset to the second takes place instead between two successive lines: first the general blackening of mien or appearance, then the horrific image of shriveled skin (from starvation) dry as wood.
9. more than the crop of the field. This phrase has puzzled interpreters. The understanding reflected in this translation is that “those” must refer to the slain by the sword. Run through by the sword, their bodies ooze blood more abundantly than the crop of the field runs with sap (alternately, more than the crop of the field flourishes). The blood flooding from their bodies reflects the swiftness of their death, a fate preferable to the fate of those who die slowly from famine.
10. The hands of compassionate women / cooked their own children. This horrifying act of cannibalism provides amplification for the “ruthlessness” of Zion toward her children in verse 3.
12. The kings of the earth did not believe. This assertion is based on the fiction that Zion in her glory was universally regarded as secure and impregnable.
13. her prophets’ offenses. These are obviously the false prophets who failed to correct the people but instead flattered it with illusory predictions.
14. The blind wandered through the streets. Because they cannot see where they are going, they repeatedly touch or stumble on the many bleeding corpses that are scattered everywhere.
became so foul with blood / that none could touch their garb. The blind smeared with the blood of the slain become a kind of metonymic displacement of the general catastrophe. In the destruction, spilled blood is hideously ubiquitous. The blind, smeared with it, become an object of disgust, pariahs for all who encounter them.
15. they flew off. The meaning of the Hebrew verb is not entirely certain, but the general sense is clearly that the blood-fouled blind become universally rejected fugitives.
16. The LORD’s presence has set them apart. It is God’s decree that these blind should become pariahs.
They showed no favor to the priests, / no mercy to the elders. This is a puzzling statement because it is far from clear how or why the blind should have performed these iniquitous functions. Perhaps the poet simply needed some rationale for the dire fate of the blood-smeared blind and so attributes to them these moral failings.
17. our vain hope. This would be the hope of military assistance from supposed allies, such as Egypt, which in the event never materialized.
18. They. The reference is to the enemy, not to the just mentioned “nations.”
to block walking. The Hebrew infinitive for “walking” is prefixed by a mem which here is the so-called mem of privation, represented for intelligibility in the translation by “to block.”
20. Our very life-breath. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “the breath of our nostrils.” This is an idealizing epithet for the Davidic king, as though the life, the living and breathing of the nation, were dependent on this leader.
was captured in their traps. In fact, King Zedekiah, attempting to flee the city, was caught by the Babylonians, blinded after being forced to witness the execution of his sons, and afterward taken in exile to Babylonia.
In his shade. As often in biblical usage, “shade” means “protection.”
21. the land of Uz. Where this region, in which Job is said to live, is located remains uncertain, but here it seems to be part of, or an alternative name for, Edom.
To you as well shall the cup pass on. This is the cup of wrath. The anger against Edom reflects the eager collaboration of the Edomites in the destruction of Jerusalem, as Psalm 137 attests.
CHAPTER 5
1Recall, O LORD, what befell us,
look and see our disgrace—
2our estate turned over to strangers,
our homes to foreigners.
3Orphans we were without fathers,
our mothers like widows.
4Our water we drank for silver,
our wood came at a price.
5Up to our necks we were pursued,
we wearied, we got no rest.
6To Egypt we put out our hand,
to Assyria, to be sated with bread.
7Our fathers offended and are no more,
it was we bore the weight of their crimes.
8Slaves ruled over us,
none broke us free from their hand.
9At the cost of our lives we got bread
10Our skin burned hot as a kiln
from the raging fever of famine.
11Women they ravaged in Zion,
virgins in Judah’s towns.
12Nobles were impaled by them,
elders they did not honor.
13Young men carried millstones,
and lads stumbled with loads of wood.
14Elders were no more in the gates,
nor young men at their songs.
15Our heart’s joy is no more,
our dance has turned to mourning.
16The crown of our head has fallen.
Woe to us, for we have offended.
17For this our heart is anguished,
for these our eyes go dark.
18On Mount Zion that is desolate
foxes go about.
19But You, O LORD, for all time are enthroned,
Your throne for all generations!
20Why should You forget us forever,
forsake us for endless years?
21Bring us back to You, LORD, that we come back,
renew our days as of old.
22For indeed You have rejected us,
You have been grievously furious with us.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. Recall, O LORD. This last of the five poems of Lamentations differs from the others both because it is not an acrostic and because it has only a single line of poetry, not two, for each of its twenty-two verses. (It does, however, retain the length of twenty-two lines, which is the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.) Many scholars have taken these differences as evidence for a different poet, but that conclusion, possibly plausible, is not altogether inevitable.
4. Our water … / our wood. These bare necessities of life, water to drink and firewood for warmth during the winter months, had to be paid for by the distressed Judahites.
5. Up to our necks we were pursued. This idiom, which does not occur elsewhere, probably means “sorely pursued,” though it might have the implication of being pursued to put the neck in a yoke.
6. to Assyria. By the era of destruction in 586 B.C.E., Assyria was no longer in the historical picture, but the poet harks back to a long-standing Israelite history of turning to the adjacent imperial powers for assistance.
7. the weight of their crimes. “Weight” is merely implied by the verb.
9. the desert sword. The probable reference is to the sundry peoples to the east of the Jordan who preyed on the fleeing refugees from Judah as they struggled to survive.
12. impaled. While the Hebrew verb means “hanged,” the evidence suggests that the ancient Near Eastern peoples executed their victims and then impaled their bodies on poles rather than using a noose.
13. loads of wood. “Loads,” implied by the verb “stumbled,” is added in the translation for clarification.
14. Elders were no more in the gates. The gates were where elders sat to conduct courts of justice.
19. But You, O LORD, for all time are enthroned. The poet, having scanned the bleak landscape of destruction, comes to a turning point: God, after all, is still the eternal king of the world, and so there may be hope that He will restore the people’s fortunes.
21. Bring us back to You, LORD. This entire verse was later adopted for the traditional Jewish liturgy.
22. For indeed You have rejected us, / You have been grievously furious with us. Logically, this verse is connected with the preceding one: we now desperately need You to bring us back to You, for in the present terrible moment we are clearly the object of Your fury. Jewish tradition, however, reflects a sense that this is too grim a note on which to end the book, so when Lamentations is publicly chanted on the fast of the Ninth of Av, verse 21, “Bring us back to You …,” is repeated to conclude the reading.
Qohelet is in some ways the most peculiar book of the Hebrew Bible. The peculiarity starts with its name. The long tradition of translation into many languages, beginning with the ancient Greek version, uses some form of “Ecclesiastes” for the title. The Septuagint translators chose that title because it means “the one who assembles,” and the Hebrew root q-h-l does mean “to assemble.” Some have claimed that what it refers to is the assembling of sayings, but this Hebrew verb always takes people, not words or things, as its object, so it may reflect the assembling of audiences or disciples for these discourses. The grammatical form of the word is also odd because one would expect maqhil (causative), not qohelet, and, in any case, qohel (masculine), not qohelet (ostensibly feminine). There are at least two instances in Late Biblical Hebrew of the -et ending to indicate—apparently—the term for a vocation, and that may be the use of the form here, though some doubt still remains. So, we are not entirely sure what Qohelet means, and whether it is a title (at one point in our text, it is preceded by the definite article) or perhaps a proper name. All this uncertainty, and possibly also the ponderousness of “Ecclesiastes,” has led most modern scholars to use the untranslated Hebrew name, a practice I follow here.
In the opening verse, Qohelet is called “son of David,” but that might mean only that he comes from the Davidic line. Jewish and Christian tradition famously identified him as Solomon because of this epithet, because of the repeated stress on his search for wisdom, and because of the autobiographical narrative in chapter 2 in which he speaks of having built many houses and created elaborate gardens and amassed wealth and items of luxury. It is best to think of Qohelet as the literary persona of a radical philosopher articulating, in an evocative rhythmic prose that occasionally scans as poetry, a powerful dissent from the mainline Wisdom outlook that is the background of his thought. It has long been recognized that this is one of the later books of the Hebrew Bible. Some scholars have been tempted to see in it an influence of Greek philosophy, but C. L. Seow argues convincingly on linguistic grounds that the text was probably written a few decades before the conquest of Palestine by Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.E. There are two Persian loanwords and certain turns of language that belong to the late Persian period but no Greek loanwords. (In the Hellenistic period, a flood of Greek words would enter the Hebrew language.) In light of the fact that Aramaic had begun to take over as the vernacular as early as the later sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E., there are also, not surprisingly, turns of speech and terms that show an influence of Aramaic, and there are also some lexical and syntactic features that anticipate rabbinic Hebrew. As to any conceivable Greek background, we should keep in mind that even before Alexander’s conquest, there were commercial and cultural connections between Greece and the Levant, so the possibility cannot be excluded that Qohelet indirectly picked up some motifs of Greek thought. On the whole, however, his unblinking, provocative reflections on the ephemerality of life, the flimsiness of human value, and the ineluctable fate of death read like the work of a stubborn and prickly original—one who in all likelihood wrote in the early or middle decades of the fourth century B.C.E. His frequent invocation of terms drawn from bookkeeping reflect the mercantile economy of the period. His class identity is uncertain, though his politics are conservative.
The way he wrote in some respects resembles traditional Wisdom literature but in others sharply departs from it. The stringing together of moral maxims in concise symmetrical or antithetical formulations, sometimes with rather tenuous connections between one maxim and the next, is clearly reminiscent of the Book of Proverbs. Often, however, Qohelet’s maxims are subversive in content, or seem to be citations of traditional maxims that are challenged or undermined by the new context in which they are set. In a few passages, Qohelet offers entirely pragmatic counsel of a sort one might expect to find in Proverbs. For the most part, however, his observations are properly philosophic, inviting us to contemplate the cyclical nature of reality and of human experience, the fleeting duration of all that we cherish, the brevity of life, and the inexorability of death, which levels all things. Of the propositions he insists on most urgently, only the notions of life’s brevity and of mortality accord with the consensus of biblical belief that had developed by the fourth century B.C.E. The central enigma, then, of the Book of Qohelet is how this text of radical dissent, in which time, history, politics, and human nature are seen in such a bleak light, became part of the canon. Perhaps the ostensible ascription to Solomon shoehorned the book into the canon, but that is hard to judge.
The peculiarity of Qohelet’s philosophic stance is compounded by the peculiarity of his literary vehicle: he is a writer who works out philosophic thought through poetic prose. He has a finely developed sense of expressive rhythm; he makes central use of refrains and other devices of repetition, the stylistic repetition serving as a correlative for the cycle of repetition that in his view characterizes the underlying structure of reality. He often seems to think in metaphors, or, at least, metaphors are used where writers in a different tradition would use abstractions, and the range of overlapping meanings suggested by the concrete image is repeatedly brought into play. By and large, the various modern translations have not done much justice to Qohelet’s literary style, which is inextricably linked with the force and conceptual subtlety of his thought. The King James Version is still the most adequate English rendering of Qohelet’s style—in many respects, it is one of the best performances of the 1611 translators—though it does not always provide an apt equivalent for his verbal concision and rhythmic compactness, and it is not very reliable in the many places where the Hebrew wording is obscure or perhaps defective.
Qohelet’s famous first words, which he will make a much repeated refrain and with which he will conclude the book proper, before the epilogue, are a prime instance of a metaphor serving the function of an abstraction. The King James Version rendered the initial words and all their recurrences as “vanity,” “vanity of vanities.” The seventeenth-century translators obviously had the Latin version in mind, with “vanity” suggesting a lack of value, not self-admiration. This choice has actually been preserved, a little surprisingly, in one recent scholarly translation, C. L. Seow’s Anchor Bible Ecclesiastes. At least a couple of other modern translations have opted for “futility,” and Michael V. Fox, in his admirable analysis accompanied by a translation of the text, insists on “absurdity.” The problem is that all of these English equivalents are more or less right, and abstractions being what they are, each one has the effect of excluding the others and thus limiting the scope of the Hebrew metaphor. The Hebrew hevel probably indicates the flimsy vapor that is exhaled in breathing, invisible except on a cold winter day and in any case immediately dissipating in the air. It is the opposite of ruah,̣ “life-breath,” which is the animating force in a living creature, because it is the waste product of breathing. If, then, one wanted to line up the abstractions implied by hevel, it would include not only futility, absurdity, and vanity but at least insubstantiality, ephemerality, and elusiveness as well. Because of these considerations, this translation has chosen to reproduce the concrete image of the Hebrew, rendering hevel as “mere breath” (“breath” alone doesn’t quite work in English) and representing the Hebrew superlative form havel havalim as “merest breath.” Altogether, Qohelet is preoccupied with entities that exhibit movement but can’t be seen or grasped. Ruaḥ in its other sense of “wind” plays a prominent role in the opening lines of the book, and the metaphor for futility and pointless effort that is often paired with “mere breath” is “herding the wind,” reʿut ruah.̣ (The King James Version seriously misrepresents this, introducing still another abstraction, as “vexation of spirit.”) Even Qohelet’s philosophic quest is repeatedly represented in the Hebrew in concrete, virtually physical terms: he turns around, turns back, like a man in restless pursuit of some maddeningly elusive quarry, trying to find true wisdom. Such wisdom would be the discovery of whether there is any point in human life. If there is not, as Qohelet seems inclined to conclude, he enjoins us to make the most of what we have while we have it—to enjoy in measured fashion good food and wine and a woman one loves, if only the unpredictable course of circumstances makes a person lucky enough to possess these things.
The rather slippery phrase I have just used, “seems inclined to conclude,” is in fact in keeping with the to-and-fro movement of Qohelet’s philosophic discourse. He is a serious thinker who is constantly in motion—another way in which the language of turning and turning back is appropriate to his enterprise. He has an interest in weighing antithetical propositions and moving dialectally among them. Absolute consistency is not his purpose, and so Michael Fox’s title, Qohelet and His Contradictions, is perfectly apt. God appears with some frequency in his reflections on life, and while it is the same term, ʾelohim, used by the Elohist as well as by the Priestly writer at the beginning of Genesis (Qohelet never uses YHWH), this is clearly not the same deity as the one imagined in the dominant currents of biblical theology. The cosmic vista of the prose-poem with which the book begins (1:2–10) makes no mention of God. When the term ʾelohim is finally introduced in 1:13, the context is odd and unsettling: “all that is done under the sun—it is an evil business that God gave to the sons of man to busy themselves with.” This is surely a far cry from the God of Genesis 1 Who commands humankind, as the climactic product of the process of creation, to be fruitful and multiply and to hold sway over all things. The God of the earlier books of the Bible can sometimes be irascible or perhaps even capricious, but He means humanity to fulfill a grand destiny, and it is human dereliction that triggers His wrath and brings down His punishment. Qohelet, who does not altogether reject antecedent tradition, occasionally thinks that God will bring men to judgment, though it is unclear how or when. (Surely not in any afterlife, which is polemically excluded again and again by Qohelet.) Yet here God seems almost perverse in keeping the sons of man busy with an evil business—evil, as the larger context makes clear, not in a moral sense but because it is miserable and pointless, herding the wind. Qohelet has enough of a connection with tradition that he never absolutely denies the idea of a personal god, but his ‘elohim often seems to be a stand-in for the cosmic powers-that-be, for fate or the overarching dynamic of reality that is beyond human control. (It is worth noting that even in earlier texts ‘elohim sometimes has this sense, as in Abraham’s words to Abimelech in Genesis 20:13, “when the gods [‘elohim, here exceptionally treated grammatically as a plural] made me a wanderer,” or when Joseph’s brothers, scarcely inclined to pious locutions, discover the silver in their packs and say “What is this that God has done to us?” [Genesis 42:28].) On this issue as on others, Qohelet’s position may fluctuate. He is not at all impelled to reject theism, but his sense of life is often readily translatable into posttheistic terms: the world is a theater of continuing frustration and illusion; that is the way that God/fate/the intrinsic constitution of reality has determined that it should be.
Do Qohelet’s discourses have a formal structure? Much interpretive ingenuity has been exerted to show that they do. The more elaborate the proposed structure, the less plausible it appears. The movement of Qohelet’s thought is freewheeling and associative. It includes segments of maxims and perceptions that clearly belong together thematically and sometimes in terms of literary formulation (such as the sequences of “better x than y” sayings). Beyond that, it is hard to find architectonic design in the book; on the contrary, the relative looseness of form admirably suits the mobility of Qohelet’s thought. There are, however, strongly articulated framing units at the beginning and the end. The book begins with the great prose-poem about the cyclical futility of all things. This unit is immediately followed by the quasinarrative autobiographical section that runs through to the end of chapter 2, in which Qohelet, in his persona as king of Jerusalem and hence a man endowed with the power and resources to explore all the possibilities of the human condition, steps forward and speaks about his quest from center stage. The autobiographical narrative establishes the context for much that follows, since Qohelet the philosophic searcher and the explorer of experience makes repeated appearances in the pronouncements on life that he proposes. Then the book proper ends with the haunting poem on mortality that is a kind of matching end piece to the prose-poem at the beginning. The vision of futility begins his book, and the vision of decay and death ends it. All along, Qohelet has thought much about the inescapability of death because it is the prime instance of how everything is mere breath: we dream and hope and lust and love, grasp for power and prestige, but the end that awaits everyone is the ineluctable condition of moldering in the grave. Thus the same words that initiated the prose-poem at the beginning aptly conclude the poem at the end: “Merest breath, said Qohelet. All is mere breath.”
How, then, did such a book come to be included in the canon? The process of inclusion, it should be said, was not long in coming, for fragments of Qohelet found at Qumran indicate that it was already part of the library of Scripture there only a century or two after its composition. Some interpreters attribute its embrace by the shapers of the canon to the pious tilt it is given in the epilogue (12:9–14). It has long been the scholarly consensus that the epilogue is the addition of an editor seeking to domesticate Qohelet’s doctrinal wildness, though a couple of recent commentators have tried to argue—unpersuasively, in my view—that the epilogue is consistent with the body of the book and may be the work of the same writer. In any case, it is surely attributing far too much naïveté to the ancient readers to imagine that a few dozen words of piety at the end would deflect them from seeing the subversive skepticism emphatically reiterated throughout the text. We are unlikely ever to have a confident explanation of why Qohelet—or, for that matter, Job or Esther or the Song of Songs—entered the canon, but its inclusion suggests that the canon may not have been determined solely on the grounds of ideological and theological conformity. In regard to its literary power and the uncompromising rigor of its observation of the human condition, this was clearly one of the most original texts produced in the biblical period, early or late. There must have been many Hebrew readers in the last two and a half centuries before the Common Era and on into the Common Era who were not willing to let go of Qohelet, who felt that it somehow belonged in the anthology of texts—not quite yet a canon—that constituted the literary legacy of the nation. They may well have felt this attachment to Qohelet despite the fact that it challenged long-cherished notions about human destiny and the nature of reality. It is even possible that they embraced the book precisely because of the challenges it posed, for there was not a great deal of doctrinal consistency in the whole body of incipiently canonical texts, and the so-called biblical worldview, which is really a construct of later interpreters, was at this early moment far from a settled issue. The pious epilogue should probably be seen not as a way of transforming the audience’s understanding of the text but rather as a no more than hopeful rhetorical gesture, an effort to conclude the book with a seal of official approval unlikely to fool anyone about its actual contents. What continues to engage the moral and philosophic imagination, as it surely must have done in Late Antiquity, is the writer who unblinkingly saw all human enterprise as herding the wind, who envisaged the same grim fate for rich and poor, for the righteous and the wicked, and who was led to question whether wisdom itself in the end had any advantage over foolishness.
CHAPTER 1
1The words of Qohelet son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2Merest breath, said Qohelet, merest breath. All is mere breath.
3What gain is there for man in all his toil that he toils under the sun.
4A generation goes and a generation comes, but the earth endures forever.
5The sun rises and the sun sets, and to its place it glides, there it rises.
6It goes to the south and swings round to the north, round and round goes the wind, and on its rounds the wind returns.
7All the rivers go to the sea, and the sea is not full.
To the place that the rivers go, there they return to go.
8All things are weary. A man cannot speak. The eye is not sated with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9That which was is that which will be, and that which was done is that which will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
10There is a thing of which one would say, “See this, it is new.” It already has been in the eons that were before us. 11There is no remembrance of the first things nor of the last things that will be. They will have no remembrance with those who will be in the latter time.
12I, Qohelet, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I set my heart to inquire and seek through wisdom of all that is done under the sun—it is an evil business that God gave to the sons of man to busy themselves with.
14I have seen all the deeds that are done under the sun, and, look, all is mere breath, and herding the wind. 15The crooked cannot turn straight nor can the lack be made good. 16I spoke to my heart, saying: As for me, look, I increased and added wisdom beyond all who were before me over Jerusalem, and my heart has seen much wisdom and knowledge. 17And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know revelry and folly, for this, too, is herding the wind. 18For in much wisdom is much worry, and he who adds wisdom adds pain.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. The words of Qohelet son of David. This editorial superscription, together with the account in the second half of the chapter of Qohelet’s amassing wisdom, is the basis for the traditional ascribing of authorship to Solomon, though Solomon’s name is never mentioned in the book. Virtually all scholarly assessments date the text nearly six centuries after Solomon.
Qohelet. There are two puzzles in this name. While it appears to derive from the Hebrew root q-h-l, which means “to assemble,” one would expect it to be in the hiphʿil conjugation, which usually has a causative and transitive sense, rather than in the qal conjugation (that is, maqhil rather than qohel). Second, the name has a feminine verbal ending (Qohelet rather than Qohel), although this is generally explained, on the basis of two such occurrences elsewhere in the biblical corpus, as a suffix indicating vocation. It could be a title rather than a name, and in 7:27 it actually appears with a definite article (although not in this translation). If one follows the semantics of the Hebrew conjugations—where, for example, shokhev in the qal conjugation means “he who lies down,” whereas mashkiv in the hiphʿil means “he causes to lie down”—qohelet could even mean “he who is part of the assembly” rather than “the assembler.” In either case, the idea of a group of people listening to philosophic discourse seems to be implied. Given the uncertainty about the name, and whether it is a name or a title, it seems wise to preserve the term in the Hebrew, as scholars generally now do.
2. merest breath. The form of the Hebrew, havel havalim, is a way of indicating a superlative or an extreme case. Rendering this phrase as an abstraction (King James Version, “vanity of vanities,” or Michael Fox’s more philosophically subtle “absurdity of absurdities”) is inadvisable, for the writer uses concrete metaphors to indicate general concepts, constantly exploiting the emotional impact of the concrete image and its potential to suggest several related ideas. Hevel, “breath” or “vapor,” is something utterly insubstantial and transient, and in this book suggests futility, ephemerality, and also, as Fox argues, the absurdity of existence.
All is mere breath. The constant use of repetition, from this initial verse onward, gives the rhythmic prose of Qohelet an incantatory power and at the same time registers one of its principal themes: that it is the very nature of reality for all things constantly to repeat themselves.
5. The sun rises and the sun sets. The cyclical movement of day and night is taken as prime evidence in nature of the repetitive cyclical character of reality. This notion is a radical challenge to the conception of time and sequence inscribed in Genesis and elsewhere in the Bible, where things are imagined to progress meaningfully (as in the seven days of creation) toward a fulfillment. The next two verses, invoking the cyclical motion of the wind and the rivers, continue this vision of pointless movement round and round.
glides. The Hebrew shoʾef usually means “pants,” but this translation follows the Targum, Rashi, and many modern commentators in relating it to shuf, “to pass through,” “to move,” “to glide.”
7. there they return to go. The final “to go,” which has been omitted in most translations from 1611 onward, of course sounds a little odd (as does the Hebrew), but it is part of the essential stylistic pattern of verbal repetition that mirrors the concept of repetition in nature.
11. There is no remembrance. This is a radical and deeply disturbing idea for the Hebrew imagination, which, on the evidence of many earlier texts, sets such great store in leaving a remembrance, and envisages the wiping out of remembrance as an ultimate curse.
12. I, Qohelet. The Hebrew syntax equally allows one to construe this sentence as: “I am Qohelet. I was king over Jerusalem.” These words, after the thematic-metaphoric prologue of verses 2–11, inaugurate a first-person account of Qohelet’s frustrating quest for knowledge that continues until 2:20.
13. I set my heart. In biblical physiology, the heart is the organ of understanding, though sometimes it is also associated with feeling.
14. herding the wind. The verbal root of the first Hebrew word here generally means to tend a flock (and in the Song of Songs, to graze), so the common modern translation, “pursuit of the wind,” is an interpretive liberty. Herding the wind, which of course cannot be herded (it goes round and round), is an effective enough image of futile activity, coordinated with “mere breath.”
15. nor can the lack be made good. The verb lehimanot appears to mean “be counted.” Many emend it to lehimalot, “be filled.” In any case, this verse adds to the concept of repetition the notion that events are irreversible and mishaps irreparable.
16. all who were before me over Jerusalem. It is not strictly necessary to make this, as some commentators have done, a reference to the pre-Israelite kings of Jerusalem because Qohelet is not explicitly identified as Solomon, and even the designation “son of David” could easily indicate a member of the Davidic line rather than David’s actual son.
17. to know wisdom and to know revelry and folly. Qohelet’s project is a comprehensive exploration of experience, which would include reflection on the sayings of the wise, observation of the broad variety of events, and also experimentation in the realm of the senses, with intoxicants and perhaps even orgies. The common rendering of holelut as “madness” (for which in biblical Hebrew, as in the modern language, the primary term would be shigaʿon) confuses this idea; holelut suggests a wild and unruly indulgence of the senses in which lucidity is lost—hence “revelry.”
18. For in much wisdom is much worry. Here this radical Wisdom text challenges the basic premise of Wisdom literature—that devotion to wisdom is the one true road to the good, fulfilled life.
CHAPTER 2
1I said in my heart, “Come, now, let me pour out wine in merriment and enjoy good things.” And, look, this, too, is mere breath. 2To mirth I said, “Wild reveling,” and to merriment, “What does it do?” 3I sought in my heart to ply my body with wine, while my heart acted with wisdom, not grasping folly, until I might see what is good for the sons of man that they should do under the heavens in the number of the days of their lives. 4I made me great works. I built myself houses, I planted for myself vineyards. 5I made for myself gardens and orchards and planted in them every kind of fruit tree. 6I made for myself pools of water from which to water a wood growing trees. 7I bought male slaves and slavegirls, and had home-born slaves, too. Also many herds of cattle and sheep did I have, more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. 8I gathered for myself both silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got myself men and women singers and the pleasures of humankind, and many a concubine. 9And I grew great and added more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Still my wisdom stayed with me. 10And all that my eyes sought I did not withhold from them, nor did I deny my heart any merriment—for my heart was merry—from all my toil, and this was my share from all my toil. 11And I turned about in all my deeds that my hands had done and in the toil that I had toiled to do, and, look, all was mere breath and herding the wind, and there was no gain under the sun. 12And I turned to see wisdom and revelry and folly, for what is the man 13who comes after the king, that which he has already done? And I saw that wisdom surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness. 14The wise man has eyes in his head, and the fool goes in darkness. Yet I, too, knew that a single fate befalls them all. 15And I said in my heart, “Like the fate of the fool, it will befall me, too, and so why have I become so wise?” And I said in my heart that this, too, is mere breath. 16For there is no remembrance of the wise, as with the fool, forever. Since in the days to come, all will be forgotten. Yes, the wise dies like the fool! 17And I hated life, for all that was done under the sun was evil to me, for all is mere breath and herding the wind. 18And I hated all things got from my toil that I had toiled under the sun, that I should leave it to the man who will come after me. 19And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool, and he will have power over all that was got from my toil for which I toiled and grew wise under the sun. This, too, is mere breath. 20And I turned round to make my heart despair over all the toil that I had toiled under the sun. 21For there is a man whose toil is in wisdom and knowledge and skill, and to a man who did not toil for it he will give away his share. This, too, is mere breath and a grievous evil. 22For what does a man have from all his toil and from his heart’s care that he toils under the sun? 23For all his days are pain, and worry is his business. At night, as well, his heart does not rest. This, too, is mere breath. 24There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and sate himself with good things through his toil. This, too, have I seen, for it is from God’s hand. 25For who will eat and who will feel, save me? 26For to the man who seems good before Him He has given wisdom and knowledge and merriment, but to the offender He has given the business of amassing and taking in to give to him who seems good before God. This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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2. To mirth I said. The purely hedonistic probe of Qohelet’s experiment with experience fails because the wildness of orgiastic release proves to be no more than a transient excitation, leading to nothing and providing no lasting satisfaction.
3. not grasping folly. The Masoretic Text reads “grasping folly” (leʾehoz besikhlut), but this translation adopts a frequently proposed emendation, assuming that a scribe inadvertently dropped “not” (loʾ) in copying because it had the same two letters, lamed and aleph, that begin the next word, leʾehoz. The idea is that Qohelet gave himself over to drinking and revelry yet clung to his perspective of wisdom because his purpose in indulging the senses was to see if, indeed, that was part of “what is good for the sons of man that they should do under the heavens.”
4. I made me great works. The fiction of Qohelet as king over Jerusalem is important for the philosophic argument because, as this passage makes clear, he is thus endowed with the means to explore everything that wealth can give a man—grand houses, splendid gardens, slaves, resident entertainers, a harem of lovely women. This fiction, of course, strongly invokes the story of Solomon.
9. added. The literal translation of this verb underscores the vocabulary of accumulation and bookkeeping that Qohelet repeatedly employs—”add” (hosif) and “gain” (yitron, the surplus that shows on the bottom line of the account).
Still my wisdom stayed with me. This declaration is of a piece with “while my heart acted with wisdom, not grasping folly” in verse 3
11. And I turned. The repeated use of this verb points up Qohelet’s project of restless experimentation: he turns in one direction and then another, but of course all proves to be mere breath and herding the wind.
12. for what is the man who comes after the king, that which he has already done. This clause is somewhat obscure. The received text reads “they have already done,” but many different manuscript versions show the singular, which makes more sense. The most likely meaning is: in the cyclical futility of the generations (an idea spelled out in chapter 1), the man who comes after me, King Qohelet, can do no more than replicate what I have already done.
13. wisdom surpasses folly as light surpasses darkness. Qohelet’s view of wisdom is paradoxical, or dialectic. He recognizes that wisdom offers no way out of life’s futility and no escape from the inexorable fate of death that awaits the wise like the fool, but wisdom nevertheless provides what one might describe as a privilege of clarified consciousness: it is far better to live disabused of all illusion, like Qohelet himself, than to live a deluded life, like the fool.
14. The wise man has eyes in his head, and the fool goes in darkness. This statement is clearly cast in the form of a proverb, akin to what one finds in the Book of Proverbs. It cuts two ways: on the one hand, it continues the idea expressed in “wisdom surpasses folly …” (verse 13); on the other hand, it may well be a traditional proverb that, as Robert Gordis has argued, Qohelet means to subject to critique. What follows in the second half of this verse and in the next two verses certainly looks like a challenge to this bit of proverbial wisdom.
16. Since in the days to come, all will be forgotten. A double-edged sword undercuts the efficacy of wisdom—the fact that the wise man will be swallowed up by death like the most benighted fool, and that after he is gone, all remembrance of him will vanish.
18. all things got from my toil. Although the Hebrew says only “all my toil” (ʿamali), the term ʿamal in this book alternately means the activity of toiling and that which is gained through toil.
22. his heart’s care. The term raʿyon, attached here to “heart,” does not occur in earlier biblical Hebrew. It is probably cognate with reʿut, the word used in “herding the wind,” and hence is rendered in this translation as “care” because it may also derive from the activity in which a shepherd looks after or cares for his flock. Extrapolating from the use in Qohelet, later Hebrew adopts the term to mean “idea.”
24. There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and sate himself with good things. Though this affirmation may look like a contradiction (for example, of verse 1), it is another expression of Qohelet’s dialectic thinking. Immersion in sensual pleasure, especially in its extreme forms, may bring no lasting good, but in the futility of our ephemeral lives, the simple pleasures of the senses here and now are all we have, and we might as well take advantage of them.
sate himself. At first blush, the Hebrew verb herʾah might seem to mean “to show,” deriving from the root r-ʾ-h, which indicates sight, but in Qohelet it is not infrequently a variant form of the root r-w-h, meaning “to slake” or “to sate oneself.” Similarly, the verb reʾeh near the end of verse 1 probably does not mean “see” but “sate oneself,” or “enjoy.”
for it is from God’s hand. The introduction of God may be a little surprising, but Qohelet, though a skeptical empiricist, is no atheist. God—always the general term ʾelohim and never YHWH—is a given for him, but this God makes decisions about whom to favor and whom to reject in inscrutable ways, and He cannot be counted on to neatly reward the wise and the righteous, as other biblical writers assume.
25. For who will eat and who will feel, save me? This is the bedrock of Qohelet’s existential realism. All I know is the immediacy of my own bodily experience. God has given this to me to enjoy, if I can; others, as the next verse makes clear, may not be so lucky.
26. the offender. As elsewhere in biblical literature, ḥoteʾ does not mean “sinner,” as it is conventionally translated, but rather one who gives offense, who misses the mark. How and why he offends is left unstated, and it may in fact be a mystery to Qohelet.
This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind. The appearance of this melancholy refrain at the end of this verse and of this whole sequence may be dictated in context by the following logic: in this transient life, he who pleases God may enjoy the worldly goods passed on to him from the unlucky man who offends God, but under the aspect of eternity, even that difference amounts to little, for in the end death serves as the great equalizer.
CHAPTER 3
1Everything has a season, and a time for every matter under the heavens.
2A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
3A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to rip down and a time to build.
4A time to weep and a time to laugh.
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
5A time to fling stones and a time to gather stones in.
A time to embrace and a time to pull back from embracing.
6A time to seek and a time to lose.
A time to keep and a time to fling away.
7A time to tear and a time to sew.
A time to keep silent and a time to speak.
8A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
9What gain is there for him who does in what he toils?
10I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of man with which to busy themselves. 11Everything He has done aptly in its time. Eternity, too, He has put in their heart, without man’s grasping at all what it is God has done from beginning to end. 12I know that there is nothing good in it but to be merry and to partake of good things in his life. 13And also every man who eats and drinks and enjoys good things in all his toil—this is a gift from God. 14I know that whatever God does will be forever. One cannot add to it and one cannot take away from it. And God has acted also that they should fear Him. 15That which was already has been, and what is to be already has been, and God seeks out the pursued. 16And further did I see under the sun: the place of judgment—wickedness there, and the place of justice—the wicked there. 17I said in my heart: The just man and the wicked God will judge, for there is a time for every matter, and every deed He assesses. 18I said in my heart in regard to the sons of man, God has sifted them out to show them they are but beasts. 19For the fate of the sons of man and the fate of the beast is a single fate. As one dies so dies the other, and all have a single spirit, and man’s advantage over the beast is naught, for everything is mere breath. 20Everything goes to a single place. Everything was from the dust, and everything goes back to the dust. 21Who knows whether man’s spirit goes upward and the beast’s spirit goes down to the earth? 22And I saw that nothing is better than that man should rejoice in his works, for that is his share, for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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2. A time to be born and a time to die. The seven verses that begin here are the first instance of formal poetry in Qohelet. There are seven paired lines, with the number seven pointedly chosen because of its traditional association with the sacred. Each half line is very short, containing only two accented syllables (with the exception of the end of verse 2, where natuaʿ, “what is planted,” is not strictly necessary and might be an explanatory gloss added by a scribe). Any English version would do well to emulate the King James Version in reproducing as much as feasible the compactness of the Hebrew. The parallelism between the halflines is of course antithetical.
born … die / … plant … uproot. There is a semantic pairing in each pair of lines: here, life and death for humans; planting and uprooting in the vegetable kingdom; then killing and healing, wrecking and building; weeping and laughing, mourning and dancing; and so forth.
5. A time to fling stones. In this instance, at least on the surface, there does not seem to be any semantic pairing between this first line and the second line, which speaks of embracing and avoiding embraces. This ostensible divergence from the overall pattern gives some credence to the proposal by Gordis that the flinging and gathering of stones are a metaphor for ejaculation and refraining from ejaculation. Gordis cites the Midrash Qohelet Rabba on this verse, which reads it in this sexual sense.
6. to lose. The context suggests that the sense of the verb here, as an antithesis to “seek,” is “to give up for lost.”
7. to tear … to sew. These may refer to acts of mourning and emergence from mourning, which would then be matched by the silence and speech of the next half line.
9. What gain is there. This verse, taken together with what follows, may spell out the philosophic point of the catalogue of times. The contradictory events of human life, both good and bad, are beyond man’s control. At one moment he will be called upon to laugh, at another, to weep, but he can scarcely hope to derive any gain from this alternating pattern not determined by him
11. Eternity, too, He has put in their heart. The Hebrew ʿolam means “eternity” in the biblical language, though some interpreters argue that here it has the sense of “world” that it carries in rabbinic Hebrew—that is, God has planted in the human heart the love of the world. It seems more likely that the intended meaning is: man is conscious of the idea of eternity (Qohelet as philosopher surely is), but that is the source of further frustration, for he is incapable of grasping “what it is God has done from beginning to end.” Other interpreters reverse the second and third consonants of ʿolam to yield ʿamal, “toil.”
12. in it. The Hebrew says “in them.” The unclear antecedent might be “life” (which is a plural in Hebrew).
13. this is a gift from God. Qohelet repeatedly urges us to enjoy the pleasures of life here and now, but he is perfectly aware that it is a matter of luck, or God’s unfathomable determination, whether we are given the time and means to enjoy the good things of life, or whether we are condemned to die, to uproot, to rip down, to mourn.
14. that they should fear Him. The absolute determination of events, beyond all human control, is understood as a reason for man to fear the deity that controls all things.
15. God seeks out the pursued. This is what the Hebrew literally says, but no one has been able to make good sense of it. If “the pursued” is equivalent in meaning to “him who is sought,” the meaning of the clause might be coordinate with “what is to be already has been,” but the verse remains doubtful.
17. and every deed He assesses. The translation understands sham not as the adverb “there” but as a verb (infinitive shum) common in rabbinic Hebrew.
18. God has sifted them out to show them. This string of words is not intelligible in the Hebrew and continues the patch of scribal scrambling that spreads over verses 15–18. The translation derives “to show” (larʾot) by revocalizing the Masoretic liroʾt (“to see”), but the meaning of the clause is still uncertain.
19. man’s advantage over the beast is naught. This is another instance in which Qohelet’s unblinking view rejects a fundamental premise of the biblical consensus. In the Creation story, the human creature is brought into the world after the beasts and is enjoined to hold sway over all other living creatures. Here, man and beast are seen to share the same fate of mortality, and there is no qualitative difference between them.
21. Who knows whether man’s spirit goes upward. Qohelet may be referring to a new doctrine that was beginning to circulate in the Late Biblical period that imagines the ascent of the soul after death. If so, he is entirely skeptical about the idea, suspecting that the spirit of man and beast alike descends into the earth (the Hebrew can also mean “underworld”).
22. for who can bring him to see what will be after him? The “after” of the question, following the logic of the previous verse, could refer to the fate of the departed spirit after death. Perhaps more simply, and in keeping with such previous reflections as the one in 1:11, the reference could be to the course of events after one’s death—that is, one can never know what will happen after one is gone, so the only sensible thing to do is to take advantage of the pleasures that present themselves in life while one possesses it.
CHAPTER 4
1And I went back and saw all the oppression that is done under the sun: the tears of the oppressed who have none to console them, and from the hand of their violent oppressors there is none to console them. 2And I praised the dead, who have already died, more than the living, who are still alive. 3And better than both is he who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. 4And I saw all the toil and all the skilled deeds—that it is a man’s envy of his fellow. This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind. 5The fool hugs his hands and eats his own flesh. 6Better a palmful of ease than two handfuls of toil and herding the wind. 7And I went back and saw mere breath under the sun. 8There is one without a second, neither son nor brother he has. And there is no end to his toil, nor is his eye sated with wealth: “And for whom do I toil and deprive myself of good things?” This, too, is mere breath and an evil business. 9Two are better than one, for they get good reward for their toil. 10For if one should fall, the other will lift up his friend. But if the one alone should fall, there is no other to lift him up. 11If two lie together, they are warm, but as for one, how will he be warm? 12And if one should attack him, the two will stand against him. And the triple cord will not quickly be snapped. 13Better a poor but wise boy than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to be wary. 14For from the prison-house he came out to be king, for in his kingship, too, the impoverished man was born. 15I have seen all the living who go about under the sun alongside the next boy who will stand in his place. 16There is no end to all the people, to all before whom he stood, nor would the ones who came later be happy with him. For this, too, is mere breath and herding the wind.
17Watch your step when you go to the house of God, for understanding is more favored than the offering of sacrifice by fools, for they do not know even how to do evil.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. oppression. The Hebrew noun is plural, probably meaning “acts of oppression,” but English usage prefers “oppression” as a collective term.
the tears of the oppressed who have none to console them. It is notable that Qohelet registers the suffering of the oppressed as a given fact without the slightest indication, as in Psalms or elsewhere, that God will rescue them from their suffering, and without any exhortation, as in the Prophets, that we must act to rescue them.
2. the dead, who have already died … the living, who are still alive. The seeming redundancy of this wording is of a piece with Qohelet’s pointed stylistic use of emphatic repetition.
3. And better than both is he who has not yet been. Though there is a point of similarity to Job’s wish in Job 3 never to have been born, that refusal of existence is an expression of Job’s own unbearable suffering, whereas Qohelet puts forth the idea as a general philosophic reflection on the human condition.
deeds. The Hebrew maʿaseh is singular but stands as a collective noun. The same is true for “deeds” in the next verse.
5. The fool hugs his hands and eats his own flesh. This is a traditional-sounding proverb, of the sort that one finds in the Book of Proverbs, enjoining against indolence. The eating of one’s own flesh is, of course, a metaphor for causing devastating harm to oneself.
6. Better a palmful of ease than two handfuls of toil. This declaration, cast in the formula of a traditional proverb (“better x than y”), at least partly contradicts the previous proverb. Gordis’s proposal that Qohelet first quotes a conventional saying and then offers a critique of it is plausible, though it has not been embraced by all scholars.
8. And for whom do I toil. These words are evidently a quotation of the single, childless man. It is at least possible that Qohelet identifies with him and is speaking autobiographically as well.
9. for they get good reward for their toil. Throughout these lines, the argument for friendship is pragmatic, invoking neither companionship nor love.
10. if one should fall. The Hebrew uses a plural, but the sense is partitive.
the other. Literally, “the one.”
the one alone. “Alone” is added in the translation for clarification.
11. If two lie together. It is not necessary to conclude that either marriage or sex is implied, especially since what has been envisaged to this point is the advantage gained through a man’s having a companion. The warmth of a shared bed could easily be that of two companions, without sexual intent (like Ishmael and Queequeg at the beginning of Moby-Dick).
12. And the triple cord will not quickly be snapped. The whole sequence on the advantages of having a friend takes the proverb form of a succession of numbers (one-two-three). The triple cord, as many scholars have observed, is a citation from the Gilgamesh epic, or of a saying in general circulation that is quoted in Gilgamesh. In the epic, Gilgamesh, urging his friend Enkiddu to stick with him in the endeavor to slay the monster Humbaba, declares, as evidence of the advantage of joining forces, that a towed ship will not sink because “no man can snap the triple cord” by which it is fastened.
13. Better a poor but wise boy than an old and foolish king. Many futile attempts have been made to anchor this exemplary tale in the succession of two or more particular historical monarchs, but it seems more sensible to understand it as another illustrative instance of the pattern of futility from one generation to the next—in this case, in regard to the exercise of power. Some of the details remain obscure, but the following narrative outline is likely: a clever boy (a young man) is preferable to a doddering old king, perhaps senile, and not able to look out for his own interests. The boy, once imprisoned (perhaps for debt) and powerless, somehow manages to get out and assume the throne. He in turn is succeeded by a third figure like himself. In this chain of succession, no one gets lasting benefit from the exercise of power.
14. for in his kingship, too, the impoverished man was born. This is obscure but might refer to still another “poor boy” who will be poised to seize power. This would be “the next boy” of the following verse.
16. before whom he stood. The Hebrew says literally “before whom he was.” The translation follows Fox in understanding this as a reference to the second boy’s leadership of the people.
nor would the ones who come later be happy with him. In the succession of generations, the leader’s power is always precarious because those led are fickle (“him” refers to the third of the three kings). All this constitutes an application to the political realm of Qohelet’s idea that it is pointless to amass wealth through toil because there is no way of knowing who will inherit it.
17. understanding is more favored than the offering of sacrifice by fools. Some interpreters construe lishmoaʿ to mean “obedience” or “heeding” because that is the sense it has in 1 Samuel 15:22, where it is also contrasted with “sacrifice.” The antithesis with “fools,” however, argues for the other meaning, “understanding.”
for they do not know even how to do evil. The Hebrew sounds enigmatic, and “even” has been added interpretively. The sense would then be that they are so stupid that they don’t even have the consciousness of doing evil, let alone the mental clarity to do good.
CHAPTER 5
1Be not rash with your mouth, and let your heart not hurry to utter a word before God. For God is in the heavens and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. 2For a dream comes with much business and the fool’s voice with much talk. 3When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it, for there is no pleasure in fools. What you vow, fulfill. 4Better that you do not vow than that you vow and do not fulfill. 5Do not let your mouth make your body offend, nor say before God that it was a mistake. Why should God rage over your voice and ruin your handiwork? 6For in many dreams are mere breath and much talk. Instead, fear God. 7If you see the oppression of the poor and the perversion of justice and right in the province, be not amazed at the matter, for he who is high has a higher one watching him, and still higher ones over them. 8And the gain of the land is in everything—a king is subject to the field. 9He who loves money will not be sated with money, and he who loves wealth will have no crop. This, too, is mere breath. 10As bounty multiplies, those who consume it multiply, and what is the benefit for its owner except what his eyes see? 11Sweet is the worker’s sleep, whether he eats little or much. And the rich man’s surfeit does not let him sleep. 12There is a blighting evil I have seen under the sun: wealth kept for its owner for his harm. 13And that wealth is lost in a bad business, and he begets a son with nothing in his hand. 14As he came out from his mother’s womb, naked will he return to go as he came, and nothing will he bear off from his toil that he brings in his hand. 15And this, too, is a blighting evil: as he came, so he goes, and what gain does he have that he should toil for the wind? 16All his days, too, he goes in darkness, with much worry and illness and rage. 17Look, I have seen what is good: it is fit to eat and to drink and enjoy good things in all his toil that he toils under the sun in the number of the days of his life that God gave him, for that is his share. 18Also the man whom God has given wealth and possessions and whom He has empowered to enjoy it and bear off his share and delight in his toil—this is God’s gift. 19For not much will he recall the days of his life, for God makes him busy with his heart’s delight.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. Be not rash with your mouth. As the next five verses make clear, the reference is to the pronouncement of vows. Thus “God is in the heavens and you are on earth” is a reminder of man’s exposure, as a mere terrestrial creature, to the all-seeing scrutiny of God on high. Verses 1–6 here, to which the last verse of chapter 4 must be attached, are a somewhat surprising, and conventional, stress by Qohelet on appropriate behavior in the sanctuary and an injunction to act in a way that will deter divine punishment. The second-person singular imperatives are also stylistically different from what precedes. Either this section was editorially patched into the text from a different source, or one must assume that Qohelet, for all his radical views, does not doubt the presence of an omniscient God who punishes man for vows left unfulfilled.
2. much business. In this context the phrase seems to refer to the confusion of ideas and images characteristic of dreams, which are said to resemble a fool’s chatter. The “talk” of the fool would include rash vows that the fool has no intention to fulfill.
3. for there is no pleasure in fools. Only a fool would make a vow and not fulfill it, and such behavior will give no pleasure to God.
5. Do not let your mouth make your body offend. This reference is still to vows.
6. For in many dreams are mere breath and much talk. The Hebrew of this clause looks defective, at least in its prepositions. As the Hebrew text stands, the literal sense is “For in many dreams and mere breath and much talk.” This translation deletes the “and” before “mere breath” (havalim) and thus construes the relation between “dreams” and “mere breath” as subject and predicate.
7. for he who is high has a higher one watching him. This whole clause is obscurely worded in the Hebrew, as it is in this translation, but the preceding clause about the perversion of justice suggests a reference to bureaucratic hierarchy—not an exclusively modern phenomenon—in which rights are easily made wrong. Others interpret the Hebrew to mean “arrogant” rather than “high.”
8. a king is subject to the field. The Hebrew is ambiguous, and some construe it as “a king belongs to the tilled field.” The evident sense of the whole verse is that both the economy and political power depend on agriculture.
9. This, too, is mere breath. The invocation of this refrain of futility after a proverb with which Qohelet might well agree may express a general skepticism on his part about all such formulations of wisdom: we don’t really know how to control consequences in our lives.
10. what is the benefit. The noun kishron elsewhere means skill, but, as Abraham ibn Ezra and sundry modern commentators have argued, the meaning in context is something like “benefit.”
what his eyes see. The one benefit he can absolutely count on is beholding his possessions. Given the uncertain fluctuations of human circumstances, he may not be given the opportunity to enjoy them.
11. the worker’s sleep … the rich man’s surfeit. The worker’s hard labor, however little he may get by it, gives him the gift of sound sleep, but the rich man’s full belly—or his worries about his possessions—keeps him awake.
12. a blighting evil. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “a sick evil.”
13. that wealth is lost in a bad business. The rich man has “kept” his wealth, then invests it foolishly, leaving both himself and his heir without resource. As elsewhere, Qohelet reflects the preoccupations of a mercantile society.
14. As he came out from his mother’s womb. As many interpreters have recognized, these words are close to the ones Job pronounces (Job 1:21) when he has been stripped by disaster of all that he has.
16. illness. The Hebrew has a possessive suffix (“his illness”), which scrambles the syntax, but the Septuagint plausibly reads here simply “illness.”
18. this is God’s gift. The exhortation of the preceding verse to enjoy life’s pleasures, which Qohelet has pronounced before, here undergoes a dialectic correction: we should enjoy the good things given us—if, that is, we are fortunate enough to have the opportunity to enjoy them, if economic vicissitude or illness or political disaster does not intervene. Thus, the opportunity to follow a course of simple hedonism is a gift of God—or perhaps fate, for the two exhibit some interchangeability in Qohelet.
19. not much will he recall the days of his life. Fox suggests that this means he will not be very conscious of life’s brevity. It could also mean that he will pay little attention to the uncertainty and the sheer potential for misery of a human life.
God makes him busy. The received text shows merely “makes busy” (maʿaneh), but the Septuagint and the Syriac have “makes him busy” (maʿanehu, an addition of a single letter as accusative suffix).
CHAPTER 6
1There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on humankind: 2a man whom God gives wealth and possessions and honor, and he lacks nothing for himself of all he desires, and God does not grant him to enjoy it, for a stranger will enjoy it. This is mere breath and an evil sickness. 3If a man begot a hundred children and lived many years, and many were the days of his life, he might yet not be sated with good things, and even a burial he might not have. I said: better than he is the stillborn. 4For in mere breath did it come, and into darkness it goes, and in darkness its name is covered. 5The very sun it did not see or know—more ease for it than for him. 6And were he to live a thousand years twice over, yet good things he did not enjoy—does not everything go to a single place? 7All a man’s toil is for his own mouth, yet his appetite will not be filled. 8For what advantage has the wise over the fool? What good is it for the poor man to know how to get round among the living? 9Better what the eyes see than desire going round. This, too, is mere breath and herding the wind. 10What was has already been called by name and is known, as he is man and cannot deal with one more powerful than he. 11For there are many words that increase mere breath; what is the advantage for man? 12For who knows what is good for man in life, in his days of mere breath, for he spends them like a shadow? Who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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1. heavy. The literal sense of the adjective is “great.” Derivatives of that word—rav, rabbah, rabot, harbeh—punctuate this entire section.
2. enjoy. The Hebrew is literally “eat” (and so the King James Version). The usage is an anticipation of a common idiom in rabbinic Hebrew, in which the verb “eat” (ʾakhal) means to enjoy the fruits of something.
3. he might yet not be sated with good things. The logical connection with the two preceding clauses is not entirely clear, and “yet” has been added interpretively.
and even a burial he might not have. Some interpreters prefer to attach this clause to the stillborn at the end of the verse and in the two following verses, but the Hebrew text clearly ties it in with the man who lives many years. The idea expressed jibes with Qohelet’s general pessimism about life: a man may beget many children and live a very long time, but this does not mean he won’t come to a bad end, not having enjoyed his own material benefits and finally being subjected to the ignominy of lying unburied.
6. yet good things he did not enjoy. Again, “yet” is added in the translation for clarity. In fact, the whole verse would make better sense if it read “and good things enjoyed”—that is, even if a man had an unbelievably long life filled with enjoyment, in the end everything is swallowed up by death.
8. to get round among the living. The Hebrew lahalokh neged haḥayim is not altogether clear—the preposition neged could mean “before” or “against,” and haḥayim could be either “the living” or “life.” The translation follows a consensus of interpreters that the phrase indicates an ability to manage with people. If that is the intended meaning, Qohelet suggests that the poor man’s competence in dealing with others does him no more good than wisdom does the wise man.
9. Better what the eyes see than desire going round. The evident sense is that one is better off simply enjoying what one sees—let us say, a beautiful woman—than embarking on the dangerous and potentially frustrating path of trying to fulfill desire. Although the King James Version’s “the wandering of the desire” has a nice ring and has been adopted by many modern translators, the Hebrew halokh means “to go” or “to go about,” not really “to wander,” and it is surely intended to echo the halokh in the phrase “get [or go] around among the living” (verse 8). Because Qohelet also uses “to go” as a euphemism for dying, and because nefesh means “life-breath” as well as “appetite” or desire, C. L. Seow construes this phrase to mean “the passing of life.”
10. What was has already been called by name. To call something by name in biblical Hebrew and other ancient Near Eastern languages is to designate its nature and define its being, so the entire clause expresses Qohelet’s sense of determinism.
he is man and cannot deal with one more powerful than he. Because of the context of determinism, many see “one” as a reference to God, though it could just as well refer to a human being who exercises power, given Qohelet’s sense of political hierarchies and the social limitations of freedom.
12. For who knows what is good for man. This question follows on “there are many words that increase mere breath” (verse 11). Qohelet is a Wisdom writer who constantly questions the value of wisdom. He knows that a human life is likely to be bleak, that it is intrinsically unpredictable, may end badly, and will surely be blotted out by death. His “wisdom” is to register this perception, but, apart from his occasional exhortations to enjoy, he does not presume to know what is good for man, unlike the purveyors of mainline wisdom.
CHAPTER 7
1Better a good name than good oil, and the day of death than the day one is born. 2Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of carousing. For that is the end of all men—let the living take it to heart. 3Better worry than merriment, for by a scowl the heart is gladdened. 4The wise men’s heart is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of mirth. 5Better to hear the rebuke of the wise than a man hearing the song of fools. 6For like the sound of thorns beneath the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. And this, too, is mere breath. 7For oppression’s profit drives the wise man wild, and a bribe destroys the mind. 8Better a thing’s end than its beginning; better patience than haughtiness. 9Do not be rash in your mood to be angry, for anger rests in the lap of fools. 10Say not: What has happened, that the days gone by were better than these? For you asked not about this in wisdom. 11Better wisdom with a legacy, it is an advan tage to those who see the sun. 12For in wisdom’s shade is money’s shade, and the gain of wisdom’s knowledge keeps its possessors alive. 13See God’s work, for who can straighten what He has made crooked? 14On the day of good luck, enjoy the good, and on the day of evil, see: one against the other God has set, so that man find nothing after him. 15Everything have I seen in my days of mere breath: the righteous perishing in his righteousness, and the wicked living a long life in his evil. 16Do not be overrighteous and do not be overwise. Why should you be dumbfounded? 17Don’t be overwicked and don’t be a fool. Why should you die before your time? 18It is good that you seize this, and from the other as well do not take back your hand, for he who fears God will get out of them all. 19Wisdom is stronger for the wise than ten rulers who are in the town. 20For there is no man righteous on earth who does good and will not offend. 21To all the words, too, that they speak, do not pay heed, that you hear not your servant reviling you. 22For many times, too, your heart has known, that you, too, have reviled others. 23All this I tried out through wisdom. I said, Let me grow wise, and it was far away from me. 24Far away that which was and deep, deep—who can find it? 25I turned round in my heart to know and to inquire and seek wisdom and reckoning and to know foolish wickedness and mad folly. 26And I find woman more bitter than death. For she is all snares, and nets her heart, and fetters her arms. He who is good before God will escape her, and an offender will be trapped by her. 27See, this have I found, said Qohelet: one by one to find a reckoning. 28Further I sought and did not find—one man in a thousand I found, and a woman among all these I did not find. 29Except, see this I found: that God made men upright, but they sought many reckonings.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. Better a good name. This verse inaugurates a sequence of maxims cast in the traditional proverb form of “better x than y” (tov). The “good” before “name” is merely implied in the Hebrew.
and the day of death than the day one is born. Many commentators understand this to mean that one can never be sure of one’s good name until the end of life, but this makes Qohelet blander than he actually is. He begins with a rather anodyne proverbial saying, that a good name (shem) is better than precious oil (shemen), but then he goes on to say that departing life is better than entering it, for life itself, whatever one’s reputation, is a miserable affair from one end to the other.
2. carousing. The Hebrew mishteh literally means “drinking,” and feasting is also implied.
For that is the end of all men. This sentence essentially explains the preceding one: since our common fate is mortality, it is better to confront this bleak existential fact by going to the house of mourning rather than to try to evade it through revelry.
3. by a scowl the heart is gladdened. Some understand the expression yitav lev to mean “the heart is improved,” but tuv (as a verb) linked with lev, “heart,” means in biblical idiom to be in a happy mood. The paradox of gladness through grimness would have appealed to Qohelet’s sensibility.
5. than a man hearing. An emendation eliminates the slightly odd “a man.”
6. the sound of thorns. Most translations since the King James Version read “crackle,” which is more vivid but unfortunately is translation through embellishment. The Hebrew qol means simply “sound.” The idea is that the laughter of fools is grating, like the noisy sound of a quick-burning fire of thorns. The Hebrew uses a pun, sirim, “thorns,” and sir, “pot.”
7. oppression’s profit. Though the Hebrew merely says “oppression,” what is implied is the consequences of oppression, as “toil” may be either the activity or what is gained from it.
a bribe. While matanah usually means “gift,” in context it is an illicit gift.
10. Say not. This verse appears to record, as Seow has suggested, an exchange between Qohelet and his students. He would of course view this as a foolish (and nostalgic) question because in his philosophy things were never better—the same cycle of futility has always occurred.
11. Better wisdom with a legacy. Most interpreters construe this—again, blandly—to mean “better wisdom than a legacy,” but the Hebrew ʿim clearly means “with” and is not a term of comparison. The saying is another expression of Qohelet’s hardheaded practicality: wisdom is nice to have, but still better is wisdom with a good annual income.
12. For in wisdom’s shade is money’s shade. This follows from the previous verse. “Shade” probably means “shelter,” as it often does in biblical Hebrew: the security provided by wisdom will help one attain (or help one manage) the security provided by wealth.
14. one against the other. Life is an imponderable mixture of good fortune and misfortune, making it impossible for man to discern any pattern of meaning or purpose in it.
15. the righteous perishing. This declaration, of course, deliberately denies a fundamental assumption of Psalms, Proverbs, and other biblical books.
16. Do not be overrighteous. Any kind of excess, whether in righteousness or in evil, is a provocation of men and fate.
dumbfounded. The Hebrew tishomem could also mean something stronger, “devastated.”
18. this … the other. This cryptic formulation appears to refer to foolishness (though perhaps not to wickedness) and righteousness. This would be in keeping with Qohelet’s declaration that he has explored all realms of experience, foolishness and revelry as well as sober wisdom.
will get out of them all. This phrase is obscure. The attempt of many interpreters to align it with the rabbinic idiom that means to fulfill an obligation (yatsaʾ yedey) is unpersuasive because the component yedey is absent here. Perhaps the meaning is that the God-fearer will manage to escape the dire consequences of being either too righteous or too foolish.
19. is stronger. The Qumran fragment of Qohelet reads “will help,” a difference of one additional consonant in the Hebrew.
22. you, too, have reviled others. By introspection, we all recognize the ubiquitous impulse to be malicious, hence one is well advised not to eavesdrop on one’s servant’s conversation, for one is all too likely to hear distressing things.
23. it was far away from me. The reference is to wisdom.
25. reckoning. As several commentators have observed, this, like other elements in Qohelet’s lexicon, is a bookkeeping term.
26. I find woman more bitter than death. This misogynistic declaration is notorious, but the language of the rest of this verse and the next one makes clear that the kind of woman Qohelet has in mind is the seductress or “stranger-woman” who often appears in Wisdom literature (as, memorably, in Proverbs 5 and 7).
He who is good before God. That is, who finds favor before God.
27. one by one to find a reckoning. The formulation here makes clear the bookkeeping aspect of the idiom: Qohelet has sifted through experience, counted the sums of all the numbers, and this is what he has found.
28. and a woman among all these I did not find. Perhaps extrapolating from the case of the seductress, Qohelet extends the scope of misogyny: if only one honest man in a thousand can be found, there is no honest woman at all.
29. God made men upright, but they sought many reckonings. Human nature begins with the potential for honesty (“upright” is literally “straight”), but people pervert this potential by devising devious calculations, like wily accountants juggling figures in their books.
CHAPTER 8
1Who is like the wise man, and who knows a word’s solution? A man’s wisdom lights up his face, and the impudence of his face transforms it. 2Keep a king’s utterance as though it concerned a vow to God. 3Do not be hasty. From his presence you should go. Do not persist in a bad business. 4For whatever he desires, he may do, since a king’s word is power, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” 5He who keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the time of judgment a wise heart knows. 6For every happening has a time of judgment, for man’s evil is heavy upon him. 7For one knows not what will be, for what will be—who can tell of it? 8No man has power over the wind, to shut in the wind, and there is no power over the day of death, and there is no sending away from war, and wickedness will not make those who do it escape. 9All this have I seen and set my heart to all that is done under the sun, a time when man holds power over man to his harm. 10And so have I seen the wicked brought to the grave, and from a holy place they went forth, while those who did right were forgotten in the town. This, too, is mere breath. 11The sentence for an evil act is not carried out swiftly. Therefore the heart of the sons of men brims over within them to do evil. 12For the offender does evil a hundredfold and lives a long life, though I know, too, that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear His presence. 13And it will not be well with the wicked, and like a shadow, he will not live long, as he does not fear God’s presence. 14There is a thing of mere breath that is done on the earth—there are righteous to whom it befalls as though they did wickedly, and there are wicked to whom it befalls as though they did righteously. I said that this, too, is mere breath. 15And I praised merriment, for there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to make merry, and that will attend him in all his toil in the days of his life that God gives him under the sun. 16When I set my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, day and night my eyes saw no sleep. 17And I have seen every deed of God, that man cannot grasp the deed which is done under the sun, inasmuch as man toils to seek and cannot grasp it. And even if the wise means to know, he will not be able to grasp it.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. a word’s solution. “Word,” davar, could also mean “thing.” Pesher, “solution,” occurs only here in the Bible, though it is common in later Hebrew. It is cognate with patar, the verb used for Joseph’s solving the enigma of dreams, and would seem to suggest laying open a hidden meaning.
2. Keep a king’s utterance. This verse begins a series of purely pragmatic admonitions involving the dangers lurking in the corridors of power. The literal meaning of “king’s utterance” is “king’s mouth.” The Hebrew here is prefaced by the word “I,” which has no plausible syntactic linkage with anything that follows or precedes it. Since the two final letters of the last word of the previous verse are nun and aleph, and the first two letters of ʾani, “I,” are aleph and nun, this looks suspiciously like dittography and hence the word is omitted from the translation.
4. since a king’s word is power. The abstract noun shilton, recurrent in Qohelet, is linked to shalit of earlier biblical Hebrew, which means “ruler.” In Qohelet, it suggests the exercise of authority or power (the claim of some scholars that it means “proprietorship” dilutes its actual force).
5. command. The likely meaning in this passage is a royal command, not a divine commandment.
the time of judgment. The Hebrew is literally “time and judgment,” but some manuscripts delete the “and,” and even if one leaves it in the text, the expression could simply be a hendiadys. What is less certain is whether the time of judgment refers to the king’s judgment or to God’s. The context of this verse argues for the former—if you are so imprudent as to get yourself in trouble, the king’s judgment will catch up with you. The phrase in the next sentence might point to divine judgment, but it is perhaps best to construe both verses as addressing royal judicial power.
8. No man has power over the wind. Fox, Seow, and others construe ruaḥ in its other sense as “life-breath,” chief ly because of the reference to death in the next clause. That construction is unlikely because of the verb “to shut in” (or “imprison”), which is far more appropriate to the wind. The idea is that just as a man has no power to shut in the wind—which, as we recall, goes round perpetually to the four corners of the earth—no one has power over death.
sending away. The Hebrew mishlaḥat elsewhere means “delegation.” It may refer to sending a substitute or delegate (shaliaḥ)̣ for military service or, alternately, being released (one meaning of this verbal root) from service.
10. so have I seen the wicked brought to the grave. The received text reads, enigmatically, “I have seen the wicked buried and they came” (qevurim uvaʾu). This translation follows the Septuagint, which appears to have had a Hebrew text that read qevarim muvʾaim, a difference of two consonants in the second word.
holy place. At this late moment in the biblical era, the reference is probably to a synagogue, where the funeral was held.
This, too, is mere breath. In this particular instance, Fox’s contention that the idiom refers to absurdity in its existential sense is persuasive. The wicked are given a proper burial while the righteous are forgotten—nothing stands to reason in this world.
11. The sentence for an evil act is not carried out swiftly. This is another of Qohelet’s arguments with the moral calculus of Psalms. In many psalms, the speaker, confronted with the worldly success of the wicked, says that they flourish only for a moment and will soon suffer judgment. The empirical Qohelet, observing social and political realities, sees that the wicked often endure long in their success and in this way they actually encourage others to emulate their evil acts.
brims over. Literally, “is filled.” The idiom suggests presumptuous eagerness to do something.
12. a hundredfold. The form of the Hebrew meʾat is anomalous. This translation follows a long tradition in deriving the term from meʾah, “a hundred,” but others variously emend the word.
though I know, too, that it will be well with those who fear God. This seeming contradiction is perhaps best understood as a swing of feeling in an ambivalent Qohelet. He knows as a matter of observation that the wicked flourish with no sign of retribution, but he wants, desperately, to cling to the idea that there is nevertheless a divine moral order in which the righteous are rewarded and the wicked punished.
14. there are righteous to whom it befalls as though they did wickedly. Now Qohelet swings back to the other pole of his ambivalence—one might say, from moral hopefulness to unblinking observation.
15. I praised merriment. This particular affirmation of the pleasures of the senses is probably a response to the articulation of life’s moral absurdity in the preceding verses: because in this insubstantial fleeting existence of mere breath, we cannot make head or tail of any system of reward and punishment, now or later, we can do nothing better than to enjoy what is given to us.
16. day and night my eyes saw no sleep. The Hebrew says, incongruously, “his eyes saw no sleep” (literally, “with his eyes he saw no sleep”). This translation follows the proposal of several interpreters to emend the suffix of the Hebrew words for “eyes” and for “no” from the third person to the first person. The idea of sleepless pursuit of wisdom is surely appropriate to Qohelet’s repeated affirmation of his dedication to philosophical investigation.
CHAPTER 9
1For on all this I set my heart to sort out all this—that the righteous and the wise and their acts are in God’s hand. Neither hatred nor love does man know. All before them is mere breath. 2As all have a single fate, the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, and the clean and the unclean, and he who offers sacrifice and he who does not sacrifice, the good and the offender, he who vows and he who fears the vow. 3This is the evil in all that is done under the sun, for all have a single fate, and also the heart of the sons of man is full of evil, and mad revelry in their heart while they live, and afterward—off to the dead. 4For he who is joined to the living knows one sure thing: that a live dog is better than a dead lion. 5For the living know that they will die, and the dead know nothing, and they no longer have recompense, for their memory is forgotten. 6Their love and their hatred as well, their jealousy, too, are already lost, and they no longer have any share forever in all that is done under the sun. 7Go, eat your bread with rejoicing and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already been pleased by your deeds. 8At every season let your garments be white, and let oil on your head not be lacking. 9Enjoy life with a woman whom you love all your days of mere breath that have been given to you under the sun, all your days of mere breath, for that is your share in life and in your toil that you toil under the sun. 10All that your hand manages to do with your strength, do, for there is no doing nor reckoning nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going. 11I returned to see under the sun that not to the swift is the race and not to the mighty, the battle, nor to the wise, bread, nor to the discerning, wealth, nor to those who know, favor, for a time of mishap will befall them all. 12Nor does man know his time, like fish caught in an evil net and like birds held in a trap, like them the sons of man are ensnared by an evil time when it suddenly falls upon them. 13Wisdom, too, have I seen under the sun, and it is great in my eyes. 14There was a little town, and few people within it, and a great king came against it and went round it and built against it great siege-works. 15And there was found within it a poor wise man, and that person saved the town through his wisdom, but no one recalled that poor man. 16I said: Better wisdom than might, but the poor man’s wisdom is scorned and his words are unheard. 17The words of the wise gently said are heard more than the shout of the ruler among fools. 18Better wisdom than weapons, yet a single offender destroys much good.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. are in God’s hand. Though the formulation may sound unexceptionally pious, what is expressed is a sense of fatalism: even the wise and the righteous do not control their own destinies.
Neither hatred nor love does man know. The key term here is “know,” with the emphasis on understanding rather than on experiencing. Every person is of course acquainted with hatred and love but is not able to fathom the meaning or the sources of these powerful emotions.
All before them is mere breath. The Masoretic Text reads “All before them,” followed by a full stop, and then begins the next verse with “all.” Neither “all before them” standing alone nor the second “all” makes much sense. This translation follows the Septuagint and two other ancient versions in reading instead of the second “all,” hakol, “mere breath,” hevel, a difference of one consonant. The sentence then is coherent.
2. the bad. This word is absent in the Masoretic Text but appears in two ancient versions, and all the other positive terms in this verse have a matching negative term.
he who fears the vow. He is afraid to make a vow lest he be unable to fulfill it and suffer dire consequences. In this whole catalogue, Qohelet again stands in opposition to the biblical majority view: it makes no difference what a person does morally or ritually—the same fate of death awaits all. That idea is then vividly stressed in the next three verses.
4. joined. The translation follows the marginal qeri, which reads yeḥubar, instead of the text proper, which has yebuḥar, “chosen.”
knows. Literally, “has.”
a live dog. Dogs in ancient Israel were scavengers, not pets, and hence were despised.
7. Go, eat your bread with rejoicing. This exhortation to enjoy follows logically from the somber meditation on death’s inexorability that has preceded. If the same grim fate awaits us all, we are well advised to take advantage of the pleasures of this life while we have them.
God has already been pleased by your deeds. If you have been granted the good things of this life to enjoy—a loaf of bread, a jug of wine, white garments, a head of hair moistened with oil—that in itself is a sign that you have found favor in God’s eyes.
9. all your days of mere breath. Although some scholars regard the second occurrence of this phrase as an inadvertent scribal duplication, Qohelet throughout exhibits a stylistic fondness for this kind of incantatory repetition.
10. for there is no doing nor reckoning … in Sheol where you are going. It is possible that Qohelet’s uncompromising insistence on death as a realm of utter extinction is a polemic response to the new doctrine of an afterlife that was beginning to emerge toward the end of the biblical period.
11. for a time of mishap. The Hebrew ʿet upegaʿ, literally “time and mishap,” is in all likelihood a hendiadys, hence the translation. The phrase is probably an oblique reference to death. Qohelet is not saying that the fastest runner will lose the race or the mighty warrior will be defeated in battle but rather that all human triumphs are temporary and therefore illusory, for death obliterates everything.
12. Nor does man know his time. In consonance with the use of “time” in the previous verse, this means the time of death, as “evil time” later in the verse makes clear. The imagery that follows of trapped fish and birds then concretizes the sense of humankind caught in the grip of its fate of mortality.
13. great in my eyes. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “great to me.”
14. There was a little town. The features of this miniature narrative suggest that it is a hypothetical case rather than a historical anecdote. The whole story is a dialectic challenge to the celebration of wisdom in the preceding verse because it illustrates that if wisdom does not come from a prestigious source, it is liable to be ignored or forgotten.
15. there was found within it. The Hebrew appears to say “he found within it,” but as often is the case in biblical Hebrew, the third-person masculine singular is used in place of a passive verb.
and that person saved the town. Some interpreters understand the verb as a conditional, “that person might have saved the town,” linking this clause with “the poor man’s wisdom is scorned” in the next verse. However, the end of this sentence, “but no one recalled that poor man,” suggests that in fact he saved the town, but afterward his act was forgotten by the townspeople, who preferred not to think that their welfare had depended on the wisdom of a man of lowly status.
16. Better wisdom than might, but the poor man’s wisdom is scorned. Qohelet takes us through still another dialectic turn. Wisdom is a supreme value, but given society’s concern with status, if wisdom is not accompanied by prestige, it will have no audience.
18. yet a single offender destroys much good. This is another observation about the precariousness of the efficacy of wisdom. Wisdom may be more powerful than even the best of weapons, but a single reckless or irresponsible person can do great damage over which the calculations of wisdom have no control.
1A dead fly makes the perfumer’s oil chalice stink. Heavier than weighty wisdom is a bit of folly. 2A wise man’s mind is at his right, and the fool’s mind at his left. 3Even when the fool walks on the road, his mind is absent, and it says to all, he is a fool. 4If the ruler’s mood goes against you, do not leave your place, for calmness puts great offenses to rest. 5There is an evil I have seen under the sun, a true error that comes forth from the person in power. 6Folly is set on great heights, and the rich dwell down below. 7I have seen slaves on horses and noblemen walking like slaves on the ground. 8He who digs a pit will fall in it, and he who breaches a wall, a snake will bite him. 9He who moves stones will be hurt by them, and he who splits wood is endangered by it. 10If the iron is dull and he has not honed its edge, he will exert great effort. And the advantage of skill is wisdom. 11If a snake bites with no snake-charm, there is no advantage for the expert of incantations. 12The words of a wise man’s mouth bring favor, and the lips of a fool bring him ruin. 13The first of the words of his mouth are folly, and the last of them evil revelry. 14And the fool speaks many words. Man knows not what will be, and what will be after him, who can tell him? 15The toil of a fool wears him out, so that he knows not how to go to town. 16Woe to you, land, whose king is a lackey, and your princes dine in the morning. 17Happy are you, land, whose king is a noble, and your princes dine in fit time, in manliness, not in drunkenness. 18Through sloth the roof-beam sags, and through slack hands the house leaks. 19For food is set out for merriment and wine that gladdens the living. And money keeps everyone busy. 20Even on your couch revile not a king, and in your sleeping chambers revile not a rich man, for the fowl of the heavens will carry the sound and the wingèd thing will tell the word.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. A dead fly. The Hebrew, zevuvey mawet, seems to say “flies of death,” but if one moves the final yod at the end of the first word to the beginning of the second word, the consonantal text reads zevuv yamut (literally, “a fly that dies”)—the single fly that spoils the ointment.
chalice. With many analysts, this translation reads gaviʿa, “chalice,” for the puzzling yabiʿa (“bubbles”? or “ferments”?). A dead fly would not make oil ferment.
weighty. The form of the Hebrew mikavod is peculiar and syntactically awry, but the context argues for the sense of “weight,” one of the meanings of this root.
2. mind. The Hebrew is literally “heart,” thought to be the seat of understanding, but the context puts an emphasis on cognition, not feeling, and one must avoid the comic error of Molière’s physician despite himself, who places the heart on the right side.
4. mood. The basic meaning of the Hebrew ruaḥ is “spirit.”
5. a true error. “True” is added because the particle kaf before the noun is an indication of emphasis, not, as it is more commonly, of comparison.
6. Folly … the rich. This opposition, especially because of the second term, reflects Qohelet’s social conservatism. He accepts established hierarchies and thinks something is out of joint if the foolish (or the lowly) are on top and the wise (or the rich) on the bottom. A similar sentiment is expressed in the next verse in his dismay over slaves mounted on horseback.
8. He who digs a pit … he who breaches a wall. This maxim is purely prudential, much like what one finds in the Book of Proverbs: you have to be careful of the consequences of your actions. The walls were built of piled-up stones without mortar, so it was easy to make a small breach in which a snake could hide.
10. If the iron is dull. This is again prudential advice: if you don’t prepare your tools properly for the task to be performed, you will have a harder job.
the advantage of skill is wisdom. The Hebrew is equally cryptic. Some scholars revocalize hakhsher, “skill,” to yield hakasher, “the skilled man,” which mitigates the difficulty but does not remove it.
11. If a snake bites. This is a little obscure. The likely meaning is that if the snake charmer does not bother to practice his art before the snake bites, what good is his skill?
14. Man knows not what will be. The relevance in context of this reiterated idea is that since no one knows what will be, the chattering of the fool is all the more pointless.
15. so that he knows not how to go to town. The fool is so exhausted by his witless efforts that he ends up having no idea where he is headed. Fox cites an Egyptian saying, “does not reach the city,” that has the sense of “does not know where he is going,” and the expression here sounds like such a proverbial idiom.
16. lackey. The Hebrew naʿar means “lad” or “youth” but also by extension a servant or anyone in a subordinate position. The opposition to “a noble” in the next verse suggests that the sense of an underling is intended. Once again, Qohelet’s attachment to established social hierarchies is evident.
dine in the morning. They give themselves over to a life of irresponsible carousing at all times, again in contrast to the princes in the next verse. The implication is that a country ruled by a lackey will lose all sense of appropriate restraint and fall into a round of hedonistic merrymaking.
18. Through sloth. This is more prudential counsel in the spirit of the Book of Proverbs.
19. money keeps everyone busy. The verb here, yaʿaneh, most commonly means “answer” in biblical Hebrew, but as several recent commentators have argued, this verbal stem in Qohe-let’s distinctive vocabulary is associated with business, as in the reiterated noun ʿinyan, which means “business.” The evident idea here is that people may fling themselves into feasting and drinking, but their overriding preoccupation is money—which, among other uses, pays the bills for the carousing.
20. Even on your couch. The Hebrew noun madaʿ generally means “knowledge” (in modern Hebrew it is the term for “science”). Many modern interpreters construe it as “thought” or “mind”—an understanding already registered in the King James Version. But if a person is merely thinking nasty thoughts about the king without speaking them, how could the fowl of the heavens carry the sound? The parallelism between the two clauses here invites the emendation of madaʿakha, “your thought,” to matsaʿakha, “your couch.” Perhaps an emendation is not even necessary: Seow proposes that the “knowing” reflected in the root of the word is knowing in the sexual sense, which could make this an otherwise unattested term for the place where sexual intimacy is consummated.
1Send out your bread upon the waters, for in the long course of time you will find it. 2Give a share to seven and even to eight, for you know not what evil will be on earth. 3If the clouds fill, they will empty out rain on the earth. And if a tree falls in the south or the north, the place where the tree falls, there it will be. 4He who watches the wind will not plant, and who gazes on clouds will not harvest. 5As you know not the path of the life-breath into the limbs within the full womb, so you know not the deeds of God, Who does everything. 6In the morning plant your seed and at evening let your hand not rest, for you know not which will be fit, this one or that, or whether both be equally good. 7And light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. 8Should a man live many years, let him rejoice in all of them, and let him recall the days of darkness, for they will be many. Whatever comes is mere breath. 9Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart be merry in the days of your prime, and go about in the ways of your heart and what your eyes see. But know that for all these God will bring you to judgment. 10And remove worry from your heart, and take evil away from your flesh, for youth and the time of vigor are mere breath.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
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1. Send out your bread upon the waters. These words initiate a series of prudential maxims on how to conduct one’s life in the face of the unpredictability of events and their deterministic character that is beyond human control. The sending out of bread on the waters is surely not advice about overseas investments, as some commentators have imagined, but rather a didactic metaphor. The proposal of Rashi, Abraham ibn Ezra, and other medieval commentators that the reference is to acts of charity is perfectly plausible: perform acts of beneficence, for you never know when you yourself may benefit from having done them. The idea is then continued in the next verse: be generous to any number of people, for in the course of events you yourself may end up in need and enjoy a reciprocation of support from one of those you have helped.
3. If the clouds fill. The sense of this entire verse is that there is a system of strict causation in the structure of things, even though the second sentence puts this in terms that verge on tautology.
if a tree falls. This image conveys a sense of events occurring with an inevitability that, like trees in the forest, is not controlled by man.
4. He who watches the wind … who gazes on clouds. The good agriculturalist does not waste his time looking for signs of changing weather before he acts but plants at the fixed season (“a time to plant”) in the expectation of an eventual harvest.
5. into the limbs within the full womb. The “limbs,” ʿatsamim, are the body of the fetus. The Masoretic Text reads “like the limbs,” kaʿatsamim, but many Hebrew manuscripts as well as the Targum have, more plausibly, baʿatsamim, “into the limbs.” The received text also reads “the womb of the full one [that is, the pregnant woman],” which could be correct, but a change of the initial vowel from be to ba yields “the full womb” and enables the translation to reproduce the play on “fill” in verse 3. This may be the more likely reading because there are no other biblical instances of “the full one” as a synonym for a pregnant woman.
6. for you know not which will be fit. This is more prudential advice. Qohelet recommends that, given the uncertainty of future events, one would do well to diversify one’s investments, figuratively and perhaps literally.
7–8. light is sweet … recall the days of darkness. These moving words are another exhortation by Qohelet to enjoy the good things of this fleeting life while we still have it. As Nabokov movingly puts it in the opening sentence of Speak, Memory, “common sense tells us that our existence is but a crack between two eternities of darkness.”
8. Whatever comes is mere breath. It is unlikely that this refers to death, as some have claimed, because in Qohelet it is darkness that is associated with death, whereas “mere breath” is rather the futile substance of worldly experience. Whatever happens, then, in our lives is mere breath—fleeting, insubstantial, without meaning—and all we can do is to take pleasure in what seems pleasurable.
9. for all these God will bring you to judgment. It is tempting to follow the suggestion of many commentators who see this whole sentence as an editorial intrusion, perhaps from the same hand that was responsible for the epilogue of the book. It must be said, though, that Qohelet does sometimes entertain the idea of a God who judges every human creature, even if at other points “God” in his usage is close to “fate.”
10. take evil away from your flesh. “Evil” here does not carry a moral sense but means something like “harm,” “unpleasantness.”
the time of vigor. As a long exegetical condition assumes, the term shaḥarut probably derives from shaḥor, “black”—that is, the time of life when the hair is still black. (Others connect the word with shaḥar, “dawn,” though the dawn of life would be infancy, not youth.) This moment is evanescent, mere breath, for the gray hair and its attendant infirmities will soon come.
1And recall your Creator in the days of your prime, until the days of evil come, and the years arrive, when you will say, “I have no delight in them.” 2Until the sun goes dark, and the light and the moon and the stars, and the clouds come back after the rain.
3On the day that the guards of the house will quake
and the stalwart men be twisted,
and the maids who grind grow idle, for they are now few,
and those who look from the casements go dark.
4And the double doors close in the market
as the sound of the mill sinks down,
and the sound of the bird arises,
and all the songstresses are bowed.
5Of the very height they are afraid,
and terror is in the road.
and the locust tree is laden,
and the caper fruit falls apart.
For man is going to his everlasting house,
and the mourners turn round in the market.
6Until the silver cord is snapped,
and the golden bowl is smashed,
and the pitcher is broken against the well,
and the jug smashed at the pit.
7And dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the life-breath returns to God Who gave it.
8Merest breath, said Qohelet. All is mere breath.
9And more than being wise, Qohelet further taught knowledge to the people and weighed and searched out and framed many maxims. 10Qohelet sought to find apt words and wrote honestly words of truth. 11The words of the wise are like goads and like nails driven in—from the composers of collections, given from a certain shepherd. 12And more than these, my son, beware: of making many books there is no end, and much chatter is a weariness of the flesh. 13The last word, all being heard: fear God and keep His commands, for that is all humankind. 14Since every deed will God bring to judgment, for every hidden act, be it good or evil.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
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1. in the days of your prime. The stress on the evanescence of the years of vigor before decrepitude and death continues the theme of the last four verses of the previous chapter.
the days of evil. Again, the sense of “evil” is not moral but physical—when the body begins to fall apart.
2. the clouds come back after the rain. This seeming reversal of the order of nature is an indication of the personal catastrophe of aging: everything goes dark, and in this ultimate storm, the clouds continue to blanket the sky even after the rain—perhaps because (verse 3) the sense of sight is dimmed. As many commentators have noted, there is an affinity between the imagery here and some of the apocalyptic imagery of the Prophets.
3. On the day that the guards of the house will quake. The book of Qohelet proper aptly concludes with this haunting—and also mystifying—poem on the waning of human life and on impending death. The poem abounds in textual difficulties, and some of the references are ambiguous or simply unclear. A tradition of interpretation that goes back to Late Antiquity reads the poem as an allegory of the deterioration of the body, but as Fox and others have argued, the allegory, plausible for some of the images, breaks down elsewhere. The literal picture of a house, or an estate, in decay is eloquent in itself, and rituals of mourning are clearly enacted outside the house. At best, one may say that certain lines, but not others, also invite comparisons with parts of the aging body.
the maids who grind grow idle. Grinding grain with a hand mill would have been the work of female servants in an affluent ancient Near Eastern household. But the Hebrew feminine plural toḥanot could also suggest teeth (mostly fallen out here), and in later Hebrew it is in fact the word for molars.
those who look from the casements. The corresponding body part would be the eyes, feminine plural in Hebrew like this verb.
4. the sound of the bird arises. The Hebrew phrasing is obscure and has generated highly divergent interpretations. One possible understanding is that in the silence that falls as the maids cease their labor of grinding, the sound of a solitary bird—no cheerful songbird—stands out, and the songstresses on their part fall silent and are bowed low. The literal sense of “songstresses” is “daughters of song,” which has led some to construe the phrase as a reference to birds, but that would create a contradiction with the singular “sound of the bird.”
5. Of the very height they are afraid. The meaning of the Hebrew has been much debated. It is unclear whether “they” refers to old people or to the songstresses, but the idea seems to be that they are afraid in all directions, above and below.
almond … / locust … / caper-fruit. The allegorizers have exercised strenuous ingenuity on these lines (the almond blossom corresponding to white hair, the sagging locust to an impotent penis, and so forth). It is less strained to read these lines simply as images of the cycle of growth and decay in nature as man is about to depart from that cycle. The most puzzling reference is to the laden locust. Some see this as indicating a plant, not an insect (in fact a meaning carried by the English word as well); others detect a reference to the female locust heavy with eggs, after laying which she dies. Perhaps the least strained construction is a locust tree heavy with ripe fruit.
the mourners turn round. Here at the end of the book, Qohelet invokes the same verb he used repeatedly at the beginning for the futile cycle of the natural world and then for his own turning about in quest of wisdom.
6. the silver cord … / the golden bowl. Again, without allegory, precious things fall apart, like human life.
the pitcher is broken … / the jug smashed. Seow points to archaeological evidence that pottery was actually broken at burial sites as a sign of mourning. Galgal, “jug,” elsewhere usually means “wheel,” but here it is evidently related to gulah, the word used for “bowl.” The sense of “wheel” remains a possibility.
pit. The Hebrew bor is a pit, sometimes a well, but also a term for the grave or the underworld.
8. Merest breath, said Qohelet. In a gesture of tight closure, Qohelet repeats precisely the refrain with which he began the book.
9. And more than being wise. The strong consensus of scholarship is that the verses from here to the end of the text are an epilogue added by an editor, with the aim of bringing Qohelet’s radical vision in line with more conventional piety. Many interpreters construe the initial word, yoter, as “furthermore,” but that strains Hebrew usage, which clearly attaches yoter to shehayah Qohelet, literally, “than Qohelet was.” The stated idea as it is understood in this translation is plausible: Qohelet was not merely a sage but, one might say, a lecturing and publishing sage, one who gave public instruction and edited and formulated maxims.
further. Others construe this as “constantly.”
weighed. This verb derives from the word for “ear,” ʾozen, but only here does it appear in the piʿel conjugation. Many understand it as “listen,” but listening seems too passive for the other activities of compiling and formulating listed here. The verb could easily be connected with the word for “scales,” mʾoznayim, as it is in later Hebrew, where it means “balance” or “weigh.”
11. goads … nails. The images suggest that the words of the wise may sting or hurt, which seems especially apt for Qohelet.
from the composers of collections. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain, but a reference to anthologists or collectors of sayings is plausible in context. Syntactically, there is an ellipsis here, the sense being “[the words of the wise] from the composers of collections.”
given from a certain shepherd. Traditionally, this highly obscure phrase is understood as a reference to God (“from one Shepherd”). Fox and Seow both argue convincingly that the simile of the goad leads to a reference to an actual goad-wielding shepherd, and that ʾeḥad, “one,” is used here as it is sometimes used elsewhere as what amounts to an indefinite article. Nevertheless, this phrase is oddly detached in the syntax from the goads and nails.
12. chatter. The Hebrew lahag refers either to speech or to study, and the parallelism with making many books has encouraged many interpreters to opt for “study.” But the author of the epilogue, at once praising Qohelet and interposing a certain distance from him, wants to warn readers that all this writing, including Qohelet’s, may simply exhaust one and perhaps distract one from the simple duties of piety, so the sense of “chatter” has some plausibility. This is the regular meaning of lahag in later Hebrew.
13. The last word. The author of the epilogue is at pains to have the last word, which will neutralize the many subversive words Qohelet has uttered.
for that is all humankind. Though the King James Version’s interpretive “this is the whole duty of man” may catch the intention of the original, that rendering makes the clause sound more strictly didactic than it is, and it seems better to preserve the slightly ambiguous inclusiveness of the Hebrew.
14. every deed will God bring to judgment. Qohelet, too, at a couple of points expresses the idea that we are subject to God’s judgment, but this monitory flourish at the very end is an affirmation of the staunch piety with which the epilogist seeks to contain the more disruptive ideas of Qohelet.
OF THE SEVERAL BIBLICAL BOOKS that test the limits of the canon, Esther may well be the most anomalous. It is the only scriptural text of which no scrap has been uncovered at Qumran. The pious Dead Sea sectarians might well have looked askance at it not merely because it never mentions the name of God but also because its narrative world is fundamentally secular. The Jews of the Persian empire are said here to have different “rules” from their neighbors, but these rules—the Persian loanword dat is used, which means “regulation” or “governing decree”—are in no way identified as divine commandments, and issues of faith or covenant are not at all part of this story. Nor, quite notably, is the Land of Israel. The likely date of the book’s composition would be sometime late in the fifth century B.C.E. or perhaps slightly later: any date after the demise of the Persian empire in the fourth century is highly improbable because by then the fictional activities of a Persian court would have been of little interest to Hebrew audiences, and the abundant borrowings of Persian words would have been unintelligible. In all likelihood, then, the book was written not long after the return to Zion authorized by the Persian emperor Artaxerxes and led by Ezra and Nehemiah in the middle of the fifth century, but this momentous event does not exist for the author of Esther, who envisages life in the diaspora as a normal and even permanent condition.
The most unusual aspect of Esther, for a book that made it into the biblical canon, is that it offers strong evidence of having been written primarily for entertainment. It has variously been described as a farce, a burlesque, a satire, a fairy tale, and a carnivalesque narrative, and it is often quite funny, with sly sexual comedy playing a significant role. The portrait of King Ahasuerus and the Persian court makes no pretense of serious correspondence to historical reality, as the original audience surely must have known. The Persian emperors were famous for their tolerance toward ethnic minorities—a policy clearly enunciated in the Cyrus Cylinder—and so Ahasuerus’s accepting Haman’s plan to massacre all the Jews of the realm is a manifest fantasy. And though the repeated attention in the book to imperial bureaucratic procedure and the written document (ketav) as its principal instrument does reflect something about the Persian system of governance, and the emphasis on luxury and banquets also corresponds to what we know of the Persian court, there could have been no actual legal stipulation like the one mentioned here that all royal decrees were absolutely irrevocable.
Ahasuerus, although he consents to a genocidal scheme, is basically a well-meaning, often obtuse, figure of fun. He repeatedly has a dim sense of what is going on around him. In the early chapters, he barely speaks, instead following the counsel of his courtiers like a marionette, and to the end he is an easy mark for manipulation. The writer even introduces a couple of arch hints that may lead us to wonder about his virility as well as about his intelligence.
What could have motivated this sort of narrative invention? Political grounds for the satiric representation of a Persian emperor seem unlikely. Ahasuerus is assigned the role he plays because of the necessities of the gratifying national fantasy contrived by the writer. The reigning queen Vashti, unwilling to expose her female charms to the eyes of her husband’s drunken companions, must be removed, at the urging of one of those very companions, in order to make way for Esther, the beautiful Jewish commoner who becomes queen and saves her people. Her meteoric rise to royal grandeur, which then enables the ascent of her adoptive father Mordecai to the position of vice-regent, leans on the literary precedent of the Joseph story, as has often been observed. Here, however, the rags-to-riches story of Joseph is compounded by the threat to the lives of Mordecai, Esther, and all their people, and they must foil the plot of a nefarious enemy—said, altogether unrealistically, to be a descendant of Israel’s arch-enemies, the Amalekites—whom Mordecai at the end will replace as the king’s first minister.
Reversal is the key to the plot of Esther. In the first verse of chapter 9, this pattern is actually spelled out in two Hebrew words, wenahafokh huʾ, “on the contrary” or “it was the opposite.” Instead of Haman’s minions killing the Jews, it is the Jews who kill them. Instead of Mordecai’s being impaled on the stake that Haman has erected for him, it is Haman and then his sons who are executed and impaled. Instead of Haman parading in regal grandeur on the king’s own horse, it is Mordecai who is accorded that signal honor. And at the end, it is Mordecai, not Haman, who exercises power of the realm as vice-regent, adorned in regal finery. The carnivalesque character of the story is evident in all this. In the carnival, hierarchies are (temporarily) reversed; the lowly get to play the roles of those above them, typically through masks and costumes, as Mordecai, having donned sackcloth in the hour of impending disaster, appears at the end in indigo and white, a golden diadem, and a wrap of crimson linen. The penultimate chapter of the book is largely devoted to fixing the date and practice of the carnivalesque holiday of Purim (which generally falls in March, around the same time as Mardi Gras). While this chapter is often seen as an epilogue, it is quite possible that the entire story was invented in order to provide an as-if historical justification for a day of feasting and drinking and merrymaking, already embraced by the Jews, that has no warrant among the festivals stipulated in the Torah.
The peculiarities of the Book of Esther’s narrative world are matched by the peculiarities of its Hebrew style. As one would expect, it shows a number of the characteristics of Late Biblical Hebrew, with certain terms, as in other Late Biblical books, anticipating usages of the rabbinic Hebrew that would begin to emerge toward the end of the biblical period. But it should also be said that in contrast to other Late Biblical books, Esther exhibits a noticeable degree of stylistic looseness. Infinitives are often used where conjugated forms of the verb seem to be required, a procedure not evidenced elsewhere in Late Biblical Hebrew. Agreement between subject and verb is often ignored. The careful tense distinction of classical Hebrew between perfect and imperfect forms of the verb is entirely relaxed, and at some points the writer appears to be a little uncertain as to how to handle Hebrew verb tenses. And from time to time there are run-on sentences that sprawl over several verses without a great deal of syntactic coherence.
Yet, as novelists such as Balzac and Dreiser demonstrate, it is possible to tell a very effective story with a sometimes ragged style. The author of Esther, unlike his Hebrew predecessors in the First Commonwealth period, revels in catalogues of descriptive details and delights in invoking the pomp and luxury of the imperial court where Esther’s and Mordecai’s destiny of greatness will in the end be splendidly realized. Here, for example, at the very beginning, is the setting for the king’s “seven-day banquet in the garden court of the king’s pavilion—white linen, indigo cotton fastened with cords of fine crimson cloth on silver cylinders and marble columns, gold and silver couches on a paving of alabaster and marble, and mother-of-pearl and black pearl.” And beyond the descriptions, the writer deploys lively wit and an apt sense of comic timing in the dialogues that reveal a subtle Esther, a resolute Mordecai, a fumbling Ahasuerus, and a menacing but finally sputtering Haman. It is not hard to understand how this delightful story, devoid though it is of spiritual concerns and covenantal gravity, became canonical. It of course provided the warrant for a festive early spring celebration that few wanted to give up. But even apart from the holiday, as a story it was for its early audiences, as it would continue to be, both highly amusing and gratifying, at once a vivid satire and a tale of national triumph that offered to diaspora Jews a pleasing vision of safety from imagined enemies and a grand entrée to the corridors of power.
1And it happened in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus who was king from India to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. 2In those days, when Ahasuerus was seated on his royal throne which was in Shushan the capital, 3in the third year of his reign, he made a great banquet in his presence for all his ministers and his servants, the freeholders of Persia and Media, the noblemen and the ministers of the provinces, 4when he showed the wealth of his kingdom’s glory and the worth of the splendor of his greatness many days—a hundred and eighty days. 5And when these days had gone by, the king made a banquet for all the people who were in Shushan the capital, from the greatest to the least, a seven-day banquet in the garden court of the king’s pavilion—6white linen, indigo cotton fastened with cords of fine crimson cloth on silver cylinders and marble columns, gold and silver couches on a paving of alabaster and marble, and mother-of-pearl and black pearl. 7And drink was proffered in golden vessels and vessels of various kinds, an abundant royal wine in kingly fashion. 8And the drinking was according to royal rule, there was no compulsion, for thus had the king decreed to all the officials in his house, to let every man act according to his will. 9Vashti, too, made a banquet in the royal house that was Ahasuerus’s. 10On the seventh day, when the king was of good cheer through the wine, he said to Mehuman, Bizzetha, Hashbona, Bigetha, Agabtha, Zethan, and Carcas, the seven eunuchs who served in the presence of king Ahasuerus, 11to bring Queen Vashti before the king with the royal crown, to show her beauty to the peoples and the ministers, for she was comely to look at. 12And Queen Vashti refused to come according to the word of the king by the eunuchs, and the king was very furious, and his rage flared up within him. 13And the king said to the sages, experts in protocol, for thus was the king’s practice before all the experts in rule and law, 14and those closest to him were Carchena, Shethar, Admantha, Tashish, Meres, Marsena, and Memucan, the seven ministers of Persia and Media—15according to the rule, what to do with Queen Vashti because she had not obeyed the king’s dictate by the eunuchs. 16And Memucan said before the king and the ministers: “Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong but against all the ministers and all the peoples that are in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus. 17For the queen’s act will go out to all the women to hold their husbands in contempt in their eyes, when they will say, ‘King Ahasuerus said to bring Vashti before him and she did not come.’ 18And this very day, the noblewomen of Persia and Media will say to all the king’s nobles that they heard of the queen’s act, and there will be a full measure of contempt and fury. 19If it please the king, let the royal decree go out from before him and be written in the rules of Persia and Media, not to the transgressed, that Vashti not come into the presence of King Ahasuerus, and her queenship be given to another better than she. 20And let the king’s edict that he will issue be heard throughout his kingdom, large though it is, and let all wives accord worth to their husbands, from the greatest to the least.” 21And the thing was good in the eyes of the king and the ministers, and the king did according to Memucan’s word. 22And he sent out ministers to all the provinces of the king, to every single province in its own writing and to every single people in its own language, that every man should rule in his home and speak his people’s language.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. Ahasuerus. The name is derived from that of the Persian emperor called Xerxes by Herodotus. He reigned from 486 to 465 B.C.E. Beyond the name, there is scarcely any historical connection between the actual emperor and the king of this fantasy world of our text.
Cush. In all likelihood, this is Nubia, so the empire stretches from the southwest to the far northeast.
one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. This is the first in a series of flamboyant numerical exaggerations in the story.
3. freeholders. The Hebrew term ḥayil means “military force” but also refers to wealth, as in Ruth, and the latter meaning is more likely here.
4. a hundred and eighty days. The lavish banquet, then, for the royal bureaucracy goes on for approximately half a solar year. This does not seem to be an empire in which much business gets done.
5. for all the pseople. After the six months of royal feasting, the king prepares a second banquet just one week long for the general populace.
in the garden court of the king’s pavilion. Either the king did not want to give the throngs access to the palace proper, or there were so many of them that an open space was required. In any case, the garden with its pavilion accords well with all the imperial luxury.
6. white linen, indigo cotton fastened with cords of fine crimson cloth. This lengthy catalogue of sumptuous items is one of the markers of Esther’s distinctive style. There is nothing like it in the spareness of earlier biblical narrative. (The furnishings of Solomon’s temple and palace in 1 Kings are hardly the same thing because they constitute an inventory and are not an integral part of the narrative.)
indigo cotton … fine crimson cloth. The Hebrew appears to say “cotton and indigo,” “fine cloth and scarlet,” but it makes no sense to put two colors in a list of sumptuous fabrics, so both terms should be instances of hendiadys, two words joined by “and” that refer to a single concept.
black pearl. This is no more than an interpretive guess for the precious stone indicated by the Hebrew sohẹ ret.
8. And the drinking was according to royal rule. “Royal rule” incorporates the recurrent word dat, one of many Persian loanwords.
there was no compulsion. What this may mean is that according to royal practice, the guests were free to drink as little or as much as they chose, as the last phrase of the sentence indicates.
9. Vashti, too, made a banquet. The context suggests that this was a banquet for women alone.
10. the king was of good cheer. The Hebrew expression (literally, “when his heart was good”) regularly occurs in the Bible to express the elevated state caused by drinking.
Mehuman, Bizzetha. These seven Persian names—rather mangled in Hebrew transliteration—matched by the names of the seven ministers in verse 14, are part of the writer’s effort to endow his story with vivid Persian local color. There may also be an intended comic effect in the string of foreign names.
11. to show her beauty. The Midrash imagines this is an order for her to parade naked before the male revelers. This could conceivably be what actually is hinted, but even if it is not, the midrashic interpretation nevertheless enters into the carnivalesque spirit of sensuality and dissipation that characterizes the story.
13. experts in protocol. The literal meaning is “knowers of the times,” but the end of the verse argues for this sense. One notes that the sentence beginning here sprawls over three relatively long verses, another departure from the stylistic norms of First Commonwealth Hebrew narrative.
16. Not only against the king has Queen Vashti done wrong. This long speech of a courtier’s counsel stands in instructive contrast to the lack of any dialogue assigned to Ahasuerus up to this point. He is a man who likes to show off his riches and his wife’s beauty, and who likes to party, and who becomes furious when his wishes are thwarted. Beyond this, he exhibits scant sense of how to act and appears to be readily manipulable. Manipulation is precisely what Memucan proceeds to do through his shrewd rhetoric, playing on male solidarity and a male sense of vulnerability in the face of the rebellious wives. Thus Vashti is cast as a perverse woman who will subvert male authority throughout the empire.
18. And this very day. This choice of phrase makes it sound imperative for the emperor to take action against Vashti immediately.
contempt and fury. The contempt is that of the wives shown to their husbands. The fury may be the response of the husbands. In any case, Memucan conjures up a state of moral anarchy if uppity women are not put in their place.
19. go out. As with Vashti’s act of rebellion, things “go out,” radiate from the center in Shushan to the far reaches of the empire.
and be written in the rules of Persia and Media. Again, the key word dat appears. This satiric narrative is all about an elaborately rule-bound imperial bureaucracy, where as it will later emerge—against all historical plausibility—a royal decree once issued cannot be revoked.
20. edict. This is another Persian loanword intended to invoke the procedures and official channels of the Persian empire. The Hebrew form of the word, pitgam, would later come to mean “aphorism.”
be heard throughout his kingdom, large though it is. This is another instance of projecting power from the center at Shushan to the far ends of a vast empire. In fact, the difficulty of exercising royal power will be an important issue in the story.
accord worth. The Hebrew yeqar, one of numerous Aramaic usages in the story, means “worth,” “honor,” “respect.”
21. in the eyes of the king and the ministers. Evidently, Ahasuerus needs the express support of his courtiers before he can confidently embrace Memucan’s counsel or anybody’s.
22. in its own writing. This vast multiethnic empire would have incorporated groups with different systems of writing and, as the next phrase makes clear, different languages, and the emperor wants to make sure that his decree will be clearly understood wherever it is proclaimed, from India to Cush.
and speak his people’s language. This final phrase may be out of place, and, in fact, the sundry versions of the Septuagint simply omit it. However, it may mean that the husband, having heard the royal decree in his own language, proceeds to convey its contents to his wife in that language, which is presumably also her language, so that there should be no mistake about what has been decreed.
1After these things, when King Ahasuerus’s wrath subsided, he recalled Vashti and what she had done and what was decreed about her. 2And the king’s lads, his servants, said, “Let virgins comely to look at be sought out for the king. 3And let the king appoint officials in all provinces of his kingdom, and every young virgin woman comely to look at be gathered in Shushan at the women’s house by Hegai the king’s eunuch, keeper of the women, and let them be given unguents. 4And the 4 young woman who will be pleasing in the eyes of the king shall rule in Vashti’s stead.” And the thing was pleasing in the eyes of the king, and so did he do. 5There was a Jew in Shushan the capital, and his name was Mordecai son of Jair son of Shimei son of Kish, a Benjaminite man, 6who had been exiled from Jerusalem with the group of exiles that was exiled with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had exiled. 7And he became guardian to Hadassah, which is to say, Esther, his uncle’s daughter, for she had no father or mother. And the young woman was comely in features and comely to look at, and when her father and her mother died, Mordecai had taken her as his daughter. 8And it happened when the king’s word and his rule were heard, and many young women were gathered in Shushan the capital by Hegai, that Esther was taken into the king’s house by Hegai, keeper of the women. 9And the young woman was pleasing in his eyes, and she won favor before him, and he hastened to bring her unguents and her share of food to give to her and the seven young women who were fit to give her from the king’s house, and he singled her out and her young women for good treatment in the women’s house. 10Esther did not tell who were her people and her kin, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. 11And every single day Mordecai would go walking in front of the women’s court to know how Esther fared and what would be done for her. 12And when each young woman’s turn came to come to the king, at the conclusion of her having twelve months, according to the women’s rule, for thus would the days of their unguents be completed—six months in oil of myrrh and six months in perfumes and women’s unguents—13and in this fashion would the young woman come to the king, whatever she would say would be granted her to take with her from the women’s house to the house of the king. 14In the evening she would come, and in the morning she would go back to the women’s house again in the hands of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch, keeper of the concubines. She would not come again to the king unless the king desired her and she was called by name. 15And when the turn came of Esther daughter of Abihail, Mordecai’s uncle, whom he had taken as his daughter, to come to the king, she asked nothing but what Hegai the king’s eunuch would say. And Esther found favor in the eyes of all who saw her. 16And Esther was taken to King Ahasuerus, to his royal house, in the tenth month, which is the month of Teveth, in the seventh year of his reign. 17And the king loved Esther more than all the women, and she won grace and favor before him more than all the virgins, and he put the royal crown on her head and made her queen in Vashti’s stead. 18And the king made a great banquet for all his ministers and his servants, Esther’s banquet, and he granted relief of taxes for the provinces, and he gave gifts in kingly fashion. 19And when the virgins gathered a second time, with Mordecai sitting in the king’s gate, 20Esther was not telling who were her kin and her people, as Mordecai had charged her, and Esther did what Mordecai said, for she was under his guardianship. 21In those days, when Mordecai was sitting in the king’s gate, Bigetha and Theresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, of the guardians of the threshold, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 22And the matter became known to Mordecai and he told Esther, and Esther spoke to the king in Mordecai’s name. 23And the matter was searched out and found to be so, and the two of them were impaled on stakes, and it was written down in the Book of Acts before the king.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. when King Ahasuerus’s wrath subsided, he recalled Vashti and what she had done. These words may indicate ambivalence on the part of the king. His wrath has subsided, and he remembers Vashti, perhaps conscious of the fact that he remains without a queen, but he also remembers her disobedience. He may well be hesitant about what to do, which would then invite the detailed advice of his courtiers that begins in the next verse.
2. Let virgins comely to look at be sought out for the king. The pattern introduced in the first chapter is repeated here: others speak at considerable length while there is no reported speech for the king. This contrast creates the impression that Ahasuerus is a passive ruler, led around by his advisors.
3. and every young virgin woman comely to look at be gathered in Shushan. The fairy-tale character of the story becomes especially clear here. Every beautiful virgin from all the provinces of the vast empire is to be sought out and brought to the capital.
the women’s house. This is, of course, the royal harem, but the translation follows the Hebrew, which does not use a specialized term.
the king’s eunuch. Though the term saris often refers to a high-ranking official who has not been castrated, as in Genesis 39:1, putting actual eunuchs in charge of a harem was a general practice, for obvious reasons.
unguents The frequent choice by translators of “cosmetics” for this term is misconceived. Even in this fairy-tale world, putting on cosmetics for six months running (see verse 12) would be extremely odd. The idea is rather that the young virgins are steeped at length in substances that will make their bodies supple and fragrant.
4. the thing was pleasing in the eyes of the king. It is no accident that a phrase from the end of the courtier’s counsel to the king is repeated in the report of his response to the counsel: he is seen to be perfectly malleable to the words and advice of those around him in the court.
5. Mordecai son of Jair. His father has a good Hebrew name, but his own name is derived from that of the Babylonian god Marduk, a reflection of the degree to which the Judahites exiled to Babylonia had adapted themselves to the new culture. Similarly, Esther (who also is given a Hebrew name, Hadassah) has a name deriving from that of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar.
7. his uncle’s daughter. They are, then, first cousins. Although Mordecai assumes a paternal role, actually adopting the orphaned Esther, they are in fact, respectively, a younger and older member of the same generation—Esther perhaps in her late teens, Mordecai conceivably in his thirties.
comely in features and comely to look at. This doubling of the epithet for beauty may suggest that she is lovelier than all the other assembled virgins. The same double epithet is applied to Joseph (Genesis 39:6), and its use here probably signals the general allusion to the Joseph story: in both cases, we have an extraordinarily beautiful Hebrew who ends up in a position of grandeur and power in the royal court.
9. And the young woman was pleasing in his eyes. This is again like Joseph, who finds favor in the eyes of everyone he encounters (see Genesis 39:4 and 23).
10. for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. Mordecai does not hesitate to send his adoptive daughter to the king’s bed—that is clearly the culmination of the selection process for the new queen—and he calculates that her potential proximity to the throne might prove useful to their people.
11. Mordecai would go walking in front of the women’s court. He was of course prohibited from entering the harem.
12. six months in oil of myrrh and six months in perfumes and women’s unguents. This is another fantastic detail of the fairy-tale plot: each of these beautiful virgins spends a full year steeping herself in fragrant oil, perfumes, and unguents, so that when she comes to the bed of the king, her body will in every one of its cells be in a state of perfect erotic attractiveness.
14. In the evening she would come, and in the morning she would go back. The selection process, then, comes down to trial by sexual intercourse: with which of these virgins will the king be truly satisfied? The image of the king as an indefatigable sexual athlete bedding virgins night after night is intrinsically comic, but it is also undercut by a sly hint that points in the opposite direction.
again. The Hebrew sheni—seemingly “second”—looks odd. If it really modifies “house,” it should have a definite article in front of it, which it does not, and it would be strange for there to be two different harems. This translation emends the word to shenit, “again,” or “a second time.”
16. the month of Teveth. These names of the months, which became standard in later Hebrew usage, entered the language in the Babylonian period from the language of the surrounding culture.
17. And the king loved Esther more than all the women. The reason for his love is not spelled out. Perhaps it was just her winning ways, as indicated at the end of verse 15. But if sexual performance is the crucial test, how would one inexperienced virgin distinguish herself from the others? We are left wondering about this, but the arch double meaning of one detail at the beginning of chapter 5 raises the suspicion that this passive and not very competent king may have a problem with virility. If that is the case, the beautiful and understanding Esther might possibly be the one virgin who helps him overcome his difficulties.
21. became furious. This is the general meaning of the Hebrew verb qatsaf, and there is no evidence that it has a technical political sense, such as “became disaffected.” Something, then, that Ahasuerus has done or some general policy of the king infuriates the two eunuchs. In light of the figure Ahasuerus has cut, this would not be entirely surprising.
23. impaled on stakes. The Hebrew appears to say “were hanged on a tree,” but the historical evidence points to impalement, not hanging, as the customary form of execution in the ancient Near East. In many instances, the condemned person was put to death in some other fashion and his impaled body was then displayed as a form of humiliation.
it was written down in the Book of Acts. The Book of Acts, on the model of the designation repeatedly used in the Book of Kings, would be royal annals. The mention of the recording of the event prepares the background for the reading out loud of this episode to the insomniac king in chapter 6.
1After these things King Ahasuerus elevated Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite and raised him up and seated him higher than all the ministers who were with him. 2And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate would kneel and bow down to Haman, for thus had the king charged concerning him, but Mordecai would not kneel and would not bow down. 3And the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you flout the king’s command?” 4And it happened as they said this to him day after day and he did not heed them, they told it to Haman to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand, for he had told them that he was a Jew. 5And Haman saw that Mordecai was not kneeling and not bowing down to him, and Haman brimmed with wrath. 6And he scorned to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who Mordecai’s people were, and Haman sought to destroy all the Jews, Mordecai’s people, who were in all Ahasu-erus’s kingdom. 7In the first month, which is the month of Nissan, in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus’s reign, he cast a pur, which is a lot, for every day in the month and every month of the twelve, and it fell on the month of Adar. 8And Haman said to King Ahasuerus: “There is a certain people, scattered and separate from the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom, and their rules are different from every people’s and they do not observe the king’s rules, and it does not pay for the king to leave them in peace. 9If it please the king, let it be written to wipe them out, and ten thousand talents of silver will I measure out to the court overseers to bring into the king’s treasury.” 10And the king removed his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, foe of the Jews. 11And the king said to Haman, “The silver is yours and the people’s, to do with it as is good in your eyes.” 12And the king’s scribes were called together in the first month on its thirteenth day, and it was written as all that Haman had charged to the king’s satraps and the governors in every single province according to their mode of writing and to the ministers of every single people and every single province according to their language. In the name of King Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king’s ring. 13And missives were sent out by the hand of couriers to all the king’s provinces—to destroy, to kill, and to wipe out all the Jews, from young lad to old man, babes and women, on a single day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, and to take their spoils. 14A copy of the writing to be given as rule in every single province, manifested to all the peoples, to be ready for this day. 15The couriers went out rushed by the king’s word, and the rule was given out in Shushan the capital. And the king and Haman sat down to drink, and the city of Shushan was confounded.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. King Ahasuerus elevated Haman. No reason is given for this act. In light of the very bad character that Haman goes on to exhibit, the king’s decision to grant him special power suggests extremely poor judgment on the part of Ahasuerus.
the Agagite. Agag is the Amalekite king whom Saul is supposed to kill in 1 Samuel 15. Obviously, no one in the actual Persian court could have been related to the Amalekites, but the ethnic identification is introduced in order to align Haman with the traditional archenemies of the people of Israel.
2. all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate. These are all members of the court, probably high-ranking imperial officials.
but Mordecai would not kneel. The reason given for his refusal beginning in Late Antiquity is religious: as a Jew, he would not prostrate himself before flesh and blood. But that is not self-evident in the text, and Mordecai might well have personal or political motives, refusing to bow down to someone he despises and who he thinks is not entitled to be vice-regent.
4. to see whether Mordecai’s words would stand. The meaning of this clause is ambiguous. If the reason for Mordecai’s refusal to bow to Haman is religious—Jews don’t bow to people—then “for he had told him that he was a Jew” explains his action. Alternately, Mordecai may have categorically refused to bow without offering any religious justification. In that case, his stubborn refusal is compounded by the fact that he has announced his belonging to an ethnic group perceived as different.
6. Haman sought to destroy all the Jews. This resolution of genocide reflects the fairy-tale vehicle of the narrative and could scarcely represent an actual option of policy in the Persian empire, known for its toleration of minorities.
7. in the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus’s reign. Esther, then, would have been queen for five years at this point.
a pur. This is a Persian loanword, and thus it is immediately glossed by the Hebrew word for “lot,” goral. The Hebrew plural form of the word, Purim, becomes the name of the carnivalesque holiday for which the Book of Esther serves as rationale.
it fell on the month of Adar. Adar corresponds approximately to March, placing Purim around the same time as Mardi Gras and other carnivalesque festivals marking the end of winter. No day is given in this verse, though one version of the Septuagint shows “on the thirteenth day of the month,” and that phrase may have dropped out through an error in scribal transcription.
8. their rules are different. The Book of Esther reflects a repeated preoccupation with rules, appropriately using the Persian loanword dat. The royal court constantly issues rules that have to be strictly observed. The Jews have different rules, and they are called that, not “commandments,” and may well be ethnic practices rather than an absolutely religious regimen.
9. ten thousand talents of silver will I measure out. This is an extravagant amount, hundreds of tons of silver. Haman’s evident intent is to persuade the king to authorize the massacre by this huge gift to the royal treasuries, which is virtually a bribe. Haman would have had to be fabulously rich, which might be the reason Ahasuerus elevated him to the position of viceroy.
10. And the king removed his ring from his hand and gave it to Haman. In this, he confers full royal authority upon Haman to carry out his murderous plan.
11. The silver is yours. The king refuses the extravagant gift. Keep the silver, he says, and do with it whatever you want—perhaps large expenses will be incurred in carrying out the massacre throughout the vast empire.
12. according to their mode of writing. Just as different ethnic groups in the empire have different languages, they also use different scripts.
sealed with the king’s ring. This is the ring Ahasuerus gave to Haman.
13. to destroy, to kill, and to wipe out. The multiplication of synonyms for killing clearly emphasizes the total annihilation that Haman aims for.
and to take their spoils. This would be an additional motivation for the killers.
14. A copy of the writing to be given as rule. The term for “copy,” patshegen, is still another Persian loanword. The narrative bristles with language representing the punctilious observance of imperial bureaucratic procedure. The writer may well have been struck by the elaborate bureaucracy of the Persian empire, though needless to say, no such decree for the massacre of an entire population within the empire was ever issued.
15. And the king and Haman sat down to drink. While the couriers sent out by Haman are feverishly racing across the empire with the orders for the massacre, the king and Haman sit at their ease in the capital, drinking. Indeed, drinking is the chief activity in which we see the king engaged, both at the beginning of the story and afterward.
and the city of Shushan was confounded. The murderous decree, of course, would have been public knowledge, and the Jews of Shushan were to be massacred, just like the Jews elsewhere in the empire. The inhabitants of Shushan may not necessarily be sympathetic toward the Jews—after all, they have been enjoined by Haman’s decree to carry out the massacre and stand to gain from it the property of the victims—but it is nevertheless an act so extreme that it leaves them in a state of confusion. We have, then, three very different postures as the disaster looms: Haman and the king complacently drinking, the populace of Shushan confounded, and (implicitly) the Jews in a state of trepidation in the face of imminent destruction.
1And Mordecai knew all that had been done, and Mordecai rent his garments and donned sackcloth and ashes and went out into the city and cried out loudly and bitterly. 2And he came as far as in front of the king’s gate, for one could not enter the king’s gate in clothing of sackcloth. 3And in every single province, where the king’s word and his rule 3 reached, the Jews were in great mourning—and fasting and weeping and dirges, sackcloth and ashes were laid out for the multitudes. 4And Esther’s young women and her eunuchs came and told her, and the queen was badly shaken. And she sent garments to clothe Mordecai and to remove his sack-cloth from him, but he did not accept them. 5And Esther called to Hatach, of the king’s eunuchs whom he had stationed before her, and she charged him concerning Mordecai to find out what was this and for what was this. 6And Hatach went out to Mordecai in the city square that was in front of the king’s gate. 7And Mordecai told him all that had befallen him and the matter of the silver that Haman had meant to weigh out to the king’s treasuries for the Jews, to wipe them out. 8And the copy of the writing of the rule that was given out in Shushan to destroy them he gave him to show to Esther, to tell her, and to charge her to come to the king to plead with him and to entreat him for her people. 9And Hatach came and told Mordecai’s words to Esther. 10And Esther said to Hatach and charged him to convey to Mordecai: 11“All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that every man and woman who comes into the inner court without having been called, the single rule is to put to death unless the king reach out to him the golden scepter. And as for me, I have not been called to come to the king thirty days now.” 12And they told Esther’s words to Mordecai. 13And Mordecai said in response to Esther: “Do not imagine to escape of all the Jews in the house of the king. 14For if you indeed remain silent, relief and rescue will come to the Jews from elsewhere, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether for just a time like this you have attained royalty?” 15And Esther said in response to Mordecai, 16“Go, assemble all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast on my behalf, and do not eat nor drink three days, night and day. And I, too, with my young women, shall fast in this fashion. And so, I shall come to the king not according to rule, and if I perish, I perish.” 17And Mordecai moved on and did all that Esther had charged him.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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2. And he came as far as in front of the king’s gate. Though some of the Hebrew usage in Esther is a little slack, here the writer’s choice of phrase is quite precise: Mordecai makes his way toward Esther as far as he can come, which is the square in front of the palace, but he can go no farther because of his unseemly garments.
3. fasting and weeping and dirges. Facing destruction, they undertake a fast, a customary procedure to entreat God in a moment of collective distress, but in this thoroughly secular tale no turning to God is mentioned. Mordecai on his part is not yet reported to be fasting, only crying out bitterly.
sackcloth and ashes were laid out. The verb used here usually refers to making up a bed. Perhaps in this case it applies to clothing, or the meaning might be that the people slept in bedding of sackcloth and ashes.
4. she sent garments to clothe Mordecai. She would like to speak to him face-to-face, but he can enter the palace only if he removes his sackcloth and puts on proper clothing.
5. to find out what was this and for what was this. Her inquiry is puzzling, for having been informed of Haman’s decree, she surely knows why Mordecai has put on the garb of mourning. Perhaps she simply wonders why he needs to adopt this particular outward expression of grief and, evidently, to persist in it.
6. And Hatach went out to Mordecai. The introduction of an intermediary suggests a potential distance or division between the adoptive father and his adoptive daughter, and, in fact, a certain tension will emerge in the exchange between them.
7. the matter of the silver that Haman had meant to weigh out. Although the king had refused this offer and so it might seem moot, Mordecai cites Haman’s readiness to pay a vast fortune as a reflection of his utter determination to wipe out the Jews—literally at any price.
8. the copy of the writing of the rule. This is not only another expression of the story’s preoccupation with imperial bureaucratic procedures but is also a piece of “documentary evidence” of the dire decree with which Mordecai wants to confront Esther.
10. charged him to convey to Mordecai. The Hebrew uses an elliptical expression, “charged him to Mordecai.”
11. All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know. The knowledge of this court practice is universal in the empire, so Mordecai must surely be quite aware of it. His urging Esther, then, to go before the king, she suggests, might well lead to her instant death.
the single rule is to put to death. Josephus vividly imagines court officials armed with axes standing by the king, ready to chop off the head of anyone who presumes to enter the royal presence uninvited.
unless the king reach out to him the golden scepter. This is obviously a gesture symbolizing the conferral of royal favor. But in light of the sexualized atmosphere of the tale, and the oblique hint of a question about royal sexual performance in the nightly testing of the beautiful virgins, it seems legitimate to suggest that a sexual double meaning is lurking here: if the phallic royal scepter is extended when the queen appears, she will know that she is in the king’s good graces.
And as for me, I have not been called to come to the king thirty days now. Her very wording emphasizes the length of this period. It is surely a long time to leave a beautiful young wife neglected in the women’s quarters. From what we know about Ahasuerus, he is unlikely to have been preoccupied with affairs of state. Could the flagging of interest in Esther be the result of uncertainty about his sexual capability?
13. Do not imagine to escape of all the Jews in the house of the king. This response, through the mediation of Hatach, is close to a rebuke: don’t think an exception will be made for you and that you will be able to save your own skin. In fact, Esther’s Jewish identity is not known in the court, but Mordecai seems to imply that somehow Haman’s ruthless henchmen will ferret it out.
14. relief and rescue will come to the Jews from elsewhere. The early rabbis understood this to be God, but the expression is quite vague, and as throughout the book, God is not mentioned.
16. fast on my behalf. This is slightly odd because they are already fasting. The difference may be that the fast is now to be especially on behalf of Esther, who is about to endanger her life for her people, and it is also a very long fast—three whole days and nights.
and if I perish, I perish. These words express a kind of stoic resolution: I know I have to do this, however dangerous; if I succeed, it will be a great triumph, but otherwise, I am prepared to accept my grim fate.
1And it happened on the third day that Esther donned royal garb and stood in the inner court of the king’s house opposite the king’s house, with the king sitting on his royal throne in the royal house opposite the entrance to the house. 2And it happened when the king saw Queen Esther standing in the court, that she found favor in his eyes, and he reached out to Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand, and Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter. 3And the king said to her, “What troubles you, Queen Esther, and what is your request? Up to half the kingdom, and it will be granted to you!” 4And Esther said, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him.” 5And the king said, “Hurry to Haman to do Esther’s bidding.” And the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared. 6And the king said to Esther at the wine banquet, “What is your petition, and it will be granted to you, and what is your request? Up to half the kingdom, and it will be done!” 7And Queen Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request, 8if I have found favor in the eyes of the king and if it please the king to grant my petition and to fulfill my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them, and tomorrow I shall do according to the king’s bidding.” 9And Haman went out that day happy and of good cheer, and when Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and he had not arisen and had not stirred for him, Haman brimmed with wrath against Mordecai. 10And Haman held himself in check and came to his house, and sent and brought his friends and Zeresh his wife. 11And Haman recounted to them the glory of his wealth and his many sons and all in which the king had elevated him, and how he had raised him up over the noblemen and the servants of the king. 12And Haman said, “Queen Esther brought with the king to the banquet that she prepared only me, and tomorrow, too, I am invited by her with the king. 13But all this is not worth my while so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting in the king’s gate.” 14And Zeresh his wife together with all his friends said to him, “Let them set up a stake fifty cubits high, and in the morning say to the king that Mordecai be impaled on it, and come with the king to the banquet happy.” And the thing pleased Haman, and he set up the stake.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. the third day. This is obviously at the end of three days of fasting decreed by Esther. The narrative will now swiftly move from fasting to feasting.
donned royal garb. As a counterpoint to Mordecai’s sackcloth, which prevents him from entering the palace, Esther is careful to put on her queenly robes, and perhaps a crown as well, when she enters the throne room unbidden. The word “royal,” malkhut, is repeated as a designation (not strictly necessary) of the throne, highlighting this meeting as an encounter between king and queen.
opposite the entrance to the house. Thus, as Esther approaches the inner court, she can see the king and vice versa.
2. she found favor in his eyes. However much he has neglected her during the past thirtythree days, the sight of beautiful Esther in her splendid royal robes stirs feelings of affection in him.
he reached out to Esther the golden scepter. This is the crucial gesture signaling his favorable acceptance of her uninvited appearance.
Esther approached and touched the top of the scepter. The literal sense is “head of the scepter.” A sexual undermeaning here is not to be excluded.
3. What troubles you. The king sees that his royal consort is agitated about something. Shrewdly, she does not reveal the source of her agitation yet but instead extends a social invitation.
Up to half the kingdom. Ahasuerus, feared by Esther as a distant royal husband who might sentence her to die, is suddenly, as he beholds his beautiful wife, extravagantly uxorious in what he is prepared to give her. Once again he is easily manipulated. But all she asks is that he agree to be her dinner guest.
4. to the banquet that I have prepared. Counting on a favorable response, she has actually prepared the feast before coming to the king. Time, of course, is an urgent consideration because the date of the scheduled massacre is approaching. Lavish banquets are the very language of this Persian court. The story began with banquets, and now a pivotal moment will take place through one banquet leading to a second one.
5. Hurry to Haman to do Esther’s bidding. An invitation to a private feast with the queen and king would of course be very attractive to Haman. Nevertheless, he is seen “to do Esther’s bidding,” manipulated in a scheme she has devised.
6. the wine banquet. This designation, which is new in the story, suggests that drinking is even more important than eating at these regal banquets. The wine will put the king in “good cheer.”
8. let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I shall prepare for them. Esther lulls Haman into a false sense of security and also leads the king for the moment to imagine she may have nothing to ask of him but attendance at another lavish “wine banquet.” She also wants to make sure that the king will be in a receptive mood by plying him with drink and food on two successive days.
and tomorrow I shall do according to the king’s bidding. She saves this for the end of her response: Yes, I do have a further request, which the king has bidden me to state, and I shall announce it at the feast on the morrow.
9. happy and of good cheer. He is obviously happy to think himself the special object of the queen’s favor, and “of good cheer,” here as elsewhere, indicates the euphoric mood induced by drinking. But a moment later, the sight of Mordecai not deigning to arise in deference to his presence (not to speak of his refusal to bow down to the king’s ministers) will change his good mood to wrath.
10. Haman held himself in check. He does not want to rant and rage in public but waits until he returns home, when he can consult his intimates about a plan of revenge.
11. Haman recounted to them the glory of his wealth. Haman’s wealth is surely a familiar story (one recalls the immense treasure he was prepared to offer the king), but he cannot resist bragging about it to his household and his friends.
and his many sons. Throughout the Bible, and in ancient Near Eastern culture in general, producing many sons is a sign, like wealth, of having achieved successful standing in the world. The sons, each given a name, will appear at the end of the story in their humiliating public execution.
and all in which the king had elevated him. Here he reverts to what was reported in 3:1. Again, Haman is bragging about something everyone knows.
12. only me. On top of all the grand things Haman has just enumerated, he has just now been the object of the queen’s unique favor.
with the king. This phrase, occurring twice here in Haman’s boast, expresses his self-gratifying illusion that he has been placed virtually on par with the king.
13. sitting. That is, Mordecai’s refusal to rise in defiance.
14. And Zeresh his wife together with all his friends said to him. It is unclear whether Haman expected to elicit this vengeful proposal from them or whether he was turning to them for a suggestion about how he should practically implement his anger against the defiant Mordecai. In any case, the murderous counsel they offer him indicates that he is a man who keeps very bad company.
a stake fifty cubits high. This would be roughly sixty feet high—higher, in fact, than the palace itself. The height, like much else in the story (the hundreds of beautiful virgins, the vast sum Haman is prepared to give Ahasuerus) is altogether hyperbolic, an expression of Haman’s rage against Mordecai rather than a practical stipulation of how a corpse should be publicly displayed.
in the morning. This would be the morning of the very day on which Haman has been invited to a second banquet by Esther, who, unbeknownst to him, is Mordecai’s kinswoman and adopted daughter.
impaled. As before, the term probably indicates that the person is to be executed first and then the body exposed for humiliation on the high pole.
come with the king. Zeresh aptly picks up on the phrase her husband has used twice, recognizing that it expresses his gratified sense of uniquely privileged closeness to the throne.
happy. Just as he came out of the first banquet happy at having been accorded such special social honor in the court, he will enter the second banquet happy that he has just destroyed his hated enemy.
1That night the king could not sleep, and he ordered to bring the annals, the Book of Acts, and that they be read to the king. 2And he found it written that Mordecai had told about Bigetha and Theresh, the two eunuchs of the king, the guardians of the threshold, who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3And the king said, “What honor and grandeur were done for Mordecai on account of this?” And the king’s lads, his attendants, said, “Nothing was done for him.” 4And the king said, “Who is in the court?” And Haman had come into the outer court in the king’s house to say to the king to impale Mordecai on the stake that he had readied for him. 5And the king’s lads said to him, “Look, Haman is standing in the court.” And the king said, “Let him come in.” 6And Haman came, and the king said to him, “What should be done for the man whom the king desires to honor?” And Haman said in his heart, “To whom would the king desire to do honor more than to me?” 7And Haman said to the king, “The man whom the king desires to honor, 8let them bring royal raiment that the king has worn and a horse on which the king has ridden, and set a royal crown on his head, 9and give the raiment and the horse into the hands of a man of the king’s nobles, the courtiers, and let them dress the man whom the king desires to honor and ride him on the horse through the city square and call out before him, ‘Thus shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.’” 10And the king said to Haman, “Hurry, take the raiment and the horse as you have spoken, and do this for Mordecai the Jew, who is sitting in the king’s gate. Omit nothing from all you have spoken.” 11And Haman took the raiment and the horse and dressed Mordecai and rode him on the horse through the city square and called out before him, “Thus shall be done to the man whom the king desires to honor.” 12And Mordecai returned to the king’s gate, and Haman was thrust back to his house, mournful and distraught. 13And Haman recounted to Zeresh his wife and to all his friends what had befallen him. And his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, “If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, before whom you have begun to fall, you shall not prevail over him but you shall surely fall before him.” 14While they were still speaking, the king’s eunuchs arrived and hastened to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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1. could not sleep. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “his sleep wandered.” This vivid expression became the standard idiom for insomnia in later Hebrew. The king’s sleeplessness at this juncture in the plot is a narrative convenience, so that he can discover Mordecai’s act of loyalty when the annals are read to him, but the insomnia might be “motivated” by his excited curiosity about what Esther will reveal to him at the banquet the next day.
4. Haman had come into the outer court … to say to the king to impale Mordecai. It is now early in the morning, and Haman has arrived bright and early so that he can proceed promptly to the execution of Mordecai before the banquet later in the day. Everything that follows is the unfolding of a series of comic reversals: the man whom Haman thinks he is about to kill proves to be the man whom the king honors; Haman himself, the comic villain, instead of being the object of royal honor, as he imagines, is forced into the humiliating role of honoring the very man he hates.
6. What should be done. As before, Ahasuerus is at a loss to know what to do—surely an appropriate means of honoring Mordecai should not have been beyond him—and again turns for counsel to someone in his court. The advice Haman gives him will prove to be Haman’s own comeuppance.
To whom would the king desire to do honor more than to me? This delusion is entirely in keeping with the self-congratulatory frame of mind in which he reported to his wife and intimates his grand social success in being invited to a private banquet by the queen.
8. royal raiment that the king has worn and a horse on which the king has ridden. Haman’s delusions of grandeur bring him dangerously close to claiming the throne for himself, as the Midrash properly recognizes: he wants raiment, horse, and crown that are not merely regal but that the king has actually used, thus putting himself in metonymic contact with the body of the king—in a way, becoming the king. All this royal grandeur, of course, will be accorded instead to his enemy Mordecai.
9. courtiers. The Hebrew uses still another Persian loanword, partemim. Such linguistic “local color” is appropriate since Haman would have made fluent use of all the set designations for the sundry officials in the Persian court.
Thus shall be done. The repetition of this entire clause in verse 11, without variation, makes it a kind of refrain in this episode. The implementation of the king’s desire to honor a particular man will be carried out, item after item, but the object of the honor will not be the one whom the grandiose deviser of the honor imagines.
10. Hurry. The element of hastening is prominent throughout this swiftly paced tale. Haman hurries to the palace first thing in the morning in order to get royal authorization to impale his enemy as soon as possible. Ahasuerus hurries to carry out Haman’s plan for according honor, perhaps mindful of the fact that he has a banquet to attend later in the day. At the end of this episode, the king’s eunuchs hurry to bring Haman, fresh from his public humiliation in honoring Mordecai, to the banquet.
who is sitting in the king’s gate. This neutral observation on the part of the king touches on what galls Haman, that the seated Mordecai has refused to stand in deference to him.
Omit nothing from all you have spoken. This stipulation provides a rationale, in the king’s own command, for the exact repetition in the language of the narrative report, of everything Haman has proposed. The one item that is in fact omitted is placing the crown on his head—perhaps, one may surmise, because the king himself does not mention it, thinking that this would be going too far.
12. Mordecai returned to the king’s gate. Mordecai’s sitting in front of the palace is a kind of vigil. He continues to wait and see how things will fall out for his threatened people, and all the regal honor just accorded him has not turned his head or deflected him from this task.
13. If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews … you shall not prevail over him. This response is scarcely in keeping with their counsel on the previous day to impale Mordecai, but it reflects the nationalist comic fantasy that is the vehicle of this story. Haman has already identified Mordecai to them as “the Jew.” Now they appear not entirely certain whether he is of Jewish stock, but if he is, they are convinced that he is destined to defeat Haman because they recognize some special indomitable power in “the seed of the Jews.” That recognition was not in evidence when they advised Haman to have Mordecai executed.
14. hastened to bring Haman to the banquet that Esther had prepared. The banquet is also a trap for Haman. He is, then, rushing from humiliating frustration to fatal defeat, on the verge of “falling” before the seed of the Jews, as his wife and councillors have just predicted.
1And the king and Haman came to drink with Esther. 2And the king said to Esther again on the second day of the wine banquet, “What is your petition, Queen Esther, and it will be granted you? Up to half the kingdom and it will be done!” 3And Queen Esther answered and said, “If I have found favor in the eyes of the king, and if it please the king, let my life be granted me in my petition and my people’s in my request. 4For we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be wiped out. And had we been sold to be male slaves and slavegirls, I would have remained silent, for the foe is not worth bothering the king.” 5And King Ahasuerus said, and he said to Queen Esther, “Who is it and where is he, whose heart has prompted him to do this?” 6And Esther said, “A man foe and enemy, this evil Haman.” And Haman was terrified before the king and the queen. 7And the king arose in his wrath from the wine banquet to the pavilion garden, and Haman stood to plead for his life to Queen Esther, for he saw that the evil was fixed against him by the king. 8And the king came back from the pavilion garden to the house of the wine banquet, and Haman was fallen on the couch where Esther was, and the king said, “Is it also to force the queen with me in the house?” The word had scarcely issued from the king’s mouth, and Haman’s face turned pale. 9And Harbona, one of the eunuchs, said before the king, “Look, there is actually a stake that Haman has prepared for Mordecai, who spoke good on behalf of the king, standing in Haman’s house, fifty cubits high.” And the king said, “Impale him on it.” 10And they impaled Haman on the stake that he had readied for Mordecai, and the king’s wrath subsided.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. came to drink. At this second feast, the primacy of drinking is made clear at the outset, and in the next verse the social occasion will be immediately designated as “the wine banquet.” It may be a calculation of Esther’s to ply Ahasuerus with drink in order to be sure that he is especially favorably disposed toward her when she makes her shocking revelation.
2. What is your petition. In contrast to the general technique of earlier biblical narrative, which is to introduce small but significant changes in what looks like verbatim repetition, the Book of Esther uses exact repetition as a kind of narrative refrain, much like the framestory of Job, another Late Biblical composition.
3. let my life be granted me. When she finally states the content of her petition, she does it with strategic effort, pointedly startling the king by saying that her own life is in imminent danger, something he had no reason to suspect. In the immediately following sentence, she adds “my people,” now revealing to him for the first time that she is a Jew. On the evidence of the subsequent narrative events, that revelation does not trouble him.
4. we have been sold. The sense of the idiom is “given over,” but she may also be alluding to the extravagant price in silver that Haman offered in order to secure permission to kill the Jews, and actual sale will be at issue when she mentions the hypothetical alternative of slavery.
to be destroyed, to be killed, and to be wiped out. These verbs pick up the language of the genocidal decree devised by Haman. They also reflect the rather loose Hebrew grammar of this text, for classical Hebrew would require passive infinitive forms, but active infinitives (“to destroy,” “to kill,” “to wipe out”) are used here.
for the foe is not worth bothering the king. Some understand tsar, “foe,” to mean tsarah, “trouble,” but this same word is picked up in verse 6 to designate Haman.
5. And King Ahasuerus said, and he said to Queen Esther. Adele Berlin has proposed that the repetition of the verb “said” is meant to indicate hesitation on the king’s part. Such usage, however, would be unique in biblical narrative; there may be a scribal error here, perhaps a simple inadvertent duplication (dittography). Some scholars emend the first “he said” to “hurried,” a verb that in Hebrew shares two of three consonants with the verb for “said.”
where is he. The Hebrew could also be construed as “who is he” (a mere repetition), but there is probably an ironic effect in the king’s asking (clueless, as usual) where the scoundrel is when he is standing before him.
6. A man foe and enemy, this evil Haman. Esther continues to weigh her utterances shrewdly, saving the revelation of the would-be murderer and his stigmatizing label for the end of her speech.
7. And the king arose in his wrath from the wine banquet to the pavilion garden. He is so furious after discovering that his most trusted minister has plotted to kill his queen that he scarcely knows what to do—at many instances he scarcely knows what to do—and so he walks out into the garden to pace back and forth. This is, of course, also a narrative convenience, so that Haman can be alone with Esther.
8. Haman was fallen on the couch where Esther was. The guests at the wine banquet would have been reclining on couches. Haman has prostrated himself on Esther’s couch in pleading for his life. But the verb “fall” makes this a literal realization of Zeresh’s dire prophecy, “You shall surely fall before him” (in this case, not before Mordecai but before his adoptive daughter).
Is it also to force the queen with me in the house? The sexual comedy of the Book of Esther becomes particularly acute at this moment. Ahasuerus, seeing Haman sprawled out on Esther’s couch, briefly imagines that his first minister is attempting to rape the queen, in the king’s very presence. The misapprehension may be sharpened by his own uneasy awareness that he has failed to invite the beautiful queen to his bedchamber for a month. One should also keep in mind that to sexually possess the king’s consort is to lay claim to the throne, as Absalom does in cohabiting with David’s concubines on the palace roof in full view of the people. Such presumption to kingship accords with Haman’s frustrated plan to wear the king’s raiment and crown and ride the king’s horse.
turned pale. The precise meaning of the Hebrew term is in dispute, but it clearly indicates that he is distraught.
9. Look, there is actually a stake that Haman has prepared for Mordecai. Again, it is someone in the court, in this case one of the palace eunuchs, who needs to propose to the king an appropriate course of action. In the fairy-tale logic of this narrative, that action is a neat reversal: the very instrument of the would-be executioner is used to execute him.
10. And they impaled Haman on the stake. In the rapid pace of this narrative, justice is immediately carried out, perhaps on the same day.
and the king’s wrath subsided. Haman’s murderous project, which would have involved the death of the queen, would have to be seen by Ahasuerus as an act of base betrayal on the part of his most trusted minister, so the king’s anger abates only when Haman is put to death.
1On that day King Ahasuerus gave to Queen Esther the house of Haman, foe of the Jews, and Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told what he was to her. 2And the king removed his ring that he had taken away from Haman and gave it to Mordecai, and Esther placed Mordecai over the house of Haman. 3And Esther spoke once again before the king and fell at his feet and wept and pleaded with him to take away the evil of Haman the Agagite and his scheme that he had hatched against the Jews. 4And the king reached out the golden scepter to Esther, and Esther arose and stood before the king. 5And she said, “If it please the king and if I have found favor before him and if the thing be fit before the king and I be pleasing in his eyes, let it be written to turn back the missives, the scheme of Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, which he wrote to destroy the Jews who are in all the king’s provinces. 6For how could I behold the evil that would befall my people and how could I behold the destruction of my birth-kin?” 7And King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, “Look, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have impaled on a stake for his having laid hands on the Jews. 8And as for you, write concerning the Jews what is good in your eyes in the king’s name, and seal it with the king’s ring, for a writ that has been written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring one cannot turn back.” 9And the king’s scribes were called together at that time, in the third month, which is the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day therein, and it was written as all that Mordecai had charged to the Jews and to the satraps and the governors and the ministers of the provinces from India to Cush, one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, every province according to its own mode of writing and every people according to its language, and to the Jews, according to their system of writing and according to their language. 10And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with the king’s ring and sent missives by the hand of couriers on horseback riding mail-horses bred of swift steeds: 11That the king has granted to the Jews who were in every single city to assemble and defend their lives, to destroy, and to kill and to wipe out the whole force of every people and province that was assaulting them, even children and women, and to take their booty, 12on a single day, in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, 13the copy of the writ to be given as a rule in every single province, manifest to all the peoples, and for the Jews to be ready for this day to take vengeance of their enemies. 14The couriers riding the mail-horses went out rushing urgently by the king’s command, and the rule was given out in Shushan the capital. 15And Mordecai came out before the king in royal garb, indigo and white, and a great golden diadem and a wrap of crimson linen. And the city of Shushan was merry and rejoicing. 16For the Jews there was light and joy and gladness and honor. 17In every single province and in every single city, where the king’s command and his rule reached, there was joy and gladness for the Jews, banquet and holiday, and many of the peoples of the land were passing as Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. and Mordecai came before the king. Repeatedly, the writer is careful to use the preposition “before,” rather than “to,” in relation to the king because a person comes before—that is, into the presence of—the august personage of a monarch. This is the first moment in the story when Mordecai and Ahasuerus actually meet.
for Esther had told what he was to her. This crucial revelation on her part was not previously reported in the narrative but is introduced now in order to explain Mordecai’s appearance before the king.
2. And the king removed his ring. The passing of the signet ring, token of conferral of the king’s power on its bearer, marks the neatly antithetical reversal of positions—Haman is now dead, and Mordecai assumes the position he had enjoyed.
3. And Esther spoke once again. The king would assume that he has granted her all she could want, but now she has still another urgent petition. If Ahasuerus were more alert, he might have understood on his own that there remains a grave problem because of the irreversibility of the royal decree.
4. And the king reached out the golden scepter to Esther. Since she has already been granted the privilege to present her petition to the king, she fears that this new request will seem presumptuous and be rebuffed, so again she needs the extending of the golden scepter as the sign that the king has granted her permission to speak.
Esther arose and stood before the king. Since she has prostrated herself in supplication, she needs to rise in order to speak.
5. let it be written. As previously in the story, scrupulous attention is paid to empirical bureaucratic procedure enacted through written documents. The verbal stem k-t-b and its cognate noun ketav (in its two senses of “script” or “mode of writing” and “writ”) are emphatically repeated.
7. Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew. She, too, is a Jew, as she has now made perfectly clear, but in the eyes of Ahasuerus her royal status remains primary, and the identifying title “Queen” is repeated in the story again and again.
Look, I have given the house of Haman to Esther, and him they have impaled. Ahasuerus, perhaps with a small hint of impatience, notes that he has already done a great deal for Esther and her kinsman, but in the next verse he goes on to say that he will leave it to them to deal with what remains a sticky situation.
8. for a writ that has been written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s ring one cannot turn back. This crucial point is distinctly part of the fantasy world reflected in the plot of this book. The Persian empire—and indeed any empire—could scarcely have been governed on the basis of absolutely irrevocable decrees. That supposition, however, enables another of the story’s symmetrical antitheses: just as Haman sent out written decrees to the far reaches of the empire to destroy all the Jews, Mordecai now will send out written decrees authorizing the Jews to attack and kill their would-be destroyers.
9. from India to Cush. As at the beginning of the book, we are reminded of the vastness of the empire.
10. And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus. The king has enjoined both Esther and Mordecai to implement the writing of messages bearing the full authority of the throne, but in the event, it is Mordecai, quickly assuming the powers of vice-regent and equipped with the king’s signet ring, who does the writing, or rather, instructs the scribes to write the documents in all the different languages of the realm.
riding mail-horses bred of swift steeds. The exact meaning of the three unusual terms for horses (at least one of them a Persian loanword) is unclear, but there is an evident implication that they are fast horses. Herodotus noted the speed and efficiency of the Persian imperial mail system.
11. to assemble. Perhaps previously they had been denied the right to assemble, which would mean to group forces in self-defense.
to destroy, and to kill and to wipe out. These are precisely the terms used in Haman’s plan to extirpate the Jews.
even children and women. “Even” has been added in the translation to clarify the meaning. The annihilation of the entire population—again what Haman had envisaged for the Jews—is, needless to say, horrendous, though it accords with the practice of ḥerem, the total “ban,” that was not uncommon in ancient Near Eastern warfare and that figures prominently in Joshua, a text our writer may have in mind here.
14. rushing urgently by the king’s command. The king’s command in itself imparts urgency to their mission, but they need to hurry in order to bring the royal message to distant parts of the empire before the day appointed for the destruction of the Jews. The hurrying also reinforces the overall breakneck speed of the narrative.
and the rule was given out in Shushan the capital. This clause needs to be added so that we will be sure to know that the decree was also promulgated in Shushan, where there was no necessity to send out mounted couriers.
15. And Mordecai came out before the king in royal garb. This is an obvious realization of Haman’s fantasy that he should be dressed in royal garb, and now, in Mordecai’s case, it is going to be his habitual attire as vice-regent, not merely the finery worn for a ceremony to honor him. In chapter 6, the king quietly deleted Haman’s inclusion of the crown in his list of royal accoutrements. Here Mordecai is said to wear an ʿatarah, “diadem,” which is nearly a crown but perhaps a bit less than keter, the word Haman used. Behind Mordecai’s being clothed in regal garments (earlier he was in sackcloth) lies the Joseph story, in which the former Hebrew prisoner is dressed by Pharaoh in regal clothing after he is invested with power as vice-regent.
the city of Shushan was merry and rejoicing. This reiterated theme at the end of the story accords with its carnivalesque character and with its aptness as the founding narrative of a carnivalesque holiday, Purim.
17. banquet and holiday. The story that began with banqueting ends with banqueting. In all its recurrent cases, the term used is mishteh, which emphasizes drinking (and intoxication will become a theme of the holiday of Purim). The Hebrew for “holiday,” yom tov, occurs only here in the Bible in this sense, thought it will become the standard term for “holiday” in rabbinic Hebrew.
were passing as Jews. The verb here is the reflexive form of the root y-h-d, yehudi, “Jew.” It is unlikely that it means conversion to Judaism, as it would in later Hebrew, because there was no procedure of religious conversion in the fifth century B.C.E. and also because the Book of Esther shows not the least concern with religion. What the verb seems to imply in context is that the sundry peoples pretended to be Jews, or perhaps aligned themselves with the Jews, in order to avoid attack.
for the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them. This sweeping military triumph of the Jews is not presented in any way as a miracle, but it is clearly another element of fantasy in this fantastic tale, as Adele Berlin notes, underlining its carnivalesque genre. The Jews, after all, were a small minority in the Persian empire, and the authorization by the emperor for them to take up arms against their assailants does not plausibly mean that they could overwhelm their enemies and strike terror among them. This turnabout, then, is a resolution of the fairy-tale plot: the beautiful queen has successfully interceded to save her people; the tables are turned on those who meant to wipe out the Jews; and as the great victory is celebrated, a Jew in royal finery becomes first minister to the king.
1On the twelfth month, which is the month of Adar, on the thirteenth day therein, when the king’s command and his rule came to be enacted, on the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to dominate them and, on the contrary, it was the Jews who dominated their foes, 2the Jews assembled in their cities in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought to do them harm, and no man could stand before them, for the fear of them had fallen on all the peoples. 3And all the ministers of all the provinces and the satraps and the governors and those who carried out the king’s tasks were raising up the Jews, for the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them. 4For great was Mordecai in the house of the king, and his fame was going about through all the provinces, for the man Mordecai was becoming ever greater. 5And the Jews struck down all their enemies with a blow of the sword and with killing and destruction, and they did to their enemies what they willed. 6And in Shushan the capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men. 7And Parshandatha and Dalphon and Aspatha 8and Poratha and Adalia and Aridatha, 9and Parmashta and Arisai and Aridai and Vaizatha 10the ten sons of Haman son of Hammadatha foe of the Jews did they kill, but they did not lay hands on the spoil. 11On that day, the number of the slain in Shushan the capital came before the king, 12and the king said to Queen Esther, “In Shushan the capital the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men and the ten sons of Haman, and in the rest of the king’s provinces, what have they done? And what is your petition, and it will be granted to you, and what more is your request and it will be done!” 13And Esther said, “If it please the king, let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan tomorrow as well to do according to today’s rule, and let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on stakes.” 14And the king spoke to have it done thus and to have a rule given out in Shushan and to impale Haman’s ten sons. 15And the Jews who were in Shushan assembled as well on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in Shushan, but they did not lay hands on the spoils. 16And the rest of the Jews who were in the king’s provinces assembled and defended their lives and had respite from their enemies and killed their foes, seventy-five thousand, but they did not lay hands on the spoils, 17on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar, with respite on the fourteenth day therein, and they made it a day of banqueting and rejoicing. 18And the Jews who were in Shushan assembled on the thirteenth day therein and on the fourteenth day therein, with respite on the fifteenth day therein, and they made it a day of banqueting and rejoicing. 19Therefore do the village Jews, who dwell in unwalled towns, make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar rejoicing and banqueting and holiday and the sending of portions of food to each other. 20And Mordecai wrote down these things and sent missives to all the Jews who were in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, near and far, 21to fix for them that they should make the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and the fifteenth day therein every single year 22like the days when the Jews had respite from their enemies, and the month that was turned for them from sorrow to joy and from mourning to holiday, to make them days of banqueting and rejoicing and sending of portions of food to each other and gifts to the poor, 23and for the Jews to accept all that they had begun to do and that Mordecai had written to them. 24For Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite foe of the Jews had schemed against the Jews to destroy them and had cast a pur, which is a lot, to panic them and to destroy them. 25And when she came before the king, he said, with the missive, “Let the evil schemes that he hatched against the Jews turn back on his own head.” And they impaled him and his sons on stakes. 26Therefore have they called these days Purim, by the name of the pur. Therefore by all the words of this epistle and what the king had seen concerning this and what had come upon them, 27the Jews fixed and accepted for themselves and for their seed and for all who joined with them, never to be violated, to make these two days, as they were written and according to their time, in every single year, 28and that these days should be remembered and done in every generation, clan by clan, province by province, city by city, and that these days of Purim should not pass away from the midst of the Jews, and their remembrance should not come to an end from among their seed. 29And Queen Esther daughter of Abihail with Mordecai the Jew wrote with full authority to confirm this Purim epistle once more. 30And missives were sent to all the Jews, to the hundred twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, words of peace and truth, 31to fix these days of Purim in their times as Mordecai the Jew and Queen Esther had fixed for them, and as they had fixed for themselves and for their seed just as they had fixed for themselves matters of fasts and their supplication. 32And Esther’s dictum fixed these matters of Purim and was written out in a missive.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. on the contrary. This expression—in the Hebrew, wenahafokh huʾ, “and it was the opposite”—makes verbally explicit the entire series of neatly antithetical reversals with which the story concludes.
2. the Jews assembled. As before, the verb suggests a drawing together of forces for effective military action against the assailants.
3. for the fear of Mordecai had fallen upon them. As Berlin aptly notes, while the populace fears the armed weight of the Jews, the high-ranking officials of the imperial bureaucracy fear Mordecai because they see that he has been given extraordinary power in the court. This point is underlined in the next words of the text, “For great was Mordecai in the house of the king.”
4. his fame was going about. The writer makes abundant use of what amounts to a progressive tense, relatively rare in earlier biblical Hebrew, to indicate an unfolding process.
the man Mordecai. This epithet is unusual, and the writer may have in mind the char-acterization in Exodus of Israel’s great lawgiver as “the man Moses.”
6. five hundred men. Though biblical narrative typically uses highly inf lated casualty figures, this one sounds plausible: the fighting in Shushan appears to have involved only a few thousand, with five hundred slain. Perhaps the proximity to the palace discouraged large numbers from attempting to implement the murderous decree of the disgraced and executed Haman.
7. And Parshandatha and Dalphon. The writer seems to revel in this sheer Persian foreignness of all these names, as elsewhere he delights in studding his Hebrew with Persian loanwords.
10. but they did not lay hands on the spoil. The decree promulgated by Mordecai in fact allowed them to take the booty, but they choose to limit themselves to killing their enemies in self-defense. Berlin proposes that this gesture is a reversal of King Saul’s taking spoils from the Amalekites ruled by Agag, Haman’s putative ancestor (1 Samuel 15).
12. in the rest of the king’s provinces, what have they done? Fox and Bernard Levinson see in this question a satiric jab at the king, who is more concerned as he speaks to Esther with body counts than with whether her people has been saved. But the question may also reflect Ahasuerus’s habitual ignorance about what is going on around him: Do those fallen number only a few hundred here and there, as in Shushan, or many thousands? Why he thinks Esther should have a command of the casualty figures is a puzzle.
And what is your petition. The king mechanically repeats the formula he has used twice before in speaking to Esther, though it is unclear why he should think she has still another petition. Has the feared monarch become an uxorious husband, constantly asking his wife what he can do for her?
13. let it be granted to the Jews who are in Shushan tomorrow as well. The narrative logic of this request is not altogether evident because after the five hundred killed and the killing of Haman’s ten sons, it is not terribly likely that there would be further attacks on the Jews in the capital. Some scholars have proposed that the rationale for the request is etiological—to provide an explanation for the fact that this new carnivalesque holiday was in some places celebrated for two days.
let Haman’s ten sons be impaled on stakes. They have already been killed, so this is a clear indication that impalement often followed execution, as a means of humiliating the dead by exposing their bodies.
16. had respite from their enemies. This expression evokes an older Hebrew idiom that indicates the state of calm and relief after the consummation of a military victory.
seventy-five thousand. Now the number of fallen enemies moves to the kind of hyperbolic scale one would expect in ancient narrative.
17. and they made it a day of banqueting and rejoicing. The grounding of the new holiday in this story is now pointedly emphasized, with a careful stipulation of the day in Adar when it is to be observed. As before, the word for “banquet” or “banqueting” highlights drinking.
19. Therefore. The Hebrew ʿal-ken is a standard locution for introducing etiologies. Virtually everything that follows is a kind of epilogue that explains how the festival of Purim came to be celebrated on this date.
the village Jews, who dwell in unwalled towns. In practical terms, this would eventually apply to almost all Jews, who therefore celebrate the holiday one day only. The sole clear candidate for a currently inhabited city that was walled in ancient times is Jerusalem, where a second day of Purim, called “Shushan Purim,” is observed.
20. And Mordecai wrote down these things and sent missives. The preoccupation of this narrative with the sending of written documents as the instrument for carrying out policy continues to the end of the story. One should note that this verse initiates a sprawling run-on sentence that goes all the way to the end of verse 23. This is an especially egregious example of the syntactic looseness of the book’s Hebrew style.
25. And when she came before the king. The referent of “she” would be Esther. Some interpreters read this as “it” (Hebrew has no neuter pronoun), referring to Haman’s plot or news of his plot, but that construction is problematic because there is no noun in the preceding sentence, feminine or otherwise, that could serve as antecedent to the proposed “it.”
with the missive. This phrase ʿim hasefer is rather obscure and may reflect a scribal error. The word sefer, “missive,” “document,” or “scroll,” occurs so frequently that it would not be surprising if a scribe inadvertently repeated it here out of place.
27. the Jews fixed and accepted. The language in these closing verses is pointedly legalistic: the Jews enter into a binding agreement that they will scrupulously observe the terms of their new holiday for all time. The writer is treading on dangerous ground because he is arguing for the legitimacy of a holiday that has no warrant among the sundry festivals listed in the Torah. Consequently, he wants to make it clear that there is national consent for all the conditions of this newly minted holiday. One might note that no religious justification is given for the holiday: it is not commanded by God but instituted to commemorate the people’s victory over those who sought to destroy it.
for all who joined with them. Though some see these as the Persians who “passed as Jews,” it is more likely that the expression refers to fellow travelers of the Jews, Judaizing foreigners who are probably not quite formal converts. The anonymous prophet of the return to Zion (Isaiah 56:3 and 6) uses this same verb in this sense.
28. that these days of Purim should not pass away from the midst of the Jews. The phrasing here continues the terminology of binding legal agreement for the establishment of the holiday.
29. Queen Esther daughter of Abihail. She is so identified here near the end of the book to underscore her Jewish lineage—she is both queen of Persia and daughter of Abihail.
30. And missives were sent. The Hebrew appears to say “and he sent missives,” but the third-person singular verb is often used as the equivalent of a passive (somewhat like the on construction in French).
words of peace and truth. This is the literal sense of the Hebrew, a collocation that occurs a few times elsewhere. It may well be a hendiadys, meaning something like “true peace.” After all the violence, real peace would indeed be welcome.
31. matters of fasts and their supplication. The literal sense of the word rendered as “supplication” is “cry,” as the King James Version shows. The mention of fasts and supplication at the end of this festive narrative may seem at least momentarily puzzling. The point is that just as the Jews have been punctilious in observing their sundry fast days, they are now to be equally punctilious in celebrating this holiday of merrymaking. The introduction of this comparison between somber and joyous holidays accords nicely with the previously mentioned transition “from sorrow to joy, from mourning to holiday.”
32. Esther’s dictum … was written out in a missive. The first noun, maʾamar, suggests speech, something said, but as throughout the book, it takes on the full weight of authority only when it is written out in a scroll or missive, sefer. The fact that here it is Esther, not Mordecai, who has the decree written reinforces the understanding that in verse 29 it is Esther who does the writing (the Hebrew grammar indicates “she wrote”), with Mordecai merely reinforcing her effort.
1And King Ahasuerus imposed forced labor on all the land and on the coastlands. 2And all the acts of his authority and his might and the account of Mordecai’s greatness to which the king raised him, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Media and Persia? 3For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus and great over the Jews, in favor with his many brothers, seeking the good of his people and speaking peace for all its seed.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. forced labor. In the ancient Near East, conscripting subjects for service in corveés was a common form of taxation. The notation of the king’s taxation at the end looks a little odd, but it is perhaps introduced to indicate that after the violent upheavals caused by Haman’s nefarious plot, Ahasuerus imposed order on his realm and took steps to ensure its economic stability.
the coastlands. In later Hebrew, ʾiyey hayam means “islands of the sea,” but in biblical usage it refers to far-flung places that may be either along the shore of the Mediterranean or actual islands. Here the idiom stands instead of phrases used earlier for the vast extent of the empire.
2. are they not written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Media and Persia? The wording of this entire verse pointedly imitates a recurrent formula in the Book of Kings, where it refers to one of two actual sets of annals, those of the kings of Judah and Israel, respectively. This is an effort to impart an effect of authentic history to a narrative that is actually woven of fantastic invention.
3. its seed. Many interpreters understand this as “his seed.” But a declaration at the very end of Mordecai’s status and virtues would surely not conclude by saying that he looked after his own offspring. Rather, he seeks the good of his people and creates conditions of harmonious existence for all its posterity.
Daniel is surely the most peculiar book in the Hebrew Bible. It is also clearly the latest. Whereas the dating of most biblical books is no more than a series of rough approximations, often hotly debated by scholars, it is almost certain that the second half of Daniel was written between 167 and 165 B.C.E. because it refers in detail to the persecutions initiated by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his suppression of the Temple cult in those years and to no subsequent events. Given this late date, it is not surprising that Daniel more closely resembles the apocalyptic texts of the Apocrypha and of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written around the same time or a little afterward, and the Book of Revelation in the New Testament, which draws on Daniel, than any similarity to earlier biblical books.
The apocalyptic vision of history has abundant anticipations in the Hebrew Prophets, but it is a similarity with crucial differences. The Prophets, whose usual vehicle of expression was biblical poetry with its system of intensifications from one part of the line to the next and, often, from one line to the next, sometimes conjured up a landscape of catastrophe in which the world would revert to the state of chaos that obtained before creation or, alternatively, imagined a landscape of redemption in which all peoples would come to Mount Zion to imbibe the LORD’s teaching. But these prophecies, however extravagant, were ultimately dystopian or utopian visions of some actual historical future, cast in vivid poetic hyperbole. The writer of Daniel, on the other hand, seems to be pushing toward a notion of an era that will come at the end of familiar historical process, something he thought to be imminent after the intolerable violations by Antiochus IV that his people were then suffering. The prospect of the resurrection of the dead, certainly new to biblical writing in such a literal form, is an intrinsic element in this end-time, when all things would radically change.
In regard to literary form as well, Daniel is quite different from previous biblical literature. There are narrative segments in the first seven chapters but no real characters of the sort we encounter in the earlier biblical books. Daniel and his three friends are little more than exemplary figures of piety, without nuance or psychology, who are moved by the writer through miracle stories that make manifest to all the supreme power of their God. Daniel himself, beyond being the object of miraculous intervention, operates as the interpreter of visionary dreams and, in the last half of the book, as the one to whom vision is vouchsafed. As a high-ranking courtier interpreting the dreams of a king, he is of course modeled on Joseph in Pharaoh’s court, but again this is a similarity with a difference. Pharaoh’s dreams, like Nebuchadnezzar’s here, are a communication from God about what will befall his kingdom, and Joseph then proposes that certain measures can be taken to avert the disastrous consequence of what is about to unfold. In Daniel, no such human intervention is possible because the dreams and the visions are part of an inexorable deterministic system—a hallmark of the apocalyptic view. Daniel seems less an interpreter than a decipherer of divine codes, which sometimes have a numeric aspect, in which the details of God’s plans for humankind are encrypted. It is no wonder that both Christians and Jews used the Book of Daniel as their point of departure for intricate calculations about the end of days. In the Christian canon, Daniel is placed with the Prophets because, from his purported location in the Babylonian Persian period, he prophesies what will happen in future times. The Hebrew Prophets, however, although they evoke future possibilities, are for the most part not strictly predictive, and certainly not in the minutely circumstantial way we find in Daniel. The placement of Daniel in the Jewish canon in Ketuvim, or Miscellaneous Writings, is more in keeping with the anomalous nature of this text.
The other unusual feature of the book is that it is written in two languages. The opening is in Hebrew—the first chapter and the four initial verses of chapter 2. At this point, the text switches to Aramaic, the language in which it continues uninterrupted until the end of chapter 7. The rest of the book is in Hebrew. By this late date, Aramaic had for the most part replaced Hebrew as the Jewish vernacular. It was by then the established language of international diplomacy in the Near East, and the Aramaic used here is the so-called imperial Aramaic, somewhat more formal and different in certain usages from the rabbinic Aramaic that was emerging, in which the Talmud and much of the Midrash would be written over the next few centuries. Aramaic is a Semitic language closely cognate with Hebrew, the distance between the two languages being something like the distance between French and Italian. Grammatical structures are analogous, and many primary terms in the two languages are the same, only slightly different in form. Thus, Hebrew melekh, “king,” is matched by Aramaic malkaʾ; Hebrew leḥem, “bread,” by Aramaic laḥmaʾ. Many other terms are distinctively Aramaic, though, for understandable reasons, hundreds upon hundreds of these words would be absorbed into the evolving rabbinic Hebrew, and some Aramaic loanwords already appear in the poetry of Job and in Esther, though, for a reason I shall explain, hardly at all in the Hebrew of Daniel.
The Hebrew of this book is in fact even stranger than its quasi-narrative form and its apocalyptic character. This Hebrew writer (there might have been more than one) was clearly quite familiar with the Pentateuch and the Prophets, but it is hard to say what else he might have known of earlier Hebrew Scripture. He manifestly sought to make his own Hebrew sound Prophetic (though perhaps “vatic” might be a more appropriate term), and that is probably why, for the most part, he resisted Aramaic usages and other conspicuous features of Late Biblical Hebrew. The impulse to sound Prophetic led to some deliberate obscurity in expression. This obscurity was probably compounded by scrambled scribal transmission at a good many points. But I would like to propose that this author, though he knew earlier Hebrew writings, was fully comfortable in Aramaic and not in Hebrew. Much of what he produced can be fairly characterized as bad Hebrew prose. The syntax is often slack, at points unintelligible; parts of speech are sometimes inappropriate; the idioms not infrequently sound odd or perhaps are simply wrong. The writer overworks certain Hebrew terms, as if he did not have other more apt ones available: the verbs, for example, ʿamad, “stand,” and heḥeziq, “hold” or “make strong,” are awkwardly used over and over, in quick sequence, in a number of different senses, some of them unwarranted by earlier Hebrew.
The Book of Daniel, then, is an imperfect composition. In style, its Hebrew sections are seriously flawed. Its narrative is primarily a vehicle for laying out tales of miraculous aid that demonstrate God’s power, or for setting the circumstances for elaborately coded revelations of the future course of history that require deciphering. In strictly literary terms, it is a book that falls far below what earlier biblical texts, both narrative and Prophetic, would lead us to expect. And yet Daniel is also a book fraught with religious importance for its age and beyond. As the latest text of the Hebrew canon, it is a hinge work between the Hebrew Bible proper and the intertestamental period as well as the New Testament. Earlier Hebrew writers had assumed an essential element of contingency in historical process: human action, for better or for worse, would determine the future course of events. Daniel sees things differently: some people are written in the Book of Life and some are not; a plan dictated from on high is unfolding step by step, replete with precise numerical indications and mystifying symbolic prefigurations. Daniel points the way forward to many aspects of the New Testament, to a series of Jewish false messiahs from the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century, to the Christian chiliastic sects of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as well as earlier, and to much else. Daniel imposes a heavy burden on both Jewish and Christian history that in some ways we may still be carrying. Its strange and enigmatic visions are something with which we continue to grapple.
1In the third year of the kingship of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia came to Jerusalem and lay siege against it. 2And the LORD gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand and the best of the vessels of the house of God, and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and the vessels he brought to his god’s treasure house. 3And the king said to the majordomo head of his eunuchs, to bring from the Israelites and from the royal seed and from the nobles 4young men who were without blemish and goodly in appearance and discerning in all wisdom and possessing knowledge and understanding matters, and who had the strength to serve in the king’s palace, to teach them book learning and the language of the Chaldeans. 5And the king apportioned for them for each day from the king’s royal provisions and from his drinking wine, to rear them for three years, that the best of them should serve in the king’s presence. 6And among them from the Judahites were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names, and he made Daniel Belteshazzar, and Hananiah Shadrach, and Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abednego. 8And Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s provisions and with his drinking wine, and he asked of the chief of the eunuchs that he not have to defile himself. 9And God made Daniel find grace and mercy in the presence of the chief of the eunuchs. 10And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my master the king, who has apportioned your food and your drink, for why should he see you downcast among the young men of your age? And you would make me guilty to the king.” 11And Daniel said to the overseer whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12“Test your servants ten days, and let them give us from the grains that we may eat, and water that we may drink. 13And let our appearance be seen before you together with the appearance of the young men who eat the king’s provisions, and as you see, so do with your servants.” 14And he heeded them in this matter and tested them ten days. 15And at the end of the ten days their appearance was seen to be better and plumper in flesh than all the young men who had eaten the king’s provisions. 16And the overseer kept bearing away their provisions and their drinking wine and giving them grains. 17And to these young men, the four of them, did God give knowledge and discernment in all books and wisdom, and Daniel understood all visions and dreams. 18And at the end of the time that the king had said to bring them, the chief of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar. 19And the king spoke with them, and none of all of them was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, and they entered the service of the king. 20And in every matter of discerning wisdom that the king asked of them, he found them ten times better than all the soothsayers and wizards who were in all his kingdom. 21And Daniel was there until the first year of King Cyrus.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. In the third year of the kingship of Jehoiakim. This historical-sounding notation at the beginning of the book in fact betrays its pseudohistorical character. The third year of Jehoiakim was 606 B.C.E., and there is no evidence that Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem then. On the contrary, extrabiblical documents show that he and his army were occupied elsewhere at that time. He did make an incursion into Jerusalem and took Jehoiakim captive nine years later.
2. the best of the vessels. The Hebrew miqtsat can mean either “some of” or “the best of,” but it seems more likely that the conquering king would plunder the choicest vessels.
the land of Shinar. This is an old name for Babylonia.
3. eunuchs. The Hebrew term, a loanword from the Akkadian, can mean either “eunuch” or “high official” (as in the case of Potiphar, who is married, in Genesis 39). Some have inferred from this eunuch’s being placed over Daniel and his friends that they were castrated, but this is surely contradicted by the stipulation that they must be “without blemish,” as Abraham ibn Ezra and many others have noted. In any case, eunuchs often served in the Persian court, and our story evinces some intermingling of Babylonian and Persian elements.
to bring from the Israelites and from the royal seed and from the nobles. Some have detected here a general Babylonian practice of conscripting young exiled noblemen for court service, perhaps to demonstrate the universal command of the empire, but the whole idea of educating the adolescent Israelites for the court may more likely be a storytelling contrivance to set up a situation in which Daniel’s superior wisdom can be exhibited.
4. young men who were without blemish and goodly in appearance. The sprawling sentence, which begins in the previous verse, shows a certain stylistic slackness in the Hebrew, with loose syntactic links and some inert synonymity. The looseness of the prose may reflect a tendency in Late Biblical Hebrew (as in Esther), or could be the consequence of the translation from Aramaic that many scholars have detected in this chapter.
to serve. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is “to stand.” The same idiom occurs in verse 19.
the language of the Chaldeans. The young men would have been speakers of Aramaic (and perhaps Hebrew as well). The language of the Chaldeans is Akkadian, written in cuneiform. The mastery of both the written and the spoken form of the language would have been necessary for the young men to serve in the Babylonian court.
5. drinking wine. This phrase, repeated in what follows, looks like a redundancy. Either it is an idiomatic flourish, or it is meant to distinguish wine meant to be drunk from libation wine.
for three years. Persian documents actually stipulate three years as the period for educating young men coming of age.
the best of them. See the comment for “the best of the vessels” in verse 2.
7. the chief of the eunuchs gave them names. This is the first step in the process of acculturation—substituting Babylonian names for their given Hebrew names. Mordecai and Esther, too, have names reflecting the host culture of the exiles.
8. he would not defile himself with the king’s provisions. These presumably would have included prohibited meats such as pork and rabbit. One might note that the exiled King Jehoiakim (2 Kings 25:29–30) is not reported to have any compunction about eating the Babylonian king’s provisions; nor does this appear to be a concern in Esther. It has been suggested that the concern about consuming prohibited foods was a special issue in the Hellenistic period.
9. And God made Daniel find grace and mercy in the presence of the chief of the eunuchs. Although the idioms used here are different, the general formulation is reminiscent of Joseph’s finding favor in the eyes of Potiphar, then of the prison warden, in Genesis 39. Other allusions to the Joseph story will follow.
12. the grains. The Hebrew noun is related to the word for “seed.” Some construe this as “legumes” or “vegetables.” In any case, it is obviously a spartan vegetarian diet.
15. their appearance was seen to be better and plumper in flesh. This is a minor miracle, that they should flourish on a diet of grains and water, and greater miracles will follow. The Hebrew phrase for “plumper in flesh” is the same one used in Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat cows in Genesis 41, making this another allusion to the Joseph story.
17. and Daniel understood all visions and dreams. This faculty sets him apart from his three friends, whose wisdom is limited to books and bodies of knowledge. Joseph, too, is an expert interpreter of dreams, though visions are not part of his story.
18. at the end of the time. This is the three-year period stipulated by the king for the education of the young men.
19. none of all of them. There is a sizable group of noble young Judahites who have undergone the course of education, but Daniel and his three friends stand out among them.
20. all the soothsayers and wizards. The first term, ḥartumim, is an Egyptian loanword that appears several times both in the Joseph story and in the story of Moses’s confrontation with Pharaoh in Exodus. The second term, ʾashafim, is an Akkadian loanword. Thus, the wisdom of the young Hebrew noblemen far exceeds that of the professional sages of these two empires, renowned for their expertise in astrology, soothsaying, and related arts conceived as instruments of knowledge in the ancient world.
21. the first year of King Cyrus. Cyrus was the Persian emperor who overthrew the Babylonians. Emperors come and go, but Daniel remains.
1And in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, and his heart pounded and his sleep was ruined. 2And the king said to all the soothsayers and the wizards and the magicians and the Chaldeans to explain the king’s dreams to him, and they came and stood before the king. 3And the king said to them, “I have dreamed a dream, and my heart pounded, wanting to know the dream.” 4And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic, “May the king live forever! Say the dream to your servants and we shall tell its meaning.” 5The king answered and said, “The matter has been determined by me: if you do not explain to me the dream and its meaning, you will be cut to pieces and your houses will be turned into dung-heaps. 6But if you tell the dream and its meaning, gifts and presents and great honor you shall receive from me. Therefore tell me the dream and its meaning.” 7They answered a second time and said, “Let the king say the dream to his servants and we shall tell its meaning.” 8The king answered and said, “Indeed, I know that you are buying time because you have seen that the matter was determined by me. 9For if you do not explain the dream to me, there is but one decree for you, and you have prepared a false and lying word to say to me until time passes. Therefore say to me the dream and I shall know that you have told me its meaning.” 10The Chaldeans answered before the king and said, “There is no man on earth who can tell the word of the king because no great and powerful king has asked a thing like this of any soothsayer or wizard or Chaldean. 11And the matter that the king has asked is grave, and there are no others that can tell it before the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.” 12Because of this the king raged and was very angry and thought to put to death all the sages of Babylonia. 13And a decree was issued that the sages were to be killed, and Daniel and his friends were to be killed. 14Then did Daniel respond with counsel and insight to Arioch, chief of the king’s executioners, who had gone out to call the sages of Babylonia. 15He spoke out and said to Arioch, the king’s regent, “For what is this severe decree from the king?” Then Arioch informed Daniel of the matter. 16And Daniel went and asked of the king that time be given him to tell the meaning to the king. 17Then Daniel went to his house and informed Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah his friends of the matter 18to ask mercy of the God of the heavens about this mystery, that Daniel and his friends not perish with the rest of the sages of Babylonia. 19Then was the mystery revealed to Daniel in a night-vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens. 20Daniel spoke out and said, “May the name of God be blessed forever and forever, for wisdom and strength are His. 21And He changes the times and the seasons, takes kings away and raises up kings, gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know discernment. 22He lays bare the deep and hidden things, knows what is in darkness, and light dwells with Him. 23To You, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise that You have granted me wisdom and strength, and now You have made known to me that which we asked of You, for the matter of the king You have made known to us.” 24Because of this Daniel came to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to put to death all the sages of Babylonia. He went and thus he said to him, “Do not put to death the sages of Babylonia. Bring me before the king and I will tell the meaning to the king.” 25Then did Arioch rush to bring Daniel before the king, and thus he said to him, “There is a man of the exiles from Judah who will explain the meaning to the king.” 26The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, “Can you explain to me the dream that I saw and its meaning?” 27Daniel answered before the king, “The mystery of which the king has asked, sages, wizards, soothsayers, and diviners cannot tell the king. 28But there is a God in the heavens Who reveals mysteries and has made known to the king what will be in the latter days, your dream and the visions in your head as you lay asleep, this is it. 29You, king, your thought has risen as you lay asleep of what will be in the time to come, and the Revealer of Mysteries has made known to you what will be. 30As for me, not through wisdom that is in me more than all living men has the mystery been revealed to me but in order to make known to the king the meaning, that you may know your heart’s thoughts. 31You, king, were seeing, and look, a huge statue. This statue was great and its brilliance was abundant. It was standing before you and its appearance was fearsome. 32That statue, its head was goodly gold, its chest and arms were silver, its loins and its thighs were, bronze. 33Its legs were iron and its feet part iron and part clay. 34You were watching till a stone hewed not by hands struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and shattered them. 35Then altogether the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were shattered and became like chaff from the summer threshing floor, and no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled all the earth. 36This is the dream, and its meaning we shall say before the king. 37You are king, even king of kings, to whom the God of the heavens has given power and might and honor. 38And wherever human beings, beasts of the field, and fowl of the heavens live, He has given them in your hand and caused you to rule over them all. You are the head of gold. 39And after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to yours, and a third kingdom, of bronze, that shall rule over all the earth. 40And a fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron because iron shatters and splinters all things, and like smashing iron, all these shall it shatter and smash. 41And as to the feet and the toes you saw, part potter’s clay and part iron, the kingdom shall be split, and it shall have of the strength of iron because you saw iron mixed with clay from the soil. 42And as to the toes, part iron and part clay, some of the kingdom shall be strong and some of it fragile. 43And as to your seeing iron mixed with clay from the soil, they shall be mixed with human seed and shall not hold together just as iron does not mix with clay. 44And in the days of these kings the God of the heavens shall establish a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. To another people it shall not be abandoned. It shall shatter and put an end to all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. 45Because you have seen that from a mountain a stone was hewed not by hands and smashed the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, the great God has made known to the king what will be after this, and the dream is true, its meaning certain.” 46Then did King Nebuchadnezzar fall on his face, and he bowed down to Daniel, and he said to offer to him grain offering and incense. 47The king answered Daniel and said, “In truth, your god is the God of gods and master of kings and revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.” 48Then did the king make Daniel great, and he gave him many great gifts and caused him to rule over all the province of Babylonia and made him chief governor over all the sages of Babylonia. 49And Daniel asked of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the work of the province of Babylonia. And Daniel served in the king’s gate.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. in the second year of Nebuchadnezzar’s kingship. This notation is a much discussed contradiction because in chapter 1, it is in the third year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign that Daniel and his three friends are sent off for three years of education, after which they are brought back to the court. None of the proposals for resolving this difficulty is entirely convincing.
his heart pounded. Literally, “his spirit pounded.” This is the same phrase used for Pharaoh’s response to his two dreams and constitutes a clear allusion.
his sleep was ruined. This translation links the verb nihyatah with the noun howah, “disaster.” Others emend it to read more smoothly nadedah, the verb for “wandering” sleep—that is, insomnia.
2. the Chaldeans. Because the Chaldeans were famous for their skills in soothsaying and divination, the ethnic name came to indicate those who practice these arts.
3. wanting to know the dream. The simplest reading is that he wanted to know the meaning of the dream, though some interpreters understand this, with a mind to his subsequent dialogue with the sages and Daniel, that he cannot remember the dream.
4. And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic. This looks like an editorial contrivance to mark the transition from Hebrew to Aramaic. Afterward, everything is in Aramaic until the end of chapter 7. Aramaic, which by the sixth century B.C.E. was the lingua franca of the region, would have been the native tongue of the Chaldeans. It is unclear what language we are supposed to imagine was being spoken in the dialogues before this point—perhaps Akkadian but surely not Hebrew.
8. I know that you are buying time. Though this idiom may sound excessively contemporary in English, it is the precise literal sense of the Aramaic.
10. There is no man on earth who can tell the word of the king. They have asked that he report his dream to them so that they can interpret it, but he has confronted them with an absolutely unheard-of challenge: he expects them to know the contents of his dream without the slightest prompt from him and then to provide an interpretation. This is why they go on to say that only the gods who are not flesh and blood could answer such a challenge. In the event, it is Daniel’s God who will reveal to him both the contents of the dream and its meaning.
13. the sages were to be killed, and Daniel and his friends were to be killed. Although the forms of the two verbs are different (the latter employs an auxiliary verb joined to “killed” in the reflexive infinitive), both must be construed, in light of what ensues, as actions about to happen but not yet performed. Daniel and his friends are on the list of those to be executed because they have joined the group of the country’s sages.
16. that time be given him. Though the sages have been accused by the king of buying time, Daniel now needs a brief span of time to pray to God that he be granted knowledge of the dream.
19. the mystery revealed. The two words, razaʾ gali, recur with variations throughout the story. They constitute an Aramaic equivalent of the etymological sense of “apocalypse” in Greek, and the dream itself proves to be incipiently apocalyptic.
21. He changes the times and the seasons. Just as God’s power is manifested cosmically in the changing cycles of time and seasons, it is manifested politically as he “takes kings away and raises up kings.” The dream will be about the displacement of one kingdom by another.
24. Bring me before the king. Here Daniel observes court protocol. In verse 16, he appears to have come into the royal presence uninvited, unless one infers an ellipsis there.
25. There is a man … who will explain the meaning. One of several indications that this is not a story that adheres to any realistic logic is that this high court official should be certain that a young Judahite exile can interpret the dream solely because he says he can.
26. whose name was Belteshazzar. This notation is introduced because Daniel would be called by his Babylonian name when brought before the king.
28. there is a God in the heavens. This designation, ʾita ʾelah bishemaya or, simply, ʾelah shemaya, is Daniel’s way of referring for the benefit of the polytheist king to the one God of heaven and earth.
in the latter days. The phrase ʾaḥarit yomaya draws directly from the Hebrew ʾaḥarit hayamim. Although later this phrase comes to mean the eschatological “end of time,” its biblical sense is something like “in time to come.”
30. that you may know your heart’s thoughts. There is an odd congruence here with the Freudian notion of dreams. The dreaming mind is a theater of vital revelation, but the dreamer himself cannot understand the meaning of the dream. For that he needs an expert interpreter.
31. and look, a huge statue. Going beyond Joseph, his prototype in Genesis, Daniel is able to envisage exactly what the king saw in his dream, just as the king had demanded of his sages.
32–33. gold … silver … bronze … iron. As we go down the body of the statue, the metals progressively decrease in value. The four metals linked with four ages obviously correspond to the progressive decline in Hesiod’s Works and Days. Though it is possible that our late author actually read Hesiod (elsewhere in Daniel, Greek loanwords appear), the myth of the four ages and four kingdoms is equally attested in old Iranian literature, and it seems likely that it had some currency throughout the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. In its Iranian version, the first kingdom is Assyria, but Daniel substitutes Babylon because it is the empire that subdued the kingdom of Judah. The other three, then, would be Media, Persia, and Greece. (Rashi and ibn Ezra see Rome as the fourth kingdom, in keeping with rabbinic historical typology, but Rome would be too late for inclusion in Daniel.)
33. part iron and part clay. The clay, of course, is the origin of the English idiom “feet of clay.” The odd mixture of iron and clay suggests both that the fourth kingdom is powerfully destructive and easily broken.
34. a stone hewed not by hands. This is clearly a supernatural stone, one that in verse 35 will become a great mountain and fill all the earth.
37. You are king, even king of kings, to whom the God of the heavens has given power and might and honor. The opening words make Nebuchadnezzar sound virtually divine, but the words that follow put him in his place in the theological scheme of things—it is God alone who has granted this greatness to the king.
40. iron shatters and splinters all things. The terrific destructive force of the fourth kingdom reflects Alexander the Great’s establishment through military might of a world empire and perhaps also the armed power of his warring heirs.
43. they shall be mixed with human seed. This clause is enigmatic. Some understand it to mean “they shall be mixed in marriage,” referring to a matrimonial alliance between the Seleucids and the Ptolemys, but zeraʿ plainly means “seed,” not marriage.
and shall not hold together. This definitely looks like a reference to the splitting of Alexander’s empire, wrought in fierce iron, into three competing kingdoms, hence frangible as potter’s clay.
44. a kingdom that shall never be destroyed. The establishment by God of an eternal kingdom on earth is a strongly messianic idea.
46. he bowed down to Daniel. This prostration before a human being, followed by offering to him grain and incense, may be understandable after Daniel has demonstrated such astounding visionary wisdom, but it looks suspect from a monotheistic point of view. The text, however, does not intimate any negative judgment of the act.
47. In truth, your god is the God of gods. The king appears to be a virtual convert to monotheism, though his phrasing may rather suggest that he acknowledges Daniel’s god as superior to all others—the God of gods, just as he himself has been said to be the king of kings.
48. all the province of Babylonia. As in Esther, medinah (a Persian loanword) does not mean “kingdom” or “state” but “province.” Babylonia is the principal province of the empire, but there are others.
49. over the work of the province of Babylonia. They appear to have responsibility over public projects, corvée labor, and the like, whereas Daniel is supervisor of the sages and operates in the court.
And Daniel served in the king’s gate. “In the king’s gate,” bitraʿ malkaʾ, essentially means in the palace. The verb used here in the Aramaic is literally “was,” for which “served” has been substituted in the translation to indicate that he is performing a function. Serving in the palace, Daniel is an intimate councillor of the king.
1Nebuchadnezzar made a statue of gold, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. He set it up in the Dura Valley in the province of Babylonia. 2And Nebuchadnezzar sent out to assemble the satraps, the governors and officials, the councillors, the treasurers, the judges, the commanders of the camps, and all the administrators of the provinces to come for the dedication of the statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 3Then did the satraps, the governors and officials, the councillors, the judges, the commanders of the camps, and all the administrators of the provinces assemble for the dedication of the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up, and they were standing before the statue that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 4And the herald called out loudly: “To you, is it said, peoples, nations, and tongues! 5When you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lute, the zither, the lyre, the flute, and all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6And whoever does not fall down at once shall be cast into the furnace of blazing fire.” 7Therefore, when they would hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lute, the zither, the lyre, the flute, and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations, and tongues would at once worship the gold statue that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. 8Because of this, at that time Chaldean men came forward and denounced the Jews. 9They spoke out and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, may you live forever! 10You, O king, put out a decree that any man who heard the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lute, the zither, the lyre, the flute, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the gold statue. 11And whoever did not fall down and worship would be cast into the furnace of blazing fire. 12There are certain Jewish men whom you have appointed over the work of the province of Babylonia, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These have paid no heed to you, O king. They do not serve your god, and they do not worship the gold statue that you set up.” 13Then did Nebuchadnezzar say in anger and fury to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Then were these men brought before the king. 14Nebuchadnezzar spoke out and said to them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you are not serving my god, and are not worshipping the gold statue that I put up? 15Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the horn, the pipe, the lute, the zither, the lyre, the flute, and all kinds of music, and you worship the statue that I have made, [all will be well]. And if you do not worship, you will at once be thrown into the furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god who can save you from my hands?” 16Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to King Nebuchadnezzar, “We do not need to answer you about this matter. 17If our God, Whom we serve, is able to save us from the furnace of blazing fire and from your hand, O king, He shall save us. 18And if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we will not serve your god, and we will not worship the gold statue that you have set up.” 19Then was Nebuchadnezzar filled with wrath, and the look of his face changed because of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He spoke out and said to stoke the furnace seven times hotter than it was wont to be stoked. 20And to the valiant warriors of his army, he said to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in order to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. 21Then were these men bound in their trousers, their tunics, their headgear, and their garments and were thrown into the furnace of blazing fire. 22Therefore because the king’s word was severe, and the furnace was intensely stoked, those men who had brought up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did the fire’s flame kill. 23And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell bound into the furnace of blazing fire. 24Then was King Nebuchadnezzar astounded and arose in haste. He spoke out and said to his councillors, “Did we not throw three men bound into the fire?” They answered and said to the king, “Indeed, O king.” 25He answered and said, “Why, I see four men walking unbound within the fire, and there is no hurt in them, and the appearance of the fourth is like a divine being!” 26Then did Nebuchadnezzar approach the gate of the furnace of blazing fire. He spoke out and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out!” Then did Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego come out from within the fire. 27And the satraps, governors, officials, and the king’s councillors were assembled and saw these men, that the fire had no power over their bodies, and the hair on their heads was not singed, and their trousers were in no way different and the smell of fire had not touched them. 28Nebuchadnezzar spoke out and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Who has sent His messenger and saved His servants who trusted in Him and defied the king’s word and submitted their bodies, for they would not serve nor worship any god except their God. 29And let a decree be set out by me that any people, nation, or tongue that speaks ill of the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut to pieces and their house shall be turned into a dung-heap, for there is no other god that can rescue like this.” 30Then did the king exalt Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the province of Babylonia: 31“King Nebuchadnezzar, to all his people, nations, and tongues that dwell in all the earth, may your well-being abound. 32The signs and wonders that the most high God has performed with me, it pleases me to tell.
33His signs, how great they are,
and His wonders, how powerful!
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and his dominion for all generations.”
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. a statue of gold, sixty cubits high. Herodotus and other ancient sources in fact report monarchs erecting monumental statues to Zeus and other gods. In this case, the deity is not specified. Sixty cubits would make the statue in question about eighty feet high. The width is too narrow to be proportionate, but the writer probably did not trouble himself about such details. It is often assumed that “gold” means gold-plated, but given the folktale quality of the whole story, perhaps we are intended to imagine that this fabulously extravagant statue was solid gold. The editorial placement of this story here may have been dictated by the statue with the gold head in the previous episode.
2. the satraps, the governors and officials, the councillors. The author of this story clearly revels in lists, first this one indicating the elaborate network of the royal bureaucracy and then the pomp and circumstance of the list of the musical instruments to be played at the dedication ceremony. Unlike classical biblical narrative, where with very few exceptions repetitions appear with significant and subtle swerves from the verbatim, here the lists are repeated exactly (one might say, mechanically). One should note that most of the bureaucratic titles here are Persian loanwords, and there are no borrowings from the Greek. Since Jews in the Hellenistic period were quite familiar with the titles of imperial functionaries and many of these terms are then reflected in the Talmud and the Midrash, it seems likely that the core of this particular story was formulated in the Persian period.
5. the horn, the pipe, the lute, the zither. The first two items in this list of instruments are indigenous Aramaic, but the next three are borrowings from the Greek. If the basic narrative of assembling all the officials for the dedication of the statue antedates Alexander’s conquest of the Near East, the elaboration concerning the musical performance at the ceremony must have been composed in the Hellenistic period. These are wind and string instruments with no percussion instruments, but it is unclear whether that reflects the actual composition of orchestras in this period. The exact identification of all the instruments is not entirely clear. The fifth term in the list, pesantrin, was adopted in modern Hebrew as the word for “piano.” The sixth term, sumponia, originally meant “musical harmony” in Greek, though it obviously names a musical instrument in this list, and “flute” in the translation is one guess among many that have been made.
fall down and worship the gold statue. There is no evidence here of Nebuchadnezzar’s conversion to monotheism after Daniel’s interpretation of his dream. This is one indication that this is an originally independent story.
6. whoever does not fall down at once shall be cast into the furnace of blazing fire. Such lethal cultic coercion was not generally practiced by pagan kings. Some commentators have detected here a reflection of the religious coercion of the Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 160s B.C.E., but as John J. Collins has argued, that is not a necessary inference, especially since the edict is not directed specifically at the Jews. Instead, this may be a parable of the dangers of cultic assimilation in the situation of diaspora.
12. There are certain Jewish men. Since Daniel and his three friends have been presented as a tight group and all four have been given administrative posts in the imperial bureaucracy, the absence of Daniel’s name here and throughout the chapter is another reflection that this story was not originally connected with the Daniel narrative.
15. all will be well. These words are supplied in the translation because there is a conditional clause in the Aramaic that appears to break off at this point.
17. If our God … is able to save us … He shall save us. The three young men are not entirely sure that they will be saved, but their devotion to God is so absolute that they are prepared to suffer the pangs of fiery death if divine rescue is not forthcoming. In all this, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are scarcely “characters,” with an individual psychology, a personal history, and an intimated inner life like the characters in classical Hebrew narrative, but are rather exemplary figures on a didactic tale, perfect embodiments of unswerving allegiance to the one God. The willingness to accept martyrdom is also a new emphasis.
20. to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This gratuitous command will compound the miracle. The death of prisoners flung into a fiery furnace would have been in any case certain, but these three are bound so that they can scarcely move about as they are—presumably—burned to a crisp.
21. their trousers, their tunics, their headgear. There is some ambiguity about the identification of these items of apparel. In any case, they are probably their wardrobe as court officials, now to be consigned to the fire together with their bodies.
22. those men who had brought up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did the fire’s flame kill. This is not only a stroke of retribution against the henchmen of the pagan king, but also another compounding of the miracle that is about to occur: the excessively stoked furnace sends flames shooting out its aperture that burn to death the royal agents, whereas the three Judahite exiles will prove to be unhurt in the very heart of the flames.
25. I see four men walking unbound within the fire. Although there are from time to time miraculous events in earlier biblical narrative, this late text drastically steps up the supernatural nature of the miracle. The prophet Elijah does ascend to heaven in a fiery chariot, but that is, after all, a translation from earthly existence to something beyond. In this story, on the other hand, human figures living in the here-and-now walk about in the intense flames, accompanied by a divine being, as though they were going for an evening stroll. Their bonds as well have miraculously disappeared, and even their garments, itemized above, have not been singed.
a divine being. The literal sense of the Aramaic is “son of God,” but as with its Hebrew equivalent, which appears frequently in earlier biblical texts, the idiom does not suggest filial connection with God but rather belonging to the general category of celestial figures.
26. the gate of the furnace. Though most translations render this as “the door of the furnace,” the Aramaic tera’ clearly means “gate.” What the writer may have envisaged is something like an iron grillwork gate over the front of the furnace. Apertures in the gate would have allowed the king and his entourage to enjoy the spectacle of the victims writhing as they are burned. Verse 25 indicates that the king can see what is going on inside the furnace, which would argue for a gate, not a solid door. It is perhaps through the apertures of the gate that flames shoot out to kill the men who have brought Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to the furnace.
the most high God. The Aramaic ʾelaha ʿiliʾa is a translation of the Hebrew ʾel ʿelyon. ʿElyon was originally the name of the Canaanite sky-god, but by this late period that origin was entirely obscured and the simple meaning of ʿelyon as “high” or “lofty” was firmly in place.
27. and the smell of fire had not touched them. This last detail reflects what might be characterized as the hyperbolic representation of the miraculous: not only were their bodies and their garments completely undamaged by the fire, but even the acrid smell of the fire had not attached itself to them.
28. Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Perhaps one should not infer that the king had become a monotheist, owing fealty only to the God of the heavens Who is the God of Israel. His language seems to suggest that this particular deity has manifested extraordinary power and therefore should be the object of reverence. (Compare the wording of the edict in the next verse.)
Who has sent His messenger. The king concludes that the mysterious fourth figure in the fiery furnace is a divine emissary who has saved the three young men.
29. for there is no other god that can rescue like this. The king’s words seem to say that he recognizes the unique power of the God of Israel to effect miraculous salvation; but he does not necessarily renounce the belief in other gods, only concedes that they would not be as powerful as the God of the three exiled Judahites.
31. King Nebuchadnezzar, to all his people, nations, and tongues that dwell in all the earth. This is the formal heading of the decree that the king promulgates. The phrase “that dwell in all the earth” is a hyperbolic flourish: Nebuchadnezzar of course knows that there are other kingdoms, but the extent of his empire is so vast that it is as if it embraced all the earth.
may your well-being abound. These words of well-wishing conclude the formal heading of the edict.
32. it pleases me to tell. This phrase constitutes an appropriate introduction to the poem praising God that concludes the royal decree.
33. His signs, how great they are. The poetic flourish at the end is also a pointing of the moral in this theologically didactic tale: the most high God is to be praised because He manifests signs and wonders that are tokens of His everlasting dominion.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom / and his dominion for all generations. This line is an Aramaic translation of Psalm 145:13.
1“I, Nebuchadnezzar, was tranquil in my house and flourishing in my palace. 2I saw a dream and it frightened me, and thoughts upon my couch and visions in my head panicked me. 3By me has an edict been issued for all the sages of Babylonia to come before me, that they may make known to me the meaning of the dream. 4Then did the soothsayers, wizards, Chaldeans, and diviners come, and I said the dream to them, but its meaning they did not make known to me. 5And latterly, Daniel came before me, whose name is 6Belteshazzar, like the name of my god, and in whom the spirit of the holy gods resides, and I said the dream to him: ‘Belteshazzar, master soothsayer, of whom I know that the spirit of the holy gods resides in you and no mystery is withheld from you, these are the visions of my dream that I saw, and say its meaning. 7And the visions in my head upon my couch I saw, and, look, there was a tree in the earth and its height was great. 8The tree grew and became mighty, and its top reached the heavens and its branches to the end of all the earth. 9Its foliage was lovely and its fruit great, and there was food for all in it. Beneath it the beasts of the field were shaded, and in its branches the birds of the heavens dwelled, and all flesh was nourished from it. 10I saw among the visions in my head, and, look, a holy emissary came down from the heavens, 11calling out loudly and thus saying, “Cut down the tree, hack off its branches. Shake loose its foliage and scatter its fruit. Let the beasts go off from underneath it and the birds from its branches. 12But leave one of its roots in the ground and with a chain of iron and bronze be it set in the grass of the field, and by the dew of the heavens be it moistened and with the beasts its portion in the grass of the earth. 13Its heart shall be changed from humankind, and a beast’s heart shall be given to it, and seven seasons shall pass over it. 14By the decree of the divine emissaries is the word, and the utterance of the holy ones is the pronouncement, so that the living may know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of man, to whom He wills he gives it, and the lowliest of men He shall raise up over it.” 15This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw, and you, Belteshazzar, say its meaning, for all the sages of my kingdom have not been able to make its meaning known to me, but you can, for the spirit of the holy gods resides within you.’” 16Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was astounded for about an hour, and his thoughts panicked him. The king spoke out and said, “Belteshazzar, let not the dream and its meaning panic you.” Belteshazzar answered and said, “My lord, may the dream be for your enemies and its meaning for your foes. 17The tree that you saw, which was great and mighty and its height reached the heavens and its branches in all the earth, 18and its foliage was lovely and its fruit great, and food for all in it, beneath it dwelled the beasts of the field and in its branches rested the birds of the heavens, 19you are the king, who has become great and mighty, and your greatness has grown and reached to the heavens and its branches to all the earth. 20And as to your seeing, O king, a holy emissary coming down from the heavens and saying, ‘Cut down the tree and destroy it but leave one of its roots in the ground, and with a chain of iron and bronze [set it] in the grass of the field and by the dew of the heavens let it be moistened and with the beasts of the field its portion, until seven seasons pass over it,’ 21this is its meaning, O king, and the decree of the Most High that is to come upon my lord the king. 22And you shall they banish from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and grass like the ox shall they feed you, and from the dew of the heavens shall they give you drink. And seven seasons shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of man and to whom He chooses He gives it. 23And as to their saying to leave one of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall endure for you once you know that the heavens rule. 24And yet, O king, let my counsel be pleasing to you, and redeem your offenses through righteousness, in showing kindness to the poor, let your tranquillity be prolonged. 25All this is to come upon King Nebuchadnezzar.” 26At the end of the twelve months he was walking up on [the roof of] the royal palace of Babylon. 27The king spoke out and said, “Is not this the great Babylon that I have built as the house of the kingdom in the might of my power and for the honor of my glory?” 28The word was still in the mouth of the king when a voice fell from the heavens: “To you they say, King Nebuchadnezzar, the kingship has turned away from you. 29And from man they shall banish you, and with the beasts of the field your dwelling, grass like the ox they shall feed you, and seven seasons shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of man and to whom He chooses He gives it.” 30At that very moment the word was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and from man he was banished and he ate grass like the ox, and from the dew of the heavens his body was moistened until his hair grew like eagles and his nails like birds. 31And at the end of many days: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes to the heavens and my mind returned to me, and I blessed the Most High and praised and extolled the Eternal One, whose dominion is an eternal dominion and His kingdom for all generations. 32And all earth’s dwellers are counted as naught, and as He chooses He does with the array of the heavens and earth’s dwellers, and there is none who can protest against Him and say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ 33At that very moment my mind returned to me, and the glory of my kingdom, my grandeur and my splendor, returned to me, and me did my councillors and my nobles seek out, and I was set up over my kingdom, and exceeding greatness was added to me. 34Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of the Heavens, all of Whose acts are truth and Whose paths are justice, and Who can bring low those who go about in pride.”
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. I, Nebuchadnezzar. Despite the late medieval chapter divisions, most modern scholars plausibly conclude that the epistolary formulation of 3:31–33 is actually the beginning of the royal message to the people of the realm that continues here. The first-person narrative that follows is a form that would have been unusual in earlier biblical literature.
3. for all the sages of Babylonia to come before me. The setup of this story is patently devised as a parallel to the story of the interpretation of the king’s dream in chapter 2, where after all the sages of the realm are summoned and prove unable to interpret the dream, Daniel is brought in and provides an authoritative interpretation.
5. whose name is Belteshazzar, like the name of my god. The king of course refers to and addresses Daniel with his Babylonian name. Underscoring Daniel’s Babylonian acculturation, the king asserts, in what is actually a false etymology, that the beginning of the name is derived from Bel, the Babylonian god.
7. the visions in my head upon my couch I saw. Though the formulation sounds a little odd to modern ears, the fixed assumption in the Bible is that dreaming is above all a visual experience, so that a person is said to “see a dream.”
8. The tree grew and became mighty, and its top reached the heavens. Behind this vision are ancient Near Eastern traditions of a cosmic tree. In this instance, however, the tree represents Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, which in fact was characterized hyperbolically by the sundry Babylonian emperors as reaching the heavens and extending to the ends of the earth. “Mighty” may seem to be a strange adjective for a tree but is influenced by the reference to empire.
its branches. The Aramaic hazoteih seems to mean “appearance,” which does not make the best sense in context, but there is a homonym with the same root, also attested in Hebrew, that means something like “tangle of branches.”
10. a holy emissary. Many modern interpreters read the noun here, ʿir, as “watcher,” deriving it from ʿer, “awake.” The grounds for this understanding are not conclusive. It is at least as likely that ʿir is an Aramaic cognate of the Hebrew tsir, “emissary.” (Phonetically the Hebrew consonant tsadeh converts to the Aramaic ayin.)
12. with a chain of iron and bronze be it set in the grass. It is altogether unclear what a metal chain is doing tied to the root of a tree, and attempts to rescue the meaning of the received text are unconvincing. One suspects that a small fragment from a different vision extrudes in the text here.
13. Its heart shall be changed from humankind. One should keep in mind that in the biblical view the heart is primarily the seat of understanding, so what is indicated is a loss of reason.
seven seasons. The time span marked by the Aramaic ʿidanin is not altogether clear, but though it is not the ordinary word for “years,” it probably refers here to a period of seven years during which the king is to be reduced to a condition of bestial irrationality.
14. so that the living may know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of man. This is the great recurring theme of Daniel, an idea nurtured when the Jews were under the dominion of overpowering empires—Babylonian, Persian, Greek. Human dominion is transient and contingent, a mere mirage in comparison with the dominion of God.
15. the spirit of the holy gods. As above, the king uses appropriate polytheistic language, though he will ultimately be compelled to recognize the undisputed supremacy of “the Most High.”
16. Daniel … was astounded for about an hour. Unlike his earlier act of dream interpretation, at first he is daunted by the enigmatic character of the dream, and only after taking some time to collect his exegetical powers and after being encouraged by the king does he propose the interpretation.
the dream be for your enemies and its meaning for your foes. This is a diplomatic way of saying that the portent of the dream is a disaster, and one wishes it had been for Nebuchadnezzar’s enemies and not for him.
17. which was great and mighty and its height reached the heavens. The narrative here again follows the procedure we have observed before in the verbatim repetition of details.
22. you shall they banish from men. This is the heart of the prophetic meaning of the dream. It is also the point at which it becomes clear that this whole story was not originally about Nebuchadnezzar. There are no ancient reports of Nebuchadnezzar’s leaving his throne for an extended period. There are, on the other hand, such reports about his successor several decades later in the sixth century B.C.E., Nabonides. He seems to have been incapacitated from exercising kingship for a period of about ten years, which here, in accordance with the general use of formulaic numbers in the Bible, is rounded down to seven (“seasons” or “times,” but very likely in the sense of “years”). Further confirmation is offered by a fragmentary text found at Qumran that scholars call the Prayer of Nabonides. In this text, Nabonides prays to be healed from an evil disease with which he has been stricken. If the details of Daniel reflect something of the historical facts, Nabonides would have been suffering from some psychological illness, a kind of long psychotic break that took away his reason. The author of our story interprets this episode of mental disturbance as a powerful demonstration of God’s ability to bring the mighty low, to reduce to bestiality or raise up again the most imposing of monarchs. An editor probably substituted the name of Nebuchadnezzar for Nabonides in order to align this story with the previous episodes. The moral is spelled out at the end of verse 22 and in the king’s confession of faith in the power of the Most High in verses 31–32.
24. through righteousness. Many scholars contend that tsidqah (Hebrew tsedaqah) here shows the rabbinic use of the word to mean “charity,” as the parallel phrase, “showing kindness to the poor,” may indicate. It is worth noting that many of the formulations in this episode are framed in semantically parallel statements that are close to poetry, and some scholars in fact set out much of the king’s epistle as formal verse.
26. he was walking up on [the roof of] the royal palace. The preposition in the original is clearly “on,” so the implication is that he was walking on the roof. The roof would have given him a vantage point to look out upon the splendors of his royal city, as in fact he does in the next verse.
27. the great Babylon. The Aramaic is Bavel rabtaʾ. The Hebrew cognate of this adjective is several times attached to great cities elsewhere in the Bible. Nebuchadnezzar was in fact famous for his grand building projects, which here he contemplates.
28. The word was still in the mouth of the king. The king’s pride in the imposing edifices he has put up is a manifestation of hubris, and so this is the propitious moment for him to be stricken in the fashion that has been prophesied in his dream.
30. from man he was banished and he ate grass like the ox. The writer hews to his commitment to repeat verbatim what has been said before (said twice): his is a world of oracular predictions and perfect fulfillments, and the exact repetition expresses this absolute correspondence between the two. In Daniel’s world, there is really no wiggle room for human freedom; everything plays out according to God’s predestined plan that is an essential aspect of the apocalyptic worldview. The only textual detail here that goes beyond repetition is the wild growth of the king’s hair and nails, which simply elaborates the idea that there is no distance between him and the beasts.
31. at the end of many days. This would be at the end of the seven seasons or years, when the king through his purgatorial experience comes to recognize his subservience to God.
32. with the array of the heavens and earth’s dwellers. God’s unchallenged dominion, he now sees, extends not only over all the earth but even over the heavens, where He commands the heavenly armies, which are both the stars and the angels.
34. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of the Heavens. This whole concluding speech is often characterized as a doxology. The term is apt, for this story, like the others in Daniel, turns on creating circumstances that drive the character to a formal affirmation of a theological principle. There is very little that resembles this in earlier biblical narrative, where complexities and ambiguities of character preclude this sort of flat confession of faith.
1King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his nobles, and before the thousand he drank wine. 2With the wine on his tongue, Belshazzar said to bring the vessels of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken away from the Temple in Jerusalem so that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. 3Then did they bring the vessels of gold that had been taken away from the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines, drank from them. 4They drank the wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. 5At that very moment, the fingers of a man’s hand came out and wrote before the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace, and the king saw the palm of the hand that was writing. 6Then did the king’s countenance change and his thoughts panicked him, and the cords of his loins went slack and his knees knocked together. 7The king called out loudly to bring in his magicians, Chaldeans, and diviners. The king spoke out and said to the sages of Babylonia, “Whichever man reads this writing and tells me its meaning shall wear royal purple and have a golden collar round his neck and rule over a third of the kingdom.” 8Then did the king’s sages come in, but they could not read the writing nor make its meaning known to the king. 9Then did King Belshazzar greatly panic and his countenance changed, and his nobles were confounded. 10Because of the words of the king and his nobles, the queen came into the banquet hall. The queen spoke out and said, “May the king live forever! Let not your thoughts panic you, nor your countenance change. 11There is a man in your kingdom in whom the spirit of the holy gods resides, and in your father’s days enlightenment and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. And King Nebuchadnezzar your father raised him up as master of the soothsayers, the magicians, the Chaldeans, the diviners, 12because exceeding spirit and knowledge and understanding to interpret dreams and explain enigmas and untie knotty matters were found in Daniel, to whom the king gave the name of Belteshazzar. Now, let Daniel be called and he will tell its meaning.” 13Then was Daniel brought in before the king. The king spoke out and said, “You are Daniel, who is of the exiles from Judah whom my father brought from Judah. 14And I have heard of you that the spirit of the gods resides within you and that enlightenment and understanding and exceeding wisdom are found within you. 15And now, the sages and the magicians were brought in before me, that they should read this writing and make its meaning known to me, but they could not tell the thing’s meaning. >16And I have heard of you that you can interpret meanings and untie knotty matters. Now, if you can read the writing and make its meaning known to me, you shall wear royal purple and a golden collar shall be round your neck, and over a third of the kingdom you shall rule.” 17Then did Daniel speak out and say before the king, “Let your gift be yours, and your presents give to another. I shall read the writing and the meaning I shall make known to the king. 18You, O king, the Most High God gave kingship and greatness and honor and glory to Nebuchadnezzar your father. 19And because of the greatness that He gave him, all people, nations, and tongues were trembling and fearful before him. Whom he would will he would slay and whom he would will he would let live, and whom he would will he would raise up and whom he would will he would bring low. 20And when his heart was overweening and his spirit grew mighty in defiance, he was taken down from his royal throne and his glory was removed from him. 21And he was driven from humankind, and his heart was leveled with the beasts and his dwelling was with the wild asses. Grass like the oxen they fed him, and from the dew of the heavens his body was moistened, until he knew that the Most High God rules over the kingdom of man, and whom He will He raises over it. 22And you, his son Belshazzar, your heart has not been humbled though you have known all this. 23And against the LORD of the heavens you have exalted yourself, and you brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your nobles, your wives, and your concubines drank wine in them, and you praised gods of silver and gold, bronze, wood, and stone, who do not see and do not hear and do not know. And the God in Whose hand is your life-breath and all your ways are His, you did not glorify. 24Then before Him was sent the palm of a hand and this writing was inscribed. 25And this is the writing that was inscribed: mene mene teqal ufarsin. 26This is the meaning of the word: mene, God has numbered your kingship and brought it to an end. 27Teqal, you have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. 28Peras, your kingdom has been broken apart and given to Media and Persia.” 29Then Belshazzar spoke, and they clothed Daniel in royal purple and put a golden collar round his neck and proclaimed of him that he should rule over a third of the kingdom. 30On that very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain. 6:1And Darius the Mede received the kingdom when he was sixty-two years old.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. King Belshazzar made a great feast. As with other details of court life in the early chapters of Daniel, this feasting with extravagant consumption of wine sounds more Persian than Babylonian.
2. With the wine on his tongue. The literal sense of the Aramaic is “in the taste of the wine.”
the vessels of gold and silver. To use the sacred vessels from the Jerusalem temple for drunken carousing is, of course, an act of sacrilege, and it will spell the king’s doom.
Nebuchadnezzar his father. This is another instance of the scrambling, or perhaps schematization, of the royal line in Daniel. Belshazzar was the son of Nabonides, and he actually was never king, only regent during his father’s ten-year absence from the court. Nabonides, not Belshazzar, was the last Babylonian king. In fact, the two were not descendants of Nebuchadnezzar: after the death of Nebuchadnezzar’s son-in-law, who had succeeded him, Nabonides assumed the throne in a palace coup.
4. praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. There is a small irony in their worshipping gods of gold and silver as they drink from the sacred vessels fashioned from gold and silver. The catalogue of materials from which idols are made then proceeds in descending order of value to bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
5. the fingers of a man’s hand. Though the “finger of God” appears in the Exodus story, it is essentially metaphorical. This sort of spooky, quasimagical apparition is not characteristic of earlier biblical narrative.
before the lampstand. The likely reason for this detail is that the writing on the wall is thus fully illuminated, so the visual legibility of the letters is not the issue.
6. countenance. The literal sense is “radiance,” and the term is probably related to the rabbinic ziw panim, “radiance of the face.”
the cords of his loins went slack and his knees knocked together. The loins are imagined in biblical usage as the seat of strength. This physical realization of the king’s dismay is unusual and virtually satiric.
7. reads this writing and tells me its meaning. Throughout the story, there are two challenges—reading the writing and saying what it means. Since the sages would surely have been able to read the alphabet shared by Aramaic and Hebrew, it may be that this super-natural inscription used a cryptic script.
a golden collar. This probably alludes to the regal ornament placed around Joseph’s neck in Genesis 41:42. To judge by Egyptian paintings and archaeological finds, that was a kind of collar, coming down over the upper chest, and not a chain.
10. the queen. Since it seems improbable that the queen would know about Daniel while the king would not, this is in all likelihood the queen mother. (In the false genealogy of the story, she is Nebuchadnezzar’s wife and Belshazzar’s mother, who would have known firsthand of Daniel’s wisdom through the previous episodes.)
May the king live forever. This is the same blessing Bathsheba pronounces to the aged and decrepit David. It turns into an irony here because he dies that night.
12. untie knotty matters. The same idiom, meshareʾ qitrin, that was used for the slackening of the cords of the king’s loins (verse 6) is now used antithetically to express not weakness but strength in unraveling mysteries.
14. And I have heard of you. Once again, our writer exhibits his proclivity for verbatim repetition by deploying virtually the same string of epithets for Daniel’s wisdom that the queen mother used.
17. Let your gift be yours. That is, keep all your gifts; my sole interest in deciphering the writing on the wall is to act as a mouthpiece for the Most High and to display the special wisdom He has implanted in me.
19. Whom he would will he would slay and whom he would will he would let live. Since these phrases and the ones that follow are typically attached to God in Psalms and elsewhere, it sounds as though the king were exercising godlike power. In the event, his successor to the throne will prove powerless before God.
20. he was taken down from his royal throne and his glory was removed from him. This and what follows in the next verse correspond to the story told in chapter 4, which applies historically not to Nebuchadnezzar but to Nabonides.
23. who do not see and do not hear and do not know. This mocking characterization of the inert idols is a near quotation of Psalm 115:5–6.
24. Then before Him was sent the palm of a hand. This formulation of indirect agency with the passive mode of the verb reflects a growing tendency in the Late Biblical period to avoid attributing anthropomorphic acts directly to God: it is God’s initiative, but the disembodied hand is somehow “sent” from before the divine presence.
25. this is the writing that was inscribed. Daniel’s wording suggests that the script itself was not intelligible to others, so he begins by reading out the four words. Since mene is repeated, there are actually only three words, but in all likelihood the writer wanted four in order to make the prophecy correspond to the paradigm of the four kingdoms.
26. mene. This is a recognizable Aramaic verb that means “to count” or “to number.” But it has been widely recognized since the nineteenth century that the three words point to a prophecy that is not mainly focused on Belshazzar’s personal fate. The three words are the names of three ancient coins: the mina, a valuable coin worth sixty shekels; the shekel (teqal is the Aramaic equivalent to that Hebrew term, sh in Hebrew converting to t in Aramaic); and the peras, which is a half-shekel (the verbal root, as is evident in Daniel’s interpretation, means “to break apart”). In rabbinic Hebrew, this verbal stem is used for breaking bread.
28. your kingdom has been broken apart. In the paradigm of the four kingdoms, forced though it may be here, Nebuchadnezzar is the high-value mina, Belshazzar is the shekel, and when Babylonia is conquered, the kingdom breaks into two parts, Persia and Media (which does not entirely fit the historical facts). The form of the fourth term (dropping the prefix u for “and”) as Daniel reads it was parsin; now it is modified to peras to bring it close in form to the Hebrew and Aramaic name for Persia. (The form in verse 25, ufarsin, shows an f, dictated by the fact that this consonant is preceded by a vowel there, but it is the same Hebrew letter, peh.).
29. they clothed Daniel in royal purple. It may seem odd that he should be rewarded rather than beheaded for bringing so dire a message to the king. Of course, our story needs a happy ending from the Jewish point of view, but perhaps we are to infer that Belshazzar is exercising an honorable sense of fairness: he promised all this grandeur to the person who succeeded in telling him the meaning of the writing on the wall, and this Daniel has managed to do, however ominous the writing.
30. On that very night Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans was slain. As Collins notes, this instant fulfillment of Belshazzar’s punishment has a folkloric look. The ancient Greek historians do report that Babylonia was overwhelmed by a surprise attack. In any case, the defeated king was Nabonides
6:1. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom. This notation of the transfer of power clearly marks the end of this story, despite its later editorial placement at the beginning of a new chapter. The attribution of the conquest of the Babylonian empire to Darius is still another confusion. Cyrus was the conqueror, and in any case Darius was a Persian, not a Mede. The writer needs to insert a Mede in order to arrive at four kingdoms, and he has in mind biblical prophecies (e.g., Jeremiah 51:11) that the Medes destroyed Babylonia.
sixty-two years old. The historical Darius was considerably younger when he began his reign.
2It pleased Darius to raise up one hundred twenty satraps to be throughout his kingdom, 3and above them three overseers, of whom Daniel was one, to whom these satraps would report, that the king should not be troubled. 4Then was this Daniel preeminent among the overseers and the satraps, for there was exceptional spirit in him, and the king thought to raise him up over the whole kingdom. 5Then the overlords and the satraps were seeking to find some pretext against Daniel in regard to the kingdom, but no pretext nor corruption could they find, for he was faithful, and no fault nor corruption was found in him. 6Then these men said that “no pretext was found against this Daniel, but we have found one against him in the law of his god.” 7Then did these overseers and satraps come in a crowd to the king and thus said to him, “King Darius, live forever! 8All the overseers of the kingdom, the governors and the satraps and councillors, have resolved to issue a royal vow and to enforce a binding edict that for thirty days whoever asks a petition of any god or man other than you, O king, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. 9Now, O king, you should issue the binding edict and put it down in writing that is not to be changed, according to the law of Media and Persia that shall not be transgressed.” 10Because of this, King Darius indited the writ of the binding decree. 11And when Daniel knew that the writ was indited, he went into his house, and it had windows in its upper chamber open toward Jerusalem, and three times daily he would fall to his knees and pray and give thanks before his God just as he had done in time past. 12Then did these men come in a crowd and find Daniel petitioning and imploring his God. 13Then they approached and said before the king, “About the binding edict, O king, did you not indite a binding edict that any man who petitioned any god or man for thirty days other than you, O king, should be thrown into the lions’ den?” The king answered and said, “The word is right according to the law of Media and Persia, which cannot be transgressed.” 14Then did they answer and say before the king that “Daniel, who is of the exiles of Judah, has paid no heed to you, O king, nor to the binding edict that you indited, and three times daily he makes his petition.” 15Then when the king heard the word, it was very dire for him and he set his mind on Daniel to save him, and till sunset he was striving to rescue him. 16Then these men came in a crowd to the king and said to the king, “Know, O king, that it is a rule of Media and Persia that any binding edict or vow that the king issues cannot be changed.” 17Then the king said, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king spoke out and said to Daniel, “Your god whom you always worship will save you.” 18And a stone was brought and placed over the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his signet and with the signet of his nobles, that nothing should be changed regarding Daniel. 19Then did the king go to his palace and fast through the night, and no banquet table was set before him, and his sleep went wandering from him. 20Then did the king rise with the light at dawn and in a rush went to the lions’ den. 21And as he approached the den, he shouted to Daniel with a sad voice, the king spoke out and said to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living god! Your god whom you worship always, can He have saved you from the lions?” 22Then did Daniel speak with the king: “O king, live forever! 23My God sent His messenger and he shut the lions’ mouths and they did not harm me because I was found innocent before Him, and also before you, O king, no harm have I done.” 24Then was the king very content, and he said to bring up Daniel from the den. And Daniel was brought up from the den, and no harm was found in him, for he had trusted in his God. 25And then the king said, and they brought those men who had slandered Daniel and they threw them into the lions’ den, them and their children and their wives. They had barely touched the bottom of the den when the lions overwhelmed them and crunched all their bones. 26Then King Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and tongues that dwelled in all the land: “Great peace to you! 27By me an edict has been issued that in all the realm of my kingdom people shall fear and tremble before the God of Daniel,
and endures forever,
and His kingdom shall not be destroyed,
and His dominion until the end.
28He saves and rescues and does signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth, Who has saved Daniel from the lions.” 29And this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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2. one hundred twenty satraps. Herodotus reported that there were twenty satraps. The inflated number recalls the formulaic 120 years that is the ideally long life span, that of Moses.
4. Then was this Daniel preeminent among the overseers. The ascendancy in the royal administration of a man perceived to be a foreigner clearly kindles the jealousy of the overseers and the satraps and gives them a motive to do away with Daniel.
5. was found in him. One might note the rather flaccid repeated use of the serve-all verb “was found.” The author of this story is not a great Aramaic stylist.
6. the law of his god. The word for “law” or “rule” is a Persian loanword, dat, that is also used frequently in Esther. Collins renders it here as “religious practice,” and the present context does in fact seem to edge the term in the direction of its meaning in later Hebrew, “religion.”
8. All the overseers of the kingdom, the governors and the satraps and councillors, have resolved. The notion that irrevocable royal edicts could be initiated by government bureaucrats in the Persian empire is historically quite unlikely.
for thirty days whoever asks a petition of any god or man other than you. This is another historical improbability. Darius never claimed divine status for himself and so was unlikely to have denied his subjects the right to petition their gods, not to speak of petitioning a person who held power over them. And if in fact Darius was to be treated as the godlike monarch of all he surveyed, why limit the ban to thirty days?
the lions’ den. The Aramaic gubaʾ (cognate to the Hebrew geiv) is actually a pit, but the translation respects the proverbial force of “Daniel in the lions’ den.”
9. that is not to be changed. As with the authorization to massacre the Jews in Esther, this story turns on the fiction that no royal decree in the Persian empire could be revoked. Such a practice is extremely unlikely, and the writer may have picked up the idea from Esther.
11. windows in its upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. This is the only moment when anything other than diaspora existence is envisaged. Jews to this day face toward Jerusalem when they pray, and the present text suggests the practice may go back to the Late Biblical period. Facing Jerusalem, of course, does not necessarily mean going back there.
three times daily he would fall to his knees. Three daily prayers became the standard practice in later Judaism, but it is unclear whether the notation here reflects the beginning of that practice or is merely meant to indicate Daniel’s persistent piety.
14. Daniel, who is of the exiles of Judah. As Collins observes, they do not mention his office but only the fact that he is a foreigner.
15. it was very dire for him. Literally, “it was very evil for him.” The king likes and admires Daniel, but he has been trapped by his councillors because the royal decree is irrevocable, as his officials emphatically point out to him in the next verse.
till sunset he was striving to rescue him. What this must mean is that he was trying to think of some way out of the terrible quandary.
18. the king sealed it with his signet. Presumably, the king’s seal on the stone is a sign that no man may dare to roll the stone away.
19. banquet table. The Aramaic daḥawan is obscure. The idea that it refers to a table goes back to Rashi and is supported by some modern scholars; others think it may mean “diversions” or even “dancing girls.”
his sleep went wandering from him. This is the vivid literal sense of the Aramaic (and Hebrew) idiom for insomnia.
20. rise with the light at dawn. This early rising of the sleepless king is clearly an expression of his acute anxiety about Daniel’s fate.
21. as he approached the den, he shouted to Daniel. The king is sorely afraid that Daniel has been torn to shreds, and so he shouts to Daniel as he comes near, hoping against hope that he will get a response. If not, he may choose not to have the stone rolled back.
23. My God sent His messenger and he shut the lions’ mouths. Efforts to explain this naturalistically—for example, the king may have had the lions fed before Daniel was thrown into their den—are dubious. As with the Ten Plagues in Exodus, the writer manifestly wants to present this event as a miracle, enabled by an emissary sent by God.
24. Then was the king very content. Literally, “then was it very good for the king.”
bring up Daniel from the den. The verb used is a clear indication that the den is conceived as a pit.
25. them and their children and their wives. The retribution, as in the story of Achan’s violation of the ban in Joshua 7, is swift and savage: not only are the scheming councillors fed to the lions but so are their entire families.
27. in all the realm of my kingdom people shall fear and tremble before the God of Daniel. The monotheistic wish-fulfillment fantasy is especially prominent at this point. Unlike the previous stories, the king in this instance does not merely recognize the supreme power of Daniel’s God but enjoins the worship of this God on all his subjects. There is, of course, no way in which such an act could have a historical basis.
for He is the living God / and endures forever. In the ceremonial flourish of the royal edict, the language moves into formal verse, using in the Aramaic epithets for God that appear frequently in the Hebrew poetry of the Bible. The rhythms of the next verse, which concludes the edict, are looser, and so that sentence has not been set out as poetry in this translation.
29. in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian. The order of the two emperors suggests that Cyrus came after Darius, though in point of historical fact, Cyrus preceded him. The reason for this reversal is that the writer wants to preserve the paradigm of the four kingdoms: Darius is supposed (falsely) to be a Mede, which is why Cyrus is then identified as “the Persian.”
1In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylonia Daniel saw a dream and the visions in his head on his couch. Thus he wrote down the dream, the beginning of the words he said. 2Daniel spoke out and said: “I was seeing in my vision by night, and, look, the four winds of the heavens were rippling the Great Sea. 3And four great beasts were coming out of the sea, each different from the others. 4The first was like a lion, and it had eagle’s wings. I was watching till its wings pulled apart and it was lifted from the earth and made to stand on its legs like a man, and a man’s heart was given to it. 5And, look, a second beast resembling a bear, and on one side it was made to stand, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth, and thus were they saying to it: ‘Arise, consume much flesh.’ 6After this I was watching, and, look, another like a leopard, and it had four bird’s wings on its back, and the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7After this I was seeing among the visions of the night, and, look, a fourth beast, fearsome and terrifying and exceedingly powerful, and it had great iron teeth. It was devouring and mangling, and the remains at its feet it trampled, and it was different from all the beasts before it, and it had ten horns. 8I was watching the horns, and, look, another small horn came up among them, and three of the previous horns were torn out before it, and, look, eyes like a man’s eyes were in this horn and a mouth uttering overweening things. 9I was looking, until thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Days took His seat. His garment was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool, His throne tongues of flame, its wheels burning fire. 10A river of fire was flowing and went out before Him. Thousands upon thousands ministered to Him, and myriad upon myriad stood before Him. The court was seated and the books were opened. 11I was looking—then from the sound of the overweening words that the horn was uttering I looked till the beast was slain and its body destroyed and consigned to the burning fire. 12As to the remaining beasts, their dominion was taken over, and an extension of life was given to them for a time and season. 13I was seeing in the visions of the night and, look, with the clouds of the heavens one like a human being was coming, and he reached the Ancient of Days, and they had him approach before Him. 14And to him were given dominion and honor and kingship, and all the people, nations, and tongues did serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away and his kingdom will not be destroyed. 15I, Daniel, my spirit was downcast within me and the visions within my head panicked me. 16I approached one of those standing there and asked of him the truth about all this, and he spoke to me and made known to me the meaning of the things. 17‘These great beasts, which are four—four kings shall rise up from the earth, 18and the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and take possession of the kingdom forever and forever.’ 19Then I wanted the truth about the fourth beast that was different from all of them, exceedingly fearsome—its teeth of iron and its claws of bronze, consuming and mangling and trampling what remained with its feet. 20And concerning the ten horns that were on its head and another that came up and three fell before it, and that horn had eyes and a mouth uttering overweening things, and its appearance was greater than its fellows. 21I was watching, and that horn did battle with the holy ones and prevailed over them. 22Until the Ancient of Days came and meted out justice for the holy ones of the Most High, and the time came when the holy ones took possession of the kingdom. 23Thus did he say: ‘The fourth beast is the fourth kingdom that shall be on the earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms and shall consume all the earth and shall harrow it and grind it to dust. 24And the ten horns from that kingdom, ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them, and he shall be different from those before him, and three kings shall he bring low, 25and he shall utter words against the Most High and afflict the holy ones, and he shall think to change the times and the law. And they shall be given in his hand for a season, a season, and a half-season. 26And the court shall be seated, and they shall take away his dominion, destroying and expunging to the end. 27And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of all kingdoms under the heavens shall be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High. Its kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve it and obey it. 28This marks the end of the matter.’ I, Daniel, my thoughts sorely panicked me and my countenance changed, and I kept the matter in my heart.”
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. Daniel saw a dream.This marks a new stage in the book. Though the present chapter shares with previous ones enigmatic dream-symbols and the paradigm of the four kingdoms, here Daniel is the recipient of the dream-vision and not the interpreter of the king’s dream. In the next verse, Daniel will become the first-person narrator of his dream, another feature that sets this apart from what has preceded. As we shall see, the nature of this dream also differs from the previous dreams.
the beginning of the words he said. This is a literal rendering of the Aramaic. The sense appears to be: he began to speak.
2. the four winds of the heavens. The phrase also indicates the four directions of the compass. It sets the scene in cosmic terms.
3. four great beasts were coming out of the sea. The ultimate background of this moment is Canaanite cosmogonic myth, which our author would have known only through intermediaries, whether cultic or literary. This is precisely the case for the Job poet, who makes abundant use of Canaanite mythology. In the Canaanite myth, a fearsome sea-monster (Lotan or Leviathan or Yamm) rises to do battle with the weather god of the land. Here the beast is multiplied to four in order to correspond to the four kingdoms. The strong scholarly consensus is that the four beasts represent, in chronological order: Babylonia, Media, Persia, and Greece.
4. a lion. The first three beasts are all beasts of prey, suggesting the power and destructive force of these empires. But the lion and the leopard are also regal heraldic animals, emblems of the glory of empire.
6. four bird’s wings on its back. Like the lion with eagle’s wings, this image of a sphinxlike winged beast is a common element in ancient Near Eastern iconography from Egypt to Mesopotamia.
four heads. The imagery of the beasts becomes progressively phantasmagoric (by comparison, the image of the bear with ribs between its teeth is relatively realistic). This movement will culminate in the utterly fantastic fourth beast.
7. fearsome and terrifying and exceedingly powerful. This most menacing of the beasts represents Greece, with the persecutions of the Jewish population around 167 B.C.E. particularly in mind, according to the view of most scholars. Hence the iron teeth and the devouring and mangling and trampling.
ten horns. At least some interpreters conclude that these are ten successive Seleucid kings.
8. another small horn came up among them. The last horn probably represents Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the perpetrator of the persecutions and the suppressor of the Jewish cult. Collins proposes that the adjective “small” is a gesture of contempt.
three of the previous horns were torn out before it. These are three claimants to the throne eliminated and supplanted by Antiochus Epiphanes.
9. the Ancient of Days took His seat. At this point, in contrast to the earlier dream-visions, the scene becomes explicitly apocalyptic. God Himself enters the picture, seated on a throne, clothed in glorious white raiment, to mete out judgment. History is to take a decisive and irreversible turn through spectacular divine intervention. The apocalyptic note aligns this chapter with the second half of Daniel, while its being written in Aramaic—all that follows will be in Hebrew—serves as a bridge between the first half of the book and the second.
10. Thousands upon thousands ministered to Him. All this celestial glory constitutes an implicit rejoinder to the power of earthly empires that has just been symbolically evoked: the court of even the greatest emperor is a mean and minuscule thing in comparison with the court of the Ancient of Days, with its untold thousands of celestial ministrants, its throne with wheels of fire, the river of fire that flows out from it.
11. the beast was slain. The last and most vicious of earthly kingdoms is annihilated by God.
13. one like a human being. The translation avoids “like the son of man” because of its strong, and debatable, tilt toward a messianic interpretation. If traditional Christian interpreters have understood this is a reference to Christ, some Jewish interpreters have seen it as a collective representation of the Jewish people, which is equally unlikely. Collins, after a thorough and scrupulous survey of all the possible readings, plausibly concludes that the term refers to an angelic being, most likely Michael, descending onto the scene “with the clouds.” This would explain the force of “like”—this figure looks like a human being but is more than that.
14. His dominion is an everlasting dominion. This is an apocalyptic motif par excellence: history as we know it, with its cycles of empires, comes to an end, and the divinely effected kingdom, championing God’s people, is instated instead.
16. and made known to me the meaning of the things. Here we see clearly how Daniel as an apocalyptic text differs in its use of symbolism from biblical prophecy. Though the vision of the four beasts has a certain affinity with Ezekiel’s vision of the celestial chariot, it is more phantasmagoric and bewildering—the beast with ten horns, the little horn that emerges, and so forth—and in its very enigmatic character cries out for decoding, which one of the ministering angels now proceeds to do, at least in part.
18. the holy ones of the Most High. The most likely reference is to angels. The “Most High” here has a plural ending, but that is probably a plural of majesty.
19. different from all of them, exceedingly fearsome. This horrendous iron-toothed beast, mangling and trampling, reflects the frightening oppressive power of the Seleucid kingdom under Antiochus Epiphanes.
21. that horn did battle with the holy ones. This is an apocalyptic war, essentially between the forces of darkness and light (even if those terms, which appear in the Qumran scrolls, are not mentioned). The armies of evil at first prevail, as the Greeks did in 167 B.C.E., but then God intervenes (verse 22) to bring about a decisive victory.
24. another shall arise after them, and he shall be different from those before him. The author of this vision writes in the conviction that Antiochus Epiphanes, arising out of a line of ten kings and displacing three contenders to the throne before him, is different in his pernicious nature from all who preceded him.
25. he shall utter words against the Most High. This might refer, as Collins notes, to Antio-chus’s practice of stamping on some of his coins “God manifest” with his image.
he shall think to change the times and the law. This sibylline formulation in all likelihood refers to the decree of Antiochus Epiphanes suppressing the traditional Jewish cult and imposing pagan worship in the Jerusalem Temple.
a season, a season, and a half-season. The writer continues to hew to the murky style of oracular pronouncement, but this probably means two and a half years.
26. And the court shall be seated. Heavenly judgment of the forces of evil is indicated by this.
27. all dominions shall serve it and obey it. The downtrodden people of Israel will now exercise unending dominion. This theme may owe something to the poetic hyperboles in Second Isaiah, where the kings and queens of the nations are said to serve Israel, but that idea is recast here as a ringing apocalyptic declaration of the radical transformation of history.
28. my thoughts sorely panicked me. Though the vision ends with a grand pronouncement of the ultimate triumph of the forces of light, the bewildering vision bristles with terrifying elements, so at the end Daniel feels overwhelmed by it all.
1In the third year of Belshazzar’s reign a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after what had appeared to me before. 2And I saw in the vision, and it happened when I saw, that I was in Shushan the capital, which is in the province of Elam by the brook of Ulai. 3And I raised my eyes and saw, and, look, a ram was standing before the brook, and it had two horns, and the horns were high and one was higher than the other, and the higher one sprouted last. 4I saw the ram, and, look, it was butting to the west and to the north and to the south, and all the beasts could not stand up before it, and none could save from its power, and it did as it pleased and grew great. 5And I was pondering, and, look, a he-goat came from the west over all the earth and was not touching the ground, and the goat had a jutting horn between its eyes. 6And it came up to the ram with the two horns that I had seen standing before the brook and ran toward it in the fury of its strength. 7And I saw it reaching the ram, and it attacked it and struck down the ram and shattered its two horns. And the ram did not have the strength to stand up before it, and it flung the ram to the ground and trampled it, and there was none to save the ram from its power. 8And the he-goat became very great, and as it grew mighty, the large horn was broken and four jutting ones sprouted in its stead to the four corners of the heavens. 9And from one of them came out a puny horn, and it grew exceedingly toward the south and toward the east and toward the Splendid Land. 10And it grew up to the host of the heavens and brought down some of the stars from the host and trampled them. 11And up to the Commander of the Host it grew, and from it the daily offering was taken away, and the firm place of His sanctuary was flung away. 12And a host was criminally set against the daily offering, and it flung truth to the ground and prospered in what it did. 13And I heard a certain holy one speaking, and the certain holy one said to whoever was speaking, ‘Till when is the vision—the daily offering and the desolating crime giving the sanctum and the host to be trampled?’ 14And he said to me, ‘Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings, and the sanctum will be made right.’ 15And it happened when I Daniel saw the vision that I sought understanding, and, look, standing before me was as the likeness of a man. 16And I heard a human voice in the midst of the Ulai, and it called out and said, ‘Gabriel, make that one understand what is seen.’ 17And he came to where I stood, and when he came, I was terrified and fell on my face. And he said to me, ‘Understand, O human, that the vision is for the end-time.’ 18And as he spoke to me I fell into a trance, my face on the ground, and he touched me and made me stand up. 19And he said, ‘I am about to make known to you what will be in the latter time of the wrath, for it is the appointed time for the end. 20The ram that you saw with the horns is the king of Media and Persia. 21And the he-goat is the king of Greece, and the great horn that is between its eyes is the first king. 22And the one broken and four stood in its stead are the four kingdoms that rose up from a nation and not through its power. 23And in the latter time of his kingdom, when the crimes are fulfilled, an impudent king will rise up, who understands enigmas. 24And his power will grow mighty but not through his own power, and he will lay waste wondrously and prosper in what he does and lay waste to mighty ones and to the people of the holy ones. 25And with his shrewdness he will prosper in the deceit he possesses, and in his mind he will grow great and lay waste to many unawares, and he will stand against the prince of princes, but he will be broken effortlessly. 26And the portent of evening and morning that was said is truth. As for you, keep the vision a secret, for it is for a long time off.’ 27And I, Daniel, I was devastated and stricken for a long time, and I arose and did the king’s tasks and was dumbfounded over the vision, and none understood.”
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. In the third year. The language now switches from Aramaic to Hebrew and will continue in Hebrew until the end of the book. But, as noted above, the form and content of this chapter are closely related to those of the previous chapter.
2. Shushan the capital. This is the royal city of the Persian empire and the theater in which most of the action takes place in the Book of Esther. Daniel’s fictional location, we should recall, is in the Babylonian, then Persian, empire. Many modern interpreters understand the noun rendered here as “capital” to signify “fortress city.”
3. two horns. These are the kingdoms of Media and Persia, with Persia being the “higher” horn that sprouts after the other horn.
4. to the west and to the north and to the south. Though one ancient version supplies the fourth direction, these are in fact the directions in which the Persian empire chiefly expanded.
5. a he-goat came from the west. This is the Greek empire, which invaded the Near East from the west.
and was not touching the ground. It is unnecessary to assume that this makes the he-goat a winged beast. The obvious indication is of the breathtaking swiftness of Alexander’s conquest.
a jutting horn. The Hebrew collocation qeren ḥazut is peculiar, and Hebrew usage will become still stranger as the vision proceeds. Most interpreters understand the second term to reflect a verbal root that means “to see,” thus indicating something like “highly visible.” It is on that assumption that the present translation uses “jutting,” but this is somewhat conjectural.
7. it attacked it and struck down the ram. This is an image of Alexander’s devastating frontal assault on the Persian empire.
8. the large horn was broken and four jutting ones sprouted in its stead. This is a symbolic representation of the death of Alexander in 323 B.C.E. and the breakup of the vast empire he had established into four smaller empires.
9. a puny horn. This repeats the derogatory Aramaic reference in 7:8 to Antiochus IV Epiphanes.
10. And it grew up to the host of the heavens and brought down some of the stars. The host (or “array”) of the heavens is both God’s celestial army and the stars. Although the imagery sounds apocalyptic, the reference is probably to the violation of the Temple cult by Antiochus, which is understood as an assault on God.
11. the daily offering was taken away. This formulation directly invokes the suppression of the temple cult in late 167 B.C.E. The “Commander of the Host” would have to be God, so the profanation of the Temple is seen as affecting God Himself.
12. And a host was criminally set against the daily offering. The Hebrew of this entire verse is crabbed and opaque, whether through mangling in scribal transmission or because the writer, perhaps more comfortable in Aramaic than in Hebrew, had an imperfect sense of the language. As a result, any translation at this point is somewhat conjectural.
prospered in what it did. The Hebrew is again problematic: both “prospered” and “did” are conjugated as feminine verbs, but the word for “host” is masculine. “Truth” is a feminine noun, but it makes no sense for that to be the subject of the verbs.
13. a certain holy one. This is clearly an angel.
the daily offering and the desolating crime giving the sanctum and the host to be trampled. Although the reference has to be again to the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus, this whole clause reads like word salad in the Hebrew—literally: the daily offering and the desolating crime give and holiness and host trampling.
14. Two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings. The daily offering was made each evening and morning. Thus the time envisaged during which the Temple cult is suppressed comes to slightly more than three years.
will be made right. Alternately, “will be justified.” It is an anomalous use of the verb ts-d-q.
15. as the likeness of a man. This is another way of referring to an anthropomorphic celestial being.
16. a human voice in the midst of the Ulai. The voice, that is, comes as human speech, but the speaker is more than human, addressing Daniel from the midst of a watercourse, where no ordinary human would be.
Gabriel. It is only in this late period that angels are given names.
17. O human. The Hebrew ben-ʾadam, which some render, misleadingly, as “son of man,” is a term of address used by the divine for the human that is borrowed from Ezekiel.
18. I fell into a trance. As Abraham does in his face-to-face covenant with God in Genesis 15:12.
19. the latter time of the wrath. The most probable reference of this murky formulation is to the end of the period of persecution initiated by Antiochus.
21. the first king. This, of course, is Alexander the Great.
23. when the crimes are fulfilled. The meaning is obscure. Some have compared it to Genesis 15:16, when it is said “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full”—that is, once the balance sheet of all their crimes is full, they will be destroyed.
an impudent king … who understands enigmas. Antiochus is impudent but also exercises a certain cunning or shrewdness.
24. lay waste to mighty ones. Collins understands these to be the three pretendants to the throne whom Antiochus eliminated.
25. shrewdness. The Hebrew sekhel also has a more positive sense (“insight,” “intelligence”), but the present context surely calls for a negative term for acumen.
unawares. Antiochus took Jerusalem in a surprise attack.
effortlessly. More literally, “without a hand” (others, “not by human hands”). Collins suggests that in this the author of the vision dissociates himself from the Maccabean rebellion against Antiochus.
26. keep the vision a secret, for it is for a long time off. It is doubtful that this text, or any other in Daniel, was hidden as esoteric doctrine in its own time, but one must remember that this prophecy is purportedly revealed to Daniel back in the Persian period, in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar.
27. devastated. The translation follows Rashi in deriving the verb nihyeiti from the noun howah, “disaster.”
did the king’s tasks. Daniel returns to his responsibilities as a high-ranking royal bureaucrat.
and none understood. The meaning of the portent has been revealed to Daniel but to no other person.
1In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus from the seed of Media, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans, 2in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, came to understand in the books the number of years that according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet were to fulfill the devastation of Jerusalem—seventy years. 3And I turned to the Master God to petition in prayer and supplication, in fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4And I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed and said, “O Master, great and fearsome God, Who keeps the covenant and faithfulness for those who love Him and keep His commands! 5We have offended and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled and swerved from Your commands and from Your statutes. 6And we have not heeded Your servants the prophets, who spoke in Your name to our kings, our nobles, our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7Yours, O Master, is righteousness and ours the disgrace, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, far and near in all the lands to which You have driven them for their betrayal that they committed against You. 8Ours is the shame, O LORD, our kings’, our nobles’, and our fathers’, for we have offended You. 9To the Master our God are compassion and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against Him. 10And we have not heeded the voice of the LORD our God to walk in His teachings that He set before us through His servants the prophets. 11And all Israel have violated Your teaching and swerved away, not heeding Your voice. And the curse and the imprecation written in the Teaching of Moses servant of God poured down on us, for we have offended Him. 12And he fulfilled His word that He had spoken concerning us and concerning our judges who judged us to bring upon us great evil, which has never been done under all the heavens as was done against Jerusalem. 13As it is written in the Teaching of Moses, all this evil came upon us, yet we did not entreat the LORD our God to turn from our wrongdoing and to find wisdom in Your truth. 14And the LORD was exacting about the evil and brought it upon us, for the LORD our God is righteous in all His acts that He has done, but we did not heed His voice. 15And now, O Master our God, Who brought Your people out from the land of Egypt with a strong hand and made a name for Yourself as on this day, we have offended, we have acted wickedly. 16O Master, by all Your righteousness let Your wrath, pray, and Your fury turn back from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain, for through our offenses and through the wrongdoing of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a disgrace to all around us. 17And now, listen, God, to the prayer of Your servant and to his supplications, and let Your face shine on Your desolate sanctuary for the sake of the Master. 18Bend Your ear, my God, and listen. Open Your eyes and see our desolation and the city on which Your name is called, for not because of our righteousness do we pour out our supplication before You but because of Your great compassion. 19O Master, listen. O Master forgive. O Master hearken, and do it, do not delay, for Your sake, my God, for Your name is called on Your city and on Your people.” 20I was still speaking and praying and confessing my offense and the offense of my people Israel and pouring out my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God, 21and I was still speaking in prayer, when the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision before, glided down in flight, reaching me at the hour of the evening offering. 22And he imparted understanding and spoke with me and said, “Daniel, now have I come out to convey wisdom to you. 23At the beginning of your supplication the word was issued and I have come to tell that you are beloved. And discern the word and understand the vision. 24Seven weeks of years are decreed for your people to work out the crime and to finish offenses and to atone for wrongdoing and to bring everlasting justice and to seal vision and prophecy and to anoint the holy of holies. 25And you shall know and understand: seven weeks of years from the issuing of the word to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the anointed prince, and in sixty-two weeks of years it will once more be built, square and moat, but in a time of distress. 26And after the sixty-two weeks of years the anointed one shall be cut off with none to cut off with none to save him. 27And the troops of a prince who comes shall destroy the city and the sanctuary, but his end shall come in a sudden rush, and till the end of the decreed war, desolation. 28And he shall make a strong pact with the many for one week of years, and for half a week of years he shall put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. And in its place there shall be a desolating abomination until the decreed destruction is poured down on the desolating thing.”
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. Darius son of Ahasuerus. This is still another confusion of Persian dynastic names. Ahasuerus was not the father of Darius, but he appears to be plugged in here as a familiar Persian royal name.
2. the books. Daniel actually has in mind one book, Jeremiah, who prophesied (Jeremiah 25:11) that “these nations shall serve the king of Babylonia seventy years.” The text from Jeremiah will surface in the exchange with the angel Gabriel, verses 22–27, where it will be given a novel interpretation.
3. the Master. This chapter makes repeated use of ʾadonay, “Master.” That may be a pious scribal substitution for YHWH, but YHWH is used in the next verse and afterward in Daniel’s prayer (and nowhere else in the book).
in fasting and sackcloth and ashes. This paraphernalia of mourning is also traditionally used for penitential prayers.
4. I prayed to the LORD. The form of the penitential prayer is unique to this chapter. The language of the prayer is traditional (and somewhat different from the Hebrew used elsewhere in Daniel), so this may have been an older prayer adapted and inserted by the writer. This sort of literary collage is common in biblical composition from its early stages.
5. We have offended and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled. The language of confession was adopted liturgically for the shorter confession of sins in the Yom Kippur service.
6. we have not heeded Your servants the prophets. Heeding the prophets is of paramount concern for Daniel because he is basing his vision of history on Jeremiah.
7. in all the lands to which You have driven them. This formulation is in keeping with the repeated declaration in Deuteronomy that exile comes as punishment for violation of the covenant.
12. great evil, which has never been done under all the heavens. This hyperbolic characterization of the national catastrophe that befell Judah (which of course did not differ from the conquest of other peoples) echoes, perhaps consciously, a repeated theme from Lamentations.
16. let Your wrath, pray, and Your fury turn back from Your city Jerusalem.This formulation leads one to wonder whether this prayer may have originated before the return to Zion in the middle of the fifth century B.C.E. At the time of the composition of Daniel, the Temple had long been rebuilt, and there was a substantial Jewish population in Jerusalem. But as we shall see, the catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and the razing of the Temple is conflated with a later and different disaster.
17. Your desolate sanctuary. The term shamem, “desolate,” which originally would have referred to the destroyed Temple, will now be used to indicate a different kind of desolation.
19. O Master, listen. O Master forgive. O Master hearken. These words constitute a formal coda to Daniel’s supplication.
20. my offense and the offense of my people. Although the confession of sin has been in the first-person plural, Daniel, as spokesman for the people, must include himself.
21. the man Gabriel. Although Gabriel is a divine being, he is designated “man” because his form is human.
glided down in flight. The term biyʿaf, rendered here as “in flight,” is disputed, but it could easily derive from the verbal stem that indicates flying by a reversal of consonants. If so, this would be the first unambiguous instance of an airborne angel.
23. the word was issued. The likely reference is to the word of revelation or explanation that is here given to Daniel.
you are beloved. Hence, you are the privileged recipient of this revelation.
vision. Literally, “what is seen,” that is, the vision. Elsewhere in Daniel another term is used for “vision.”
24. Seven weeks of years. The Hebrew appears to say merely “weeks,” but it becomes apparent in Daniel’s calculations that these are weeks of years. That might be indicated by the otherwise odd masculine plural ending, whereas “weeks” in earlier Hebrew always has a feminine plural ending, though the word is masculine. It is also possible that a masculine plural ending is simply used as part of a general tendency of later Hebrew to regularize irregular forms. In any case, through this terminology, Jeremiah’s “seventy years,” which would approximately mark the time span from the moment of his prophecy to the beginning of the return to Zion, is transformed into 490 years—still not an exact number but bringing the elapsed time to just a few decades after the date of 167, when this vision is enumerated. Biblical Hebrew, with its attachment to formulaic numbers, often uses numerical indications only approximately.
to finish offenses. The received text reads “to seal,” leḥatem, but that is probably an inadvertent scribal duplication of that same verb which occurs later in the verse, and many manuscripts read lehatem, “to finish,” “bring to an end.”
25. from the issuing of the word. This has to be Jeremiah’s word.
the anointed prince. This is probably Antiochus IV Epiphanes. One should remember that “anointed” in biblical Hebrew is the equivalent of “crowned” and does not necessarily imply divinely sanctioned status.
in a time of distress. This is almost certainly a reference to the persecutions ordered by Antiochus.
26. the anointed one shall be cut off. Though the reference, after the previous “anointed prince,” is confusing, most commentators think this alludes to Onias III, the high priest who was murdered around 171 B.C.E. Priests as well as princes were anointed. After Onias III, there were no more legitimate Zadokite priests.
with none to save him. “To save him” does not appear in the Hebrew but may have been dropped in scribal transmission.
28. he shall make a strong pact with the many for one week of years. What is envisaged is the collaboration of the large population of Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem with Antiochus in setting up a pagan cult in the Temple. This alliance is said to last seven years, and for three and a half years the traditional cult of YHWH in the Temple was violated.
in its place. The Masoretic Text reads, incomprehensibly, “on the wing” (or “corner”). The translation follows a commonly proposed emendation: instead of ʿal kenaf we read ʿal kano.
a desolating abomination. Pointedly, Daniel cannot bring himself to mention the vile, disgusting thing that has been placed in the Temple. Some think it may be the statue of a pagan god; others conclude that it is a special altar for pagan sacrifice set up within the Temple. On that altar (or perhaps, before that statue), the animal sacrifices offered, as we know from other ancient sources, included pigs—an animal toward which Jewish loyalists had a kind of visceral revulsion, thus adding an associative coloration to the generalized language of disgust that Daniel uses here.
1In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a word was revealed to Daniel, whose name had been called Belteshazzar, and the word was true and the service great, and he understood the word and had understanding of the vision. 2“At that time, I, Daniel, was mourning for three weeks. 3No fine bread did I eat, nor did meat and wine come into my mouth, and I was careful not to rub myself with oil until the three weeks were over. 4And on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, I was by the great river, which is the Tigris. 5And I raised my eyes and saw, and, look, there was a certain man dressed in linen and his loins were girt with pure gold, 6and his body was like chrysolite, and his face like the look of lightning, and his eyes like fiery torches, and his arms and his legs like the color of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a great crowd. 7And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, but the people who were with me did not see the vision, yet a great trembling fell upon them and they fled to hide. 8As for me, I remained alone, and I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me, and my bearing was shattered, and I retained no strength. 9And I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I was in a trance on my face, and my face to the ground. 10And, look, a hand touched me and he pulled me to my knees and to the palms of my hands. 11And he said to me, ‘Daniel, beloved man, understand the words that I speak to you and stand up where you are, for now have I been sent to you.’ And as he spoke this thing to me, I stood up, shaking. 12And he said to me, ‘Fear not, Daniel. For from the first day that you set your mind to understand and to afflict yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come through your words. 13And the prince of the kingdom of Persia was standing against me twenty-one days, and, look, Michael, one of the leading princes, was coming to help me, and I remained there by the king of Persia. 14And I have come to let you understand what will befall your people in the latter time, for there is yet a vision for the time.’ 15And as he spoke to me words of this sort, I put my face to the ground and I fell silent. 16And, look, one in the likeness of a human being was touching my lips, and I opened my mouth and spoke and said to him who stood before me, ‘My lord, in the vision my pangs overcame me and I retained no strength. 17And how can this slave of my lord speak with my lord, and I, strength will not stand in me and no breath is left me?’ 18And again one like the semblance of a human being touched me and made me strong. 19And he said, ‘Fear not, beloved man, it is well with you. Be very strong.’ And as he spoke with me, I grew strong and said, ‘Let my lord speak, for you have made me strong.’ 20And he said, ‘Do you know why I have come to you? And now, I shall go back to do battle with the prince of Persia, and as I go out, look, the prince of Greece is coming. 21But I shall tell you what is inscribed in the writ of truth, and there is no one sustaining me against all those save Michael your prince.’ 11:1And I in the first year of Darius the Mede, I took my stand to strengthen and to be a bastion for him. 2aAnd now the truth shall I tell you.”
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. In the third year of Cyrus. In 1:21, we are told that Daniel’s mission continued only until the first year of Cyrus’s reign. The discrepancy is unresolved.
the service. The more common meaning of tsavaʾ is “army,” but that is because one owes a term of service in the army. Presumably, the sense here is the great and arduous service as a recipient of vision.
3. No fine bread did I eat. Fasting, or partial fasting, as is evidently the case here, had become common in this period as a procedure for creating readiness for visionary experience.
not to rub myself with oil. The Hebrew uses a different verb from the one for anointing, and “anoint,” adopted in almost all English versions, should be avoided because of its sacral or political associations. What is referred to here is the pleasurable and cosmetic rubbing of the body with soothing oil, a practice well attested in the ancient Mediterranean from Greece to the Fertile Crescent.
5. dressed in linen. Linen as angelic garb is a cue picked up from Ezekiel.
6. and his body was like chrysolite, and his face like the look of lightning. While this figure, who must be Gabriel, has been described as “a certain man” because his form is anthropomorphic, he is dazzling and monumental (like the lover in Song of Songs 5:10–16) from his jewel-like body and his refulgent face and eyes to his roaring voice.
7. yet a great trembling fell upon them. Unlike Daniel, they are not privileged to see the vision, but they sense some sort of numinous fearsome presence, which strikes them with terror.
8. my bearing. The literal sense of the Hebrew noun is “glory.” The word selection and, even more, the phrase that immediately follows, nehpakh lemashḥit, sound odd.
9. a trance. As before, the trance is a precondition to receiving the vision.
10. a hand touched me. Daniel, in a trance, with his face pressed to the ground, is not in a position to see the angel, but now he feels a hand touching him and raising him up with a shaking motion.
12. to afflict yourself. This reflexive verb often has the sense of “to fast” and in Late Biblical and rabbinic Hebrew generates a cognate noun for fasting, taʿanit.
13. the prince of the kingdom of Persia. The probable reference is not to the Persian emperor but to a celestial sar who serves as an angelic patron of Persia. Though there are a couple of episodic hints of such a notion in earlier biblical literature, it basically reflects a new concept of history: celestial agents do battle with one another on behalf of the nations they patronize, and human agency is thus drastically reduced.
twenty-one days. These evidently correspond to the twenty-one days of Daniel’s fast.
15. I put my face to the ground. Daniel’s head had been raised when Gabriel lifted him from his prostrate position, but as he is about to be told what will befall his people in the time to come, he flings himself back down in fear.
16. touching my lips. Unlike the more general touch of verse 10, Daniel here is specifically touched on the lips, an indication that he is to speak the prophecy he will receive. In order to touch him on the lips, the angel would have had to raise his head from the ground.
18. made me strong. Although some have linked Daniel’s weakness with his twenty-one days of partial fasting, what is much clearer is that the power of the epiphany itself devastates or evacuates him, and so he needs to be strengthened.
19. it is well with you. Some render shalom lakh as a greeting, “peace be with you,” but given the context of Daniel’s overwhelming weakness followed by his regaining strength, the inevitable sense is “it is well with you”—don’t worry, you are all right now.
20. I shall go back to do battle with the prince of Persia. As in verse 13, this is a battle between angelic patrons of the nations.
the prince of Greece is coming. In this theocentric vision of history, it is not Alexander the Great but the celestial prince of Greece who approaches to defeat the Persian empire.
21. the writ of truth. Though most translations render this as “the book of truth,” the Hebrew noun ketav means anything that is written down, and it is worth preserving the mysterious indeterminacy of the locution, which seems apt for a prophetic revelation.
sustaining me. The reflexive Hebrew verb is the same one used in verse 19 for Daniel’s “growing strong.”
Michael your prince. Gabriel is speaking, but his celestial ally Michael is the prince of the people of Israel.
11:1. And I in the first year of Darius the Mede. This translation follows the proposal of many scholars that the first verse and a half of chapter 11 are actually the conclusion of the textual unit that begins with 10:1.
I took my stand. This is still another instance in which the Hebrew of Daniel seems a little peculiar. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “my stance is to strengthen and to be a bastion for him,” but the context appears to require a verb, not a noun, and that has been supplied in the translation.
2bLook, another three kings are to stand forth for Persia, and the fourth shall grow rich with greater wealth than all, and with his wealth he shall stir up all, even the kingdom of Greece. 3And a warrior king shall stand forth and rule very dominantly and do as he pleases. 4And when he stands forth, his kingdom shall be broken and divided to the four winds of the heavens and not to his offspring and not to the dominion that he had ruled, for his kingdom shall be uprooted and be for others besides these. 5And the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his commanders shall prevail over him and shall rule, very dominant his dominion. 6And at the end of some years they shall join together, and the daughter of the king of the south shall come to the king of the north to make a treaty, but she shall not retain strength, nor shall he retain strength, and she shall be given over—she and those who brought her and her begetter and her supporter in those times. 7And a shoot shall stand forth from her roots in his place, and he shall come to the army and enter the stronghold of the king of the north and prevail. 8And their gods as well with their molten images with their precious vessels of silver and gold he shall bring in captivity to Egypt, and for years he shall stand away from the king of the north. 9And he, he shall come into the kingdom of the king of the south and then return to his land. 10And his sons shall be stirred up and gather a crowd of many forces and surely come and sweep along and pass through. And again he shall be stirred up, as far as his stronghold. 11And the king of the south shall be enraged and come out and do battle with him, with the king of the north, and he shall set out a great crowd, and the crowd shall be given into his hand. 12When the crowd is borne off, his heart shall be haughty, and he shall bring down tens of thousands, but he shall not be strong. 13And again shall the king of the north set out a crowd greater than the first, and at the end of some years he shall surely come with a great force and much paraphernalia. 14And in those times many shall stand against the king of the south, and the lawless sons of your people shall be raised up to fulfill the vision, but they shall stumble. 15And the king of the north shall come and build a siege-work and capture the fortified city, and the powers of the south shall not be able to withstand, not even his elite troops, and there shall be no strength to withstand. 16And the one who comes against him shall do as he pleases with none withstanding him, and he shall stand in the Splendid Land, with all of it in his hands. 17And he shall set his face to come in them ight of all his kingdom, and make a treaty with him, and give him a daughter in marriage to destroy him, but it shall not stand and shall not be. 18And he shall turn his face back to the coastlands, and capture many, and a consul shall put an end to his insults, even without his insult, he shall requite him. 19And he shall turn his face back to the strongholds of his land and stumble and fall and not be found. 20And there shall stand in his place one who makes a tribute collector pass through the glory of the kingdom, but in a few days he shall be broken, neither in wrath nor in battle. 21And there shall stand in his place a contemptible man to whom the glory of the kingdom has not been given, and he shall come stealthily and grasp the kingdom through smooth talk. 22And the sweeping powers shall be swept away before him and be broken, and also the prince of the covenant. 23And after the joining with him he shall practice deceit, and he shall come up and grow mighty with a small force. 24Stealthily shall he come into the richest provinces. He shall come and do what neither his father nor the fathers of his father had done, he shall despoil and take booty and distribute wealth to them, and against fortresses he shall lay his plans, but for a time. 25And he shall rouse his strength and his heart against the king of the south, and the king of the south shall be stirred up for battle with a very great and mighty force, but he shall not withstand, for they shall lay plans against him. 26And those who eat at his table shall break him and sweep away his army, and many shall fall slain. 27And the two kings, their heart shall be for harm, and on a single table, deceit; for there is still an end for the appointed time. 28And he shall go back to his land with great wealth, and his heart against the holy covenant. And he shall do his deeds and go back to his land. 29At the appointed time, he shall again go into the south, but the second time shall not be like the first. 30And ships from Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be daunted and once again rage against the holy covenant, and do his acts and look to those who abandon the holy covenant. 31And forces shall stand forth from him and profane the sanctuary, the stronghold, and take away the daily offering and set up the desolating abomination. 32And those who deal wickedly with the covenant he shall flatter with smooth talk, but the people who know their God shall stand strong and act. 33And the discerning among the people shall make the many understand, but they shall stumble for a time by the sword and by flame, by captivity, and by despoiling. 34And when they stumble they shall find little support, and many shall join them with smooth talk. 35And from among the discerning shall people fall, to purge them and to refine and to purify until the end, for it is still for the appointed time. 36And the king shall do as he pleases, and he shall exalt himself and make himself great over every god, and against the God of gods he shall speak wondrous things, and he shall prosper till the wrath comes to an end, for what has been decreed shall be done. 37And he shall not consider the gods of his fathers nor the one beloved by women, nor shall any god be considered, for over everything he shall make himself great. 38But he shall honor the god of strongholds in his place, he shall honor a god that his fathers did not know, with gold and with silver and with precious stones and costly things. 39And he shall act for those who fortify the strongholds, the people of an alien god whom he comes to know. He shall greatly honor them and make them rule over many and share out land at a price. 40At the end-time the king of the south shall join battle with him and the king of the north shall storm against him with chariots and horsemen and many ships, and he shall come into the lands and sweep through and pass on. 41And he shall come into the Splendid Land, and myriads shall stumble, but these shall escape from his hand—Edom and Moab and the leadership of the Ammonites. 42And he shall reach out his hand against the lands, and the land of Egypt itself shall not escape. 43And he shall rule over the treasures of gold and silver and all the costly things of Egypt, and the Libyans and the Nubians shall trail after him. 44But rumors from the east and from the north shall alarm him, and he shall sally forth in great rage to destroy and to slaughter many. 45And he shall pitch the tents of his pavilion between the sea and the splendid holy mountain, and he shall come to his end, with none to help him.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
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2b. another three kings are to stand forth for Persia. As in all that follows in this chapter, the three Persian kings plus one are cloaked in deliberately mystifying anonymity, in keeping with the intended prophetic effect. Scholarship generally gives this the neutral label of ex eventu prophecy, though it may be more to the point to call this pseudo-prophecy. That is, Daniel, fictionally located in the Persian empire, is represented as foreseeing the political events of the next century and a half—events that the author of the book, around 167 B.C.E., knew in minute detail. In contrast, however, to the treatment of the wars and campaigns in the Seleucid and Ptolemaic empires, the four Persian kings are schematic, and the extraordinary wealth of the fourth is probably a literary invention.
he shall stir up all, even the kingdom of Greece. The notion that the wealth of the Persian emperor—probably Darius III—motivated Alexander to invade is not strictly historical.
3. a warrior king. The dominant warrior king is of course Alexander the Great.
4. And when he stands forth. The verb here, repeated from verse 2, is obscure in context and symptomatic of the use of awkward and unclear repetitions in Daniel’s Hebrew. In fact, the empire broke up not while Alexander was “standing” but after his premature death.
divided to the four winds of the heavens. Alexander’s vast empire broke into four parts, only two of which, warring over the Land of Israel, will be the object of attention in what follows.
not to his offspring. Alexander had no biological heirs to the throne.
5. the king of the south. This is Ptolemy I Soter, who seized Egypt after Alexander’s death.
one of his commanders shall prevail over him. This is Seleucus I Nicator, who assisted Ptolemy around 312 B.C.E., then returned to Babylonia, where he created an empire greater than Ptolemy’s.
6. the daughter of the king of the south. Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, was married to Antiochus II Theos, the Seleucid emperor.
she shall not retain strength, nor shall he retain strength. Antiochus died suddenly, perhaps poisoned by his first wife, Laodice. Berenice and her child were then murdered.
she shall be given over. The Hebrew is vague and obscure, like much of the language in this chapter.
7. a shoot shall stand forth from her roots. This is Ptolemy III, Berenice’s brother, who was victorious in a campaign against Laodice’s son, Seleucus II, in 246 B.C.E.
8. he shall stand away from the king of the north. This is still another instance of an odd and unidiomatic use of the verb “stand.”
9. he shall come into the kingdom of the king of the south. Seleucus II then counterattacked and regained the territory he had lost.
10. his sons shall be stirred up. These are Seleucus III (227–223 B.C.E.) and Antiochus III (223–187 B.C.E.). The latter dominated the region for three decades, exploiting the weakness of Ptolemy III.
as far as his stronghold. The reference is obscure.
11. the crowd shall be given into his hand. Ptolemy IV defeated Antiochus in the battle of Rafia in 217 B.C.E. But he failed to take advantage of his victory and had to contend with uprisings of native Egyptians in his home territory.
13. And again shall the king of the north set out a crowd greater than the first. Antiochus recaptured eastern portions of his empire (212–205 B.C.E.) and then attacked Egypt after the deaths of Ptolemy IV and his queen. By 200 B.C.E., the Seleucids had gained control of Judah.
14. the lawless sons of your people. The reference is disputed, but this may be a designation of the Jewish Hellenizers who allied themselves with the Seleucids.
15. shall come and build a siege-work. This is the siege of Sidon, in which Antiochus assaulted the Ptolemaic forces.
16. he shall stand in the Splendid Land. This is the notation, in pseudo-prophetic language, of Antiochus’s conquest of Judah.
17. give him a daughter in marriage. Antiochus, in the interest of halting hostilities, betrothed his daughter Cleopatra to Ptolemy V in 197 B.C.E.
to destroy him. The Masoretic Text reads “destroy her,” but the Qumran Daniel, more plausibly, shows a masculine suffix. Once again, the wording is odd, but it probably refers to the idea that Cleopatra would pursue Seleucid interests in the Ptolemaic court.
it shall not stand and shall not be. Cleopatra failed to deliver, instead showing loyalty to the Ptolemaic empire.
18. he shall turn his face back to the coastlands. Antiochus led his forces through Asia Minor in the first years of the second century B.C.E.
a consul shall put an end to his insults. The consul is the Roman officer Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who defeated Antiochus at the battle of Magnesia in 190 B.C.E. But much of the wording is obscure.
19. stumble and fall and not be found. Antiochus perished at Elymaus in 187 B.C.E. while attempting to sack the temple of Bel.
20. one who makes a tribute collector pass through the glory of the kingdom. Antiochus was succeeded by Seleucus IV. In financial straits, he dispatched one Heliodorus to collect taxes. Eventually Seluecus was killed in a plot hatched by Heliodorus. Though this took place after twelve years, it is referred to dismissively here as “a few days.”
21. a contemptible man. This is Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the perpetrator of the desecration of the Jerusalem Temple and hence Daniel’s bête noire.
to whom the glory of the kingdom has not been given. Antiochus IV usurped the throne from the Seleucid line after 175 B.C.E.
22. the prince of the covenant. The high priest, Onias III, was murdered at this point.
23. after the joining with him. This is still another vague locution, which must refer to political alliances made by Antiochus to strengthen his position.
25. And he shall rouse his strength and his heart against the king of the south. Antiochus invaded Egypt in 170 B.C.E.
26. those who eat at his table shall break him. Daniel attributes the defeat of Ptolemy VI Philometor by Antiochus to bad counsel or a conspiracy by his close advisors.
27. on a single table, deceit. Antiochus and Ptolemy VI negotiated, but in the view of this author, Antiochus deceived the southern king through a pretense of friendship and then seized control of Egypt.
29. he shall again go into the south. Antiochus, after having withdrawn from Egypt, invaded it again in 167 B.C.E.
30. ships from Kittim. Kittim, an opaque geographic reference in Balaam’s oracle (Numbers 24:24), at this late period was often used to designate Rome, as is clear in several Qumran documents. Antiochus, confronted by a Roman ultimatum, had been forced to pull back from Egypt.
31. the sanctuary, the stronghold. Fortifications had been introduced into the temple structure.
the desolating abomination. This recurrent phrase, hashiquts meshomem, which expresses Daniel’s loathing of the object of idolatrous veneration set up in the Temple, may pun, as many scholars conclude, on baʿal shamin, the Baal of the heavens, widely worshipped in the region. This could be a statue of Zeus Olympius.
33. the discerning among the people. These are Daniel’s own circle. Some commentators think they may be a kind of sect. In any case, it is clearly pious right thinking rather than armed resistance that for Daniel constitutes the most legitimate opposition to Antiochus.
they shall stumble for a time by the sword and by f lame. These words probably refer to the martyrdom suffered by the “discerning” who kept the faith, as is attested in Maccabees.
34. they shall find little support. The discerning ones remain an embattled minority in the Jewish population, and even those who pretend to support them (which might include the Maccabees) offer no more than lip service.
35. to purge them and to refine and to purify. The martyrdom of the discerning may manifest a necessity to winnow out all those who are not sufficiently pure of heart.
36. he shall speak wondrous things. The obvious sense is to speak arrogantly, but the use of a root that means “wonder” is symptomatic of a certain imprecision in the Hebrew vocabulary of Daniel.
the wrath. The mostly likely reference is to the wrath of Antiochus.
37. he shall not consider the gods of his fathers. This statement might reflect Antiochus’s elevation of the cult of Zeus Olympius at the expense of the other gods, but it is probably hyperbolic, intended to represent Antiochus as impious even within his own polytheistic domain.
the one beloved by women. Scholars generally understand this as the conflated figure of Tammuz-Adonis.
38. the god of strongholds. Collins plausibly suggests that this epithet is based on “the hated Akra, the garrison established by Antiochus in the City of David.”
39. the people of. The translation follows the widely accepted emendation of Masoretic ʿim, “with,” to ʿam, “the people of.” These would be Seleucid soldiers stationed by Antiochus in Jerusalem (and ʿam can also mean “troops”).
40. At the end-time. These words indicate a move from pseudo-prophecy to actual prophecy. Daniel envisages an apocalyptic clash between the kingdom of the north and the kingdom of the south, which in fact never occurred. After his actions in Jerusalem, Antiochus turned his attention to the Persians in the east.
45. he shall come to his end, with none to help him. The concluding verses of this chapter show many of the ingredients of apocalyptic vision. There is a cataclysmic war (as in the battle of Gog from the land of Magog). The representative of the forces of evil triumphs for a time (what later rabbinic tradition would call “the birth pangs of the messiah”), and then he is suddenly rendered helpless and perishes. This account, written around 167 B.C.E., has nothing to do with Antiochus’s death in Persia in 165, and word of his demise would not have reached Jerusalem until 164.
1And in that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands over the sons of your people, and it shall be a time of distress the like of which has not been since the nation came to be until that time. And in that time your people shall escape, all who are found in the book. 2And many of the sleepers in the deep dust shall awake—some for everlasting life and some for disgrace and everlasting shame. 3And the discerning shall shine like the splendor of the sky, and those who guide the many to be righteous, like the stars, forever and ever. 4As for you, Daniel, conceal the words and seal the book till the end-time. Many shall roam about and knowledge shall abound. 5And I, Daniel, saw, and, look, two others were standing, one on this bank of the river and one on that bank of the river. 6And one said to the man dressed in linen, who was over the water of the river, “Until when is the wondrous end?” 7And I heard the man dressed in linen, who was over the water of the river, and he raised his right hand, and his left hand was toward the heavens, and he swore by the One who lives forever that at the appointed time of times and a half and at the end of the shattering of the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. 8And I heard and did not understand, and I said, “My lord, what is the aftermath of these things?” 9And he said, “Go, Daniel, for the words are concealed and sealed till the end-time. 10Many shall be sifted and purified and purged, and the wicked shall act wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the discerning shall understand. 11And from the time the daily offering was taken away and the desolating abomination was set up is a thousand two hundred and ninety days. 12Happy who waits and reaches a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. 13As for you, go to the end and you shall rest, and stand up for your destiny at the end of days.”
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
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1. shall stand up … stands over. The Hebrew of Daniel again exhibits a propensity to use the same word over and over again in different senses—not to some subtle punning purpose, as in earlier Hebrew prose, but rather through a certain stylistic slackness. The sense of “stand over” is to protect, Michael being the guardian angel of the people of Israel.
all who are found in the book. The strong scholarly consensus is that this is the book of life. There are some brief hints in earlier biblical literature of such a book kept on high, but here it is made dramatically explicit.
2. the sleepers … shall awake—some for everlasting life and some for disgrace and everlasting shame. This is, famously, the first and only clear reference to the resurrection of the dead in the Hebrew Bible. There are a few possible anticipations in the Prophets, but those may be either hyperbolic or metaphors of national restoration. By the last biblical centuries, notions of an afterlife had some currency in the Near East. Bodily resurrection after burial here is accompanied by the idea of reward for the righteous and punishment for the wicked, though “disgrace” for the latter rather than the tortures of hell is what is expressed.
the deep dust. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “the soil of the dust,” but when two synonyms are joined this way in the construct state (semikhut), the effect is an intensification. (Compare, among many instances, Exodus 10:22, ḥosekh-ʾafeilah, “pitch-dark.”) The point is that the dead who are to rise are buried deep in the ground.
3. the discerning. Once again, this is the term Daniel uses for the privileged spiritual elite to which he belongs.
shine like the splendor of the sky. This phrase was later incorporated into the Jewish prayer for the dead.
like the stars. Collins notes that the idea of astral immortality was current in the Hellenistic world and may well have influenced this formulation.
4. conceal the words and seal the book till the end-time. In the first instance, this command is dictated by Daniel’s fictitious location in the Persian period—the prophecy of the end must remain a secret until its time comes. But given the apocalyptic freight of the prophecy, it needs to be a strictly esoteric revelation even when its fulfillment is only three and a half years away.
Many shall roam about and knowledge shall abound. It is not necessary to emend this sentence, as many scholars have done. The idea is that in the end-time, many will go about in search of knowledge, which will then become accessible.
5. two others. Two other angels, besides Michael.
the river. Though the Hebrew yeʾor was initially an Egyptian loanword referring to the Nile, it became (usually in the plural) a poetic synonym for “river,” and here it probably refers to the Euphrates.
6. the man dressed in linen. This is how the angel was described in 10:5.
the wondrous end. Many interpreters understand this as a reference to Antiochus’s persecutions and so construe “wondrous,” nifllaʾot, against the grain of its usual meaning, in a negative sense. (See the New Jewish Publication Society translation, “awful things.”) But it may be more plausible to understand this to mean the end-time, when wondrous things will take place.
7. he raised his right hand, and his left hand was toward the heavens. The raising of the hand, or here both hands, is the gesture of making a solemn vow.
the appointed time of times and a half. The Hebrew here is a translation of the Aramaic phrase that appears in 7:25.
8. aftermath. Daniel pointedly uses the term aḥarit, “what comes after.” That is, if all these things—perhaps in particular, the persecutions by Antiochus—are to come to an end, what will come afterward?
10. Many shall be sifted and purified and purged, and the wicked shall act wickedly. This is clearly a landscape of apocalypse: the righteous will be winnowed out from the chaff of evildoers, while the wicked will continue in their wicked ways until they are overtaken by perdition.
11. a thousand two hundred and ninety days. This makes three and a half years from the time Antiochus suppressed the temple cult in 167 B.C.E. But given the sweep of the language in this concluding section, beginning with the awakening of the sleepers in the dust, the writer seems to have in mind not merely the restoration of the daily sacrifices in a temple that has been cleansed but a radical transformation of existence.
12. a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days. There is, of course, a discrepancy of forty-five days between this figure and the one given in the previous verse. The simplest explanation may be that this verse was written just after the 1,290 days had passed and so another six and a half weeks were added in hopeful expectation. In any event, subsequent Jewish and Christian interpreters used these verses to make intricate calculations for the coming of the end of days, which manifestly had not taken place in the fourth decade of the second century B.C.E., as Daniel had envisaged. An illuminating exposition of this activity of calculating and recalculating the end-time is found in Frank Kermode’s The Sense of an Ending.
13. go to the end. This slightly odd expression must mean, as the rest of the verse indicates, “go to await the end.”
you shall rest. The evident sense is: rest in the grave. The notion of Daniel’s death prior to his resurrection is probably another reflection of the fact that he is supposed to be living in the Persian era, perhaps two centuries before the prophesied end-time.
stand up for your destiny. The translation preserves the literal sense of this much used Hebrew verb, though the meaning in context is “rise up.” Given that Daniel is preeminently one of the righteous, his destiny at the end-time will surely be everlasting life.
There is a tradition going back to Late Antiquity that sees Ezra and Nehemiah as a single book, often simply referred to as “Ezra.” The two books, however, differ in form and are certainly not the work of a single writer. Ezra is a third-person narrative reporting historical—at least possibly historical—events affecting the returned exiles in the fifth century B.C.E. It includes the only extended passage (chapters 4–6) in the Bible outside of Daniel written in Aramaic, the language that by this time was in the process of becoming the vernacular of the people of Israel. In all likelihood, it was composed at the very end of the fifth century or perhaps during the early decades of the fourth century B.C.E. Nehemiah was probably written a little earlier, in the last quarter of the fifth century. A good portion of it consists of Nehemiah’s memoirs, written in the first person, and there is no equivalent to this form elsewhere in the Bible. It also incorporates Persian imperial documents, and these are probably authentic, even if they may have undergone a certain amount of reworking in the process of being translated into Hebrew. In any event, both Ezra and Nehemiah reflect a strong impulse to leave a record of historical events of their time, and they also manifest the new openness to formal diversity that characterizes Late Biblical literature. In the writing produced during the First Temple period, there was basically one kind of narrative, variously inflected from Genesis to Judges to Samuel to Kings, showing a good deal of stylistic uniformity and adhering by and large to the same literary conventions. In the prose produced in the period after the destruction of the kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C.E., one encounters diversity and what may be thought of from a modern point of view as formal experimentation, as the generically and stylistically different Esther, Ruth, and Jonah vividly illustrate. In Ezra and Nehemiah, we have historical narrative, memoir, collages of historical documents, and a few passages that may well be drawn from folktales.
All this writing, moreover, is driven by a powerful political motive, which is not exactly the case in earlier Hebrew narrative. As happens several times in this period, political power is divided between two figures working in complementary fashion—Ezra the scribe and priest, who is concerned with the all-important project of the restoration of the cult and the canonization of the newly redacted Torah through the institution of its public reading, and Nehemiah, coming to Jerusalem from a high position in the Persian court, the political leader who addresses security issues of rebuilding the walls of the city and confronting armed enemies. Their joint concerns—reestablishing the Temple and the cult within it, authorizing a legal and historical national text, and creating a security apparatus—are conceived as the essential activities for the renewal of the life of the nation in its homeland after the long decades of exile.
The community of returned exiles found itself in sharp conflict with other groups in the country, and the ideology promoted by both Ezra and Nehemiah was stringently separatist. Those who had remained in the land and claimed to be part of the people of Israel—in particular, the Samaritans—were regarded as inauthentic claimants to membership in the nation and were to have no role in the project of rebuilding. This rejection led to resentment, armed attacks, and denunciations to the Persian court of the group led by Ezra and Nehemiah. The machinations of their adversaries and Nehemiah’s countermeasures are recorded in detail here.
Another policy dictated by Ezra and Nehemiah’s separatist view was the sweeping resistance to intermarriage. In the case of Ezra, this entailed draconian measures whereby not only were new intergroup unions to be absolutely avoided but also men who had long-standing foreign wives were to expel them with their children.
It should be noted that there was a strong antithetical view on this issue within the community of returned exiles that is reflected in the Book of Ruth, which in the end was included in the canon and surely must have embodied the outlook of more than a solitary writer. In Ruth, we recall, a young Moabite woman, widow of an Israelite man, evinces love and devotion in following her mother-in-law back to Bethlehem in Judah, where she marries a prosperous landowner and becomes the progenitrix of the line of David. It is hard to imagine a more vigorous riposte to the separatism promulgated by Ezra and Nehemiah. Ruth firmly rejects any notion of an ethnic test for belonging to the community of Israel, and, as in the literature of the earlier biblical period, there is an ease of movement into the community: a woman from across the border settles in Judah, quite naturally accepts the God of her new home, and becomes in every respect a daughter of the people. The Book of Ruth is a luminous testimony to the tolerance and universalism that were a part of the biblical heritage. But the separatist view embodied in Ezra and Nehemiah is the one that seems to have prevailed in its time: no foreign wives, no Samaritans or others of uncertain ethnic and religious background, were tolerated in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the renewal of the Temple. For better or for worse, this is the approach that gained momentum and would predominate in the many centuries that followed.
1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia as the word of the LORD by Jeremiah had come to fulfillment, the LORD roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he sent forth a proclamation through all his kingdom, and in a writ as well, saying, 2“Thus said Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD, God of Israel, given me, and He has ordered me to build Him a house in Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3And whoever among you of all His people, may his God be with him, let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and build the house of the LORD, God of Israel—He is the God Who is in Jerusalem. 4And whoever remains in all the places where they sojourn, let the people of his place support him with silver and with gold and with goods and with beasts together with the freewill offerings for the house of the God who is in Jerusalem.” 5And the patriarchal chiefs of Judah and Benjamin and the priests and the Levites arose, all whose spirit God had roused to go up to build the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. 6And all those around them strengthened their hands with silver vessels and with gold and with goods and with beasts and with delicacies besides all the freewill offerings. 7And King Cyrus had taken out the vessels of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out from Jerusalem and put in the house of his god. 8And Cyrus king of Persia took them out through Mithreath the treasurer, and he counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. 9And this is their count: thirty golden bowls, a thousand silver bowls, twenty-nine knives, 10thirty golden chalices, four hundred ten different silver chalices, and a thousand other vessels. 11All the vessels of gold and of silver, five thousand four hundred. All did Sheshbazzar bring up when the exiles went up from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. the first year of Cyrus king of Persia. This would be 538 B.C.E., the first year of his conquest of Babylonia and his consequent consolidation of Persian hegemony over a vast region from Cappadocia in the far northwest to Arabia in the southeast and to Egypt and the Levant in the west.
the word of the LORD by Jeremiah. Jeremiah had prophesied a period of seventy years before the return from the impending exile. This “fulfillment” actually falls two decades short of the prediction, but the number seventy is formulaic.
he sent forth a proclamation. Since the Hebrew uses the word that means “voice,” this would be a proclamation delivered orally by heralds. It is complemented, as the next phrases indicates, by a written version.
2. All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD, God of Israel, given me. The Hebrew writer, piously and tendentiously, represents Cyrus as recognizing the supreme sovereignty of the God of Israel.
He has ordered me to build Him a house in Jerusalem. This statement accords with the general content of the Cyrus Cylinder, issued in 538 B.C.E. and on view in the British Museum. In it, Cyrus authorizes the rebuilding of local sanctuaries throughout his empire. Here this is presented as a special dictate from God for the Jerusalem Temple, but the cylinder clearly indicates that the authorization was part of a general imperial policy, perhaps devised to win the loyalty of the many different subjects of the empire.
3. He is the God Who is in Jerusalem. Here Cyrus sounds more like a polytheist, assuming there are different local gods.
4. support him. The Hebrew switch from singular to plural to singular is a little confusing, but “him” has to refer to the “he” who “goes up.”
8. the treasurer. The term gizbar is one of several Persian loanwords used in the narrative.
Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah. In all probability, his office is that of prefect over the Persian province of Yehud. The counting out of the sacred vessels of the treasurer to the prefect is in effect the provision of an inventory, to ensure that none of the items carted off by Nebuchadnezzar is missing.
9. knives. Some understand the Hebrew term to mean “substitute items.”
10. different silver chalices. In the Masoretic Text, the first term here is mishnim, which would mean “secondary” or “double.” This translation reads instead, with several versions of the Septuagint, meshunim, a difference only in vocalization.
1And these are the people of the province who came up from the captivity of the exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia had exiled to Babylonia, and they returned to Jerusalem and to Judah, each to his town, 2who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehun, Baanah. The tally of the men of the people of Israel: 3the sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two; 4the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two; 5the sons of Arah, seven hundred seventy-five; 6the sons of Pahath-Moab, the sons of Jeshua, Joab, two thousand eight hundred twelve; 7the sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four; 8the sons of Zattu, nine hundred forty-five; 9the sons of Zaccai, seven hundred sixty; 10the sons of Bani, six hundred forty-two; 11the sons of Bebai, six hundred twenty-three; 12the sons of Azgad, one thousand two hundred twenty-two; 13the sons of Adonikam, six hundred sixty-six; 14the sons of Bigvai, two-thousand fifty-six; 15the sons of Adin, four hundred fifty-four; 16the sons of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety-eight; 17the sons of Bezai, three hundred twenty-three; 18the sons of Jorah, one hundred twelve; 19the sons of Hashun, two hundred twenty-three; 20the sons of Gibbar, ninety-five; 21the sons of Bethlehem, one hundred twenty-three; 22the men of Netophah, fifty-six; 23the men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight; 24the sons of Azmaveth, forty-two; 25the sons of Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three; 26the sons of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one; 27the men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two; 28the men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred twenty-three; 29the sons of Nebo, fifty-two; 30the sons of Magbish, one hundred fifty-six; 31the sons of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four; 32the sons of Harim, three hundred twenty, 33the sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-five; 34the sons of Jericho, three hundred forty-five; 35the sons of Senaah, three thousand six hundred thirty; 36the priests, sons of Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred seventy-three; 37the sons of Omer, one thousand fifty-two; 38the sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven; 39the sons of Harim, one thousand seventeen; 40the Levites, sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, the sons of Hodaviah, seventy-four; 41the choristers, sons of Asaph, one hundred twenty-eight; 42the sons of the gatekeepers, sons of Shallum, sons of Ater, sons of Talmon, sons of Akkub, sons of Hatita, sons of Shobai, all were one hundred thirty-nine; 43the Temple laborers, sons of Ziha, sons of Hasupha, sons of Tabbaoth, 44sons of Keros, sons of Siaha, sons of Padon, 45sons of Lebanah, sons of Hagabah, sons of Akkub, 46sons of Hagab, sons of Shamlai, sons of Hanan; 47sons of Giddel, sons of Gahar, sons of Reaiah; 48sons of Rezin sons of Nekoda, sons of Gazzam; 49sons of Uzza, sons of Paseah, sons of Besai; 50sons of Asnah, sons of Meunim, sons of Nephusim; 51sons of Bakbuk, sons of Hakupha, sons of Harhur; 52sons of Bazluth, sons of Mehida, sons of Harsha; 53sons of Barkos, sons of Sisera, sons of Tamah; 54sons of Neziah, sons of Hatipha; 55sons of Solomon’s servants, sons of Sotai, sons of Hasophereth, sons of Peruda; 56sons of Jaalah, sons of Darkon, sons of Giddel; 57sons of Shephatiah, sons of Hattil, sons of Pochereth Hazzebaim, sons of Ami; 58all of the temple servants and sons of Solomon’s servants, three hundred ninety-two. 59And these were the ones who came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha—Cherub, Addan Imner. And they could not tell their patriarchal house and their seed, whether they were of Israel. 60The sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, six hundred fifty-two. 61And of the sons of the priests, the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai who had taken a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by his name. 62These searched for their writs of lineage and they were not found, and they were excluded from the priesthood. 63And the satrap said to them that they could not eat from the holiest things till a priest should stand forth with the Urim and Thummim. 64The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, 65besides their male slaves and slavegirls—these were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven, and they had two hundred male and female choristers. 66Their horses, seven hundred thirty-six, their mules, two hundred forty-five; 67their camels, four hundred thirty-five, their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred twenty. 68And of the patriarchal chiefs when they came to the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem, some gave a freewill offering for the house of God to set it up on its foundation. 69According to their capacity, they gave for the treasury of the task sixty-one thousand drachmas of gold, and five thousand minnas of silver, and one hundred priestly robes. 70And the priests and the Levites and some of the people and the choristers and the gatekeepers and the temple laborers settled in their towns and all Israel in their towns.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. the people of the province. The “province” would be Yehud, or Judah, now having the status of a province in the Persian empire.
2. The tally of the men of the people of Israel. It is important for the writer, in order to confirm the solidarity of the return to Zion and to mark for merit those who chose to return, to present this exhaustive census of the returners. The list, however, shows some anomalies. The enumeration of the sundry groups returning does not add up to the total sum cited at the end of the list. At first, the listing is according to patriarchal lineage; then it switches to identifying groups by place of origin; then it switches back to lineage. Many of the names in the list appear only here and sound very strange to the Hebrew ear, perhaps because they are of foreign (Babylonian? Persian?) origin. A few of the names are ordinary Hebrew words that would be rather odd to use as personal names—e.g., Mispar, “number”; Bakbuk, “bottle”; Lebanah, “moon”; Tabbaoth, “rings.” The compilation of this list is something of a mystery. Some have conjectured that it is a composite, blending together groups that returned to Judah soon after Cyrus’s decree in 538 B.C.E. with groups that came later, as both Ezra and Nehemiah did.
21. the sons of Bethlehem. This marks the switch from listing by lineage to listing by place of origin.
31. the other Elam. There is an Elam far to the northeast of Israel; this would be a different place, probably within the borders of Judah, that shared the name.
36. Jedaiah of the house of Jeshua. The report now returns to listing by lineage.
40–42. the Levites … the choristers … the gatekeepers. Since the writer’s central agenda involves the rebuilding of the Temple and the renewal of the cult within it, he takes care to enumerate the sundry temple functionaries, now returning to assume their hereditary service.
43. the Temple laborers. These netinim presumably performed more menial functions in the Temple than the Levites, choristers, and gatekeepers. It is possible that they were of foreign origin (compare the Gibeonites, who became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Israelites).
53. Sisera. This is an especially odd name, for it is also the name of the Canaanite general defeated by Deborah and Barak in Judges 4–5.
59. who came up from Tel Melah, Tel Harsha. A third principle of listing is now introduced—towns of origin in Babylonia.
61. Barzillai the Gileadite. He is the loyal old man who gives provisions to David and his troops in their flight across the Jordan at the time of Absalom’s rebellion.
63. the satrap. The Hebrew tirshata is clearly a loanword, probably Persian, designating a high official. One may infer that the official in question was Nehemiah, appointed to govern the province of Judah.
till a priest should stand forth with the Urim and Thummim. This divinatory device was used in the First Temple period but not in the Second, so the satrap may be saying: “never.”
68. the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem. The phrase is proleptic, for the house of the LORD had not yet been rebuilt, as the second half of this verse makes clear.
69. the task. The Hebrew melaʾkhah is regularly used for the work of building or renovating the Temple.
drachmas … minnas. These are Persian terms for currency or weights of precious metal, the former adopted by the Greeks.
1And the seventh month arrived, and the Israelites were in the towns. And the people gathered as one man in Jerusalem. 2And Jeshua son of Jozadak with his brothers the priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his brothers rose up, and they built the altar of the God of Israel to offer up burnt offerings upon it as was written in the Teaching of Moses, man of God. 3And they set the altar firm on its foundation, for they were in fear of the peoples of the lands, and they offered up upon it burnt offerings to the LORD from morning to evening. 4And they performed the Festival of Huts as it was written with the burnt offerings of each day in the number according to the rule each on its day, 5and afterward, perpetual burnt offerings for the new moons and for all the hallowed festivals of the LORD and for all who offered a freewill offering to the LORD. 6From the first day of the seventh month they began offering up burnt offerings to the LORD, but the temple of the LORD was not yet founded. 7And they gave silver to the hewers and to the craftsmen and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians to bring cedarwood from Lebanon by sea to Jaffa according to the authorization they had from Cyrus king of Persia. 8And in the second year of their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak and the rest of their brothers, the priests, and the Levites, and all who had come from the captivity to Jerusalem began by setting up the Levites from age twenty to oversee those doing the task of the house of the LORD. 9And Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, to oversee those doing the task in the house of the LORD, the sons of Henadad, their sons, and their brothers the Levites. 10And the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, and they set up the priests in their vestments with trumpets and the Levites, sons of Asaph, with cymbals to praise the LORD, as David king of Israel had prescribed. 11And they called out in praise and in acclamation to the LORD, that He was good, that His kindness to Israel was forever, and all the people raised a great shout in praise to the LORD for the laying of the foundation of the house of the LORD. 12And many of the priests and the Levites and the elderly patriarchal chiefs who had seen the first house on its foundation, this house, with their own eyes, were weeping loudly, and many raised their voices with shouts and rejoicing. 13And the people could not distinguish between the sound of the joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people were raising a great shout, and the sound was heard far away.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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2. Jeshua … Zerubbabel. Texts from the period of the Return to Zion repeatedly cite, as this one does, two leaders, one of priestly lineage and the other a secular figure. It is generally concluded that Zerubbabel was a descendent of the Davidic line. One should note, however, as a reflection of the extensive acculturation of the exiles in Babylonia that he bears an eminently Babylonian name, which means “seed of Babylonia.”
they built the altar. The construction of the Temple itself has not yet begun, but the altar is the first priority so that the offering of sacrifices can be resumed.
3. for they were in fear of the peoples of the lands. The fear is that some of the sundry non-Israelites in and around Jerusalem might vandalize or actually destroy the altar, so it is built with a solid foundation, making it more difficult to damage.
7. silver to the hewers and to the craftsmen and food and drink and oil to the Sidonians and to the Tyrians. The skilled workers get paid in silver. The Phoenicians, who have transported the cedarwood (as in the building of Solomon’s temple), are bringing materials that have already been paid for, so they merely receive provisions.
by sea to Jaffa. In all likelihood, the cedar trunks were bound into rafts and floated down the coast.
10. as David … had prescribed. More literally, “by David.”
11. that He was good, that His kindness to Israel was forever. Since these words are a citation from Psalms, one may infer that they were singing a psalm as they played their musical instruments.
12. who had seen the first house. This ceremony of rededication, sometime after 534 B.C.E., takes place more than half a century after the destruction of the First Temple.
13. the people could not distinguish between the sound of the joyous shouting and the sound of the people’s weeping. This report sounds historically plausible and dramatizes the mixture of exultation and memory of past calamity in this celebration.
1And the foes of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel. 2And they approached Zerubbabel and the patriarchal chiefs and said to them, “Let us build with you, for like you we would seek out your God, and to Him we have been sacrificing from the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.” 3And Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the patriarchal chiefs with him, said to them, “It is not for you and for us to build a house for our God, for we ourselves shall build for the LORD God of Israel as Cyrus king of Persia has charged us.” 4And the people of the land were slackening the hands of the people of Judah and frightening them from building 5and hiring against them councillors to thwart their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia and through to the reign of Darius king of Persia. 6And in the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote a denunciation against the dwellers of Judah and Jerusalem. 7And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia, and the epistle was written in Aramaic and read out in Aramaic. 8Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter about Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes as follows: 9Then Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates, the judges and the inspectors, the advisors, the administrators, the Archivites, the Babylonians, the Shushbanites who were Elamites, 10and the rest of the peoples whom the great and glorious Asnappar had exiled and settled in the city of Samaria and in the rest of the region Beyond the River. And now, 11this is the copy of the epistle that they sent to him: “To King Artaxerxes, your servants, men from Beyond the River. 12And now let it be known to the king that the Jews who came up from before you to us in Jerusalem, the rebellious and offending city, they are rebuilding, and the walls they are finishing and its foundations they are reinforcing. 13Now let it be known to the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, the levy, the tribute, and the land tax they will not pay, and in the end the kingdom will be harmed. 14Now, since we have tasted the salt of the palace, and it is not proper for us to see the king’s shame, for this we have sent out and made it known to the king, 15that it be searched in the chronicles of your fathers, and you will find in the chronicles that this city is a rebellious city and is harmful to kings and provinces, and has provoked war within it from days of yore. Therefore was this city destroyed. 16We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished, because of this you will have no share in the region Beyond the River.” 17The king sent back this word to Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe and the rest of their associates who were dwelling in Samaria and in the rest of the region Beyond the River: “Greetings. And now 18the missive that you sent me has been read out and expounded before me. 19And a decree was put forth by me, and they searched and found that this city from days of yore has risen against kings and rebelled, and war has been provoked in it. 20And powerful kings were over Jerusalem and dominated the entire region Beyond the River, and the levy, the tribute, and the land tax were paid to them. 21Now, put out a decree to stop these men from their work, and this city shall not be rebuilt until a decree is put forth by me. 22And be careful to make no mistake about this lest there be great damage that would do harm to kings.” 23Then when the copy of this letter of King Artaxerxes was read before Rehum and Shimshai the scribe and their associates, they went in great haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by main force. 24Then was the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped, and it remained stopped until the second year of Darius king of Persia.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. the foes of Judah and Benjamin. Judah and Benjamin being the two tribes of the southern kingdom of Judah, the designation here is of the returning exiles, represented as the autochthonous inhabitants of the land. The “foes” would be the Samaritans—perhaps in part a remnant of Israelites, but here represented as foreigners who had adopted the local cult—living in the region to the north, where the vanished kingdom of Israel once was located. Their declaration is that they “would seek out your God” (verse 2), and that they had been sacrificing to him reflects their embrace of the worship of YHWH because it was the local cult.
2. who brought us up here. This is a clear indication of their primarily foreign origin. It was Assyrian imperial policy to exile local populations and bring in others from elsewhere in the empire. Zerubbabel’s declaration in the next verse that he will not countenance this collaboration in the rebuilding of the Temple expresses his separatist policy—these are not true Israelites and they do not belong with us.
7. the epistle was written in Aramaic and read out in Aramaic. The text seems to say “and translated into Aramaic,” which makes no sense (the Septuagint lacks the second verb here). This could be a scribal error, but there are some grounds for concluding that the verb targem (a loanword related to “turkemen”) meant not only “to translate” but also “to read out in public,” which is precisely what the turgeman in the early synagogues did as he rendered the Hebrew of the Torah into Aramaic. At this point, the language of Ezra switches from Hebrew to Aramaic. Aramaic, in fact, was the common official language of the Persian empire, so a letter to the emperor such as this would have been written in Aramaic. It is unclear whether the actual original Aramaic document has been inserted in the text or whether—perhaps more likely—the author has composed an Aramaic letter conveying the substance of the original document.
9. the inspectors, the advisors, the administrators. The exact nature of these bureaucratic titles is unknown.
the Archivites, the Babylonians. The text now switches from imperial functionaries to terms of national identity.
10. Beyond the River. This is from the Persian point of view, so it probably means the River Jordan, which is to say, all who live in the land of Israel, designated by the Persians as the province of Yehud.
13. if this city is rebuilt and the walls finished. If Jerusalem again becomes a walled city, ready to resist attack, it will exercise autonomy and cease to pay its sundry taxes (the precise nature of the tax terms is unclear) to the empire.
14. tasted the salt of the palace. This is a synecdoche for enjoying imperial provisions.
19. this city from days of yore has risen against kings. The emperor accepts the accusation of the Samaritan instigators.
21. until a decree is put forth by me. Nevertheless, his acceptance is conditional because he reserves for himself the right to revoke his ban on the rebuilding of the city. He is clearly acting like an emperor, not wanting foreign commoners to dictate policy to him.
23. they went in great haste to Jerusalem to the Jews and stopped them by main force. Artaxerxes has assented to their argument against the rebuilders, however provisionally. Before he can change his mind, they rush off to Jerusalem with his authorization and immediately bring the rebuilding to a halt, using some sort of violence, or at least the threat of violence, to do so.
1And Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo the prophet prophesied concerning the Jews of Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, to them. 2Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak and the officers rose up to rebuild the house of God that was in Jerusalem, and with them the prophets of God aiding them. 3At that time Tattenai the satrap of Beyond the River and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates came down upon them, and thus did they say to them, “Who gave you authorization to rebuild this house and to finish these walls? 4Then thus we said to them, ‘What are the names of the men who are rebuilding this structure?’” 5But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, and they did not stop them until a report could go forth to Darius, and then they would respond to this in a missive. 6The copy of the letter that Tattenai the satrap of Beyond the River and Shethar-Bozenai and their associates the inspectors of Beyond the River sent to King Darius. 7A word did they send to him, and thus it was written: “To King Darius abundant greetings. 8Let it be known to the king that we went to the province of Yehud to the house of the great god, and it is being rebuilt with hewn stone, and timber is being set in the walls, and this work of which we report is being done and is prospering through them. 9Then did we ask of these elders, as follows did we say to them: ‘Who gave you authorization to build this house and to finish these walls?’ 10And their names as well we asked of them to inform you that the names of the men who are at their head have been written down. 11And this is the word they answered us, saying, ‘We are the servants of the God of the heavens and the earth, and we are rebuilding the house that was built many years long ago, and a great king of Israel built it and finished it. 12But because our fathers angered the God of the heavens, He gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldean, king of Babylonia, and he destroyed this house, and he exiled the people to Babylonia. 13But in the first year of Cyrus king of Babylonia, King Cyrus put out a decree to rebuild this house of God. 14And also the vessels of the house of God, of gold and silver that Nebuchadnezzar had taken out from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple in Babylonia, Cyrus took out from the temple in Babylonia, and they were given to one named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made satrap. 15And he said to him: “These vessels, carry, go, set them in the Temple in Jerusalem, and the house of God shall be rebuilt on its site.” 16Then this Sheshbazzar came, laid the foundations of the house of God that is in Jerusalem, and from then to now it has been rebuilt, but it is not complete.’ 17And now, if it please the king, let it be searched in the archives of the king there in Babylonia whether it be that King Cyrus put forth a decree to rebuild this house of God in Jerusalem, and let the king’s pleasure concerning this be sent to us.”
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. Haggai … Zechariah. Both these prophets were deeply involved in exhorting Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the people to move forward in the task of rebuilding the Temple.
3. finish these walls. The fact that the verb which means “to finish” or “to complete” is repeatedly used for the walls may suggest that in the conquest the walls were only partially destroyed. Whereas the invaders would have been impelled to raze the Temple and the palace, breaches in the walls would have sufficed for their purposes.
8. the house of the great god. The Persian officials acknowledge, or at least are made to acknowledge in the formulation of this text, that the god of this people is great and powerful.
hewn stone. The exact meaning of ʾeven-gelal (a Hebrew term in the Aramaic text, perhaps because it is a technical builder’s term) is uncertain. Some think that it refers to the color of the stone—possibly veined Jerusalem stone—but an indication of the shaping of the stone fits the context better.
11. a great king of Israel. This of course would be Solomon, but the Persians would scarcely have been familiar with his name, so this descriptive epithet is entirely appropriate to their address to Tattenai and his associates.
12. because our fathers angered the God of the heavens. They hew to the explanation of Deuteronomy and the Prophets that the offenses of the people are what brought about the destruction of the Temple.
13. Cyrus king of Babylonia. He actually used this title for a brief time after conquering the Babylonians.
16. from then to now it has been rebuilt, but it is not complete. The previous chapter gives the impression that the obstruction of the building was through the violent interference of the Samaritans, but the evidence in the writings of Haggai and Zechariah rather more plausibly points to a failure of initiative on the part of the returning exiles.
1Then King Darius put forth a decree, and they searched in the library in which the archives rested in Babylonia. 2And in Ahemeta, in the capital city, which is in the province of Media, a certain scroll was found, and thus was written in it—a memorandum. 3In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus put forth a decree: “The house of God in Jerusalem, the house shall be rebuilt, the site on which sacrifices are offered, its foundations raised up, its height sixty cubits, its width sixty cubits, 4three rows of hewn stone and one row of timber, and the expenses shall be granted by the house of the king. 5And the vessels as well of the house of God, of gold and silver, that Nebuchadnezzar took out from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylonia, they shall bring back and place in the Temple that is in Jerusalem, to its site, and they shall set them in the house of God.” 6Now Tattenai the satrap of Beyond the River, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associates the inspectors of Beyond the River were far away from there: “7Leave the work of the house of God to the satrap of the Jews and to the Jewish elders. This house of God they shall rebuild on its site. 8And by me a decree is put forth about what you shall do with these Jewish elders to rebuild this house of God, and from the king’s possessions from the taxes of Beyond the River the expenses shall be paid out scrupulously to these men, that they not be halted in the work. 9And what they require in bulls and rams and sheep for burnt offerings to the God of the heavens, wheat, salt, wine, oil according to the pronouncements of the priest, shall be given to them each day without fail, 10so that they may sacrifice fragrant incense to the God of the heavens and that they may pray for the life of the king and his children. 11And by me is a decree put forth that any man who alters this word, a beam shall be torn from his house and he shall be impaled upon it upright and his house shall be turned into rubble for this. 12And the God Who makes His name dwell there shall destroy any king or people that reaches out a hand to alter or to damage this house of God which is in Jerusalem. I Darius have put forth a decree. Scrupulously shall it be done.” 13Then Tattenai satrap of Beyond the River, Shethar-Bozenai, and their associates, because King Darius had thus sent, did it scrupulously. 14And the Jewish elders were building and prospering by the prophecy of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah son of Iddo, and they built and finished it by the decree of the God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes kings of Persia. 15And this house was completed on the third day of the month of Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. 16And the Israelites, priests and Levites, and the rest of the exiles made a joyous dedication of this house of God. 17And they sacrificed for the dedication of this house of God a hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred sheep, and he-goats as an offense offering for all Israel twelve for the number of the tribes of Israel. 18And they established priests in their divisions and Levites in their ranks over the service of the God that is in Jerusalem according to the writ of the Book of Moses. 19And the exiles performed the Passover on the fourteenth of the first month. 20For the priests and the Levites had together purified themselves, they all were pure, and they slaughtered the Passover for all the exiles and for their brothers the priests and for themselves. 21And the Israelites who had returned from the exile and all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land to seek out the LORD God of Israel ate of it. 22And they joyously celebrated the Festival of Flatbread seven days, for the LORD had made them joyful and had inclined the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the task of the house of God, the God of Israel.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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2. Ahemeta. The summer palace of the Persian emperors was located here. What seems to be implied is that a search was first conducted in the main imperial archives (the burden of the preceding verse), and the document was not found. Further inquiry discovered the document in a secondary archive at Ahemeta, which may suggest that this authorization to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem was not a major concern for the Persian bureaucracy.
a memorandum. The use of this term may imply that the text which follows is a summary rather than the original document.
3. In the first year of King Cyrus. This is 538 B.C.E., eight decades before Ezra arrives in Jerusalem from the Babylonian exile. This chronological gap dictates the need for archival research in order to uncover the text of Cyrus’s decree.
4. one row of timber. This method of constructing stone buildings with reinforcing timber elements explains how invaders, as in 586 B.C.E., were able to burn down the stone structures.
7. Leave the work. These words, cast in an imperative, continue Cyrus’s directive, briefly interrupted by the explanatory note of verse 6.
the satrap of the Jews. Tattenai is the Persian satrap appointed over the province of Yehud (“Beyond the River”). The satrap of the Jews would be the civil leader of the Jews, probably Zerubbabel.
8. from the king’s possessions … the expenses shall be paid. This may be an invention of the writer to emphasize Cyrus’s generosity. Indications elsewhere are that the expenses of the rebuilding project were covered by collecting contributions from the returned exiles.
10. and that they may pray for the life of the king and his children. Cyrus’s policy of authorizing the rebuilding of local sanctuaries throughout the empire was intended to enlist the gratitude and loyalty of his subjects.
14. by the decree of the God of Israel and by the decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes. Practically, the rebuilding was made possible by the authorization of the Persian emperor, but the writer, from his theological perspective, wants to make clear that the emperors are God’s instruments, fulfilling the divine decree with their own.
15. the sixth year of the reign of King Darius. This is 480 B.C.E.
18. And they established priests in their divisions. At this point, the narrative, having finished its dealing with Aramaic documents and Persian emperors, switches back from Aramaic to Hebrew.
19. And the exiles performed the Passover. Of the three pilgrim festivals, it is the Passover that confirms national identity (as in the celebration of Passover at the beginning of Joshua), and so it is appropriately celebrated here. The phrase “performed the Passover” refers specifically to the Passover sacrifice, as is made explicit in the next verse.
21. all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land. This clause is another reflection of Ezra’s separatist ideology: there was a population in Judah that had not gone into exile, and those within it who had kept their distance from the Samaritans and other nonindigenous peoples, avoiding both their cultic practices and intermarriage with them, could join in the Passover.
22. the king of Assyria. It is puzzling that the Persian emperor should be called the king of Assyria, and “Assyria” may be a scribal slip for “Persia.”
1And after these things, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah 2son of Shallum son of Zadok son of Ahitub 3son of Amariah son of Azariah son of Meraioth 4son of Zerahiah son of Uzzi son of Bukki 5son of Abishua son of Phineas son of Eleazar son of Aaron the head priest—6he, Ezra, came up from Babylonia, and he was a scribe deft in the teaching of Moses that the LORD God of Israel had given. And the king gave him, through the power of the LORD his God over him, whatever he requested. 7And from the Israelites and from the priests and the Levites and the choristers and the gatekeepers and the temple laborers they went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8And he came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, which was in the king’s seventh year. 9For on the first day of the first month the going up from Babylonia began, and on the first day of the fifth month he arrived in Jerusalem through the beneficent power of his God over him. 10For Ezra had readied his heart to seek out the teaching of the LORD and to do and to teach in Israel statute and law.
11And this is the copy of the epistle that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest-scribe, adept in the words of the LORD’s commands and His statutes for Israel: 12“Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of the heavens and so forth. And now, 13by me is a decree put forth that whoever in my kingdom from the people of Israel and its priests and Levites who is moved to go to Jerusalem with you may go 14because you have been sent from before the king and his seven councillors to inspect Yehud and Jerusalem by the law of your God that is in your hand 15and to bring the silver and gold of the king and his advisors that they have donated to the God of Israel Whose dwelling place is in Jerusalem, 16and whatever silver and gold that you may find in all the provinces of Babylonia with the donation of the people and the priests that they donate for the house of their God that is in Jerusalem. 17Because of this, you shall scrupulously purchase with this silver—bulls, rams, sheep, and their grain offerings and their libations and offer them on the altar of the house of your God that is in Jerusalem. 18And what it pleases you and your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold according to the will of your God you may do. 19And the vessels that are given to you for the worship in the house of your God give over before the God in Jerusalem. 20And the rest of the needs of the house of your God that fall to you to give, you shall give from the king’s treasury. 21And by me, King Artaxerxes, a decree is put forth to all the treasurers of Beyond the River that whatever Ezra the priest, scribe of the law of the God of the heavens, asks of you, you shall scrupulously perform, 22as much as one hundred talents of silver and as much as one hundred kors of wheat and as much as one hundred bats of wine and as much as one hundred bats of oil, and salt without limit. 23All this that is by the decree of the God of the heavens shall be done promptly, lest there be fury against the king’s kingdom and his sons. 24And you do we inform that for all the priests and the Levites, the choristers, the gatekeepers, the temple laborers and the workers of this house of God there is no permission to impose tax, levy, tribute, and land tax on them. 25And you, Ezra, with God’s wisdom that you possess, appoint judges and magistrates that will judge all the people that is in Beyond the River, all who know the laws of your God. And him who does not know, you shall inform. 26And as to all who do not do the law of your God and the law of the king promptly, judgment shall be enacted upon him, whether to die, whether to lash him, whether punishment of property or imprisonment.” 27Blessed is the LORD God of our fathers, who has put it in the heart of the king to glorify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem. 28And as for me, He granted me favor before the king and his councillors and the king’s warrior nobles, and I summoned strength as the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered chieftains from Israel to go up with me.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. And after these things. The preceding unit addressed events during the reign of Darius. This phrase, stereotypical in biblical usage, serves to cover a chronological jump forward to 458 B.C.E., when Ezra moved from Babylonia to Jerusalem.
Ezra son of Seraiah son of Azariah son of Hilkiah. This very long genealogy that begins with these words takes Ezra’s lineage all the way back to Aaron (at the end of verse 5) and is meant to establish Ezra’s impeccable legitimacy in the priestly line. He is a man fit through pedigree to oversee the spiritual renewal of the people in its land.
5. the head priest. This usage, kohen haroʾsh, diverges from the designation of the high priest in earlier biblical literature as hakohen hagadol (literally, “the great priest”)
6. power. The literal sense is “hand,” but that word sometimes has the meaning of “power.”
7. the priests and the Levites. Because the purpose of Ezra’a mission is the renewal of the temple service, all these temple functionaries are listed here.
9. the going up … began. The Hebrew phrase yesud hamaʿalah (“the founding of the going up”) is a little strange and may reflect how idiomatic patterns in Late Biblical Hebrew were being pushed in new directions.
10. the teaching of the LORD. It is possible that this phrase, torat YHWH, is an explicit designation of the Torah, or Pentateuch, especially in light of Ezra’s role in making it canonical for the returned exiles.
11. the copy of the epistle. Both these nouns are Aramaic, signaling the switch to Aramaic in verse 12, although the rest of this verse is Hebrew.
14. because you have been sent from before the king and his seven councillors. It is historically plausible that Ezra’s mission to the province of Yehud was officially authorized by the imperial bureaucracy. Whether the empire provided financial assistance for Ezra’s project is open to question.
23. lest there be fury against the king’s kingdom and his sons. This clause was surely not part of the original imperial document. The writer, invoking his own theological perspective, represents the Persian emperor in trepidation before the power of the God of Israel, fearing punishment if the work of the Temple is not carried out strictly as it should.
27. At this point, after the conclusion of Artaxerxes’s royal directive, the text switches back from Aramaic to Hebrew and continues in Hebrew through the remainder of the book.
1And these are the patriarchal chiefs and their lineage who came up with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes from Babylonia. 2From the sons of Phineas, Gershom from the sons of Ithamar, Daniel; from the sons of David, Hattush; 3from the sons of Shechaniah—of the sons of Parosh, Zechariah, and through him was traced a male lineage of one hundred fifty; 4from the sons of Pahath-Moab, Elihoenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males; 5from the sons of Shechaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males; 6and from the sons of Adin, Ebed son of Jonathan; and with him fifty males; 7and from the sons of Elam, Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males; 8and from the sons of Shephatiah, Zebediah son of Michael, and with him eighty males; 9from the sons of Joab, Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males; 10and from the sons of Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred sixty males; 11and from the sons of Bebai, Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males; 12and from the sons of Azgad, Jonathan son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred ten males; 13and from the sons of Adonikam who were the last, these are their names: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males; 14and from the sons of Bigvai, Uthai, and Zabbud, and with him, seventy males. 15And I gathered them by the river that enters Ahava, and we camped there three days. And I inspected the people and the priests but I did not find Levites there. 16And I sent teachers for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, and Elnathan and Jarib and Elnathan and Nathan and Zechariah and Meshullam—the chiefs. 17And I charged them concerning Iddo the chief in a place called Casophiah and put words in their mouth to speak to Iddo and his brother, who were located in the place Casophiah, to bring us ministrants for the house of God. 18And they brought us, as the beneficent hand of the LORD was upon us, a discerning man from the sons of Mahli son of Levi son of Israel, and Sherabiah and his sons and his brothers, eighteen in number. 19And Hashabiah and with him Jeshaiah from the sons of Merari his brother and their twenty sons. 20And from the temple laborers whom David and the nobles had appointed for the service of the Levites, two hundred twenty temple workers all of them listed by name. 21And I proclaimed a fast there by the Ahava River to afflict ourselves before our God to seek from Him a straight way for us and for our little ones and for all our possessions. 22For I was ashamed to ask of the king an armed force and horsemen to aid us against enemies on the way, for we had said to the king, saying, The hand of our God is benevolent upon all who seek him, and His power and His wrath are upon all who forsake Him. 23And we fasted and sought out our God for this, and He granted our plea. 24And I set apart from the heads of the priests twelve—Sherebaiah, Hashabiah, and with them ten of their brothers. 25And I weighed out silver and gold to them and the vessels, the donation to the house of the LORD that the king and his councillors and his nobles and all Israel who were there had donated. 26And I weighed out in their hand six hundred fifty talents of silver and silver vessels a hundred talents and a hundred talents of gold. 27And twenty golden bowls worth a thousand adarchons and two vessels of goodly burnished bronze precious as gold. 28And I said to them, “You are consecrated to the LORD and the vessels are consecrated and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD your God. 29Be vigilant and watch till you weigh it out before the chief priests and the patriarchal officers of Israel in Jerusalem in the chambers of the house of the LORD.” 30And the priests and the Levites received the weighed measure of silver and gold and vessels to bring to Jerusalem to the house of our God. 31And we journeyed on from the Ahava River on the twelfth day of the first month to go to Jerusalem, and the hand of their God was over us and He saved us from the clutch of enemy and ambusher on the way. 32And we came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days. 33And on the fourth day the silver and the gold and the vessels were weighed out in the house of our God by Meremoth son of Uriah the priest, and with him Eleazar son of Phineas and with them the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui, 34by count and by weight for everything, and the entire weight was written down at that time. 35Those who came from the captivity, the exiles, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel, twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams and seventy-seven sheep, twelve he-goats as offense offering, all burnt offering to the LORD. 36And they gave the king’s orders to the king’s governors and to the satraps of Beyond the River, and they bolstered the people and the house of God.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. And these are the patriarchal chiefs and their lineage. The list that follows complements the list of returning exiles in chapter 2. The present list is specifically those who joined Ezra in returning (Hebrew “going up”) to the land of Israel in the mid-fifth century B.C.E. The two lists share the impetus to provide a kind of honor roll of those who chose to return and to establish their pedigree of legitimacy.
15. And I gathered them by the river that enters Ahava. This is a location in Babylonia (its precise identification is unknown) that serves the exiles as a kind of staging ground before they begin their long trek westward. Although “Ahava” might look like an English transliteration of the Hebrew word for “love,” it is actually spelled quite differently in the Hebrew and is presumably a Babylonian place-name.
21. to seek from Him a straight way. The returning exiles are about to journey several hundred miles through largely uninhabited territory, much of it desert, with of course no maps or compass, and so they entreat God to guide them on the way, first fasting to demonstrate their contrition and their staunch commitment to returning to their land. The next verse spells out that their fear is not merely finding their way but possible assault by marauders.
26. six hundred fifty talents of silver. The silver that was not in vessels would have been in ingots. The precise weight of the talent (Hebrew kikar) is not known, but it was definitely very large, so this is a vast amount of precious metal.
36. And they gave the king’s orders to the king’s governors and to the satraps of Beyond the River. It seems that not only was the Temple project authorized by the Persian emperor but also Ezra’s standing as leader was authorized. This suggests that Ezra, before he returned to Jerusalem, was known in imperial circles and enjoyed some kind of recognized position in the court.
1And when all of these things were finished, the nobles approached me, saying, “The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not kept apart from the peoples of the lands whose abominations are like the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Jebusite, the Ammonite, the Moabite, the Egyptian, and the Amorite. 2For from their daughters they have taken as wives for themselves and for their sons, and the holy seed has mingled with the peoples of the lands, and the hand of the nobles and the officers was first in this betrayal.” 3And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my cloak and I tore out hair from my head and my beard and I sat desolate. 4And all who trembled for the words of the God of Israel over all the betrayal of the exiles gathered by me while I was sitting desolate till the evening grain offering. 5And at the time of the evening grain offering I arose from my fast, and I was in my torn garment and my cloak, and I kneeled and spread my palms to the LORD my God. 6And I said, “My God, I am too ashamed and mortified to lift my face to you, my God, for our crimes have multiplied over our heads and our guilt is great up to the heavens. 7From the days of our fathers we have been in great guilt to this day, and through our crimes we, our kings, our priests have been given into the hands of the kings of the lands, to the sword and to captivity mand to pillage and to shame as on this day. 8And now, in a mere moment, there has been grace from the LORD our God to leave us survivors and to give us anchorage in His holy place and to give light to our eyes, O our God, and to grant us a bit of livelihood in our labor. 9Though we be slaves, in our slaving we have not forsaken our God, and He has inclined kindness for us before the kings of Persia to grant us a livelihood to raise up the house of our God and to build up its ruins and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem. 10And now, what can we say, O our God, after we have forsaken Your commands 11that You commanded through Your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land that you have come to take hold of is a land of defilement through the defilement of the peoples of the lands with their abominations, as they filled it from end to end with their uncleanness’? 12And now, do not give your daughters to their sons nor marry their sons, and never seek their well-being nor their good, so that you may be strong and enjoy the land’s bounty and bequeath it to your children forever. 13And after all that has befallen us through our evil deeds and through our great guilt, You, O our God, have gauged our crime less than it was and have granted us this surviving group. 14Shall we again thwart your commands to enter into marriage with the peoples doing these abominations? Would You not be incensed against us so as to bring an utter end to us without remnant or survivor? 15LORD God of Israel, You are righteous, for we have remained a surviving group as on this day. Here we are before You in our guilt, for one cannot stand before You because of this.”
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. the nobles. The Hebrew sarim equally designates people fulfilling high public functions—in court contexts, high royal officials; in military contexts, commanders.
the peoples of the lands. This regularly refers in Ezra to the non-Jewish population of Judah. The list that follows includes five of the seven indigenous peoples of Canaan (in fact, long since destroyed or assimilated) repeatedly mentioned in the Torah as well as three other peoples. The point of mentioning peoples that no longer exist is to invoke the Torah’s ban on mingling with the local pagans.
2. the holy seed has mingled with the peoples of the lands. The traditional reason for avoiding intermarrying was to keep apart from pagan practices. Although Ezra still has this rationale in mind, here he adds what amounts to a racist view: the people of Israel are a “holy seed” and hence should avoid contamination by alien genetic stock.
the hand of the nobles and the officers was first in this betrayal. The accused are themselves nobles and officers. This suggests a division in the Judahite elite between advocates and opponents of exogamy. Ezra would surely have observed the prevalence of intermarriage on his arrival, so he may have been waiting for this political signal that he had substantial allies in his opposition before giving voice to it.
5. my fast. The Hebrew taʿanit also could have a more general sense of “mortification,” but it seems likely that in Late Biblical Hebrew it already shows the meaning of “fast” that would become standard in rabbinic Hebrew.
6. our crimes have multiplied. Ezra is careful to use the first-person plural, taking on the guilt as a collective burden.
8. anchorage. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is “tent peg,” which is to say, what holds a structure firm and prevents it from being blown away.
9. a wall. The Hebrew gader is not a city wall (ḥomah) but the kind of low stone wall or fence used in fields. In any case, it suggests protection or partitioning.
12. And now, do not give your daughters to their sons. Ezra up to this point has been addressing God, but now he turns to the people. This would be a kind of “aside” to them, for in the next verse he continues his address to God.
15. for we have remained a surviving group as on this day. After the destruction of the kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C.E. and after well over a century of exile, the very existence of this group that has returned to Zion, dedicated to the renewal of the temple service and the revival of national existence, is living proof of God’s righteousness and His compassion for the people that has been so severely punished.
1And as Ezra prayed and as he confessed, weeping and prostrating himself before the house of God, a very great assembly of Israel gathered round him, men and women and children, for the people were bitterly weeping. 2And Shechaniah son of Jehiel from the sons of Elam spoke out and said to Ezra, “We have betrayed our God and brought back foreign wives, but now there is hope for Israel concerning this. 3And now, let us seal a covenant with our God to send away all the wives and those born by them according to the counsel of the Master and of those trembling for the command of our God, and let it be done according to the Teaching. 4Arise, for the matter is for you to do, and we are with you. Be strong and act.” 5And Ezra arose and made the officials of the priests and the Levites and all the people swear to do this thing, and they swore. 6And Ezra arose before the house of God and went to the chamber of Johanan son of Eliashib and went there. Bread he did not eat nor water did he drink, for he was mourning over the betrayal by the exiles. 7And they sent out a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to all the exiles to gather in Jerusalem. 8And whoever would not come for the three days according to the counsel of the nobles and the elders, all his property would be seized and he would be kept apart from the assembly of the exiles. 9And all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered in Jerusalem for the three days, which was in the ninth month on the twentieth of the month. And all the people sat in the square of the house of God shaking because of the matter and because of the rains. 10And Ezra the priest arose and said to them, “You have betrayed and brought back foreign wives to add to the guilt of Israel. 11And now, confess to the LORD God of your fathers and do His will, and keep yourselves apart from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.” 12And all the assembly answered and said in a loud voice, “Thus, according to your words we must do. 13But the people are many, and it is the rainy season, and there is no strength to stand outside, and the task is not for one day nor for years, for we have greatly trespassed in this matter. 14Let our nobles, pray, stand forth for all the assembly and for all who are in our towns who have brought back foreign wives. Let them come at set times, and with them the elders of each town and its judges until the smoldering wrath of our God over this matter is turned back.” 15But Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahaziah son of Tikvah stood forth for this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite aided them. 16And so the exiles did. And Ezra the priest and men who were the patriarchal chiefs according to their patriarchal houses kept themselves apart and all were listed by name. And they sat on the first day of the tenth month to inquire into the matter. 17And they finished with all the men who had brought back foreign wives by the first day of the first month. 18And there were found from the sons of the priests that had brought back foreign wives from the sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers, Maaseiah and Eliezer and Jarib and Gedaliah. 19And they pledged to send away their wives, and guilty, to offer a ram from the flock for their guilt. 20And from the sons of Immer, Hanani, and Zebadiah. 21And from the sons of Harim Maaseiah and Eliah and Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah. 22And from the sons of Pashhur, Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad, and Elasah. 23And from the Levites, Jozabad and Shimei and Kelaiah—he from Kelita—Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. 24And from the choristers, Eliashib, and from the gatekeepers, Shallum and Telem and Uri. 25And from Israel, from the sons of Parosh, Ramiah, and Jeziah, and Malchiah and Mijamin and Eleazar and Malchijah and Benaiah. 26And from the sons of Elam, Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel and Abdi and Jeremoth and Eliah. 27And from the sons of Zattu, Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth and Zabad and Aziza. 28And from the sons of Bebai, Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai. 29And from the sons of Bani, Meshullam, Malluch and Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal, and Jeremoth. 30And from the sons of Pahath-Moab, Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezabel, and Binnui and Manasseh. 31And from the sons of Harim, Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Simeon; 32Benjamin, Mallush, Shemariah. 33From the sons of Hashum, Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei. 34From the sons of Bani, Maadi, Amram, and Uel, 35Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhu, 36Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasai, 38and Bani and Binnui and Shimei, 39and Shelemiah and Nathan and Adaiah, 40Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41Azarel, Shelemiah, and Shemariah, 42Shallum, Amariah, Joseph. 43From the sons of Nebo, Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, and Benaiah. 44All these had married foreign wives, and there were among them women who had children.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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2. but now there is hope for Israel concerning this. We are resolved to rectify the situation by expelling the foreign wives, and so there is hope.
3. to send away all the wives and those born by them. The banishment of wives and children was clearly a cruel and draconian measure, and it certainly must have triggered opposition. The Book of Ruth, probably written at this time, shows an antithetical view, affirming the legitimacy of intermarriage.
the Teaching. By this late date, “the Teaching” (torah) was probably coming into use as a designation for the Five Books of Moses, which Ezra would endow with canonical authority.
4. the matter is for you to do. More literally, “upon you is this matter.”
8. whoever would not come … all his property would be seized and he would be kept apart. Ezra and his allies impose harsh measures of coercion in order to ensure compliance with their policy.
11. His will. The Hebrew noun ratson, which in earlier texts means “what is pleasing,” here appears to be moving into its later sense of “will.”
13. there is no strength to stand outside. One may infer that Ezra’s harangue was lengthy, and so they complain of their physical discomfort before going on to speak of the difficulty of implementing the program of mass divorce.
the task is not for one day nor for years. If intermarriage has been going on for generations, as appears to be the case, sorting out who is a foreign wife and who is a legitimate Israelite woman is likely to constitute a huge bureaucratic challenge, and it is not something that can be done overnight. The nobles—or “officials”—will need to organize a concerted project of inquiry, town by town, as the next verse states.
16. Ezra the priest. He is probably given this epithet here (instead of the more common “Ezra the scribe”) because the priestly line had to be scrupulous about preserving its genealogical purity, and that is what he now proposes to do for the entire community of returning exiles.
17. And they finished with all the men who had brought back foreign wives. The Hebrew syntax of this clause looks rather shaky, but this is the evident sense.
by the first day of the first month. Ezra and his associates thus have managed to compile the list of men with foreign wives in just two months. One does not know how valid this list would have been.
19. and guilty, to offer a ram. Again, the Hebrew syntax looks suspect, and “to offer” is merely implied. The full list of men who have married foreigners begins in the next verse and continues through the penultimate verse of the book. Although there are many familiar Hebrew names in the list, there are many strange names as well. Quite a few names recur in different families because, as in most societies, different people would use the same names for their children.
44. and there were among them women who had children. While this is the likely sense of this clause, the Hebrew wording is quite odd—literally, “and there were among the women, and they put children.” It is unclear whether the text has been corrupted in scribal transmission or whether this is an instance of Late Biblical Hebrew in which the idiomatic usage and the syntactical coherence of classical Hebrew are loosened.
1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. And it happened in the month of Kislev in the twentieth year [of Artaxerxes] when I was in Shushan the capital, 2that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and men, from Judah, and I asked them about the Jews, the surviving group that remained from the captivity, and about Jerusalem. 3And they said to me, “Those who remain from the captivity there in the province are in great trouble and in disgrace, and the wall of Jerusalem has been breached and its gates ravaged by fire.” 4And it happened when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I was fasting and praying before the God of the heavens. 5And I said, “Please, LORD, God of the heavens, great and fearsome God, keeping the covenant and the trust for those who love Him and keep His commands. 6Let Your ear, pray, be attuned, and Your eyes be open, to listen to Your servant’s prayer that I pray before You today, day and night, for the Israelites Your servants, and I confess the offenses that the Israelites have committed against You—I, and my father’s house, have offended. 7We have surely injured You and not kept the commands and the statutes and the laws with which You charged Moses Your servant. 8Recall, pray, the word with which You charged Moses Your servant, saying, ‘Should you betray, I on My part will scatter you among the peoples. 9And if you turn back to Me and keep My commands and do them, though your scattered ones be at the end of the heavens, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I chose to make My name dwell there.’ 10And they are Your servants and Your people that You redeemed with Your great power and with Your strong hand. 11Please, O Master, let Your ears, pray, be attuned to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name, and make Your servant, pray, prosper today, and let him find mercy before this man.” And I was cupbearer to the king.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. The words of Nehemiah. Much of the book is, in fact, a first-person narrative, and it is plausible that what we have is an edited text actually originating with Nehemiah. The Hebrew style is lucid and hews to many of the norms of the First Commonwealth language, perhaps reflecting Nehemiah’s own style.
[of Artaxerxes]. This identification has been added for clarity, and it is quite possible that it was originally in the text and then dropped through a scribal error. We are not informed of Nehemiah’s significant role in the Persian court until the end of this chapter.
2. one of my brothers. Given the flexibility of the Hebrew noun, this could mean that Hanani was actually Nehemiah’s brother, residing in Jerusalem, or that he was viewed by Nehemiah as a colleague because of his position of leadership.
3. in the province. That is, the province of Yehud, as it was designated by the Persians.
4. the God of the heavens. Nehemiah’s use of this epithet in Hebrew probably reflects the currency in this period of the Aramaic equivalent ʾela di shemaya.
6. I, and my father’s house, have offended. In taking on the role of intercessor for Israel, Nehemiah does not want to appear to be in no way implicated in the people’s transgressions, so he makes a point of adding these words.
8. the word with which You charged Moses. What follows seems to echo the reiterated doctrine of Deuteronomy: if Israel betrays the covenant, it will be scattered among the nations; if it turns back to God, He will put an end to the exile.
10. And they are Your servants. Nehemiah concludes his prayer by reminding God, as it were, that this people is, after all, God’s people, a people He has redeemed in the past (the language suggests the redemption from Egyptian slavery).
11. let Your ears, pray, be attuned to the prayer of Your servants. This echo of the beginning of the prayer (verse 6) gives it a shapely envelope structure. But at the beginning, Nehemiah spoke of himself—”servant” in the singular—whereas now he implies that the whole people is joining him in this prayer. He will then switch back to the singular “servant” because he goes on to refer to his mission to the emperor.
let him find mercy before this man. “This man” is the Persian emperor, whose authorization Nehemiah now needs in order to provide the military means to protect the beleaguered Jews in Jerusalem.
And I was cupbearer to the king. Cupbearer, perhaps the original function, is a symbolic title designating a high-ranking official in the imperial court. But, as 2:1 shows, Nehemiah also literally poured wine for the king. It is remarkable that someone without Persian ethnicity should be promoted to such an important post, and it reflects the prevalent ethnic tolerance manifested in Persian imperial policy.
1And it happened in the month of Nissan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, there was wine before him, and I bore the wine and gave it to the king, and I had not been sad in his presence. 2And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad when you are not ill? This can only be sadness of heart.” And I was very much afraid. 3And I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why would my face not be sad when the city that is the graveyard of my fathers is in ruins and its gates consumed by fire?” 4And the king said to me, “For what are you asking?” And I prayed to the God of the heavens, 5and I said, “If it please the king and if your servant seem good before you, send me to Judah, to the city of the graves of my fathers, that I may rebuild it.” 6And the king said, with the consort sitting by him, “How long will your going be and when will you come back?” And it seemed good before the king, and he sent me off, and I gave him a time. 7And I said to the king, “If it please the king, let them give me letters to the satraps of Beyond the River that they let me cross over until I come to Judah, 8and a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s park, that he give me timber to roof the gates of the temple fortress and the city wall and the house to which I shall come.” And the king granted it to me, as the benign hand of my God was upon me. 9And I came to the satraps of Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. And the king had sent with me army officers and horsemen. 10And Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard, and they were very displeased that a man had come to seek good for the Israelites. 11And I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. 12And I arose in the night, I and the few men with me, and I told no man what my God had set in my heart to do for Jerusalem, and there were no beasts with me except the beast on which I was riding. 13And I went out through the Gate of the Valley by night toward the Spring of the Jackals and toward the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been breached and its gates ravaged by fire. 14And I passed on to the Gate of the Spring and to the King’s Pool, and there was no room for the beast under me to pass through. 15And I went up the wadi by night and inspected the wall and came back and entered the Gate of the Valley and came back. 16And the prefects had not known where I had gone nor what I was doing, and to the Jews and to the priests and to the nobles and to the prefects and to the rest of those engaged in the task I had not told till then. 17And I said to them, “You see the trouble in which we are, that Jerusalem is in ruins and its gates are ravaged by fire. Go, and we will rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and no longer be a disgrace.” 18And I told them of the hand of God that was benign upon me, and also of the words of the king that he had said to me. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” And they bolstered their hands to do good. 19Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard, and they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” 20And I responded to them and said, “The God of the heavens, He shall make us prosper, and we are His servants. We shall rise up and build, and you have no share or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. in the month of Nissan. This would be about three months after Nehemiah resolved to request aid for Jerusalem from the emperor. Either he felt he had to wait for a propitious moment to broach the subject, or there was some sort of rotation of court functions and only now was he called to fulfill his duties as cupbearer.
I had not been sad in his presence. The emperor would obviously not appreciate a gloomy official serving his wine.
2. And I was very much afraid. To appear before the emperor looking melancholy might trigger his anger or even lead to dismissal.
3. May the king live forever. This hyperbole is standard court etiquette. Bathsheba uses more or less the same words when she addresses the aged and failing David (1 Kings 1).
4. For what are you asking? The emperor is shrewd enough to realize that this invocation of the desolation of Jerusalem is a preamble to some sort of petition.
6. with the consort sitting by him. This odd notation may indicate that this is a festive occasion, in which female companionship for the monarch is part of the protocol. This would make Nehemiah’s gloomy countenance all the more egregious.
7. letters to the satraps. It should be recalled that the satraps had received a royal edict to suspend the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 4), so these letters are both an authorization for the rebuilding and a kind of passport.
8. the king’s park. The Hebrew term pardes is a loanword from the Persian and has entered many languages, including English, where it occurs as “paradise.” In modern Hebrew it means “orchard.”
10. Sanballat the Horonite. He is from Samaria—many have inferred he is the satrap of Samaria. The ethnic or geographical reference of “Horonite” is uncertain.
Tobiah the Ammonite servant. The Ammonites are explicitly singled out in the Torah as a people that shall not come into the assembly of the LORD. Though Tobiah must be some sort of high official, his designation as “servant” (or “slave”) may be intended to demean him.
12. I arose in the night. Nehemiah makes his survey of the walls of Jerusalem in the dead of the night in order to keep it secret. In verse 16, Nehemiah elaborates the care he took to preserve the secrecy of his mission. Aware that Sanballat and his allies will try to stop the project of rebuilding, he does not want any preparations he makes to be known until active work begins, which he exhorts the people to do in verse 17.
19. Are you rebelling against the king? In Ezra 4, the message sent to the king by the Samaritans and their allies was that rebuilding the walls of the city constituted an act of rebellion.
20. you have no share or right or claim in Jerusalem. The Samaritans, whatever their ethnic origin, considered themselves legitimate followers of the God of Israel and thus entitled to a full role in the rebuilding of the Jerusalem temple and in participation in the cult there. This is a claim that Nehemiah, with his separatist ideology, categorically rejects.
1And Eliashib the high priest arose, and his brothers the priests with him, and they rebuilt the Sheep Gate. They consecrated and set up its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, the Hananeel Tower. 2And alongside him the men of Jericho built, and alongside him Zaccur the son of Imri. 3And the sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate. They roofed it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bolts. 4And alongside them Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz repaired. And alongside them Meshullam son of Berechiah son of Meshezabeel repaired. And alongside them Zadok son of Baanah repaired. 5And alongside them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles did not put their neck [in the yoke of] their lords. 6And Jehoiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the Jeshanah Gate. They roofed it and set up its doors and its locks and its bolts. 7And alongside them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite, men of Gibeon and Mizpah, repaired to the point of the seat of the satrap of Beyond the River. 8Alongside them Uzziel son of Harhaiah of the smelters repaired. And alongside him Hananiah member of the perfumers repaired. And they restored Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall. 9And alongside them Rephaiah son of Hur repaired, officer of half the district of Jerusalem. 10And alongside them Jedaiah son of Harumaph repaired opposite his house. And alongside him Hattush son of Hashabniah repaired. 11A second parcel Malchijah son of Harim and Hashub son of Pahath-Moab repaired as well as the Tower of Kilns. 12And alongside him Shallum son of the incantation sayer, officer of half the district of Jerusalem repaired, he and his daughters. 13Hanun and the dwellers of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate, they rebuilt it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bolts—a thousand cubits along the wall as far as the Dung Gate. 14And Malachijah son of Rechab, officer of the district of Beth-Haccerem, repaired the Dung Gate. He rebuilt it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bolts. 15And Shallun son of Col-Hozeh, officer of the Mizpah district, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set up its doors, its locks, and its bolts, as well as the feeder pool for the King’s Garden as far as the steps going down from the City of David. 16After him Nehemiah son of Azbuk, officer of the Beth-Zur district, repaired as far as opposite the graves of David and as far as the artificial pool and as far as the House of the Warriors. 17After him the Levites repaired; Rehum son of Bani. Alongside him, Hashabiah, officer of the half-district of Keilah, repaired for his district. 18After him, their brothers, Bavvai son of Hanedad, officer of the half-district of Keilah. 19And Ezer son of Jeshua, officer of Mizpah, repaired alongside him a second parcel opposite the armory in the angle. 20After him Baruch son of Zabbai sedulously repaired a second parcel from the angle to the house of Eliashib the high priest. 21After him Meremoth son of Uriah son of Hakkoz repaired a second parcel from the entrance of the house of Eliashib to the outer limit of the house of Eliashib. 22And after him the priests, men of the plain, repaired. 23After him Benjamin and Hashub repaired opposite their house. After him Azariah son of Maaseiah son of Ananiah repaired by their house. 24After him Binnui son of Hanedad repaired a second parcel, from the house of Azariah to the angle, to the corner. 25Palal son of Uzai [repaired] from opposite the angle and the tower jutting out from the upper king’s house, which is the court of the prison. After him, Pedaiah son of Parosh. 26And the temple laborers were living in the Ophel as far as opposite the Water Gate to the east and the tower jutting out. 27After him the Tekoites repaired a second parcel from opposite the Great Tower jutting out and to the wall of the Ophel. 28Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each man opposite his house. 29After him Zadok son of Immer repaired opposite his house, and after him Shemaiah son of Shechaniah, keeper of the East Gate, repaired. 30After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired a second parcel. After him Meshullam son of Berechiah repaired opposite his chamber. 31After him Malchijah, member of the smelters, repaired as far as the house of the temple laborers and the traders, opposite the Mustering Gate and as far as the corner loft. 32And between the corner loft and the Sheep Gate the smelters and the traders repaired.
33And it happened when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was incensed and angered and mocked the Jews. 34And he said before his kinsmen and the Samaritan force, and he said, “What are the miserable Jews doing? Will they restore? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish on the set day? Will they bring the stones back to life from the dust piles where they were burned?” 35And Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, “Even what they are rebuilding, should a fox climb up, it would breach the wall of their stones.” 36“Hear, O our God, how we have become an object of scorn, and turn back their insults on their own head and give them as spoil in a land of captivity. 37And do not cover their crime and their offense before You. Do not wipe it away, for they have provoked the builders.” 38And we rebuilt the wall, and the whole wall was linked together to half its height. And the people had the heart to do it.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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2. And alongside him the men of Jericho built. The entire passage through to the end of verse 32 is articulated in stereotyped formulaic phrases and is surely one of the least interesting in the Bible. Again, it appears that the author—in this case, perhaps the editor rather than Nehemiah himself—wanted to present a kind of honor roll of all those who had played an active part in the rebuilding of the walls of the city. The sundry indications of locations along the walls have been sedulously traced and mapped out by scholars, but, in fact, many of them remain uncertain. In general, biblical literature exhibits a certain attachment to lists and genealogies that is unlikely to be congenial to modern readers. There are some minor linguistic anomalies in this passage, such as “after him” following plural builders, but these do not seem significant enough to be annotated. The names in the list are a mix of familiar Hebrew names and exotic ones. A few of them look like nicknames or epithets, such as Harumaph (verse 10), “pug-nosed,” and Hakkoz (verse 4), “the thorn.”
7. to the point of the seat of the satrap of Beyond the River. The Hebrew for “seat” often is used as the term for “throne.” This would presumably be the place where the satrap’s office was located.
12. the incantation sayer. The term loḥesh is understood in this translation as a professional designation, though it could be simply an odd personal name.
he and his daughters. It is a puzzle why and how young women were involved in the building project. Perhaps Shallum had no sons, and his daughters helped him in tasks that did not involve heavy lifting.
13. a thousand cubits along the wall. This slightly confusing notation probably indicates that, in addition to restoring the Valley Gate, they worked on repairing the adjacent wall for a thousand cubits.
15. Col-Hozeh. The name, if it is a name and not a professional title, means “visionary of all.”
16. the graves of David. Since David would have had only one grave, this must mean the graves of David and his direct descendants.
24. to the angle, to the corner. The first term, miqtsoʿa, may indicate the inside angle and the second term, pinah, the outside corner of the intersecting walls.
27. the Ophel. The Hebrew word means “fortress” or “tower-fortress.” It became the proper name for an area on the heights of the city that was presumably fortified.
31. member of the smelters. Though the same word, ben, “son,” is used in the patronymic listings, here it appears to indicate membership in a professional guild.
33. we were rebuilding. The introduction of the first-person plural is a clear indication that the text has returned to Nehemiah’s narrative.
34. his kinsmen. Literally, “his brothers.”
And he said … he said. This may be a dittography.
Will they offer sacrifices? While the work under way is on the walls, not the Temple, the restored walls would protect the Temple, the rebuilding of which was equally part of Nehemiah’s project.
Will they finish on the set day? “Set” has been added interpretively in the translation. “The day” in Hebrew does seem to mean finishing on schedule.
35. should a fox climb up, it would breach the wall of their stones. That is, this rapidly progressing building project can produce only flimsy results—a mere fox would poke its way through the walls. Moreover, foxes running around the Temple mount are a biblical image of the utter desolation: see Ezekiel 13:4.
36. Hear, O our God, how we have become an object of scorn. Nehemiah could not, of course, have heard the actual words of scorn spoken by Sanballat and Tobiah, but, aware of their contempt for the Jews, he conveys the gist of it in invented dialogue.
38. And we rebuilt the wall. After the prayer for vindication against Sanballat and his allies (verses 36–37), Nehemiah resumes the narrative report of the rebuilding, which is continued in defiance of the mockers.
the whole wall was linked together to half its height. The plan is first to restore the integrity of the entire circumference of the wall, building only halfway up, and then to complete the building to the full height of the wall.
1And it happened when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem had been healed, for the breaches had begun to be stopped up, they were very incensed. 2And all of them conspired together to come to battle against Jerusalem and to do wrong to us. 3And we prayed to our God and set up a watch over them day and night against them. 4And Judah said:
Failed is the strength of the basket bearer,
and there is much rubble,
and we are unable
to build the wall.
5And they said, “Our foes will not know and will not see till we come into their midst and slay them, and we shall desist from the task.” 6And it happened when the Jews dwelling near them came and said to us, “Ten times over from all the places where you turn back against us …” 7I stationed on the lower levels of the palace behind the walls on the bare rocks, I stationed the people by their clans with their swords, their lances, and their bows. 8And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not fear them. Recall the great and fear-some Master and battle for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” 9And it happened when our enemies heard that it was known to us, God thwarted their counsel, and we all went back to the wall, each man to his task. 10And it happened from that day that half my lads were doing the task and half of them were holding lances, shields, bows, and armor. And the commanders were behind all the house of Judah 11who were building the wall and bearing the rubble baskets while armed, one hand doing the task and the other holding the weapon. 12And the builders, each had his sword girded on his hip as they built, and the sounder of the ram’s horn was by me. 13And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The task is great and spread out, and we are separated on the wall, each far apart from his fellow. 14In the place where you hear the sound of the ram’s horn, there you shall gather to us. Our God will battle for us.” 15And we were doing the task, and half of them were holding the lances from daybreak till the stars came out. 16At that time, too, I said to the people, “Each man and his lad shall spend the night within Jerusalem and shall be a watch for us at night, and during the day—the task.” 17And neither I nor my brothers nor my lads nor the men of the watch would take off our garments. Each man held his weapon in his right hand.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. the Ashdodites. Ashdod was one of the five Philistine cities along the Mediterranean coast. Whether in this late period its inhabitants were still ethnically Philistine is uncertain, but in any case they were not of Israelite origin. Here they are part of a broad alliance of groups hostile to the Jews.
2. do wrong to us. The translation, following a cue from the Septuagint, emends the Masoretic Text, which says “to him.”
3. over them … against them. The first “them” refers to the builders, the second to their enemies. Such mingling of pronominal reference is common in Hebrew.
4. Failed is the strength of the basket bearer. This two-line ditty, which refers to the difficulty of the labor, not to the threat of an attack, could be the quotation of a chant sung by the workers.
5. Our foes will not know. The builders, rather than waiting to be attacked, plan a surprise sortie against the enemy.
we shall desist from the task. This does not mean that they will abandon the work, only that they will put it aside temporarily in order to carry out the attack.
6. the Jews dwelling near them. There was Jewish settlement not only in and around Jerusalem but to the north, near Samaria.
Ten times over from all the places where you turn back against us … The translation reflects the incoherence of the Hebrew. It looks as if a clause or at least a phrase is missing from the received text.
7. on the lower levels … on the bare rocks. The meaning of both terms in the Hebrew is uncertain.
9. that it was known to us. What had become known was the plan of the enemies to attack the builders. Lacking the element of surprise, they abandon the plan.
10. lances, shields, bows, and armor. These are, then, well-equipped fighting men. Although the verb “to hold” does not work for “armor,” it is used because of the momentum of the three previous terms in the list.
11. armed. The Masoretic Text has ʿomsim, “loading,” but this translation follows the Septuagint, which reads hạ mushim, “armed.”
12. the sounder of the ram’s horn was by me. Since the ram’s horn is used for mustering troops, if Nehemiah receives any indication of an imminent attack, he has the alarm sounded with the ram’s horn.
15. half of them were holding the lances. There appears to be a doubling of security measures: half the men constitute an armed guard over the builders, but the builders themselves carry weapons—one hand doing the work and the other grasping a weapon. This is a project undertaken under conditions of extreme danger.
16. Each man and his lad. The “lad,” naʿar, here means “servant,” or for the dedicated military men, something like an orderly or armor bearer.
a watch for us at night, and during the day—the task. Nehemiah especially fears a night attack, and so he posts a watch and enjoins everyone to sleep in his clothes with readied weapon. There is also a threat of attack by day, as the preceding verses indicate, but not one great enough to impede the work.
1And the people’s outcry was great against their Jewish brothers. 2And some were saying, “Our sons and our daughters are many, and we would take grain and eat and stay alive.” 3And some were saying, “Our fields and our vineyards and our homes we are pawning that we may take grain during the famine.” 4And some were saying, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax against our fields and our vineyards. 5And now, our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, and our sons are like their sons, and, look, we are consigning our sons and our daughters to slavery, and some of our daughters have already been consigned, with us powerless, and our fields and our vineyards to others.” 6And I was very incensed when I heard their outcry and these words. 7And I reflected, and I rebuked the nobles and the officers and said to them, “Are you dunning your brothers for debts?” And I set against them a great crowd. 8And I said to them, “We have bought back our Jewish brothers sold to the nations as much as we could, and you on your part sell your brothers, and they are sold to us?” And they fell silent and found no words. 9And I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10And I, too, my brothers and my lads hold claims against them of money and grain. Let us abandon, pray, this claim of debt. 11Give them back today, pray, their fields, their vineyards, their olive trees, and the claim of money and of grain, wine, and oil for which you are dunning them.” 12And they said, “We will give it back, and we will ask nothing of them. So will we do this thing.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do this thing. 13I also shook out what was in my lap and said, “Thus shall God shake out from his house and from his possessions every man who does not fulfill this word, and thus shall he be shaken out and be empty.” And all the assembly said “Amen.” And they praised the LORD, and the people did according to this word. 14Also, from the day he charged me to be their satrap in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, I and my brothers did not eat the satrap’s bread. 15But the first satraps who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for bread and wine forty shekels of silver. Their lads, too, lorded it over the people. But I did not do this because of the fear of God. 16And also I supported the task of this wall, and I bought no field, and all my lads were gathered there for the task. 17And the Jews and the satraps, a hundred fifty men who had come to us from the nations that were all around us, were at my table. 18And this is what was prepared for me for a single day—one ox, six choice sheep and fowl were prepared for me, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. But for all this, I did not request the satrap’s bread, for the service was heavy upon the people. 19Recall, O my God, to my credit, all that I have done for this people.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. And the people’s outcry was great against their Jewish brothers. At this point, a new problem emerges for the Jewish population of the province of Yehud—economic exploitation within Jewish society.
2. Our sons and our daughters are many. The Hebrew shows a syntactic anomaly: “Our sons and our daughters we [are?] many.” Some emend “many,” rabim, to ʿorvim, “give in pledge, pawn,” the same verb that occurs in the next verse.
4. money. In earlier texts, this Hebrew word, kesef, is consistently translated as “silver,” but the archaeological evidence is that by the fifth century B.C.E. coins were used in Judah and elsewhere in the region.
8. We have bought back our Jewish brothers sold to the nations as much as we could. There were Jews languishing as slaves or indentured servants to foreigners, and we made every effort to pay for their liberation. How, then, could we ourselves reduce our own kin to servitude?
9. to avoid the reproach of the nations. “To avoid” is implied by the Hebrew prefix “from.” Earlier, the reproach or disgrace of Israel in the eyes of other nations was because of its lowly condition, but here it is because of the injustice it inflicts on its own people.
12. I called the priests. It is the nobles and the officials, just rebuked by Nehemiah, who exert economic power. Now, he enlists the priests to help him to exact the vow of restitution.
13. I also shook out what was in my lap. This is the equivalent of shaking out all the contents of one’s pockets.
14. did not eat the satrap’s bread. The expression, with “bread” again figuring as a synecdoche for “food,” means the financial resources coming from the king to the satrap. There is a parallel idiom in English—it occurs, for example, in Melville’s Billy Budd—”I have eaten the king’s bread,” meaning, “I have been given my sustenance by the king.”
15. Their lads. Here the sense is obviously “their servants.”
17. a hundred fifty men … were at my table. As befits the satrap or governor of a province of the Persian empire, Nehemiah maintains a grand court with sumptuous provisions for many guests.
18. But for all this, I did not request the satrap’s bread. It can be inferred that Nehemiah had amassed substantial wealth during his service in the imperial court in Shushan, and it is that which he draws on for this regimen of lavish entertainment.
for the service was heavy upon the people. The “service,” or “labor,” may be corvée labor performed for the emperor or taxes paid to him. If it is taxes, these then would have been used in part to provide the satrap with his grand allowance, and that would be Nehemiah’s rationale for using his own funds to cover the expenses of his lavish entertainment.
1And it happened when it was heard by Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and no breach remained in it, though at that time I had not set up the gates, 2Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come, let us meet together in Kephirim in the Ono Valley,” and they were planning to do harm to me. 3And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great task and will not be able to go down. Why should the work stop if I were to desist from it and come down to you?” 4And they sent to me in this fashion four times and I answered them in this fashion. 5And Sanballat sent to me in this fashion a fifth time by his lad, and there was an open letter in his hand. 6In it was written: “It has been heard among the nations and Geshem says, ‘You and the Jews are planning to rebel. Therefore do you rebuild the wall, and you are becoming their king, as these words have it. 7And prophets, too, you have set up to proclaim of you in Jerusalem, saying: There is a king in Judah. And now, it will be heard by the king, as these words have it, and, now, come and let us meet together.’” 8And I sent to him, saying, “It has not happened according to these words that you say, for you have contrived them from your own heart. 9For they are all trying to frighten us, saying, ‘Let your hands slacken from the task, that it not be done.’” And now, strengthen my hands! 10And I came to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah son of Mehetabel, and he was confined, and he said, “Let us meet at the house of God within the Temple and close the doors of the Temple, for they are coming to kill you, at night they are coming to kill you.” 11And I said, “Shall a man like me flee? And can the likes of me come into the Temple and live? I will not come.” 12And I realized and, look, God had not sent him, but the prophecy he spoke concerning me—Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him, 13as he was hired so that I would be afraid and do this and offend, and it would be an evil report for them that they might disgrace me. 14Remember, O my God, of Tobiah and Sanballat their acts, and also of Naidaiah the prophetess and the rest of the prophets who are seeking to frighten me!
15And the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, on the fifty-second day. 16And it happened when all our enemies heard, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they fell very low in their own eyes, and they knew that this task had been done through the LORD our God. 17In those days, too, the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and those of Tobiah were coming to them. 18For many in Judah were pledged to him, for he was son-in-law to Shechaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah. 19Of his virtues, too, they would speak before me, and my affairs they would convey to him. Tobiah had sent letters to frighten me.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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2. they were planning to do harm to me. Although different proposals have been made as to the nature of the harm, including merely a scheme to compromise Nehemiah, the most likely possibility is that what he suspects is a plot to kill him.
3. I am doing a great task. His reason for refusing to meet them, chosen with some calcu-lation, is precisely what has been infuriating them—that he is too busy supervising the restoration of the walls to take time off.
5. an open letter. The previous four communications were confidential. Now Sanballat sends an open letter, hoping that the general knowledge of his message will demonstrate how reasonable he is in asking for a meeting and how suspect Nehemiah’s activities are, thus putting pressure on Nehemiah to comply.
6. and Geshem says. The Hebrew shows wegashmu, an unintelligible word, emended here to wegeshem. But the Septuagint appears to have used a Hebrew text that lacked these words.
7. And prophets, too, you have set up. This is clearly a fabrication.
And, now, come and let us meet together. Sanballat, having made the grave accusation of rebellion against Nehemiah, attempts to offer him a way out: you are seriously compromised, perhaps even in danger of arrest by the imperial authorities; by meeting with me, it will be evident that you are collaborating with parties in no way hostile to the empire.
9. And now, strengthen my hands. These words obviously could not have been addressed to Sanballat. Perhaps they are the brief interjection of a prayer, though that is far from certain.
10. confined. The Hebrew ʿatsur could mean this, or “detained.” But Shemaiah is evidently able to leave the house because he proposes to meet Nehemiah in the Temple.
Let us meet at the house of God within the Temple. Shemaiah proposes the Temple as a meeting place because it is also a sanctuary in the judicial sense, and hence killers, he implies, are not likely to enter its precincts in pursuit of Nehemiah.
11. Shall a man like me flee? This defiant posture of courage is in keeping with Nehemiah’s previous behavior in the perilous enterprise of building the wall.
And can the likes of me come into the Temple and live? He may mean that the assassins would not hesitate to follow him into sacred space, in which case the Temple would become a death trap. Alternately, he may be saying that because he is not a priest, he would incur punishment by death in entering the Temple. The latter interpretation gains some support from the mention of an “evil report” and of Nehemiah’s “offending” in verse 13—that is, he would disgrace himself by violating sacred space.
15. And the wall was completed. Nehemiah’s real response to the schemes of Sanballat is to pursue the building of the wall to its completion.
16. all the nations that were around us were afraid. Seeing that Nehemiah and his men are now surrounded by a solid defensive wall, they feel impotent to carry out any attack on them. They now understand the completion of the wall against odds as a manifestation of God’s support for the builders. They had plotted to frighten Nehemiah, but it is they who are frightened.
17. the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah. The political situation is revealed to be more complicated than it had appeared: people who should be in Nehemiah’s camp are in cahoots with the enemy and are sharing intelligence with him.
1And it happened when the wall was rebuilt that I set up doors, and the gatekeepers and the choristers and the Levites were appointed. 2And I charged Hanani my brother and Hananiah officer of the fortress in Jerusalem, for he was a truthful man and God-fearing more than most. 3And I said to them, “Let not the gates of Jerusalem be open till the sun grows warm, and while [the guards] are still stationed, let the doors be shut and made fast, and set up watches from Jerusalem’s dwellers, each man on his watch and each man before his house.” 4And the city was broad and large, and the people within it were few, and there were no built-up houses. 5And my God put it in my heart, and I gathered the nobles and the officials and the people to trace their lineage, and I found the record of lineage of those who first came up, and I found within it: 6These are the people of the provinces who came up from captivity of exile that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia had inflicted, and they came back to Jerusalem and to Judah, each man to his town, 7those who came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Misperath, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the people of Israel—8the sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred seventy-two; 9the sons of Shephatiah, three hundred seventy-two; 10the sons of Arah, six hundred fifty-two; 11the sons of Pahath-Moab, the sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred eighteen; 12the sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four; 13the sons of Zattu eight hundred forty-five; 14the sons of Zaccai, eight hundred sixty; 15the sons of Binnui, six hundred forty-eight; 16the sons of Bebai, six hundred twenty-eight; 17the sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred twenty-two; 18the sons of Adonikam, six hundred; 19the sons of Bigvai, sixty-seven; 20the sons of Adin, six hundred fifty-five; 21the sons of Ater, of Hezekiah, ninety-eight; 22the sons of Hashum, three hundred twenty-eight; 23the sons of Bezai, three hundred twenty-four; 24the sons of Hariph, one hundred twelve; 25the sons of Gibeon, ninety-five; 26the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred eighty-seven; 27the men of Anathoth, one hundred twenty-eight; 28the men of Beth-Azmaveth, forty-two; 29the men of Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred forty-three; 30the men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred twenty-one; 31the men of Michmas, one hundred twenty-two; 32the men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred twenty-three; 33the men of the other Nebo, fifty-two; 34the sons of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred fifty-four; 35the sons of Harim, three hundred twenty; 36the sons of Jericho, three hundred forty-five; 37the sons of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred twenty-one; 38the sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred thirty; 39the priests, sons of Jedaiah, nine hundred seventy-three; 40the sons of Immer, one thousand fifty-two; 41the sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred forty-seven; 42the sons of Harim, one thousand seventeen; 43the Levites, sons of Jeshua, Kadmiel, the sons of Hodaviah, seventy-four; 44the choristers, sons of Asaph, one hundred forty-eight; 45the gatekeepers, sons of Shallum, sons of Ater, sons of Talmon, sons of Akkub, sons of Hatita, sons of Shobai one hundred thirty-eight; 46the temple laborers, sons of Hasupha, sons of Tabbaoth; 47sons of Keros, sons of Sia, sons of Padon, 48sons of Lebanah, sons of Hagabah, sons of Shalmai; 49sons of Hanan, sons of Giddel, sons of Gahar, 50sons of Reiahia, sons of Rezin, sons of Nekoda, 51sons of Gazzam, sons of Uzza, sons of Paseah, 52sons of Besai, sons of Meunim, sons of Nephishesim, 53sons of Bakbuk, sons of Hakupha, sons of Harhur, 54sons of Bazluth, sons of Mehida, sons of Harsha, 55sons of Barkos, sons of Sisera, sons of Tamah, 56sons of Neziah, sons of Hatipha, 57the sons of Solomon’s servants, sons of Sotai, sons of Sophereth, sons of Perida, 58sons of Jala, sons of Darkon, sons of Giddel, 59sons of Shephatiah, sons of Hattil, sons of Pochereth-Hazzebaim, sons of Amon; 60all the temple builders and the sons of Solomon’s servants, three hundred ninety-two. 61And these are the ones who came up from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, whether their patriarchal house and their seed were of Israel or not: 62the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda, six hundred forty-two. 63And of the priests, sons of Habaiah, sons of Hakkoz, sons of Barzillai who had taken as wives from the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite and were called by his name, 64these sought the writ of their lineage and it was not found, and they were unfit for the priesthood. 65And the governor said to them that they could not eat of the holy of holies till the priest stood with the Urim and Thummim. 66All the assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred sixty, 67besides their male slaves and slavegirls—these were seven thousand three hundred thirty-seven. And they had two hundred forty-five men and women choristers. 68Their horses were seven hundred thirty-six and their mules two hundred forty-five; 69four hundred thirty-five camels, six thousand seven hundred twenty their donkeys. 70And some of the patriarchal chiefs gave donations for the task. The governor gave to the treasury a thousand drachmas of gold, fifty basins, fifty priestly robes, five hundred thirty. 71And some of the patriarchal chiefs gave for the task’s treasury twenty thousand drachmas of gold and two thousand two hundred minnas of silver. 72As to what the rest of the people gave, it was twenty thousand drachmas of gold and two thousand minnas of silver and sixty-seven priestly robes. 73And the priests and the Levites and the gatekeepers and the choristers and some of the people and the temple laborers and all Israel settled in their towns. And when the seventh month arrived, all Israel were in their towns.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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3. Let not the gates of Jerusalem be open till the sun grows warm. This would be midmorning, a rather late hour for the opening of the city gates. One may infer that the gates were locked for an unusually long time because of Nehemiah’s perception of possible attacks.
made fast. The Masoretic Text has an imperative, “hold fast.”
4. there were no built-up houses. Nehemiah is thus faced with still another building project.
6. These are the people of the provinces. This list substantially replicates the list in Ezra 2 and is in all likelihood an insertion of an editor, not of Nehemiah. See the comments on Ezra 2 and, on lists, the comment on 5:1.
1And all the people gathered as one man in the square that is in front of the Water Gate, and they said to Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Teaching of Moses with which the LORD had charged Israel. 2And Ezra the priest brought the Teaching before the assembly, men and women and all who had understanding to listen, on the first day of the seventh month. 3And he read from it before the square that was before the Water Gate from first light to midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who had understanding, and the ears of all the people were [listening] to the Book of Teaching. 4And Ezra the scribe stood on the wooden tower that they had made for this purpose, and by him stood Mattithiah and Shema and Ananiah and Uriah and Hilkiah and Maaseiah on his right, and on his left Pedaiah and Mishael and Malchijah and Hashum and Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, Meshullam. 5And Ezra the scribe opened the book before the eyes of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it, all the people stood. 6And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” raising their hands, and they bowed and prostrated themselves on the ground to the LORD. 7And Jeshua and Bani and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites were explaining the Teaching to the people and the people kept standing. 8And they read from the book, from the Book of God’s Teaching, expounding and giving reasons, and they explained what was read. 9And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and the Levites, explaining to the people, said to all the people, “Today is holy for you to the LORD your God. Do not mourn and do not weep,” for they were weeping when they heard the words of the Teaching. 10And he said to them, “Go, eat delicacies and drink sweet drinks and send portions to whoever has none prepared, for the day is holy to our Master, and do not be sad, for the rejoicing of the LORD is your strength.” 11And the Levites were silencing the people, saying, “Hush, for today is holy. Do not be sad.” 12And all the people went to eat and to drink and to send portions and to make a great joyous celebration, for they had understood the things that had been made known to them. 13And on the second day the patriarchal chiefs of all the people, the priests, and the Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe, to ponder the words of the Teaching. 14And they found written in the Teaching that the LORD had charged through Moses that the Israelites should dwell in booths on the festival in the seventh month, 15and that they should make it heard and pass about a proclamation in all their towns, and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back leafy boughs of olive trees and leafy boughs of evergreens and leafy boughs of myrtles and leafy boughs of palm trees and leafy boughs of thick-branched trees to make booths, as it is written.” 16And the people went out and brought them, and they made booths for themselves, each on his roof and in their courtyards and in the courtyards of the house of God and in the square of the Water Gate and the square of the Gate of Ephraim. 17And all the assembly of those returning from the captivity made booths and dwelled in the booths, for the Israelites had not done this since the days of Joshua son of Nun till that day, and there was great rejoicing. 18And he read from the Book of the Teaching of God one day after the next from the first day to the last day, and they made a festival seven days, and on the eighth day there was a convocation, according to the law.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. the Book of the Teaching of Moses. The Hebrew is sefer torat mosheh. This is probably still a descriptive rubric rather than a true title. The word for teaching, torah, would in time become the standard designation for the Five Books of Moses. The Torah was evidently edited in the Babylonian exile, with Ezra perhaps playing a key role in the final compilation, and this is the text now presented to the people. If rebuilding the walls and the Temple consolidates the physical security and the cultic viability of the people returned to its land, the public reading of the Torah—essentially, a confirmation of its newly minted canonicity—consolidates the spiritual coherence of the people.
2. all who had understanding. This would be children old enough to understand what was being read out from the scroll. Thus, the assembly comprises men, women, and older children.
on the first day of the seventh month. This is the first of Tishrei. It would eventually become the New Year, Rosh Hashanah, but that holiday is not yet in place.
3. he read from it. More literally, “he read in it.” Even these marathon public readings would not have sufficed to read all the way from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Deuteronomy, so one must assume that passages of the Torah were read, perhaps concentrating on the legal sections.
4. the wooden tower. This is actually a kind of raised dais or stage from which the reader would be visible and audible to the assembled crowd.
by him stood. The grouping of a kind of honor guard of thirteen men, seven on one side and six on the other, is an expression of the high solemnity of the occasion. Perhaps one name was inadvertently added, and the original text had the consecrated number twelve.
7. the people kept standing. There would of course have been no seats in the public square, so the people would have had to stand for several hours, from first light to midday.
8. expounding. Some think the Hebrew word refers to translation, from Hebrew to Aramaic, but this presupposes that by the middle of the fifth century B.C.E. Hebrew was already not generally known among the Jewish populace, and that is perhaps questionable. Within a very few centuries, that would be clearly the case.
9. Do not mourn and do not weep. The situation is analogous to the response when the Book of Deuteronomy is “discovered” during the reign of Josiah—hearing the many laws of the Torah, the people are dismayed at all they have not fulfilled.
13. to ponder the words of the Teaching. It is probably not the case that Nehemiah through this ceremony is establishing a set practice of the public reading and expounding of the Torah, but he is certainly setting a precedent for it. By the rabbinic period, there was a set custom of reading the Torah in an annual or triennial cycle, with brief readings on Mondays and Thursdays (the market days) and longer reading on sabbaths.
15. leafy boughs. The Hebrew says merely “leaves,” but this is a synecdoche for “leafy boughs,” which were used to thatch the booths.
evergreens. The Hebrew is literally “oil trees,” the oil probably being the turpentine they contain. In the Aramaic of Kurdish Jews, the pine tree is called ʾaʿa demishaha, “oil tree.”
thick-branched trees. The specific identification of ʿets ʿavot is uncertain. It should be noted that this list of trees corresponds only in part to the lists of trees in Leviticus and Deuteronomy to be used for the Succoth Festival.
17. for the Israelites had not done this since the days of Joshua. It is surely not the case that Succoth had not been observed all these centuries since Joshua. Perhaps the least forced explanation is the one proposed by Michael Kuchman—that now the festival was celebrated as a national religious event, not primarily as a harvest festival. The reading from the Torah each day of the festival reflects this religious emphasis.
Joshua. The translation uses this form of the name to avoid confusion, but the Hebrew shows yeshuʿa, Jeshua, the later form of the name influenced by the Aramaic.
there was great rejoicing. “Rejoicing,” simhah, is a term particularly linked to the Fetival of Succoth.
1And on the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites gathered in fast and sackcloth with soil on their heads. 2And the seed of Israel separated themselves from all the foreigners, and they confessed their offenses and the crimes of their fathers. 3And they rose up in the place where they stood and read from the Book of Teaching of the LORD their God a quarter of the day, and a quarter they were confessing and bowing down to the LORD their God. 4And Jeshua, and the sons of Kadmiel, Shebeniah, the sons of Sherebiah, Bani, Chenani, stood up on the dais of the Levites and cried out in a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5And the Levites, Jeshua and Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, Pethahiah, said, “Arise, bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting, and may they bless Your glorious name, exalted above all blessing and praise. 6You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, the utmost heavens and all their array, the earth and all that is upon it, the seas and all that is in them, and You give life to them all, and the array of the heavens bows to You. 7You are the LORD God who chose Abram and brought him out from Ur of the Chaldees and made his name Abraham. 8And you found his heart faithful before You, and You sealed a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite, to give to his seed, and You fulfilled Your words, for You are righteous. 9And You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and You heard their cry at the Sea of Reeds. 10And You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and against all his servants and against all the people of his land, for You knew that they had acted arrogantly against them, and You made Yourself a name as on this day. 11And the sea You split before them, and they passed through the midst of the sea on dry land. And their pursuers You flung into the deep like a stone in fierce waters. 12And with a pillar of cloud You led them by day and with a pillar of fire by night to light up for them the way on which they should go. 13And You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from the heavens and gave them just laws and true teachings, good statutes and commands. 14And Your holy sabbath You made known to them, and with commands and statutes and teachings You charged them through Moses your servant. 15And bread from the heavens You brought to give them for their hunger, and water from the rock You brought out to them for their thirst. And You said to them to come to take hold of the land that You vowed to give to them. 16But they and our fathers acted arrogantly and were stiff-necked and did not heed Your commands, 17and they refused to heed and did not recall Your wonders that You did for them. And they were stiff-necked and turned round to go back to their slavery in their rebellion. But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in kindness, and You did not forsake them 18though they made for themselves a molten calf and said, ‘This is your god who brought you up from Egypt,’ and they did great despicable acts. 19But You in Your great mercy did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not turn away from them by day to lead them on the way nor the pillar of fire by night to light up for them the way on which they should go. 20And Your goodly spirit You gave to make them wise, and Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth, and water You gave them for their thirst. 21And forty years You sustained them, in the wilderness they knew no want. Their cloaks did not wear out, and their feet did not swell. 22And You gave them kingdoms and peoples, shared them out in parcels, and they took hold of the land of Sihon and the land of the king of Heshbon and the land of Og king of Bashan. 23And You multiplied their children like the stars of the heavens and brought them to the land of which You said to their fathers to come to take hold. 24And the sons came and took hold of the land, and You subjugated before them the Canaanite dwellers of the land, and You gave them into their hand, and their kings and the land’s peoples, to do with them as they pleased. 25And they captured fortified towns and rich soil and took hold of houses filled with everything good, hewed cisterns, vineyards and olive trees, and abundant fruit-bearing trees. And they ate and were sated and grew fat and delighted in Your bounty. 26But they revolted and rebelled against You, and flung Your teaching behind their back. Your prophets they slayed, who had warned them so as to bring them back to You, and they did great despicable acts. 27And You gave them into the hand of their foes, who brought them into straits. And in the time of their distress they cried out to You, and You from the heavens heard, and in Your great mercy gave them rescuers who rescued them from the hand of their foes. 28And when they had respite, they went back to doing evil before You. And You forsook them in the hand of their enemies who held sway over them. And once again they cried out, and You from the heavens heard and saved them in Your mercy many a time. 29And You warned them to bring them back to Your teaching, but they acted arrogantly and did not heed Your commands, and offended against Your laws which when a man does them he lives through them, and they thrust forth a defiant shoulder and were stiff-necked and did not heed. 30And You kept them on for many years and warned them through Your spirit by Your prophets, but they did not listen, and You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. 31But in Your great mercy You did not make an utter end of them and did not forsake them, for You are a gracious and merciful God. 32And now, You are our God, the great and mighty and fearsome God, keeping the covenant and the faith. Let not all the trouble that has overtaken us, our kings, our nobles, our priests and our prophets, our fathers, and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria to this day seem a small thing before You. 33And You are righteous in all that has come upon us, for in truth You have acted, and we have been wicked. 34Our kings, our nobles, our priests, and our fathers have not kept Your teaching and have not attended to Your commands and to Your precepts about which You warned us. 35And they with their kingship and with the abundant bounty that You gave them did not serve You and did not turn back from their evil deeds. 36Here are we slaves today, and the land You gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its bounty, here are we slaves within it. 37And its abundant yield belongs to the kings that You put over us for our offenses, and they rule over our carcasses and over our beasts as it pleases them, and we are in great straits.”
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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3. read from the Book of Teaching … a quarter of the day, and a quarter they were confessing. In keeping with the emphasis in the previous episode on the public reading and expounding of the Torah, the time at this public confession is equally divided between confessing and reading the Book of Teaching.
6. You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, the utmost heavens and all their array. This address, a combination of the celebration of God, historical survey, and confession, is wrought in high rhetorical language. The editors of the Biblia Hebraica set it out as poetry, and it is certainly grandly rhythmic, as this translation tries to suggest, but only a few lines actually scan as poetry. It is better to regard this as rhythmic poetic prose. The language is replete with verbal formulas that occur in earlier biblical texts, especially in the Torah. The verbal closeness to many formulations in the Torah and the whole Deuteronomistic History suggest that this large body of narrative was virtually canonical at this moment.
10. they had acted arrogantly against them. In keeping with the biblical predisposition to mix pronominal references, “they” is the Egyptians, “them” the Israelites.
11. You flung into the deep like a stone. Here we have a virtual quotation of the language of the Song of the Sea, Exodus 15.
15. bread from the heavens. This is of course manna.
16. they and our fathers. This sounds a bit odd because “they” are also “our fathers.” The language appears to be carried along by the momentum of the stereotypical “our fathers,” which often occurs in confessions.
17. to go back to their slavery in their rebellion. This may refer specifically to the expressed desire of the Israelites in the wilderness to return to Egypt.
22. shared them out in parcels. The meaning of the two Hebrew words represented by this phrase is obscure.
25. they ate and were sated and grew fat. This is an approximate citation of Deuteronomy 32, the Song of Moses.
27. rescuers. The Hebrew moshiʿim is the term used for the “judges,” the ad hoc military chieftains who periodically liberated their people from foreign oppressors.
28. when they had respite, they went back to doing evil. This is the pattern laid out in the Book of Judges.
31. You did not make an utter end of them. What is implied is that the people survived the Babylonian exile and did not disappear, as the inhabitants of the northern kingdom exiled by Assyria had done.
36. Here are we slaves today. This bold statement would have to refer to domination of the Persian empire. Despite the relatively generous Persian policy toward the exiled Judahites, they perceive themselves as a subject people. This is a moment when Nehemiah’s language comes dangerously close to an indirect hint of the political rebellion of which Sanballat and his allies had accused him.
37. we are in great straits. This starkly negative assessment scarcely accords with the joyous celebration after the rebuilding of the walls and the public reading of the Book of Teaching. Either it is stereotypical phraseology from a confession that has been inserted here, perhaps editorially, or, despite the manifestations of physical and spiritual national renewal, Nehemiah views the people as being in great straits because it is still subjugated to a foreign power.
CHAPTER 10
1“With all this, we make a solemn commitment and write it down, sealed—our officers, our Levites, our priests. 2And on the sealed copies [the signatures of] Nehemiah the governor son of Hachaliah and Zedekiah, 3Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah. 4Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 5Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 6Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 7Daniel, Gin nethon, Baruch, 8Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, 9Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah. These are the priests. 10And the Levites—Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel, 11and their brothers Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, 12Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah, 13Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, 14Hodijah, Bani, Beninu. 15The heads of the people—Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, 16Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, 17Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, 18Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, 19Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai, 20Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, 21Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, 22Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua, 23Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, 24Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, 25Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, 26Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, 27and Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, 28Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
29“And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the choristers, the temple laborers, and all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands according to God’s teaching, their wives, their sons and their daughters, whoever had conscious understanding, 30holding fast with their brothers, their leaders and entering into the oath and the vow to walk in God’s teaching that was given by Moses servant of God and to keep and to do all the commands of the LORD our Master and His laws and His statutes. 31That is, we shall not give our daughters to the peoples of the land and their daughters shall not take our sons. 32And as to the peoples of the land bringing wares and provisions on the sabbath day to sell, we shall not take from them on the sabbath or on a holy day. And we shall leave off on the seventh year, and also every debt. 33And we shall take upon ourselves commands, that we give a third of the shekel 34for the service of the house of our God for the display bread and the perpetual grain offering and the perpetual burnt offering for the sabbaths, the new moons, the festivals, for consecrations and for offense offerings to atone for Israel, and for all the tasks of the house of our God. 35And we have cast lots for the wood offering among the priests, the Levites, and the people to bring it at set times to the house of our God by our patriarchal houses year after year to burn on the altar of the LORD our God as it is written in the Teaching. 36And the firstborn of our sons and of our beasts as it is written in the Teaching, and the firstborn of our cattle and our sheep, to bring to the house of our God to the priests ministering in the house of our God. 37And the first part of our dough and our donations and the fruit of every tree, wine and oil, we shall bring to the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God, and a tithe from our soil for the Levites, who are the Levites taking tithes in all the towns where we labor. 38And a priest from the line of Aaron shall be with the Levites when the Levites take the tithes, and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithe to the house of our God, to the chambers, to the treasury. 39For to the chambers shall the Israelites and the Levites bring the donations of grain, wine, and oil. And it is there that are the vessels of the sanctum and the ministering priests and the gatekeepers and the choristers. And we shall not forsake the house of our God.”
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. a solemn commitment. The Hebrew noun ʾamanah, derived from the same root as “amen,” conveys a sense of trust and obligation.
2. And on the sealed copies. This phrase could also conceivably mean “those who are sealed [or signed].” The main point is that this appears to be a legal formula, though parsing its precise terms is somewhat uncertain. This looks very much like the actual document of the ʾamanah, beginning with the names of all the signatories and then proceeding to the terms of the solemn commitment made by the people and the leaders at this assembly.
29. all who separated themselves from the peoples of the lands. This renunciation of exogamy, indicating the people’s readiness to enter into a renewal of commitment to God’s teaching, is in keeping with Ezra’s campaign against foreign wives.
30. the oath and the vow. The first of these two terms, ʾalah, usually implies an oath in which the person taking it agrees to suffer dire consequences if he does not strictly fulfill it.
31. That is. The usual sense of waʾasher is simply “and that,” but here it is clearly used to introduce the list of conditions to which the takers of the oath commit themselves.
we shall not give our daughters to the peoples of the land. The very first term of the collective commitment follows Ezra’s policy of opposition to intermarriage.
32. bringing wares and provisions on the sabbath. As one sees in Third Isaiah, the sabbath in this period had become especially central as a sacred obligation and a test of belonging to Israel. The statement here may be an extension of the sabbath regulations in the Torah: even with foreigners, who themselves have no obligation to observe the sabbath, one cannot trade on the seventh day.
we shall leave off. This rather general verb refers to the leaving off of agricultural activities. In the Torah, a different verb is used.
and also every debt. The noun phrase is a second object of the verb “leave off.” “Also” has been added in the translation to make that clear.
35. And we have cast lots for the wood offering. This system of casting lots for who is to bring wood for the altar fires is an innovation. The phrase “wood offering” is a bit odd because the wood is not an offering, and the proper sense seems to be “the wood for the offering.” It is noteworthy that this list of items in the solemn commitment by the people is highly selective: it begins with the ban on intermarriage, then the sabbath, followed by the sabbatical year, with all the stipulations afterward—by far the majority of items—related to the maintenance of the temple cult. This was, of course, the great moment of renewal after the rebuilding of the Temple, but one may detect here evidence of Ezra’s priestly agenda. It is certainly surprising that nothing of the ethical injunctions of the Torah and its calls for social justice appears in the ʾamanah.
1And the officers of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots in order to bring one out of ten to settle in Jerusalem the holy city and the other nine parts in the towns. 2And the people blessed all who answered the call to settle in Jerusalem. 3And these are the chiefs of the province who settled in Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah, Israel, the priests and the Levites and the temple laborers and the sons of Solomon’s servants each settled in his holding. 4Of the Judahites: Athaiah son of Uzziah son of Zechariah son of Amariah son of Shephatiah son of Mahalaleel, of the sons of Perez, 5and Maaseiah son of Baruch son of Col-Hozeh son of Hazaiah son of Adaiah son of Joiarib son of Zechariah son of the Shilohite. 6All the sons of Perez settling in Jerusalem were four hundred sixty-eight men of worth. 7And these are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam son of Joed son of Pedaiah son of Kolaiah son of Maaseiah son of Ithiel son of Jesaiah. 8And after him Gabbai and Sallai—nine hundred twenty-eight. 9And Joel son of Zichri was the officer over them, and Judah son of Hassenuah was second in command over thecity. 10Of the priests, Jedaiah son of Joiarib, Jachin, 11Seraiah son of Hilkiah son of Meshullam son of Zadok son of Meraioth son of Ahitub, prince of the house of God, 12and their brothers, doers of the task of the house, eight hundred twenty-two, and Adaiah son of Jeroham son of Pelaliah son of Amzi son of Zechariah son of Pashur son of Malchijah, 13and his brothers the patriarchal chiefs, two hundred forty-two, and Amashai son of Azareel son of Ahzai son of Meshillemoth son of Immer, 14and their brothers, the men of worth, a hundred twenty-eight, and Zabdiel son of Haggedolim was officer over them. 15And of the Levites, Shemaiah son of Hashub son of Azrikam son of Hashabiah son of Bunni, 16and Shabbethai and Jozabad were over the external tasks for the house of God, of the chiefs of the Levites. 17And Mattaniah son of Micha son of Zabdi son of Asaph head of the praise for the prayer of Judah, and Bakbukiah, of his brothers, was second in command, and Abda son of Shammua son of Galal son of Jeduthun, 18all the Levites in the holy city—two hundred eighty-four. 19And the gatekeepers: Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers, who guarded the gates—a hundred seventy-two. 20And the rest of Israel, the priests, the Levites, in all the towns of Judah, each in his estate. 21And the temple laborers living in the Ophel, and Ziha and Gishpa were over the temple laborers. 22And the officer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani son of Hashabiah son of Mattaniah son of Micha, of the sons of the Asaphite choristers who were over the task of the house of God. 23For the king’s command was upon them and a solemn commitment day after day. 24And Pethahiah son of Meshezabeel of the sons of Zerah son of Judah was agent for the king in everything concerning the people. 25And in the outlying villages in their fields some of the Judahites settled in Kiriath-Arba and its hamlets and in Dibon and its hamlets and in Jekabzeel and its outlying villages, 26and in Jeshua and in Moladah and in Beth-Pelet, 27and in Hazar-Shual and in Beersheba and its hamlets, 28and in Ziklag and in Meconah and in its hamlets, 29and in En-Rimmon and in Zorah and in Jarmuth, 30Zanoah, Adullam, and their out-lying villages, Lachish and its fields, Azekah and its hamlets. And they encamped from Beersheba to the Valley of Hinnom. 31And the Benjaminites from Geba, Michmash, Aija, and Bethel and its hamlets, 32Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, 33Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, 34Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, 35Lod, Ono, the valley of Ge-Harashim. 36And from the Levites, divisions of Judah were for Benjamin.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
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1. cast lots. This procedure replicates the parceling out of settlements in Joshua.
2. all who answered the call to settle in Jerusalem. The Hebrew verb here is the one that is used for people taking the lead in battle (as in the Song of Deborah, Judges 5). It suggests that Jerusalem remained on the front line, in danger of attack.
3. And these are the chiefs. Here begins another long list, first of the Judahites who settled, then of the places of settlement. Detailed discussion of all the names in the list is not called for in this commentary.
17. head of the praise for the prayer. The Hebrew syntactical chain looks odd, but this seems to be the meaning.
24. was agent for the king. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “by the king” or “at the hand of the king.”
1And these are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua: Seriah, Jeremiah, Ezra, 2Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, 3Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth, 4Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah, 5Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah, 6Shemaiah, Joiarib, Jedaiah, 7Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah. These were the heads of the priests and their brothers in the days of Jeshua. 8And the Levites: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah, who was over the thanksgiving psalms, he and his brothers. 9And Bakbukiah and Unni their brothers, opposite them in watches. 10And Jeshua begot Joiakim, and Joiakim begot Eliashib, and Eliashib begot Joiada, 11and Joiada begot Jonathan, and Jonathan begot Jaddua. 12And in the days of Joiakim, Seraiah, Meriaiah, Jeremiah, and Hananiah had priests who were patriarchal chiefs: 13from Ezra, Meshullam; from Amariah, Jehohanan; 14from Melicu, Jonathan; from Shebaniah, Joseph; 15from Harim, Adna; from Meraioth, Helkai; 16from Iddo, Zechariah; from Ginnethon, Meshullam; 17from Abijah, Zichri; from Miniamin [… ]; from Moadiah, Piltai; 18from Bilgah, Shammua; from Shemaiah, Jehonathan; 19from Joiarib, Mattenai; from Jedaiah, Uzzi; 20from Sallai, Kallai; from Amok, 21Eber; from Hilkiah, Hashabiah; from Jedaiah, Nethaneel. 22The Levites in the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua were written down as patriarchal chiefs down to the reign of Darius the Persian. 23The sons of Levi, patriarchal chiefs, were written down in the book of chronicles until the days of Johanan son of Eliashib. 24And the heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua son of Kadmiel and their brothers were opposite them to praise, to give thanks, by the command of David man of God, one watch relieving another. 25Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, Akkub, were guarding as gatekeepers in watches at the thresholds of the gates. 26These were in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua son of Jozadak and in the days of Nehemiah the satrap and Ezra the priest and scribe.
27And at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem they sought out the priests from all their places to bring them to Jerusalem to make a dedication and a rejoicing with thanksgiving processions and song, cymbals, lyres, and lutes. 28And the sons of the choristers gathered from the plain, from the environs of Jerusalem, and from the outlying villages of the Netophathites. 29And from Beth Gilgal and from the Geba fields the choristers had built themselves hamlets all around Jerusalem. 30And the priests and the Levites purified themselves and they purified the people and the gates and the wall. 31And I brought the officers of Judah up on the wall and arranged two great thanksgiving processions, one procession going on the wall to the south to the Dung Gate. 32And Hoshaiah and half the officers of Judah walked after them, and 33Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam, 34Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah, 35and from the sons of the priests with trumpets, Zechariah son of Jonathan son of Shemaiah son of Mattaniah son of Michaiah son of Zaccur son of Asaph, 36and his brothers Shemaiah and Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David man of God. And Ezra the scribe was before them, 37and as far as the Fountain Gate, and in front of them they went up the steps of the City of David on the ascent of the wall above the house of David and as far as the Water Gate on the east. 38And the second thanksgiving procession was opposite and I was behind it, and half the people were on the wall above the Tower of Ovens as far as the Broad Wall, 39and above the Ephraim Gate and above the Jeshanah Gate and above the Fish Gate and Hananeel Tower and the Tower of the Hundred and as far as the Sheep Gate. And they stopped at the Gate of the Prison Compound. 40And the two thanksgiving processions stopped at the house of God, and I and half the prefects with me. 41And the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, Hananiah, were with trumpets, 42and Maaseiah and Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. And the choristers sounded forth with Jezrahiah the official. 43And they offered great sacrifices on that day and rejoiced, for God had given them a great rejoicing, and the women and the children rejoiced as well, and the rejoicing of Jerusalem could be heard from afar. 44And on that day men were appointed over the chambers of the treasuries for the donations, for the first fruits and for the tithes, to store in them from the fields of the towns the portions [as in] the Teaching, for the priests and for the Levites, for the joy of Judah was upon the priests and upon the Levites who were serving. 45And they kept the watch of their God and the watch of purity, and the choristers and the gatekeepers were according to the command of David and Solomon his son, 46for as in the days of David and Asaph in time past were the heads of the choristers and the songs of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah would give the portions of the choristers day after day and would consecrate to the Levites, and the Levites would consecrate to the sons of Aaron.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
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1. And these are the priests and the Levites. This is the last of the long lists of names in Nehemiah that document the people who returned to Zion from Babylonia and where they settled.
8. the thanksgiving psalms. The received text shows yadot (“hands”?, “portions”?), but some Hebrew manuscripts have hodot, which is followed in this translation.
13. from Ezra. Here and in the listings that follow, this probably means “from the clan of …” The more literal sense of the preposition used in the Hebrew is “for.”
23. the book of chronicles. This rather general designation for chronicles or annals does not appear to refer to the canonical Book of Chronicles.
24. David man of God. This recurring epithet reflects the “canonical” version of David that emerged in the Return to Zion. He is never called this in the original narrative in the Book of Samuel, and much of his behavior there is by no means godly.
44. for the joy of Judah was upon the priests and upon the Levites. The idea is that the people were jubilant to see these two segments of their sacerdotal class once again celebrating the cult in the Temple, and thus they were happy to shower on them the gifts and donations prescribed by tradition.
46. for as in the days of David and Asaph. This grand dedication of the rebuilt temple is seen as a triumphant restoration of the glories of the past after Jerusalem and its Temple had lain in ruins for more than a century.
47. all Israel … would consecrate to the Levites, and the Levites would consecrate to the sons of Aaron. A perfect harmonious ritual hierarchy is now restored: the common people consecrate gifts (especially of food) to the Levites and the Levites in turn consecrate gifts to the priests.
1On that day it was read out from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people, and it was found written there that no Ammonite or Moabite should come into God’s assembly for all time. 2For they had not welcomed the Israelites with bread and with water and had hired against them Balaam to curse them, but God turned the curse into blessing. 3And it happened, when they heard the Teaching, they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel. 4And before this, Eliashib the priest was stationed in the chamber of the house of our God close to Tobiah. 5And he made for him a large chamber, and there formerly they would bring the grain offering, the frankincense, and the vessels and the tithe of grain and of wine and of oil, which were commanded for the Levites and for the choristers and for the gatekeepers and for the donation for the priests. 6And with all this, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylonia I had come to the king, and after a period of time I asked leave from the king. 7And I came to Jerusalem and perceived the evil thing Eliashib had done concerning Tobiah, to make for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8And I was much aggrieved, and I flung all the vessels of Tobiah’s house outside the chamber. 9And I said that the chambers should be purified, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, the grain offering, and the frankincense. 10And I realized that the Levites’ portions had not been given, and that the Levites and the choristers, those who performed the tasks, had fled each to his own field. 11And I rebuked the officials and said, “Why has the house of God been abandoned?” And I gathered them and stood them in their stations. 12And all Judah brought the tithe of grain and of wine and of oil to the treasuries. 13And I charged over the treasuries Shelemiah the priest and Zadok the scribe and Pedaiah of the Levites, and alongside them Hanan son of Zaccur son of Mattaniah, for they were deemed trustworthy, and it was their duty to share out portions to their brothers. 14Recall this for me, O my God, and do not wipe away my faithful acts that I did in the house of my God and on its watches! 15In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the sabbath and bringing stacks of grain and loading them on donkeys and also wine, grapes and figs, and all sorts of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the sabbath day, and I castigated them on the day for selling provisions. 16And the Tyrians who lived there were bringing fish and all sorts of wares and selling them on the sabbath to the Judahites in Jerusalem. 17And I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the sabbath day? 18Did not your fathers do thus, and our God brought down upon us and upon this city all this evil? And you compound fury against Israel, profaning the sabbath.” 19And it happened when the gates of Jerusalem fell into shadow before the sabbath that I said that the doors should be shut, and I said that they should not open them till after the sabbath. 20And I stationed some of my lads by the gates, that no load should enter on the sabbath day. 21And the merchants and those who sold all kinds of wares spent the night outside Jerusalem, once and a second time. 22And I castigated them and said to them, “Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you.” From that time they did not come on the sabbath. 23And I said to the Levites that they should purify themselves and come to guard the gates to hallow the sabbath day. This, too, recall for me, O my God, and pity me according to Your great kindness! 24In those days, too, I saw that Jews had settled in their homes Ashdodite, Ammonite, and Moabite women. 25And their children, half were speaking Ashdodite and the language of every people and did not know how to speak Judahite. 26And I rebuked them and cursed them and flogged them and tore their hair and made them swear by God—”that you shall not give your daughters to their sons and shall not take of their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 27Did not Solomon king of Israel offend in these matters? And among many nations there was no king like him. Beloved by his God he was, and God made him king over all Israel. Even him did the foreign wives lead to offend. 28And to you shall we listen, to do this great evil to betray our God to settle foreign women in your homes?” 29And one of the sons of Joiada son of Eliashib the high-priest was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite, and I sent him chasing from me. 30Recall it against them, O my God, for the defilements of the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites! 31And I purified them of all foreignness and set up watches for the priests and for the Levites, each man at his task, 32and for the offering of wood at set times and for the first fruits. Recall it for me, O my God, for good!
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
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1. the Book of Moses. This is a novel designation for what is usually called in these later texts, following Deuteronomy, the Book of Teaching, sefer hatorah.
no Ammonite or Moabite should come into God’s assembly. This is an approximate quotation of Deuteronomy 23:4. The divisions within the community of returned exiles are symptomatically reflected in the exclusion of Moabites. In the Book of Ruth, in all likelihood written around this time, a Moabite woman marries a Judahite man and becomes the progenitrix of King David. The Book of Ruth’s gentle and affectionate tolerance stands in sharp contrast to Nehemiah’s intransigence on the question of foreigners in the community of Israel.
3. the mixed multitude. The Hebrew says merely ʿerev, “mixture,” but the present translation, like the King James Version, understands the word as an ellipsis for ʿerev rav (see Exodus 12:38, where it’s rendered as “motley throng”).
4. close to Tobiah. This might also mean “a relative of Tobiah.”
5. And he made for him a large chamber. As becomes clear in what follows, this room or hall had formerly been dedicated to sacred purposes, so to use it as a private apartment is considered to be an outrage by Nehemiah.
6. I was not in Jerusalem, for … I had come to the king. Whatever the particular court functions of a “cupbearer” beyond pouring wine, Artaxerxes evidently felt he could not entirely dispense with Nehemiah’s services and so summoned him to return to Shushan. The period of his renewed stay in the court is not specified, but at a certain point Nehemiah requests permission to return to Jerusalem, where he obviously feels he has urgent business to look after.
9. And I said that the chambers should be purified. Having been converted to secular private use, the chambers now have to undergo ritual purification.
10. the Levites and the choristers, those who performed the tasks. These are all the temple functionaries below the priests in the cultic hierarchy, and Nehemiah appears to be protecting their interests. The “abandoning” of the Temple in the next verse seems to refer to the neglect of these sacerdotal groups.
15. people treading winepresses on the sabbath. Nehemiah in his project of reform now moves on from the Temple and its functionaries to the sabbath. Observance of the sabbath, as we have seen elsewhere, becomes an essential condition for belonging to the community of Israel in Late Biblical texts.
16. the Tyrians who lived there. The Phoenicians were a great mercantile people, and this seems to be not a permanent settlement but a quarter in which traders took up temporary residence while they were conducting their business.
20. I stationed some of my lads by the gates. Nehemiah is clearly a strong-armed leader. He does not just issue a command to keep the gates shut through the sabbath but appoints men—probably armed men—to make sure it is done.
no load. Another meaning of masaʾ is “business,” which some translations opt for.
22. Why do you spend the night in front of the wall? Although the merchants remain on the outside, their persistence in staying close to the wall suggests that they may be looking for a moment during the sabbath when they might slip inside, perhaps if the closed gates are left slightly ajar by would-be trading partners within. Hence Nehemiah’s fury.
24. settled in their homes. The verb clearly means “to settle” in the transitive sense. It is not a term used for “marry.” An ellipsis is thus assumed in this translation, and “in their homes” has been added to spell out what is implied.
Ashdodite. Ashdod is one of the five Philistine cities along the Mediterranean coast.
25. half were speaking Ashdodite. The Philistines had been living in Ashdod for over seven centuries, and it is unlikely that they would have retained their original language, perhaps a version of Greek. “Ashdodite” was probably a Canaanite dialect that preserved an admixture of Greek words.
did not know how to speak Judahite. “Judahite” has to mean “Hebrew” (the language is never referred to by that name in the Bible). It cannot mean Aramaic, so the implication is that at this point the Jewish population was still for the most part Hebrew-speaking. Linguistic loyalty is taken as a token of ethnic and religious loyalty.
26. I … flogged them and tore their hair. Again, Nehemiah does not hesitate to use physical coercion, even violence.
30. Recall it against them. Nehemiah twice uses this formula to invoke God’s favor toward him, but here the use is antithetical. The chapter and the book conclude with the positive enunciation of this formula of prayer.
Chronicles, fixed in Jewish tradition as the conclusion of the Bible, is, at least from a modern perspective, the most peculiar book of the Hebrew Bible. In all likelihood, it was composed sometime in the late decades of the fifth century B.C.E., after the Return to Zion and after the mission of Ezra and Nehemiah in the middle of that century to renew the Temple cult and establish the canonical authority of the Torah. Given its pervasive interest in the details of the Temple ritual and in the lines of succession of the priests and the Levites, it was probably written by a priest, or at the very least, someone close to priestly circles. The Hebrew Bible in general is much attached to genealogies because in this patriarchal and patrilineal society, following lines from father to son through a series of generations was conceived as a way of establishing origins and confirming the legitimacy of the descendants who could trace their descent from these origins. In Chronicles, however, the place of genealogies is endowed with a new order of magnitude. The book begins with Adam but races through Genesis to David chiefly by means of genealogical lists. The first nine chapters of 1Chronicles—as with Samuel and Kings, the division into two “books” is an artifact of the editorial process—are a relentless listing of names, some familiar, many not. Although the lists have provided considerable fodder for scholarly research, it is safe to say that these nine chapters constitute the least readable extended passage in the Bible.
The main focus of the book is on the kings of Judah. 1 Chronicles 10 picks up the narrative in the Book of Samuel with the death of Saul and David’s assumption of the throne and his conquest of Jerusalem. From this point onward, there are ample borrowings from Samuel and Kings, often showing a replication of entire passages with only minor changes. Linguistically, because Chronicles hews so closely to the Deuteronomistic History, it does not exhibit a great many features of Late Biblical Hebrew, as one might expect, though not infrequently it reflects a certain loosening of syntactic and idiomatic norms that is characteristic of this late period. In any case, the obvious question is what the motive of the Chronicler was in producing a historical narrative that is to a large extent a reproduction of an existing historical narrative which had achieved a degree of canonical status after being edited in the Babylonian exile. Most prominently, this is a historical account that is intended to highlight the eternal legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty and its firm integration with the priestly hierarchy, which traces its own origins back to Aaron. Consequently, the portrait of David has been, one might say, airbrushed. There is no report of his acting as a vassal for the Philistine king Agag. The vivid scene in Samuel when David plays the madman and rolls on the ground drooling in order to save himself from the Philistines is eliminated. The representation of David as a canny political player is gone. David’s adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband are stricken from the record. David’s demise is reported tersely, with no trace of the dense machinations before his death involving Nathan and Bathsheba that brought Solomon to the throne and no mention of his deathbed exhortation to Solomon to pay off scores against his enemies. Instead, David conveys the throne to Solomon and then proceeds to divide the priests and Levites into diverse orders, which occasions still another long list of names that runs on for some chapters.
David’s name recurs fairly often as Chronicles proceeds to later eras, often joined with Solomon’s. Repeatedly, he is said to have instituted the regimen of the temple cult and of its musical aspect, even establishing the precedent for which instruments were to be played in the temple service. He is also said to have produced written texts that authorized these sundry procedures, even though there is no hint of his doing any writing of this sort in the Book of Samuel. This is, in sum, a representation of David as an exemplary establishment figure, unswervingly virtuous, providing precedents and a model for the political and cultic tradition that he is seen as having founded.
It should also be noted that Chronicles incorporates a variety of narrative details that appear nowhere in the Deuteronomistic History. Where they come from remains a matter of conjecture. Some scholars conclude that the Chronicler had at his disposal alternative historical texts from which at some points he chose to draw. This may well be the case, but it is also possible that he composed these passages himself—at least a few of them appear to serve his ideological purposes. At the conclusion of the story of each king, he observes, in imitation of the formula used in the Book of Kings, that “the rest of the acts of King X are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.” In the Book of Kings, this formula probably refers to court annals, which may once have existed but of course have been lost to us. It is unclear what text is referred to in Chronicles, and since it is probably not the canonical Book of Kings, the “book” is not capitalized in this translation. It is also possible that the reference is to a nonexistent text, the Chronicler merely imitating the formula from Kings. At a good many other points, he says that the rest of the acts of the kings in question are written down in a particular book by a prophet or seer. The likelihood of historical reports in such visionary texts is small, so this looks like a literary gesture in part to convey a sense that the Chronicler, a writer who is insistently theological, is familiar with works of a spiritual cast that incorporate information about the figures of his own narrative.
In the end, Chronicles offers an object lesson in how as a tradition evolves it may be prone to domesticate the unruly and challenging traits of its own origins. The tales of the Patriarchs and the story of the troubled founding of the Israelite monarchy in their early formulation are full of human contradictions, moral ambiguities, psychological probings, and sometimes the intimation of dark and destructive impulses. It is this complexity of imagination that produces some of the greatest narratives that have come out of the whole ancient world. The Chronicler is impelled to rewrite these stories in order to make them yield a picture of divinely ordained political and cultic practice. He speaks of good and bad kings, as something he knows well from reading the Book of Kings, but these are now neatly divided between those who do right in the eyes of the LORD and those who do evil in the eyes of the LORD. The national history is painted in black and white, and the haunting shadows, the chiaroscuro, the sudden illuminations of classical Hebrew narrative, vanish in this work.
1Adam, Seth, Enosh. 2Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared. 3Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech. 4Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 5The sons of Japheth, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. 6And the sons of Gomer, Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah. 7And the sons of Javan, Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. 8The sons of Ham, Cush, and Mizraim, Put and Canaan. 9And the sons of Cush, Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama and Sabteca. And the sons of Raama, Sheba and Dedan. 10And Cush begot Nimrod. He was the first mighty man on earth. 11And Mizraim begot the Ludim and the Anamim and the Lehabim and the Naphtuhim 12and the Pathrusim and the Casluhim, from whom the Philistines came forth, and the Caphtorim. 13And Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn and Heth. 14And the Jebusites and the Amorites and the Girgashites 15and the Hivvites and the Arkites and the Sinites 16and the Arvadites and the Zemarites and the Hamathites. 17The sons of Shem, Elam and Asshur and Arpachshad and Lud and Aram and Uz and Hul and Gether and Meshech. 18And Arpachshad begot Shelah, and Shelah begot Eber. 19And to Eber two sons were born. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was split apart, and the name of his brother was Joktan. 20And Joktan begot Almodad and Sheleph and Hazarmaveth and Jerah, 21and Hadoram and Uzal and Diklah, 22and Ebal and Abimael and Sheba 23and Ophir and Havilah and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. 24Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, 25Eber, Peleg, Reu, 26Serug, Nahor, Terah, 27, Abram, who is Abraham. 28The sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. 29This is their lineage: Ishmael’s firstborn Nebaioth and Kedar and Abdeel and Mibsam, 30Mishma and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema, 31Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael. 32And the sons of Keturah, Abraham’s concubine. She bore Zimran and Jokshan and Medan and Midian and Ishbak and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan, Sheba and Dedan. 33And the sons of Midian, Ephah and Epher and Enoch and Abida and Eldaah. All these were the sons of Keturah. 34And Abraham begat Isaac. The sons of Isaac, Esau and Israel. 35The sons of Esau, Eliphaz, Reuel, and Jeush and Jaalam and Korah. 36The sons of Eliphaz, Teman and Omar, Zephi and Gatam, Kenaz and Timna and Amalek. 37The sons of Reuel were Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. 38And the sons of Seir, Lotan and Shobal and Zibeon and Anah and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan. 39And the sons of Lotan, Hori and Homam and Lotan’s sister, Timna. 40The sons of Shobal, Alian, Manahath and Ebal, Shephi, and Onam, the sons of Zibeon, Aiah and Anah. 41The son of Anah, Dishon, and the sons of Dishon, Hamran and Eshban and Ithran and Cheran. 42The sons of Ezer, Bilhan and Zaavan and Jaakan. The sons of Dishan, Uz and Aran. 43And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before a king reigned over the Israelites: Bela son of Beor and the name of his town was Dinhabah. 44And Bela died, and Jobab son of Zerah from Bozrah reigned in his stead. 45And Jobab died, and Husham from the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead. 46And Husham died, and Hadad son of Bedad, who struck down Midian on the steppes of Moab, reigned in his stead, and the name of his town was Avith. 47And Hadad died, and Samlah from Masrekah reigned in his stead. 48And Samlah died, and Saul from Rehoboth-on-the-River reigned in his stead. 49And Saul died and Baal-Hanan son of Achbor reigned in his stead. 50And Baal-Hanan died, and Hadad reigned in his stead, and the name of his town was Pai, and the name of his wife was Mehetabel daughter of Matred daughter of Me-Zahab. 51And Hadad died and the chieftains of Edom were the chieftain of Timna, the chieftain of Alvah, the chieftain of Jetheth, 52the chieftain of Oholibamah, the chieftain of Elah, the chieftain of Pinon, 53the chieftain of Kenaz, the chieftain of Teman, the chieftain of Mibzar, 54the chieftain of Magdiel, the chieftain of Iram, these are the chieftains of Edom.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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1. Adam, Seth, Enosh. Chronicles begins abruptly with a patrilineal genealogical list that runs from the first man to Saul, his sons, and his grandsons, at the end of chapter 9. Here at the very beginning, only the names are stated, without even the verb “begot,” which is not used until verse 10. For the modern reader, this is scarcely an inviting way to begin a book. In fact, it may not be the actual beginning of the original book but a set of appended “files,” as Jacob M. Myers has called it, important to the editor because it makes the history of the line of David a culmination of the history of humankind, which exhibits its first great fulfillment in Abraham and his descendants. The author draws directly on genealogical lists in Genesis and, evidently, on some extrabiblical sources that were available to him. Narrative content emerges only after nine chapters of these “files.” The first part of the list here closely follows the Table of the Nations in Genesis 10, and the reader is referred to the comments there.
5. Javan. This is one of several names in this early list that reflect contact among cultures in the ancient Mediterranean sphere. In biblical Hebrew, the name would have been pronounced yawan, the equivalent of “Ion,” which is what some of the Greek peoples called their native realm.
27. Abram, who is Abraham. The list duly notes Abram’s name change in Genesis 17.
1These are the sons of Israel, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Issachar and Zebulun, 2Dan, Joseph, and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. 3The sons of Judah, Er and Onan and Shelah. Three were born to him by Bath-Shua the Canaanite. And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was evil in the eyes of the LORD, and He put him to death. 4And Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. All the sons of Judah were five. 5The sons of Perez, Hezron and Hamul. 6And the sons of Zerah, Zimri and Ethan and Heman and Calcol and Dara, five in all. 7And the sons of Carmi, Achar, who stirred up trouble against Israel when he betrayed the ban. 8And the son of Ethan, Azariah. 9And the sons of Hezron who were born to him, Jerahmeel and Ram and Chelubai. 10And Ram begot Amminadab, and Amminadab begot Nahshon, prince of the sons of Judah. 11And Nahshon begot Salma, and Salma begot Boaz. 12And Boaz begot Obed and Obed begot Jesse. 13And Jesse begot his firstborn, Eliab and Abinadab the second, and Shimea the third, 14Nethaneel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, 15Ozem the sixth, David the seventh, 16and their sisters, Zeruiah and Abigail, and the sons of Zeruiah, Abishai and Joab and Asahel—three. 17And Abigail bore Amasa, and Amasa’s father was Jether the Ishmaelite. 18And Caleb son of Hezron begot by Azubah his wife and by Jerioth, and these are her sons, Jesher and Shobab and Ardon. 19And Azubah died, and Caleb took Ephrath as wife, and she bore to him Hur. 20And Hur begot Uri, and Uri begot Bezalel. 21And afterward, Hezron came to bed with the daughter of Machir. He took her as wife, and he was sixty years old, and she bore to him Segub. 22And Segub begot Jair, and he had twenty-three towns in the land of Gilead. 23And Geshur and Aram took from them the villages of Havvoth-Jair, Kenath and its hamlets, sixty towns. All these were the sons of Machir, father of Gilead. 24And after the death of Hezron in Caleb-Ephrathah—and Hezron’s wife was Abijah. She bore to him Ashhur father of Tekoa. 25And the sons of Jerah-meel, Hezron’s firstborn, were Ram, the firstborn, and Bunah and Oren and Ozem and Ahijah. 26And Jerahmeel had another wife, and her name was Atarah. She was the mother of Onam. 27And the sons of Ram, Jerahmeel’s firstborn, were Maaz and Jamin and Eker. 28And the sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. And the sons of Shammai, Nadab and Abishur. 29And the name of Abishur’s wife was Abihail, and she bore to him Ahban and Molid. 30And the sons of Nadab, Seled and Appaim. And Seled died without sons. 31And the son of Appaim. And the sons of Ishi Sheshan and Ahlai. And the sons of Sheshan, Ahlai. 32And the sons of Jada, Shammai’s brother, Jether and Jonathan. And Jether died without sons. 33And the sons of Jonathan, Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel. 34And Sheshan did not have sons but daughters, and Sheshan had an Egyptian slave named Jarha. 35And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his slave as wife, and she bore to him Attai. 36And Attai begot Nathan, and Nathan begot Zabad. 37And Zabad begot Ephlal, and Ephlal begot Obed. 38And Obed begot Jehu, and Jehu begot Azariah. 39And Azariah begot Helez, and Helez begot Eleasah. 40And Eleasah begot Sisamai, and Sisamai begot Shallum. 41And Shallum begot Jekamiah, and Jekamiah begot Elishama. 42And the sons of Caleb, Jerahmeel’s brother, Meshah his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph and the sons of Mesha, father of Hebron. 43And the sons of Hebron, Korah and Tappuah and Rekem and Shema. 44And Shema begot Raham father of Jorkoam, and Rekem begot Shammai. 45And the son of Shammai was Maon, and Maon was the father of Beth-Zur. 46And Ephrah Caleb’s concubine bore Haran and Moza and Gazez, and Haran begot Gazez. 47And the sons of Jahdai, Regem and Jotham and Geshan and Pelet and Ephah and Shaaph. 48Caleb’s concubine Maachah bore Sheber and Tirhanah. 49And Shaaph father of Madmannah begot Sheva father of Machbenah and father of Gibea. And Caleb’s daughter was Achsah. 50These were the children of Caleb. The son of Hur. Ephrathah’s firstborn was Shobal, father of Kiriath-Jearim. 51Salma, father of Bethlehem, Hareph father of Beth-Gader. 52And Shobal father of Kiriath-Jearim had sons, Haroeh, half of the Manuhoth. 53And the clans of Kiriath-Jearim, the Ithrite and the Puthite and the Shumathite and the Mishraite. From these the Zorathites and the Eshtaolites emerged. 54The sons of Salma, Bethlehem, the Netophatite, Atroth-Beth-Joab, and half the Manahethite, the Zorite. 55And the clans of the scribes that dwelled in Jabez, the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Suchathites. They were the Kenites who came from Hammath, father of the house of Rechab.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1. These are the sons of Israel. Oddly, Reuben is missing from the list.
4. And Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. The text hews to its agenda of the enumeration of begettings, omitting mention of the freighted narrative in Genesis 38 in which Tamar, languishing in widowhood, takes a bold initiative by dressing as a roadside whore and having sex with her father-in-law.
7. Achar. In the story of the violation of the ban in Joshua 7, this figure is called Achan. Here the name has been “corrected” to Achar in order to make it identical with the Hebrew verb that means “to stir up trouble,” “to muddy,” “to roil.”
11. Boaz. He is the Judahite who marries Ruth in the Book of Ruth. His line is especially significant for the compiler of these lists because it leads directly to David.
13–14. And Jesse begot. In 1 Samuel 16 only the names of the first three sons are mentioned, and then David at the end. It is unclear whether this compiler had access to a document that contained the three missing names or whether he invented them in order to produce an effect of completeness.
16. the sons of Zeruiah, Abishai and Joab and Asahel. These three nephews of David—presumably Zeruiah was a much older sister—figure importantly in the David story in the Book of Samuel. Joab and Abishai are his bloody-minded henchmen, and Asahel dies in battle.
20. Uri begot Bezalel. Bezalel becomes the chief craftsman of the sanctuary in the wilderness.
23. father of Gilead. Somewhat confusingly, though the list is all about fathers and sons, at this point, and at several points farther on, “father” is used in the sense of “founder,” and “Gilead” is a geographical region, not a person.
24. in Caleb-Ephrathah. This appears to be a place-name, but the Hebrew is ambiguous.
30. without sons. The Hebrew is terse and not quite idiomatic—literally, “no sons.”
35. And Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his slave. This may sound surprising, but some slaves were in effect indentured servants and could be granted freedom. Alternately, the Hebrew term could simply mean “servant.”
42–43. Ziph … Hebron. Both these are place-names, not people.
52. half of the Manuhoth. This is evidently a place, but the phrase is obscure.
1And these were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite; 2the third Absalom son of Maachah daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah son of Haggith; 3the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth Ithream, by Eglah his wife. 4Six were born to him in Hebron, and he was king there seven years and six months, and thirty-three years he was king in Jerusalem. 5And there were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea and Shobab and Nathan and Solomon, four by Bath-Shua daughter of Ammiel. 6And Ibhar and Elishama and Eliphelet, 7and Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia, 8and Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet—nine, 9all the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines and Tamar their sister. 10And the son of Solomon was Rehoboam, his son Abijah, his son Asa, his son Jehoshaphat, 11his son Joram, his son Ahaziah, his son Joash, 12Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, 13his son Hezekiah, his son Manasseh, 14his son Amon, his son Josiah. 15And the sons of Josiah, the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. 16And the sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. 17And the sons of Jeconiah Sheatiel and Assir his son, 18and Malchiram and Pedaiah and Shenazzar and Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. 19And the sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei, and the sons of Zerubbabel, Meshullam and Hananiah and Shelomith their sister, 20and Hashubah and Ohel and Berechiah and Hasadiah and Jushab-Hesed—five. 21And the sons of Hananiah were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah. The sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shechaniah. 22And the son of Shechaniah was Shemaiah, and the sons of Shemaiah, Hattush and Igal and Bariah and Neariah and Shaphat—six. 23And the sons of Neariah, Elioenai and Hezekiah and Azrikam—three. 24And the sons of Elioenai, Hodaviah and Eliashib and Pelaiah and Akkub and Johanan and Delaiah and Anani—seven.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. Daniel. In the list of David’s sons in 2 Samuel 3, there is a different name, Chileab.
6–8. Ibhar … Eliphelet. For some reason, the mothers of these nine sons are not named.
7. Nogah. This name, which means “radiance,” is used in modern Israel for girls.
17. Jeconiah. As king of Judah, he was taken captive by the Babylonians in their incursion in 597 B.C.E.
18. Shenazzar. This is a Babylonian name, as is Zerubbabel, reflecting the acculturation of the Judahites in the Babylonian exile.
1The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, and Carmi and Hur and Shobal. 2And Reaiah the son of Shobal begot Jahath, and Jahath begot Ahumai and Lahad. These were the clans of the Zorathite. 3And these [were the sons of] the father of Etam: Jezreel and Ishma and Idbash, and the name of their sister was Hazelelponi. 4And Penuel father of Gedor and Ezer father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, firstborn of Ephrathah, father of Bethlehem. 5And Ashhur father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah. 6And Naarah bore to him Ahuzam and Hepher and Temeni and Ahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. 7And the sons of Helah, Zereth and Zohar and Ethnan. 8And Koz begot Anub and Hazzobebah, and the clans of Aharhel son of Harum. 9And Jabez was more honored than his brothers, and his mother had called his name Jabez, saying, “Why, I have born him in pain.” 10And Jabez called out to the God of Israel, saying, “May You indeed bless me and increase my territory and Your hand be with me and may You act that I be not in pain.” And God brought about what he had asked. 11And Chelub brother of Shuhah begot Mehir, who was father of Eshton. 12And Eshton begat Beth-Rapha and Paseah and Tehinnah, father of Ir-Nahash. These were the men of Rechah. 13And the sons of Kenaz were Othniel and Seraiah, and the sons of Othniel, Hathath and Meonothai. 14And Meonothai begot Ophrah, and Seraiah begot Joab father of Artisan Vale, for they were artisans. 15And the sons of Caleb son of Jephunneh were Iru, Elah, and Naam. And the son of Elah was Kenaz. 16And the sons of Jehallelel were Ziph and Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel. 17And the sons of Ezra were Jether and Mered Epher, and Jalon. And she conceived Miriam and Shammai and Ishbah father of Eshtemoa. 18And his Judahite wife bore Jered father of Gedor and Heber father of Sochoh and Jekuthiel father of Zanoah. And these were the sons of Bithiah daughter of Pharaoh whom Mered took as wife. 19And the sons of the wife of Hodiah sister of Naham father of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maachathite… . 20And the sons of Shimon were Amnon, Rinnah, Ben-Hanan, and Tilon. And the sons of Ishi were Zoheth and Ben-Zoheth. 21The sons of Shelah son of Judah, Er father of Lecah and Laadah father of Mareshah and the clans of the linen workshop of the house of Beth-Ashbea. 22And Jokim and the men of Chozeba and Joash and Saraph who married among Moab and Jashubi-Lehem. And these matters are ancient. 23They were the potters who dwelled in Netaim and Gederah, with the king at his tasks they dwelled there. 24The sons of Simeon, Nemuel and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Shaul, 25Shallum his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son. 26And the sons of Mishma, Hamel his son, Zacchur his son, Shimei his son. 27And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many sons, and all their clans did not have as many as the sons of Judah. 28And they dwelled in Beersheba and Moladah and Hazar-Shual, 29and in Bilhah and in Ezem and in Tolad, 30and in Bethuel and in Hormah and in Ziklag, 31and in Beth-Marcaboth and in Hazar-Susim and in Beth-Biri and in Shaaraim. These were their towns till David was king. 32And their villages were Etam and Ain, Rimmon and Tochen and Ashan—five towns, 33and all their villages that were round these towns as far as Baal. These were their settlements, and they traced their lineage by them. 34And Meshobab and Jamlech and Joshah son of Amaziah, 35and Joel and Jehu son of Joshibiah son of Seraiah son of Asiel, 36and Elioenai and Jaakobah and Jeshohaiah and Asaiah and Adiel and Jesimiel and Benaiah, 37and Ziza son of Shiphi son of Allon son of Jedaiah son of Shimri son of Shemaiah. 38These were the ones who came by name, princes in their clans, and their patriarchal house spread out abundantly. 39And they went to the approaches of Gedor as far as the east side of the valley to seek pasture for their flocks. 40And they found luxuriant and goodly pasture, and the land was spacious and quiet and tranquil, for of Ham were those who formerly dwelled there. 41And those written down by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and struck down their tents and their habitations that were there and utterly destroyed them to this day and dwelled in their stead, for there was pasture for their flocks there. 42And some of them, of the sons of Simeon, went to Mount Seir—five hundred men—and Pelatiah and Neariah and Rephaiah and Uzziel and the sons of Ishi at their head. 43And they struck down the surviving remnant of Amalek, and they have dwelled there to this day.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. The sons of Judah. There is a particular concentration in these genealogical lists on the line of Judah because it leads to David.
3. and the name of the sister was Hazelelponi. There is no evident reason the name of a sister or daughter occasionally appears in these emphatically patrilineal lists. Her name itself is odd, and these lists show a mixture of relatively familiar Hebrew names, often with theophoric suffixes, as was commonly the case, and rather strange names that are not readily associated with a known Hebrew verbal stem.
9. I have born him in pain. Like many naming-speeches in the Bible, this one features a loose approximation between the name and its purported meaning. The Hebrew of her son’s name is yaʿbets, and the word for pain is ʿotseb, the same three consonants that appear after the initial yod but in a different order.
10. that I be not in pain. Jabez prays to escape his mother’s fate when she bore him.
14. father of Artisan Vale. As noted in the comment on 2:23, this is not a person but a place of which he is the supposed founder. The same is true of “Bethlehem” in verse 4and “Tekoa” in verse 5.
17. Mered. This is perhaps the oddest of the names in this list, for it is a Hebrew word that means “rebellion.”
And she conceived. It is an anomaly in the Hebrew text that the childbearing woman is not identified.
18. Bithiah daughter of Pharaoh. It should be noted that in earlier periods, reflected in the genealogical lists, the prohibition against foreign wives, so vehemently espoused by Ezra and Nehemiah, was not in force.
19. Eshtemoa the Maachathite… . There appears to be a gap in the text here, which is indicated by the suspension points.
32. Ain, Rimmon. The translation follows the Masoretic Text, which has these as two different places, but there is a known place-name, Ein-Rimmon (Pomegranate Spring), and that might be the original reading.
40. for of Ham were those who formerly dwelled there. According to Genesis 10:6, the Canaanites were descended from Noah’s son Ham.
41. And those written down by name … and struck down their tents and their habitations that were there and utterly destroyed them. The pattern of settlement involved ruthless expropriation: these tribal leaders needed more pastureland, and so they wiped out the existing inhabitants.
1And the sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn—for he was the firstborn, but when he profaned his father’s couch, his birth-right was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, and he did not trace his lineage to the birthright. 2Though Judah was more powerful than his brothers and a prince came from him, the birthright was Joseph’s. 3The sons of Reuben, Israel’s firstborn: Enoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. 4The sons of Joel, Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son, 5Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son, 6Beerah his son, whom Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria exiled, he was the prince of the Reubenite. 7And his brothers by their clans traced their lineage by their generations. Jeiel the head and Zechariah 8and Bela son of Azaz son of Shema son of Joel, who dwelled in Aroer and as far as Nebo and Baal-Meon. 9And to the east he dwelled as far as the approach to the wilderness and the Euphrates River, for their cattle had multiplied in the land of Gilead. 10And in the days of Saul they did battle with the Hagrites, who fell into their hands, and they dwelled in their tents along the whole eastern side of Gilead. 11And the sons of Gad dwelled opposite them in the land of Bashan as far as Salcah. 12Joel the chief, Shapham the second, Jaanai and Shaphat in Bashan. 13And their brothers by their patriarchal houses were Michael and Meshullam and Sheba and Jorai and Jachan and Zia and Eber—seven. 14These are the sons of Abihail son of Huri son of Jaroah son of Gilead son of Michael son of Jeshishai son of Jahdo son of Buz: 15Ahi son of Abdiel son of Guni head of their patriarchal house. 16And they dwelled in Gilead, in Bashan and in its hamlets and in all the pasturelands of Sharon to their edges. 17All of them traced their lineage in the days of Jotham king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel. 18The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh had men of valor bearing shield and sword, drawing the bow and skilled in battle, forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty fit for duty. 19And they did battle with the Hagrites, Jetur and Naphish and Nodab. 20And they had the upper hand over them, and the Hagrites were given into their hand and all who were with them, for they had cried out to God and He granted their plea, for they trusted in Him. 21And they carried off their livestock, fifty thousand camels and two hundred fifty thousand sheep and two thousand donkeys and a hundred thousand people. 22For many slain had fallen, and the battle was from God. And they dwelled in their place until the exile. 23And the sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh dwelled in the land from Bashan to Baal-Hermon and Senir and Mount Hermon. They multiplied. 24And these are the heads of their patriarchal houses: Epher and Ishi and Eliel and Azriel and Jeremiah and Hodaviah and Jahdiel, men who were valiant warriors, men of renown, heads of their patriarchal houses. 25But they betrayed the God of their fathers and went whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land whom God had destroyed before them. 26And the God of Israel roused the spirit of Pul king of Assyria and the spirit of Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria, and he exiled the Reubenite and the Gadite and the half-tribe of Manasseh and brought them to Halah and Habor and Hara and the Gozan River till this day. 27The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. 28And the sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel. 29And the children of Amram were Aaron and Moses and Miriam. And the sons of Aaron were Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 30Eleazar begot Phineas, Phineas begot Abishua. 31And Abishua begot Bukki, and Bukki begot Uzzi. 32And Uzzi begot Zerahiah, and Zerahiah begot Meraioth. 33Meraioth begot Amariah, and Amariah begot Ahitub. 34And Ahitub begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Ahimaaz. 35And Ahimaaz begot Azariah, and Azariah begot Johanan. 36And Johanan begot Azariah, he who was the priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem. 37And Azariah begot Amariah, and Amariah begot Ahitub. 38And Ahitub begot Zadok, and Zadok begot Shallum. 39And Shallum begot Hilkiah, and Hilkiah begot Azariah, 40and Azariah begot Seraiah, and Seraiah begot Jehozadok. 41And Jehozadok went off when the LORD exiled Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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1. when he profaned his father’s couch. The report of Reuben’s lying with his father’s concubine is in Genesis 35:22, but the phrasing used here is taken from the poem attributed to Jacob, Genesis 49:4. His birthright was given to the sons of Joseph. Though this accords with the long narrative in Genesis in which Joseph is the central figure, the two tribes descended from Joseph did not produce any royal line.
9. as far as the approach to the wilderness and the Euphrates River. This is at least one of two fantastic items in this list: there were surely no Israelite settlements all the way out to the Euphrates.
10. Hagrites. The name is derived from Hagar, the mother of Ismael, and this indicates Arab peoples living east of the Jordan.
18. The sons of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. This is the tribal group that in Numbers is reported to have settled in the northern region east of the Jordan.
men of valor bearing shield and sword, drawing the bow and skilled in battle. Moses requires the trans-Jordanian tribes to act as the vanguard in the conquest of the land, and in keeping with this role, martial prowess is attributed to them.
forty-four thousand seven hundred sixty. This number looks inflated.
21. they carried off their livestock. All the figures that follow are fantastically large and could not correspond to any historical reality.
24. men who were valiant warriors. This phrase also has a nonmartial sense, “men of substance.” Either meaning is possible here.
26. till this day. What the Chronicler is registering here is that in effect the Israelite population exiled by the Assyrians disappeared in these far reaches of the empire to which they were exiled.
37–39. Azariah … Amariah … Ahitub … Zadok … Shallum. Names recur in different generations more frequently in the lineage of Levi than in that of other tribes, probably because there was a priestly tradition to use certain time-honored names associated with the sacerdotal function.
1The sons of Levi were Gershom, Kohath, and Merari. 2And these are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei. 3And the sons of Kohath were Amram and Izhar and Hebron and Uzziel. 4The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of the Levite by their fathers. 5And Gershom had Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son, 6Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son. 7The sons of Kohath were Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son, 8Elkanah his son and Ebiasaph his son and Assir his son, 9Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Saul his son. 10And the sons of Elkanah were Amasai and Ahimoth, 11Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, and Nahath his son, 12Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son. 13And the sons of Samuel were Joel the firstborn and the second Abijah. 14The sons of Merari were Mahli, Libni his son, 15Shimei his son, Uzzah his son, Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son. 16And these did David station over the singing in the house of the LORD from the time the Ark came to rest. 17And they would minister before the sanctuary of the Tent of Meeting according to their rule concerning their service. 18And these were the ones serving and their sons, of the sons of the Kohathite: Heman the chorister son of Joel son of Samuel, 19son of Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Eliel son of Toah, 20son of Zuph son of Elkanah son of Mahath son of Amasai, 21son of Elkanah son of Joel son of Azariah son of Zephaniah, 22son of Tahath son of Assir son of Ebiasaph son of Korah, 23son of Izhar son of Kohath son of Levi son of Israel. 24And his brother Asaph who stood to his right, Asaph son of Berachiah son of Shimea, 25son of Michael son of Baaseiah son of Malchijah, 26son of Ethni son of Zerah son of Adaiah, 27son of Ethan son of Zimmah son of Shimei, 28son of Jahath son of Gershom son of Levi. 29And the sons of Merari their brother: on the left, Ethan son of Kishi son of Abdi son of Malluch, 30son of Hashabiah son of Amaziah son of Hilkiah, 31son of Amzi son of Bani son of Shamer, 32son of Mahli son of Mushi son of Merari son of Levi. 33And their brothers the Levites were set over all the service of the sanctuary of the house of God. 34And Aaron and his sons would burn incense on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense for every task of the holy of holies and to atone for Israel as all that Moses servant of God had charged. 35And these are the sons of Eleazar his son: Phineas his son, Abishua his son, 36Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son, 37Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son, 38Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son. 39And these are their settlements according to their encampments in their territory for the sons of Aaron for the clan of the Kohathite, for theirs was the lot, 40and they gave them Hebron in the land of Judah and its pasturelands all around it. 41But the field of the town and its villages they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh. 42And to the sons of Aaron they gave the towns of refuge, Hebron and Libnah and its pasturelands and Jattir and Eshtemoa and its pasturelands 43and Hilen and its pasturelands and Debir and its pasturelands 44and Ashan and its pasturelands and Beth-Shemesh and its pasture lands. 45And from the tribe of Benjamin, Geba and its pasturelands and Alemeth and its pasturelands and Anathoth and its pasturelands. All their towns were thirteen towns, for their clans were thirteen. 46And for the remaining sons of Kohath, from the clan of the tribe, from the half-tribe, the half of Manasseh by lot ten towns. 47And for the sons of Gershom by their clans, from the tribe of Issachar and from the tribe of Asher and from the tribe of Naphtali and from the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan thirteen towns. 48For the Merarite by their clans, from the tribe of Reuben and from the tribe of Gad and from the tribe of Zebulun by lot, twelve towns. 49And the Israelites gave to the Levites the towns and their pasturelands. 50And they gave by lot from the tribe of the sons of Judah and from the tribes of the sons of Simeon and from the tribes of the sons of Benjamin these towns that they called by name 51and from the clans of the sons of Kohath, and the towns of their territory from the tribe of Ephraim. 52And they gave them the towns of refuge, Shechem and its pasturelands on Mount Ephraim and Gezer and its pasturelands: 53Jokmeam and its pasturelands and Beth-Horon and its pasturelands 54and Aijalon and its pasturelands and Gath-Rimmon and its pasturelands. 55And from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner and its pasturelands and Bileam and its pasturelands for the clan of the remaining sons of Kohath. 56For the sons of Gershom, from the clan of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan and its pasturelands and Ashtaroth and its pasturelands. 57And from the tribes of Issachar, Kedesh and its pasturelands, Daberath and its pasturelands, 58and Ramoth and its pasturelands and Anem and its pasturelands. 59And from the tribe of Asher, Mashal and its pasturelands and Abdon and its pasturelands 60and Hukok and its pasturelands and Rehob and its pasturelands. 61And from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee and its pasturelands and Hammon and its pasturelands and Kiriathaim and its pasturelands. 62For the remaining sons of Merari from the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmono and its pasturelands, Tabor and its pasturelands. 63And across the Jordan at Jericho on the east side of the Jordan, from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the wilderness and its pasturelands and Jahzah and its pasturelands, 64and Kedemoth and its pasturelands and Mephaath and its pasturelands. 65And from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead and its pasturelands and Mahanaim and its pasturelands, 66and Heshbon and its pasturelands, and Jazer and its pasturelands.
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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1. The sons of Levi. The Chronicler appears to have had two special interests in compiling his lengthy lists—marking out the line of David, presumably in the hope of a restoration of the Davidic dynasty, and accounting for the priesthood, probably because he himself belonged to priestly circles.
34. Aaron and his sons would burn incense. By taking the priestly list all the way back to Aaron in the wilderness sanctuary, the writer conveys the idea that this whole line remains faithful to its founding sacred function. The priesthood is in this way genealogically legitimated.
39. for theirs was the lot. The dividing of the land by lot harks back to the procedure reported in the Book of Joshua.
45. from the tribe of Benjamin. This repeated formula, with the name of the tribe changing, refers to a system in which each tribe allotted certain lands to the Levites because the Levites were not given a defined tribal territory of their own. The list here of places given to the Levites is quite extensive and might be more a reflection of the priestly agenda of the Chronicler than of actual land division in the First Commonwealth period.
1And for the sons of Issachar, Tola and Puah, Jashub and Shimron—four. 2And the sons of Tola, Uzzi and Rephaiah and Jeriel and Jahmi and Jibsam and Shemuel, heads of their patriarchal houses. Tola had valiant warriors by their generations. Their number in the days of David was twenty-two thousand six hundred. 3And the son of Uzzi, Izrahiah. And the sons of Izrahiah, Michael and Obadiah and Joel and Ishiah—five—all of them chiefs. 4And with them by their generations according to their patriarchal houses were thirty-six thousand army troops for battle, for they had many sons and wives. 5And their brothers for all the clans of Issachar were eighty-seven thousand valiant warriors. All traced their lineage. 6For Benjamin, Bela and Becher and Jediael—three. 7And the sons of Bela, Ezbon and Uzzi and Uzziel and Jerimoth and Iri—five—heads of their patriarchal houses, valiant warriors, and they traced their lineage to the number of twenty-two thousand thirty-four. 8And the sons of Becher, Zemirah and Joash and Eliezer and Elioenai and Omri and Jerimoth and Abijah, and Anathoth and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Becher. 9And they traced their lineage to their generations, heads of their patriarchal houses, valiant warriors, twenty thousand two hundred. 10And the sons of Jediael, Bilhan, and the sons of Bilhan, Jeush and Benjamin and Ehud and Chenaanah and Zethan and Tarshish and Ahishahar. 11All these were the sons of Jediael by the heads of patriarchal houses, valiant warriors, seventeen thousand two hundred, sallying forth in the army for battle. 12And Shuppim and Huppim, the sons of Ir, Hushim the sons of Aher. 13The sons of Naphtali, Jahziel and Guni and Jezer and Shallum, sons of Bilhah. 14The sons of Manasseh, Asriel, whom his Aramean concubine bore. She bore Machir father of Gilead. 15And Machir took a wife for Huppim and for Shuppim, and the name of his sister was Maachah, and the name of the second son was Zelophehad, and Zelo-phehad had daughters. 16And Maachah, Machir’s wife, bore a son and called his name Peresh, and his brother’s name was Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rakem. 17And the son of Ulam was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh. 18And his sister Hammolecheth bore Ishhod and Abiezer and Mahlah. 19And the sons of Shemida were Ahian and Shechem and Likhi and Aniam. 20And the sons of Ephraim, Shuthelah and Bered his son and Tahath his son and Eladah his son and Tahath his son, 21and Zabad his son and Shuthelah his son and Ezer and Elead. And the men of Gath who were born in the land killed them, for they had gone down to take their cattle. 22And Ephraim their father mourned them many days, and his brothers came to console him. 23And he came to bed with his wife and she conceived and bore a son and called his name Beriah for the misfortune that had come to his house. 24And his daughter was Sheerah, and she built lower and upper Beth-Horon and Uzzen-Sheerah. 25And Rephah his son and Resheph and Telah his son and Tahan his son, 26Laadan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, 27Non his son, Joshua his son. 28And their holding and their settlements were Bethel and its hamlets and to the east Naaran and to the west Gezer and its hamlets and Shechem and its hamlets as far as Aiah and its hamlets. 29And alongside the sons of Manasseh, Beth-Shean and its hamlets, Taanach and its hamlets, Megiddo and its hamlets, Dor and its hamlets. In these did live the sons of Joseph son of Israel. 30The sons of Asher, Imnah and Ishvah and Ishvi and Beriah and Serah their sister. 31And the sons of Beriah, Heber and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzaith. 32And Heber begot Japhlet and Shomer and Hotham and Shua their sister. 33And the sons of Japhlet, Pasach and Bimhal and Ashvath. These are the sons of Japhlet. 34And the sons of Shemer, Ahi and Rohgah, Jehubbah and Aram. 35And the sons of Helem his brother, Zophah and Imna and Shelesh and Amal. 36The sons of Zophah, Suah and Harnepher and Shual and Beri and Imrah, 37Bezer and Hod and Shamma and Shilshah and Ithran and Beera. 38And the sons of Jether, Jephunneh and Pispah and Ara. 39And the sons of Ulla, Arah and Haniel and Rizia. 40All these were the sons of Asher, heads of the patriarchal houses, picked men, valiant warriors, and they traced their lineage through the army in battle, their number twenty-six thousand men.
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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21. the men of Gath. Gath was a Philistine town, although it is not entirely clear whether these natives were still ethnic Philistines.
for they had gone down to take their cattle. The cattle of Ephraim’s sons evidently had strayed into the territory near the coastal town of Gath, and when the owners ventured into this region to retrieve the cattle, they were killed by the locals.
23. Beriah for the misfortune. This is an instance of the loose naming etymologies common in the Bible. The phrase “for the misfortune” is a single Hebrew word, beraʿah, which sounds something like the name beriʿah.
1And Benjamin begot Bela his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third, 2Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth. 3And Bela had sons, Addar and Gera and Abihud, 4and Abishua and Naaman and Ahoah, 5and Gera and Shephuphan and Huram. 6And these were the sons of Ehud, these were the heads of the patriarchal houses for the dwellers of Geba, and they were exiled to Manahath. 7And Naaman and Ahijah and Gera—he exiled them and begot Uzza and Ahihud. 8And Shaharaim begot sons in the steppes of Moab after sending away Hushim and Baara his wives, 9and he begot by Hodesh his wife Jobab and Zibia and Mesha and Malcam, 10and Jeuz and Sachiah and Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of the patriarchal houses. 11And by Hushim he begot Abitub and Elpaal. 12And the sons of Elpaal were Eber and Misham and Shemed—he who built Ono and Lod and its hamlets—13and Beriah and Shema, they were heads of the patriarchal houses for the dwellers of Aijalon—they put to flight the dwellers of Gath—14and Ahio, Shashak and Jeremoth, 15and Zebadiah and Arad and Eder, 16and Michael and Ispah and Joha, sons of Beriah. 17And Zebadiah and Meshullam and Hizki and Heber, 18and Ishmerai and Izliah and Jobab, sons of Elpaal, 19and Jakim and Zichri and Zabdi, 20and Elienai and Zillethai and Eliel, 21and Adaiah and Beraiah and Shimrath, the sons of Shimei, 22and Ishpan and Eber and Eliel, 23and Abdon and Zichri and Hanan, 24and Hananiah and Elam and Anthothijah, 25and Iphdeiah and Penuel, the sons of Shashak, 26and Shamsherai and Shehariah and Athaliah, 27and Jaareshiah and Elijah and Zichri, the sons of Jeroham. 28These were the heads of the patriarchal houses by their generations. These heads dwelled in Jerusalem. 29And in Gibeon the father of Gibeon dwelled, and his wife’s name was Maachah. 30And his firstborn son was Abdon, and Zur and Kish and Baal and Nadab, 31and Gedor and Ahio and Zecher. 32And Mikloth begot Shimeah and they dwelled in Jerusalem opposite their brothers, with their brothers. 33And Ner begot Kish, and Kish begot Saul, and Saul begot Jonathan and Malchi-Shua and Abinadab and Eshbaal. 34And Jonathan’s son was Meribaal, and Meribaal begot Micah. 35And the sons of Micah were Pithon and Melech and Tarea and Ahaz. 36And Ahaz begot Jehoaddah, and Jehoaddah begot Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri, and Zimri begot Moza. 37And Moza begot Binea, Raphah his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son. 38And Azel had six sons, 38 and these were their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel. 39And the sons of Eshek his brother, Ulam his firstborn, Jeush the second, and Eliphelet the third. 40And the sons of Ulam were valiant warrior men, drawing the bow, and with many children and grandchildren—one hundred fifty. All these were the sons of Benjamin.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. And Benjamin begot Bela. This (repeated) genealogy of Benjamin, perhaps drawn from a different source, has special importance for the Chronicler both because of the tribal alliance between Judah and Benjamin and because it leads to Saul, the nation’s first king.
6. they were exiled to Manahath. The historical kernel of this reference has been lost to us.
10. Mirmah. The list of names continues to be a mélange of recognizable Hebrew names, foreign-sounding names, and occasional odd items like this one. Mirmah is the ordinary Hebrew word for “deceit,” but as a proper noun it would have to mean something entirely different.
32. brothers. Here the word probably shows its extended sense of “kinsmen.”
33–34. Eshbaal … Meribbaal. It is noteworthy that such names here show their pagan theophoric suffix, perhaps because they are taken from an old document. In the Book of Samuel, names of this sort are editorially revised with the suffix boshet, “shame,” substituted for baʿal.
40. valiant warrior men, drawing the bow. This formula is especially significant for the tribe of Benjamin because it was known for its martial prowess. In Judges 3, Ehud, a Benjaminite fighter, assassinates the Moabite King Elgon and then leads a successful rebellion. In the civil war reported at the end of Judges, Benjaminite warriors nearly defeat the assembled troops of all the other tribes.
1And all Israel traced their lineage, and, look, they are written down in the book of kings of Israel and Judah. They were exiled to Babylonia because of their betrayal. 2And the first settlers who were in their holdings in their towns were Israelites, priests, Levites, and the temple laborers. 3And in Jerusalem there dwelled from the sons of Judah and from the sons of Benjamin and from the sons of Ephraim and Manasseh, 4Uthai son of Ammihud son of Omri son of Imri son of Bani, of the sons of Perez son of Judah, 5And of the Shilonite, Asaiah the firstborn and his sons. 6And of the sons of Zerah, Jeuel and their six hundred ninety kinsmen. 7And of the sons of Benjamin, Sallu son of Meshullam son of Hodaviah son of Hassenuah, 8and Ibneiah son of Jeroham and Elah son of Uzzi son of Michri and Meshullam son of Shephatiah son of Reuel son of Ibneiah. 9And their kinsmen by their generations were nine hundred fifty-six. All these were men who were heads of their patriarchal houses. 10And of the priests, Jedaiah and Jehoiarib and Jachin, 11and Azariah son of Hilkiah son of Meshullam son of Zadok son of Meraioth son of Ahitub, prince of the house of God, 12and Adaiah son of Jeroham son of Pashhur son of Malchijah, and Maasiai son of Adiel son of Jahzerah son of Meshullam son of Meshillemith son of Immer, 13and their brothers heads of their patriarchal houses, one thousand seven hundred sixty valiant warriors, the force for the task of the service of the house of God. 14And of the Levites, Shemaiah son of Hasshub son of Azrikam son of Hashabiah from the sons of Merari, 15and Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, Mattaniah son of Micah son of Zichri son of Asaph, 16and Obadiah son of Shemaiah son of Galal son of Jeduthun and Berechiah son of Asa son of Elkanah, who dwelled in the villages of the Netophathites. 17And the gatekeepers, Shallum and Akkub and Talmon and Ahiman and their brothers, with Shallum the head, 18and till now in the King’s Gate on the east they have been the gatekeepers for the camps of the sons of Levi, 19and Shallum son of Kore son of Ebiasaph son of Korah and his brothers of his Korahite patriarchal house over the task of the service, guardians of the thresholds of the tent, and their fathers had been over the camp of the LORD, guardians of the entrance. 20And Phineas son of Eleazar the prince was formerly over them. The LORD was with him. 21Zechariah son of Meshelemiah gatekeeper of the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 22All of them picked men as the gatekeepers at the thresholds, two hundred twelve they were, in their villages they traced their lineage. David and Samuel the seer had established them in their trust, 23and they and their sons were over the gates of the house of the LORD, the house of the Tent, in watches. 24In four directions were the gatekeepers, to the east, west, north, and south. 25And their brothers in the villages were to come for seven days with these at set times. 26For in trust were the four commanding gatekeepers—they were Levites—and they were over the chambers and over the treasuries of the house of God. 27And round about the house of God they would spend the night, for the watch was upon them, and they were over the opening from morning to morning. 28And some of them were over the service vessels, for by count they would bring them in and by count take them out. 29And some of them were appointed over the vessels and over all the sacred vessels and over the fine flour and the wine and the oil and the incense and the spices. 30And some of the sons of the priests compounded the mixture for the spices. 31And Mattithiah of the Levites, who was the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, was in trust over the preparation of baked goods. 32And some of the sons of Kohath, of their brothers, were over the preparing of the display bread each sabbath. 33And these choristers, heads of the patriarchal houses of the Levites, in the chamber, were exempt, for day and night the task was upon them. 34These heads of the patriarchal house of the Levites by their generations, these heads dwelled in Jerusalem. 35And Jeiel father of Gibeon dwelled in Gibeon, and his wife’s name was Maachah. 36And his firstborn son was Abdon, and then Zur and Kish and Baal and Ner and Nadab, 37and Gedor and Ahio and Zechariah and Mikloth. 38And Mikloth begat Shimam, and they too dwelled in Jerusalem before their brothers, with their brothers. 39And Ner begot Kish, and Kish begot Saul, and Saul begot Jonathan and Malchi-Shua and Abinadab and Eshbaal. 40And Jonathan’s son was Meri-baal, and Meribaal begot Micah. 41And the sons of Micah were Pithon and Melech and Tarea. 42And Ahaz begot Jarah and Jarah begot Alemeth and Azmaveth and Zimri, and Zimri begot Moza. 43And Moza begot Binea and Rephaiah his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son. 44And Azel had six sons, and these are their names: Azrikam his firstborn and Bocheru and Ishmael and Sheariah and Obadiah and Hanan. These were the sons of Azel.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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13. the force. The Hebrew term generally has a military sense. It may be used here to suggest that the Temple ministrants were a kind of sacred militia. This would accord with calling these people “valiant warriors” (and it is probably misguided to render that Hebrew term as “men of substance”).
26. commanding gatekeepers. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “warrior-gatekeepers.”
29. sacred vessels. The distinction between these and the “service vessels” of the previous verse is not entirely clear.
35. And Jeiel father of Gibeon dwelled in Gibeon. The genealogical list from here to the end of the chapter replicates 8:29–38. Since the replication is virtually exact, the two lists can scarcely be from different sources. Perhaps the Chronicler or his editor at moments was as confused by the welter of lists as the modern reader is likely to be.
1And the Philistines battled against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and they fell slain on Mount Gilboa. 2And the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-Shua, the sons of Saul. 3And the battle went heavy against Saul, and the archers, with the bow, found him, and he quaked in fear of the archers. 4And Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and abuse me.” But the armor bearer did not want to do it because he was very frightened. 5And Saul took the sword and fell upon it. 6And Saul died, and his three sons and all his house together died. 7And all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that [the men of Israel] had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, and they abandoned their towns and fled, and the Philistines came and occupied them. 8And it happened the next day that the Philistines came to strip the slain, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. 9And they stripped him and bore off his head and his armor, and they sent throughout the Philistine country to bring the tidings to their idols and to the people. 10And they put his armor in the house of their god, and his skull they impaled in the house of Dagon. 11And all [the inhabitants] of Jabesh-Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul. 12And every valiant man arose, and they bore off Saul’s corpse and the corpses of his sons and brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones beneath the tamarisk in Jabesh, and they fasted seven days. 13And Saul died for his betrayal that he had committed against the LORD, for the word of the LORD that he did not keep, and he had inquired, too, of a ghost. 14And he did not seek the LORD, and He put him to death and brought round the kingship to David son of Jesse.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. And the Philistines battled against Israel. The passage beginning here through verse 12 transcribes 1 Samuel 31 with only minor variations. The reader is referred to the commentary on 1 Samuel 31. Observations will be made only on those variations that are significant. After nine chapters of genealogical “files,” the switch to narrative—some scholars see this as the actual beginning of Chronicles—is almost startling. It is noteworthy that the dry lists in which Saul and his sons are registered, more than once, are now unsettled in the violent realm of history as we read of the death of Saul and his sons on the battlefield.
6. And Saul died, and his three sons and all his house together died. The account in 1 Samuel reports that the armor bearer, too, fell upon his sword and died. Perhaps the Chronicler wanted to keep the focus strictly on the demise of the house of Saul. In 1 Samuel 31:6, the phrase is “all his men” as against “all his house” here. The Chronicler, with his concern for dynasties, highlights the house of Saul.
7. [the men of Israel]. This bracketed phrase is taken from 1 Samuel. It appears to have been inadvertently dropped here.
10. his skull they impaled. In 1 Samuel, it is rather Saul’s body that is impaled. Perhaps the grisly display of a decapitated head appealed to the imagination of the later writer, but the bearing off of corpses in verse 12 clearly reflects the original text, in which the object of impalement is a body.
11. [the inhabitants]. Again, a missing subject for the verb is supplied in brackets from 1 Samuel 31.
12. buried their bones. In 1 Samuel 31, they burn the bones. The Chronicler may have recoiled from the idea of Israelites practicing a form of cremation.
13. And Saul died for his betrayal. This verse and the next do not reflect anything in 1 Samuel 31. What they manifest is the moralizing tendency of the Chronicler. While the author of the Saul story offers no explanation for his death, our author wants us to understand that Saul perished and his royal line was displaced because he was not faithful to God and, in particular, because he resorted to the forbidden practice of necromancy on the eve of the fatal battle.
1And all Israel gathered round David and Hebron, saying, “Look, your bone and your flesh are we. 2Time and again in the past even when Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel into the fray, and the LORD your God said,
‘It is you who will shepherd My people Israel,
and it is you who will be prince over My people Israel.’ ”
3And all the elders of Israel came to the king of Hebron, and David made a pact with them in Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David as king over Israel according to the word of the LORD through Samuel. 4And David went, and all Israel with him, to Jerusalem, which is Jebus, and there the Jebusites were, inhabitants of the land. 5And the inhabitants of Jebus said, “You shall not enter here.” And David captured the stronghold of Zion, which is the City of David. 6And David said, “Whoever strikes down the Jebusite first shall be chief and commander.” And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first and became chief. 7And David stayed in the stronghold. Therefore did they call it the City of David. 8And he built the city round the rampart all around, and Joab restored the rest of the city. 9And David grew greater and greater, and the LORD of Armies was with him.
10And these were the chiefs of the warriors who were David’s, joining forces with him in his kingdom with all Israel to make him king over Israel, according to the word of the LORD. 11And this was the count of the warriors who were David’s: Jashobeam son of Hachmoni, head of the Thirty. He brandished his spear over three hundred slain at a single time. 12And after him Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahothite. He was among the Three Warriors. 13He was with David at Pas-Dammim. And the Philistines gathered there for battle, and there was a plot of ground filled with barley, and the troops fled before the Philistines. 14And they took their stand within the plot and held it and struck down the Philistines, and the LORD wrought a great victory. 15And three of the Thirty went down at the head to the rock to David at the cave of Adullam while the camp of the Philistines was deployed in the Valley of Rephaim. 16And David then was in the stronghold, and the Philistine prefect was in Bethlehem. 17And David had a craving and said, “Who will give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate?” 18And the Three broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate, and they bore it off and brought it to David. But David would not drink it, and he poured it out in libation to the LORD. 19And he said, “Far be it from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who have risked their lives? For at the risk of their lives they have brought it.” And he would not drink it. These things did the three warriors do. 20And Abishai brother of Joab—he was the chief of the Three. He brandished his spear over three hundred slain, and he had a name with the Three. 21Of the Thirty he was the most honored and so he became their commander, but he did not attain to the Three. 22Benaiah son of Jehoiada son of a valiant man great in deeds from Kabzeel—he struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab, and he went down and killed the lion in the pit on the day of the snow. 23And he struck down an Egyptian man, a man of daunting stature, five cubits tall, and a spear like a weaver’s beam was in the hand of the Egyptian. And he went down to him with a staff and stole the spear from the hand of the Egyptian and killed him with his own spear. 24These things did Benaiah son of Jehoiada do, and he had a name with the three warriors. 25Of the Thirty, he was honored, but he did not attain to the Three, and David put him over his royal guard. 26And the warriors of the forces were Asahel brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo from Bethlehem, 27Shammoth the Harorite, Helez the Pelonite, 28Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the Anathothite, 29Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite, 30Maharai the Netophathite, Heled son of Baanah the Netophathite, 31Ittai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the Benjaminites, Benaiah of Pirathon, 32Hurai from the wadis of Gaash, Abiel the Arbathite, 33Azmaveth the Baharumite, Eliahba the Shaalbonite, 34the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan son of Shageh the Hararite, 35Ahiam son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal son of Ur, 36Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite, 37Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai son of Ezbai, 38Joel brother of Nathan, Mibhar son of Hagri, 39Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, armor bearer to Joab son of Zeruiah, 40Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 41Uriah the Hittite, Zabad son of Ahlai, 42Adina son of Shiza the Reubenite, chief of the Reubenites, and by him the Thirty. 43Hanan son of Maachah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite, 44Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jeiel sons of Hotham the Aroerite, 45Jedaiael son of Shimri and Joha the Tizite his brother, 46Eliel the Mahavite and Jeribai and Joshaviah sons of Elnaam, and Ithmal the Moabite, 47Eliel, Obed, and Jaassiel the Mezobaite.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
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1. And all Israel gathered. The first nine verses here duplicate 2 Samuel 5:1–10. The reader is referred to the commentary there.
5. You shall not enter here. This version entirely omits the evidently taunting mention of the blind and the lame by the Jebusites, perhaps because it was too puzzling.
And David captured the stronghold of Zion. This report seems out of place because the stronghold is not captured until after Joab leads the assault. This is either a scribal glitch or a summarizing prolepsis.
6. And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first and became chief. In the narrative in Samuel, Joab had been serving as David’s captain or commander for years before the conquest of Jerusalem.
10. And these were the chiefs of the warriors. This list, with some brief narrative fragments embedded in it, duplicates 2 Samuel 23:8–39. Readers are referred to the commentary on that passage. It appears to be a very old document, registering memories of the military exploits of David’s warriors that have anecdotal specificity (the gigantic Egyptian with his huge spear, the fighting on the day of the snow—a rare event in this climate). In this instance, there are quite a few differences from the text in Samuel, and many of the names of the warriors are different. These differences do not appear to reflect any ideological purpose, and they probably are the result of the Chronicler’s using a different manuscript version of the archaic material.
23. five cubits tall. Since the cubit is somewhat more than a foot, this would make him close to seven feet tall.
26. And the warriors of the forces were. The list that follows is rather longer than the one in 2 Samuel 23. The manuscript used by the Chronicler may have had more names, or he might be exercising his proclivity for the listing of names.
1And these were the ones who came to David at Ziklag while he was still confined because of Saul son of Kish, and they were the warriors, aiding in battle, 2armed with the bow, with either their right hand or their left, with slingstones, and arrows for the bow, and they were of Saul’s kinsmen of Benjamin. 3The chief was Ahiezer, and then Joash, sons of Hashmaah the Gibeathite and Jeziel and Pelet, sons of Azmaveth, and Beracah and Jehu the Anathothite; 4and Ishmaiah the Gibeonite, a warrior among the Thirty and over the Thirty; 5And Jeremiah and Jahaziel and Johanan and Jozabad the Gederathite; 6Eluzai and Jerimoth and Bealiah and Shemariah and Shephatiah the Haruphite; 7Elkanah and Isshiah and Azarel and Joezer and Jashobeam of the Korahites; 8and Joelah and Zebadiah sons of Jeroham from Gedor. 9And of the Gadites there defected to David to the stronghold in the wilderness valiant warriors, men of the army for battle, wielding buckler and spear, their appearance like lions and swift on the mountains as gazelles. 10Ezer was the chief, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third, 11Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth; 12Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh, 13Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth, 14Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh. 15These were of the Gadites, chiefs of the army. The least could match a hundred and the greatest a thousand. 16These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing its banks, and they routed all the valley dwellers from east to west. 17And some of the Benjaminites and Judahites came to David at the stronghold. 18And David went out before them and spoke out and said, “If in peace you have come to me to aid me, I will have a heart bound together with you, but if it is to deceive me on behalf of my foes when there is no outrage in my hands, may the God of our fathers see and judge.” 19And a spirit took hold of Amasai head of the Thirty:
To you, O David,
and with you, son of Jesse,
peace, peace to you
and peace to those who aid you,
for your God has aided you.
And David accepted them and put them at the head of his band. 20And some from Manasseh went over to David when he came with the Philistines in battle against Saul, but he did not aid them, for the Philistine overlords had sent to him in counsel, saying, “By our heads, he will go over to his master Saul!” 21When he went to Ziklag from Manasseh these went over to him: Adnah and Jozabad and Jediael and Michael and Jozabad and Elihu and Zillethai, chiefs of Manasseh’s thousand. 22And they aided David against the band, for they were all valiant warriors, and they became commanders in the army. 23For day after day they would come to David to aid him, till there was a great camp like a camp of God. 24And this is the count of the chiefs of the vanguard that had come to David at Hebron to turn round the kingship of Saul to him, as the LORD had said: 25the Judahites bearing shield and spear, six thousand eight hundred army vanguard fighters; 26Of the Simeonites, valiant warriors for the army seven thousand one hundred; 27Of the Levites, four thousand six hundred; 28and Jehoiada prince of the Aaronites, and with him, three thousand seven hundred; 29and Zadok, a valiant warrior lad, and his patriarchal house, twenty-two commanders; 30And of the Benjaminites, Saul’s kin, three thousand, most of them till then keeping allegiance to the house of Saul; 31And of the Ephraimites, twenty thousand eight hundred valiant warriors, men of renown in their patriarchal houses; 32and from the half-tribe of Manasseh eighteen thousand, who were marked out by name to come to make David king; 33and of the Issacharites who had insight into the times to know what Israel should do, their chiefs two hundred, and all their kin abiding by their word; 34of Zebulun, sallying forth in the army, arrayed for battle with all the weapons of battle, fifty thousand, to give aid wholeheartedly; 35and of Naphtali a thousand commanders and together with them with shield and spear thirty-seven thousand; 36and of the Danites arrayed for battle twenty-eight thousand six hundred; 37and of Asher, sallying forth in the army to array for battle, forty thousand; 38and from across the Jordan, of the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh with all the weapons of the army for battle a hundred twenty thousand. 39All these were men of war, manning the battle lines with a whole heart who came to Hebron to make David king over all Israel, and the rest of Israel, too, had a single heart to make David king. 40And they were with David three days eating and drinking, for their brothers had prepared for them. 41And also their relatives as far away as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali were bringing food on donkeys and on camels and on mules and on oxen, provisions of flour, fig cakes and raisin cakes and wine and oil and cattle and sheep in abundance, for there was a rejoicing in Israel.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
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1. And these were the ones who came to David at Ziklag. Although 2 Samuel 23 offers a list of David’s principal warriors, we have no earlier list of fighters joining him in his time at Ziklag, when he was in flight from Saul.
aiding in battle. The Hebrew verb ʿazar, which has the primary meaning of “to help” or “to aid,” also has a technical military sense—often invoked in Psalms—that indicates “fighting alongside.” It is used frequently in this chapter.
2. with either their right hand or their left. The Benjaminite warriors may in fact have trained themselves to be ambidextrous. In Judges 3, the Benjaminite Ehud is able to kill the Moabite King Eglon because, in a surprise attack, he suddenly pulls out his hidden short sword with his left hand.
they were of Saul’s kinsmen of Benjamin. There is some reason to question the historical accuracy of this report. The Chronicler may have wanted to make the ideological point that David has so won over the hearts of the people that even Saul’s kin turn against him.
16. These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing its banks. The first month would correspond to April, toward the end of the rainy season. This crossing is of course an act of derring-do, and it enables them to take the inhabitants of the valleys (possibly, the Jordan Valley) by surprise and rout them.
18. If in peace you have come to me. Especially because some of this group are Benjaminites, David has grounds for suspicion that they may be part of a plot against him.
19. And a spirit took hold of Amasai. His being gripped by a spirit motivates his speech in poetry, which is conceived as a kind of vatic utterance. He may be emitting a “prophetic” declaration that the men who have come to David are to be trusted.
20. By our heads, he will go over to his master Saul. Seeing the contingent of Israelites who have come to join David, the Philistines are apprehensive that he, their purported vassal, may switch sides and go back to Saul, his king. Although the overlords send a message to David, he is referred to here in the third person—almost as though what is reported is their thinking and not their direct address to him.
22. And they aided David against the band. While the same Hebrew word, gedud, is used in verse 19 to refer to David’s troops, here the reference must be to the Amalekites against whom David was fighting.
23. like a camp of God. ʾElohim in this instance might simply be an intensive, yielding the sense of “a huge camp.”
24. as the LORD had said. More literally, “by the mouth of the LORD.”
25. six thousand eight hundred. The full tally of fighters comes to rather more than 300,000. David at Ziklag probably had no more than a few hundred men. The proposal of some scholars to understand ʾeleph as “contingent” rather than “thousand” is strained, both because an army could scarcely have had so many contingents and because the narrative is introduced specifically by the word mispar, which means “count” or “number.” The fantastically inflated figures reflect the Chronicler’s desire to convey a sense that vast numbers from all parts of the nation rallied around David.
39. who came to Hebron to make David king over all Israel. There is a chronological leap here from David’s time at Ziklag under the aegis of the Philistines to his setting up a temporary capital in Hebron, in Israelite territory. “King over all Israel” is ideologically tendentious, because at this point David reigned over only the two southern tribes.
and the rest of Israel, too, had a single heart to make David king. The fierce civil war that ensued after Saul’s death argues against the accuracy of this pronouncement.
1And David counseled with the commanders of the thousands and of the hundreds, with every officer. 2And David said to all the assembly of Israel, “If it be right to you and if it be from the LORD our God, let us send out widely to our remaining brothers in all the territories of Israel, and together with them, the priests and the Levites in the towns of their pasturelands, that they gather round to us. 3And let us bring round the Ark of our God to us, for we did not seek it out in the days of Saul.” 4And all the assembly said to do this, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. 5And David assembled all Israel from Shihor in Egypt to Lebo-Hamath to bring the Ark of God from Kiriath-Jearim. 6And David went up, and all Israel with him, to Baalah, to Kiriath-Jearim which is in Judah, to bring up from there the Ark of God, the LORD enthroned upon the cherubim, Whose name is called upon it. 7And they mounted the Ark of God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab with Uzza and Ahio driving the cart. 8And David and all Israel were playing before the LORD with all their might in songs and with lyres and with lutes and on tambourines and on cymbals and with trumpets. 9And they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, and Uzza reached out his hand to take hold of the Ark, for the oxen had slipped. 10And the LORD’S wrath flared up against Uzza, and He struck him down for reaching out with his hand to the Ark, and he died there before God. 11And David was incensed because the LORD had burst out against Uzza. 12And David was afraid of the LORD on that day, saying, “How can I bring to me the Ark of God?” 13And David did not remove the Ark of the LORD to himself in the city of David, and he had it turned aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite. 14And the Ark of God remained in the house of Obed-Edom three months, and the LORD blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that was in it.
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
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1. And David counseled with the commanders. This episode replicates 2 Samuel 6:1–12 with by and large only minor variations. Readers are referred to the commentary on that passage.
2. in all the territories of Israel. The plural noun is odd, because it means “lands” (ʾaratsot) but seems to have the sense here of “territories.”
5. from Shihor in Egypt to Lebo-Hamath. This phrase, which has no counterpart in 2 Samuel 6, is an extravagant rhetorical gesture, for in David’s time there was scarcely an Israelite population in Egypt, and Lebo-Hamath (“the approach to Hamath”) is probably too far north for Israelites at this time.
6. Whose name is called upon it. This translation is conjectural, attempting to unpack the three cryptic Hebrew words that are literally “that is called a name.”
10. he died there before God. The version in 2 Samuel 6 gives only a spatial location, “he died there by the Ark of God.” Our writer seems to want to emphasize a theological point, that Uzza had transgressed by violating the sanctity of the Ark in touching it. For the problematic nature of this archaic conception of the holy, see the first comment on 2 Samuel 6:7.
12. How can I bring to me the Ark of God? Although David at this point is somewhere in the vicinity of the Ark, he uses “to me” because he is thinking of his new permanent location in Jerusalem, in the city of David.
1And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David with stonemasons and carpenters to build him a house. 2And David took more wives And David knew that the LORD had set him up unshaken as king over Israel, for his kingship was exalted for the sake of his people Israel. 3And David took more wives in Jerusalem and David begot more sons and daughters. 4And these are the names of those born to him whom he had in Jerusalem: Shammua and Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, 5and Ibhar and Elishua and Elpelet, 6and Nogah and Nepheg and Japhia, 7and Elishama and Eliada and Eliphelet. 8And the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king, and all the Philistines came up to seek David. 9The Philistines had come and deployed in the Valley of Rephaim. 10And David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines and will You give them into my hand?” And the LORD said to him, “Go up, and I will give them into your hand.” 11And they came up to Baal-Perazim, and David stuck them down there. And David said, “The LORD has burst through the enemies in my hand like a bursting of water.” Therefore did they call the name of that place Baal-Perazim. 12And they abandoned their gods there, and David gave the word, and they burned them in fire. 13And once more the Philistines deployed in the valley. 14And David inquired again of God, and God said to him, “You shall not go up after them. Turn around behind them and come up at them from opposite the willows. 15And as soon as you hear the sound of marching on top of the willows, then shall you sally forth in battle, for then shall God go out before you to strike down the camp of the Philistines.” 16And David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the camp of the Philistines from Gibeon to Gezer. 17And a name went out for David in all the lands, and the LORD put his fear upon all the nations.
CHAPTER 14 NOTES
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1. And Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers. This chapter replicates 2 Samuel 5:11–25, again with minor variations. The reader is referred to the commentary there. An explanation is proposed in the comment on 2 Samuel 5:24 for the bewildering references to David’s battlefield maneuvers that appears here in verses 14–15.
to build him a house. The “house” is a palace.
10. And David inquired of the LORD. It is standard procedure to inquire of an oracle before a military confrontation as to what course to take or whether to go into battle.
12. and they burned them in fire. 2 Samuel 5has “David with his men bore them off.” The Chronicler may have felt impelled for theological reasons to show David actually destroying the idols. The idols would have been carried into battle as talismans.
17. And a name went out for David in all the lands. This declaration, which has no counterpart in 2 Samuel 5, conveys the idea that David’s resounding victory over the formidable Philistines confirms his power in the eyes of all the surrounding nations. Not many years earlier, the Philistines had roundly defeated the Israelites under Saul at Mount Gilboa, and this is a striking reversal of that defeat.
1And he made houses for himself in the City of David and readied a place for the Ark of God and set up a tent for it. 2Then did David say that none should carry the Ark of God except the Levites, for God had chosen them to carry the Ark of the LORD and to minister to Him for all time. 3And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the LORD to the place that he had readied for it. 4And David gathered the Aaronites and the Levites. 5For the Kohathites, Uriel the officer, with his kin, two hundred twenty. 6For the Merarites, Asaiah the officer with his kin, two hundred twenty. 7For the sons of Gershom, Joel the officer with his kin, one hundred thirty. 8For the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the officer and his kin, two hundred. 9For the sons of Hebron, Eliel the officer and his kin, eighty. 10For the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the officer and his kin, one hundred twelve. 11And David called Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and the Levites, Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. 12And he said to them “You are the heads of the patriarchal houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your kin, and bring up the Ark of the LORD to the place that I have readied for it. 13For you were not there at first when the LORD our God burst forth against us, as we did not seek Him as we should have.” 14And the priests and the Levites consecrated themselves to bring up the Ark of the LORD God of Israel. 15And the Levites carried the Ark of God as Moses had charged according to the word of the LORD, on their shoulders with poles upon them. 16And David said to the officers of the Levites to station their kin the choristers with musical instruments, lyres and lutes and loud cymbals to raise up their voice in rejoicing. 17And the Levites stationed Heman son of Joel, and of his kin, Asaph son of Berechiah and of the Merarites their kin Ethan son of Kushaiah. 18And with them, their kin of the second rank, Zechariah, Ben, and Jaaziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni, Eliab and Benaiah and Maaseiah and Mattithiah and Elipheleh and Mikneiah and Obed-Edom and Jeiel the gatekeepers. 19And the choristers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, to sound out with brass cymbals, 20and Zechariah and Aziel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Unni and Eliab and Maaseiah and Benaiah, with lyres, on alamoth, 21and Mattithiah and Elipheleh and Mikneiah and Obed-Edom and Jeiel and Azaziah with lutes leading the song on the sheminith. 22And Chenaniah officer of the Levites in song, directed the song, for he was an expert. 23And Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the Ark. 24And Shebaniah and Joshaphat and Nethaneel and Amasai and Zechariah and Benaiah and Eliezer the priests were playing trumpets before the Ark of God, while Obed-Edom and Jehiah were gate-keepers for the Ark. 25And David and the elders of Israel and the commanders of the thousands were walking on to bring up the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant from the house of Obed-Edom in rejoicing. 26And it happened as God aided the Levites bearing the Ark of God’s Covenant, that they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. 27And David was wrapped in a cloak of fine linen as were all the Levites bearing the Ark and the choristers and Chenaniah officer of the chorister’s song, and David had on a linen ephod. 28And all Israel were bringing up the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant with joyous shouts and with the sound of the ram’s horn and with trumpets and with cymbals, sounding out with lyres and lutes. 29And it happened as the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant came up to the City of David that Michal daughter of Saul looked out through the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she scorned him in her heart.
CHAPTER 15 NOTES
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1. And he made houses for himself in the City of David. The passage that follows is based on 2 Samuel 6:11–23, but reworks it extensively.
2. none should carry the Ark of God except the Levites. This emphasis reflects the special agenda of the Chronicler. In what follows, he substitutes, in his characteristic fashion, a lengthy catalogue of names of priests and Levites for the arresting narrative in 2 Samuel 6.
20. on alamoth. It is not clear whether this is an instrument or a musical mode.
21. the sheminith. Since this term clearly is derived from the word for “eight,” it might be an eight-stringed instrument or, again, a musical mode.
26. as God aided the Levites. This is probably meant to contrast this moment to the previous attempt to transport the Ark, when Uzza was struck dead. Perhaps the “aid” is that God does not allow the oxen to slip.
they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. In 2 Samuel 6 they offer sacrifices after every six steps, which may have seemed too extravagant to the Chronicler.
27. a linen ephod. This ephod is a kind of apron worn by the high priest.
29. Michal daughter of Saul looked out through the window. Though the language here is taken directly from 2 Samuel 6, the clash between David and Michal with its explosive dialogue is erased. The Chronicler evinces little interest in personal relationships.
1And they brought the Ark of God and set it up within the tent that David had pitched, and they offered up burnt offerings and well-being sacrifices before the LORD. 2And David finished offering up the burnt offerings and the well-being sacrifices, and he blessed the people in the name of the LORD. 3And he shared out to every person of Israel from man to woman a loaf of bread and a date cake and a raisin cake for each. 4And he put before the Ark of the LORD from the Levites ministers to invoke and to acclaim and to praise the LORD God of Israel: 5Asaph the chief and second to him Zechariah, Jeiel and Shemiramoth and Jehiel and Mattithiah and Eliab and Benaiah and Obed-Edom and Jeiel with lyres and lutes and Asaph sounding the cymbals, 6and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests with trumpets constantly before the Ark of God’s Covenant. 7On that day then did David first set Asaph and his kin to acclaim the LORD.
8Acclaim the LORD, call out His name,
make His deeds known among the peoples.
9Sing to Him, hymn to Him,
speak of all His wonders.
10Revel in His holy name.
Let the heart of the LORD’S seekers rejoice.
11Inquire of the LORD and His strength,
seek His presence always.
12Recall the wonders that He did,
His portents and the judgments He issued.
13O seed of Israel His servant,
sons of Jacob, His chosen ones.
14He is the LORD our God—
through all the earth, His judgments.
15Recall His pact forever,
the word He ordained for a thousand generations,
16which He sealed with Abraham,
and His vow to Isaac,
17and He set it for Jacob as a statute,
for Israel an eternal pact.
18saying,
“To you I will give the land of Canaan as the plot of your estate,”
19when you were a handful of men,
but a few, and sojourners there.
20And they went about
from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people.
21He allowed no man to oppress them
and warned kings on their account:
22“Touch not My anointed ones,
and to My prophets do no harm.”
23Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Bring tidings everyday of His rescue.
24Recount among the nations His glory,
among all the peoples His wonders.
25For great is the LORD and most praised,
fearsome is He over all the gods.
26For all the gods of the peoples are ungods,
but the LORD has made the heavens.
27Greatness and grandeur before Him,
strength and joyfulness in His place.
28Grant to the LORD, O families of peoples
grant to the LORD glory and strength.
29Grant to the LORD his name’s glory,
bear tribute and come before Him,
bow to the LORD in sacred grandeur.
30Quake before Him, all the earth.
Yes, the world stands firm, will not shake.
31Let the heavens rejoice and the earth exult,
and let them say among the nations: The LORD reigns.
32Let the sea and its fullness thunder,
let the field be glad and all that is in it.
33Then shall the trees of the forest joyfully sing
before the LORD, for He comes
to judge all the earth.
34Acclaim the LORD,
for He is good, for His kindness is forever.
35And say, “Rescue us, God of our rescue,
and gather us and save us from the nations
to acclaim Your holy name,
to glory in Your praise.”
36Blessed be the LORD God of Israel
forever and forever.
37And all the people said amen and praised the LORD. 38And he left Asaph and his kin there before the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant to minister before the Ark perpetually for the matter of each and every day. 39And Obed-Edom and their kin, sixty-eight of them, and Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun and Hosah, as gatekeepers, 40and Zadok the priest and his kin the priests before the tabernacle of the LORD on the high place which is in Gibeon, 41to offer up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar for burnt offerings perpetually for morning and for evening as all that is written in the Teaching of the LORD with which He charged Israel. 42And with them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of the picked men who were marked out by name to acclaim the LORD, for His kindness is forever. 43And with them, with Heman and Jeduthun, were trumpets and cymbals for loud sounding and instruments for God’s song. And the sons of Jeduthun were in charge of the gates. 44And all the people went, each one to his house, and David turned round to bless his house.
CHAPTER 16 NOTES
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4. And he put before the Ark of the LORD from the Levites ministers. Hewing to his sacerdotal interests, the Chronicler introduces into the narrative frame taken from 2 Samuel 6 a new emphasis on Levites, articulated as he is wont to do, with a list of names of the functionaries involved (verses 5–7).
7. Asaph. Since Asaph is associated with cultic singing, the psalm that follows is often described as “Asaph’s psalm.”
8. Acclaim the LORD. Verses 8–22 replicate Psalm 105:1–15 with only a few minor changes that do not require explication. The reader is referred to the commentary on the verses in question in Psalm 105. This replication is then stitched together with the replication of another psalm, Psalm 96:1–14, again almost verbatim, though with a little rearrangement of the sequence of lines in verses 23–36. The Chronicler’s use of these two psalms bears witness to their canonical status by the end of the fifth century B.C.E. For comments on verses 23–36, see the commentary on Psalm 96.
19. when you were a handful of men. Psalm 105 shows, more plausibly, “they” instead of the plural “you” here.
30. Quake before Him, all the earth. / Yes, the world stands firm, will not shake. The seeming contradiction between the first half of the line and the second is the unfortunate effect of rearranging the sequence of lines in Psalm 96.
39. the high place which is in Gibeon. Once the Temple was built, the Judahite writers would come to condemn these “high places” or hilltop sanctuaries as idolatrous, but at this moment of David’s installation in Jerusalem, the building of the Temple is still a generation away.
1And it happened when David was dwelling in his house that David said to Nathan the prophet, “Look, I dwell in a cedar-wood house, but the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant is under tent curtains.” 2And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.” 3And it happened on that night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying, 4“Go and say to David My servant, Thus said the LORD: It is not you who will build Me a house in which to dwell. 5For I have not dwelled in a house from the day I brought Israel up till this day, but I have gone about from tent to tent and from one tabernacle to another. 6Wherever I went about among all Israel did I speak a word with any of the tribal chiefs whom I charged to shepherd My people saying, ‘Why did you not build Me a cedarwood house?’ 7And now, thus shall you say to My servant, to David, Thus said the LORD of Armies: I Myself took you from the pasture, from following the flocks, to be a prince over My people Israel. 8And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut down all your enemies before you. And I will make you a great name like the name of the great of the earth. 9And I will set aside a place for My people Israel, and plant them, and they shall abide in their place and no longer quake, and the wicked shall no more afflict them as before 10as from the days when I appointed judges over My people Israel. And I will bring low all your enemies. And I tell you: the LORD shall build you a house. 11When your days are full to go to your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who will be of your sons, and I will make his kingship unshaken. 12He it is who shall build Me a house, and I will make his throne unshaken forever. 13I will be a father to him and he shall be a son to Me, and My loyalty I will not make swerve from him as I made it swerve from the one who was before you. 14And I will set him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be unshaken forever.” 15In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.
16And King David came and sat before the LORD and said, “Who am I, LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far? 17And even this is too little in Your eyes, O God, for You have spoken of Your servant’s house in distant time, and You have seen me as a man excelling, O LORD God. 18What more can David add for You in respect to the honoring of Your servant, when You know Your servant? 19LORD, for the sake of Your servant and according to Your heart You have done all these great things to make all the great things known. 20LORD, there is none like You, and there is no god beside You in all that we have heard with our own ears. 21And who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation upon earth, whom a god has gone to redeem as a people, to make You a name for great and fearsome things, to drive out nations from before Your people whom You redeemed from Egypt? 22And You made Your own people Israel to be a people for You forever, and You, O LORD, became their God. 23And now, LORD, the word that You have spoken concerning Your servant and his house, may it be confirmed forever, and do as You have spoken. 24May it be confirmed and may Your name be great forever, saying, The LORD of Armies is God of Israel, and the house of David Your servant shall be unshaken before You. 25For You, My God, have revealed to Your servant that a house will be built for him. Therefore has Your servant found the heart to pray before You. 26And now, O LORD, You are God, and You have spoken of this bounty to Your servant. 27And now, have the goodness to bless the house of Your servant to be before You forever, for You, LORD, have bestowed blessing and are blessed forever.”
CHAPTER 17 NOTES
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1. And it happened when David was dwelling in his house. This whole chapter replicates 2 Samuel 7 with minor changes. The reader is referred to the commentary there.
5. I have gone about. This verb, missing in the received text, is supplied from 2 Samuel 7:6.
13. as I made it swerve from the one who was before you. 2 Samuel 7:15 explicitly states that this is Saul, who lost the kingship.
17. You have seen me as a man excelling. The Hebrew is obscure, and hence the translation is conjectural. The parallel clause in 2 Samuel 7:19 is also unclear, and the later writer has doctored the wording without, however, introducing any greater clarity.
1And it happened thereafter that David struck down the Philistines and subjugated them, and he took Gath and its hamlets from the land of the Philistines. 2And he struck down Moab, and Moab became tribute-bearing vassals to David. 3And David struck down Hadadezer king of Zobah on the approach to Hamath as he went to set up his monument by the Euphrates River. 4And David captured from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, leaving aside a hundred of them. 5And the Arameans of Damascus came to aid Hadadezer king of Zobah, and David struck down twenty-two thousand men from among the Arameans. 6And David placed prefects in Aram-Damascus, and the Arameans became tribute-bearing vassals to David, and the LORD made David victorious wherever he went. 7And David took the golden quivers that had belonged to the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8And from Tibbath and from Chun, the towers of Hadadezer, David took a great abundance of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze sea and the pillars and the bronze vessels. 9And Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck down all the forces of Hadadezer king of Zobah. 10And he sent Hadoram his son to King David to ask after his well-being and to salute him for having done battle with Hadadezer and for having struck him down, as Hadadezer was Tou’s adversary. [And in Hadoram’s hand were] all vessels of gold and silver and bronze. 11These, too, did King David consecrate to the LORD, together with the silver and the gold that he had borne off from all the nations, from Edom and from Moab and from the Ammonites and from the Philistines and from the Amalekites. 12And Abishai son of Zeruiah struck down eighteen thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt. 13And he placed prefects in Edom, and all Edom became vassals to David, and the LORD made David victorious wherever he went. 14And David was king over all Israel, and it was David’s practice to mete out true justice to all his people. 15And Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was recorder. 16And Zadok son of Ahitub and Abimelech son of Abiathar were priests and Shavsha was scribe. 17And Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherithites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were the first ones alongside the king.
CHAPTER 18 NOTES
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1. And it happened thereafter. This chapter replicates 2 Samuel 8, with just a few changes, which will be noted, and some differences in the names. The reader is referred to the commentary on 2 Samuel 8.
2. And he struck down Moab. In 2 Samuel 8 David executes two-thirds of the captive Moabites, a detail prudently omitted here.
10. [And in Hadoram’s hand were]. This phrase is provided from 2 Samuel 8:10. In Samuel, the name given for this prince is Joram.
17. and David’s sons were the first ones alongside the king. This is a substitution for “and David’s sons served as priests” in 2 Samuel 8:18. The Chronicler is concerned to preserve the prerogatives of the priestly line, whereas in the early days of the monarchy, it appears that members of the royal dynasty at times could perform priestly functions. “The first ones” is a little ambiguous: while it probably indicates that they had some role as ministers or councillors, it could also conceivably mean the sons born early, as against the many sons David begot during his years in Jerusalem.
1And it happened thereafter that Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son was king in his stead. 2And David said, “Let me keep faith with Hanun son of Nahash as his father kept faith with me.” And David sent his servants to console him for his father, and David’s servants came to the land of the Ammonites to Hanun, to console him. 3And the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, “Do you imagine David is honoring your father in sending you consolers? Is it not in order to search out and to overthrow and to spy upon the land that his servants have come to you?” 4And Hanun took David’s servants and shaved their beards and cut their diplomat’s garb in half down to the crotch, and sent them off. 5And people went and told David about the men, and he sent to meet them, for the men were humiliated, and the king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back and you can return.” 6And the Ammonites saw that they had become repugnant to David, and Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand silver talents to hire for themselves from Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Maacah and from Zobah chariots and horsemen. 7And they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah and his troops, and they came and camped in front of Medeba, and the Ammonites gathered from their towns and came for battle. 8And David heard and sent out the whole army of warriors. 9And the Ammonites sallied forth and drew up for battle at the entrance of the city, and the kings who had come were apart in the field. 10And Joab saw that there was a battle line against him in front and behind, and he chose from all the picked men in Israel and drew them up to meet the Arameans. 11And the rest of the troops he gave into the hand of Abishai his brother, and they drew up to meet the Ammonites. 12And he said, “If the Arameans prove too strong for me, you will rescue me, and if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I shall rescue you. 13Be strong, and let us find strength for the sake of our people and for the sake of the towns of our God, and the LORD will do what is good in His eyes!” 14And Joab advanced, and the troops that were with him, to face Aram in battle, and they fled before him. 15And the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, and they too fled before Abishai his brother and entered the city. And Joab came to Jerusalem. 16And the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, and they brought out the Arameans who were beyond the Euphrates with Shophach Hadadezer’s army commander at their head. 17And it was told to David, and he gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan and came up to them and drew up his lines against them. And David drew up his lines to meet the Arameans in battle, and they did battle with him. 18And the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers, and Shobah, the commander of the army, he put to death. 19And Hadadezer’s servants saw that they had been routed by Israel, and they made peace with David and became his vassals, and the Arameans no longer desired to rescue the Ammonites.
CHAPTER 19 NOTES
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1. And it happened thereafter that Nahash. This chapter corresponds to 2 Samuel 10. There are a few more changes than in the previous replications of passages from Samuel, but these are either slightly different ways of saying the same thing or minor alterations in the narrative information (e.g., at the end the Arameans “no longer desired to rescue” rather than “were afraid to rescue”) that do not appear to reflect an ideological agenda. Readers are referred to the commentary on 2 Samuel 10.
2. David sent his servants. It is important to keep in mind that “servants” can also be “court officials”—in this case, ambassadors. This of course makes their humiliation a particularly egregious act. The word also can mean “vassal” and is used in this sense in a verb at the end of the chapter, playing against the meaning of ʿavadim, “servants,” as “courtiers” at the beginning of the same verse.
4. shaved their beards. In 2 Samuel 10, it is half their beards, which is more disfiguring. But a man without a beard in this culture would also be shamed. “Beards” is merely implied in the Hebrew but is explicit in the parallel verse in 2 Samuel 10 and surfaces in David’s words to his ambassadors.
1And it happened at the turn of the year, at the time when the kings sally forth, that Joab led the army force and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. And he came and besieged Rabbah. And David was sitting in Jerusalem. And Joab struck Rabbah and destroyed it. 2And David took the crown of their king from his head and found it weighed a talent of gold, and on it were precious stones, and it was set on David’s head. And the booty of the city he brought out in great abundance. 3And the people who were in it he brought out and set them to work with saw and iron threshing boards and axes. And thus did David do to all the Ammonite towns. And David, and all the troops with him, returned to Jerusalem.
4And it happened thereafter that there was fighting at Gezer with the Philistines. Then did Sibbecai the Hushathite strike down Sippai, who was of the offspring of titans, and they were brought low. 5And there was once more fighting with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite struck down Goliath the Gittite, and the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam. 6And once more there was fighting at Gath. And there was a man of huge measure, who had six fingers on each hand and foot, twenty-four in all, and he, too, sprung from the titan. 7And he insulted Israel, and Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s kinsman, struck him down. 8These sprung from the titan, and they fell at the hand of David and at the hand of his servants.
CHAPTER 20 NOTES
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1. And it happened at the turn of the year, at the time when kings sally forth. This initial clause replicates the initial clause in the story of David and Bathsheba, at 2 Samuel 11:1. Nothing could illustrate more strikingly, however, the Chronicler’s revision of the portrait of David in the older narrative than what he then proceeds to omit. There is nothing here about David’s seeing the beautiful Bathsheba bathing, the subsequent adultery, and his murder of Uriah. The Chronicler is at pains to give us a David who is an exemplary conquering king, and he will have nothing to do with the warts-and-all representation of him in the narrative he has inherited.
2. And David took the crown of their king. This version now skips to 2 Samuel 12:30–31.
3. axes. The received text has megeirot, “saws,” which is surely an erroneous scribal replication of the first noun in this series. 2 Samuel 12:31 shows the correct reading, magzeirot, “axes.”
4. And it happened thereafter. Verses 4–8 here replicate, with minor variations, 2 Samuel 21:18–22. Readers are referred to the commentary there, which includes an explanation of the contradiction as to who killed Goliath.
1And Satan stood up against Israel, and he incited David to take a count of Israel. 2And David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan and bring to me that I may know their number.” 3And Joab said, “May the LORD add to the people a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all subjects of my lord? Why should my lord request this? Why should it be a cause of guilt in Israel?” 4But the king’s word prevailed over Joab, and Joab went out and went about through all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. 5And Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David: all Israel had one million one hundred thousand sword-wielding men and Judah four hundred seventy thousand sword wielders. 6But he did not record Levi and Benjamin among them, for the king’s command was repugnant to Joab. 7And it was evil in the eyes of God on account of this thing, and He struck Israel. 8And David said to God, “I have offended greatly in doing this thing. And now remit, pray, the guilt of your servant, for I have been very foolish.” 9And the LORD spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10“Go and speak to David, saying—thus says the LORD: Three things I have taken against you. Choose you one of them and I shall do it to you.” 11And Gad came and said to David, “Thus said the LORD: Choose for yourself—12whether three years of famine or three months when you are swept away before your foes and the sword of your enemies overtakes you or three days during which the sword of the LORD and plague are in the land, and the LORD’S messenger destroys throughout the territory of Israel. And now, see what response I should bring back to my Sender.” 13And David said to Gad, “I am in great straits. Let me fall, pray, into the LORD’S hand, for very great is His mercy, and into the hand of man let me not fall.” 14And the LORD sent a plague against Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. 15And God sent a messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, and as he destroyed, the LORD saw and regretted the evil and said to the messenger who was sowing destruction, “Enough! Now stay your hand.” And the LORD’S messenger was standing at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16And David raised his eyes and saw the LORD’S messenger standing between earth and the heavens with his sword unsheathed in his hand stretched out against Jerusalem, and David, and the elders with him, fell down, covered with sackcloth over their faces. 17And David said to God, “Was it not I who said to count the people, and it was I who offended and surely did wrong. And these sheep, what have they done? LORD, my God, let Your hand be against me and my father’s house, but against Your people let there be no plague.” 18And the LORD’S messenger had said to Gad to say to David that David should go up to set up an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19And David went up by the word of God that he had spoken in the name of the LORD. 20And Ornan turned back and saw the messenger, and his four sons with him were hiding, and Ornan had been threshing wheat. 21And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David and went out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David, his face to the ground. 22And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build upon it an altar to the LORD. Give it to me at the full price, that the plague be pulled back from the people.” 23And Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what is right in his eyes. See, I give you the oxen for burnt offerngs and the threshing boards for wood and the wheat for grain offering. I give everything.” 24And King David said to Ornan, “No, for I will surely buy it at the full price. For I will not present what is yours to the LORD or offer up burnt offerings at no cost.” 25And David gave Ornan for the site six hundred weight of gold shekels. 26And David built there an altar to the LORD and offered up burnt offerings and well-being sacrifices and called out to the LORD. And He answered him with fire from the heavens on the altar of burnt offerings. 27And the LORD spoke to the messenger, and he put his sword back in its sheath. 28At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29And the tabernacle of the LORD that Moses had made in the wilderness and the altar for burnt offerings and well-being sacrifices were at that time at Gibeon. 30And David was unable to go to it to seek God, for he was terrified by the sword of the LORD’S messenger. 22:1And David said, “This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel.”
CHAPTER 21 NOTES
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1. And Satan stood up against Israel. This episode replicates 2 Samuel 24, with certain changes, additions, and omissions. That chapter, on the evidence of its style and theology, is not by the same hand as that of the author of the David story, although the Chronicler surely did not see any differentiation. In 2 Samuel 24 it is God Who incites David, but the Chronicler, not wanting to represent God as perverse, makes Satan the agent. At this late period, it looks as if “The Adversary” (hasatan) is moving into becoming a demonic figure, and he appears here without the definite article ha, suggesting it has become a name, not just a function. Readers are referred to the commentary on 2 Samuel 24. Notes here will be offered only for significant departures from the Samuel text.
4. Joab went out and went about through all Israel. 2 Samuel 24 provides geographical details, here omitted.
15. Ornan. In 2 Samuel 24 he is called Araunah, a name probably closer to the Jebusite language.
16. David … saw the LORD’S messenger standing between earth and the heavens. This supernatural vision of the hovering divine messenger does not appear in 2 Samuel 24.
25. six hundred weight of gold shekels. In 2 Samuel 24:24 it is only fifty silver shekels. The increase is no doubt to highlight David’s royal munificence.
26. And He answered him with fire from the heavens. This divine pyrotechnic display, probably recalling the miracle vouchsafed Elijah at the altar on Mount Carmel, does not appear in 2 Samuel 24. The next three verses also have no counterpart in Samuel.
22.1. And David said. Although the conventional chapter division places this verse at the beginning of a new chapter, it clearly is the conclusion of the story of David’s building an altar at the site of the threshing floor of Ornan, where the future temple will stand.
2And David said to gather in the sojourners who were in the land of Israel, and he set them as hewers to hew dressed stone to build the house of God, 3and iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates and for the clasps and bronze in abundance beyond weighing, 4and cedar logs beyond number, as the Sidonians and the Tyrians had brought cedar logs in abundance to David. 5And David thought, “Solomon my son is a tender lad, and the house to be built for the LORD should be exceedingly great in fame and in glory for all the lands. Let me ready things for him.” And David readied things in abundance before his death. 6And he called to Solomon his son and charged him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel. 7And David said to Solomon his son, “As for me, it was in my heart to build a house for the name of the LORD my God. 8But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Blood in abundance you have shed, and you fought great battles. You shall not build a house for My name, for you have shed much blood on the earth before Me. 9Look, a son is to be born to you. He shall be a man at rest, and I will grant him rest from all his enemies round about, for Solomon shall be his name and peace and quiet I will bestow upon Israel in his days. 10He it is who shall build a house for My name, and he shall be a son to Me and I will be a father to him, and I will make the throne of his kingship stand firm over Israel forever.’ 11Now, my son, may the LORD be with you and may you prosper and build the house of the LORD your God as He has spoken concerning you. 12Only may the LORD give you insight and understanding and may He charge you over Israel to keep the teaching of the LORD your God. 13Then will you prosper, if you keep to do the statutes and the laws with which the LORD charged Moses for Israel. Be strong and stalwart. Do not fear and do not be dismayed. 14And, look, from my poor resources I have readied for the house of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold and a million talents of silver, and the bronze and the iron is beyond weighing for it is so much, and wood and stones I have readied, and you can add to them. 15And with you in abundance are craftsmen, hewers and stonemasons and carpenters and every expert in every task. 16And the gold and the silver and the bronze and the iron are beyond number. Rise and act, and may the LORD be with you.” 17And David charged all the officers of Israel to help Solomon his son: 18“Is not the LORD your God with you? And He shall grant you rest, for He has given into my hand the dwellers of the land, and the land has been conquered before the LORD and before His people. 19And now, set your heart and your very being to seek the LORD your God, and rise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God so as to bring the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant and God’s sacred vessels to the house being built for the name of the LORD.”
CHAPTER 22 NOTES
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4. the Sidonians and the Tyrians. The fine wood in question was brought from the cedar forests of Lebanon, in proximity to these Phoenician coastal cities. But in Kings, it is Solomon who conducts these transactions. The Chronicler invents these details in order to convey a sense, in keeping with his promotion of the Davidic dynasty, that David was the virtual though not the actual builder of the Temple.
6. he called to Solomon his son and charged him to build a house. The invention is extended here: David imposes the task of building the Temple on Solomon as a kind of last will before his death. Such a last will is strikingly different from David’s deathbed instructions to Solomon in Kings 2, which include a hit list of David’s enemies.
8. You shall not build a house for My name, for you have shed much blood on the earth. This is the solution to a quandary that the Chronicler confronts: if David is the great exemplary founder of the everlasting dynasty, why did he not build the Temple? In order to establish his kingdom, he had to shed blood, and so not he but his son, a man of peace, will build the Temple.
9. for Solomon shall be his name and peace … I will bestow upon Israel. The Hebrew exhibits a transparent etymology: Shelomoh, “Solomon,” and shalom, “peace.” There is, of course, no such report of a name inscribed with a destiny dictated by God in the account of Solomon’s birth in Samuel 12.
10. I will make the throne of his kingship stand firm over Israel forever. In point of fact, the kingdom broke up into two kingdoms after Solomon’s death. The Chronicler hews to the neat contours of ideology, not to historical fact.
13. Be strong and stalwart. These words echo God’s exhortation to Joshua at another moment of succession (Joshua 1).
14. from my poor resources. Literally, “from [or in] my poverty.” This is probably a rhetorical gesture of modesty. But the amount of gold and silver David then stipulates is fantastically vast, an expression of the Chronicler’s belief that the Temple is the grandest building on the face of the earth.
1And David grew old and sated with days, and he made Solomon his son king over Israel. 2And he gathered all the officers of Israel and the priests and the Levites. 3And the Levites from the age of thirty were counted and their head count for the males was thirty-eight thousand. 4Of these, to take charge of the task of the house of the LORD, twenty-four thousand, and overseers and judges, six thousand, 5and four thousand gate-keepers and four thousand saying praise to the LORD with the instruments that I made to sing praise. 6And David divided them into orders according to the sons of Levi, for Gershon, Kohath, and Merari: 7of the Gershonites, Laadan and Shimei; 8the sons of Laadan, the chief Jehiel, and Zetham and Joel, three; 9the sons of Shimei, Shelomith and Haziel and Haran, three—these were the chiefs of the patriarchal houses for Laadan. 10And the sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zina, Jeush and Beriah. These were the sons of Shimei, four. 11And Jahath was the first and Zina the second, but Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, and they were reckoned as a single patriarchal house. 12The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel, four. 13The sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was set apart to be consecrated for the holy of holies, he and his sons, forever to burn incense before the LORD, to minister to Him, and to bless in His name forever. 14And Moses, man of God, his sons were called with the tribe of Levi. 15The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer. 16The sons of Gershom, Shebuel the first. 17And the sons of Eliezer were Rehabiah the first, but Eliezer had no other sons. And the sons of Rehabiah were very many. 18The sons of Izhar, Shelomith the first. 19The sons of Hebron, Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth. 20The sons of Uzziel, Micah the first and Jessiah the second. 21The sons of Merari, Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli, Eleazar and Kish. 22And Eleazar died, and he had no sons but daughters, and the sons of Kish their brother married them. 23The sons of Mushi were Mahli and Eder and Jeremoth, three. 24These were the sons of Levi according to their patriarchal houses, chiefs of the patriarchal houses as they were listed in the head count of names, doing the tasks of the house of the LORD, from the age of twenty. 25For David had said, “The LORD God of Israel has granted rest to His people and shall abide in Jerusalem forever. 26And so the Levites need no longer carry the sanctuary and all its vessels for His service.” 27For in David’s last words was the counting of the sons of Levi from the age of twenty. 28For their station was by the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD over the courts and within the chambers and over the purity of all the holy things and the business of the service of the house of God, 29and for the bread in rows and for the fine flour and for the grain offering and for the flatbread wafers and for the pan-baked and soaked baked goods and for every kind of measure, 30and to stand in attendance morning after morning to acclaim and praise the LORD, and so at evening, 31and for every offering of burnt offerings on sabbaths and on new moons and on festivals according to the rules concerning them, perpetually before the LORD. 32And they shall keep the watch of the Tent of Meeting and the watch of what is holy and the watch of the sons of Aaron their kin for the service of the house of the LORD.
CHAPTER 23 NOTES
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3. And the Levites from the age of thirty were counted. The Chronicler now interrupts the narrative momentum of the David story to return to his fixation on the numbers and the genealogy of the Levites. He is less interested in retelling the biblical story than in confirming the legitimacy and the importance of the sacerdotal caste.
27. For in David’s last words. In 2 Kings 2, David’s last words are instructions to Solomon to eliminate old enemies, and they have nothing to do with any census of the Levites. The contrast between the original David story and the agenda of Chronicles is even more striking than in 1 Chronicles 22:6.
1And the orders of the sons of Aaron—Nadab and Abihu and Eleazar and Ithamar. 2And Nadab and Abihu died before their father and they had no sons, and Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests. 3And David and Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar divided them for their ministering in their service. 4And the sons of Eleazar were found to be more numerous by male head count than the sons of Ithamar, and they divided the sons of Eleazar into sixteen patriarchal houses and the sons of Ithamar into eight patriarchal houses. 5And they divided them by lot, both alike, for they were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God, of the sons of Eleazar and of the sons of Ithamar. 6And Shemaiah son of Nethaneel, the scribe, of the Levites, wrote them down before the king and the officers and Zadok the priest and Ahimelech son of Abiathar and the patriarchal chiefs of the chiefs and of the Levites—two patriarchal houses held for Eleazar and one for Ithamar. 7And the first lot fell to Jehoiarib and the second to Jedaiah, 8to Harim the third, to Seorim the fourth, 9to Malchijah the fifth, to Mijamin the sixth, 10to Hakkoz the seventh, 11to Abijah the eighth, to Jeshua the ninth, to Shecaniah the tenth, 12to Eliashib the eleventh, to Jakim the twelfth, 13to Huppah the thirteenth, to Jeshebeab the fourteenth, 14to Bilgah the fifteenth, to Immer the sixteenth, 15to Hezir the seventeenth, to Happizzez the eighteenth, 16to Pethahiah the nineteenth, to Jehezkel the twentieth, 17to Jachin the twenty-first, to Gamul the twenty-second, 18to Delaiah the twenty-third, to Maaziah the twenty-fourth. 19These were their ministerings for their service to come into the house of the LORD according to their rule by Aaron their father, as the LORD God of Israel had charged him. 20As to the remaining Levites—of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah. 21As to Rehabiah, of the sons of Rehabiah, Isshiah the first. 22As to the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the son of Shelemoth, Jahath, 23and the sons of Jeriah, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth. 24The sons of Uzziel, Michah; the sons of Michah, Shamir; 25Michah’s brother, Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah. 26The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi, sons of Jaaziah his son. 27The sons of Merari by Jaaziah his son, Shoham, Zaccur and Ibri. 28Of Mahli, Eleazar, and he had no sons. 29As to Kish, the son of Kish was Jerahmeel. 30And the sons of Mushi were Mahli and Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites by their patriarchal houses. 31And they, too, cast lots in accordance with their kin the sons of Aaron before King David and Zadok and Ahimelech and the chiefs of the patriarchal houses of the priests and of the Levites, the patriarchal chief like his younger brother.
CHAPTER 24 NOTES
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1. And the orders of the sons of Aaron. This is one of six lists of priestly genealogy in Chronicles. The lists and their repetitions will not say much to modern readers, although they have been scrutinized by scholars in an effort to reconstruct the history of the ancient priesthood.
2. And Nadab and Abihu died. The Chronicler, interested only in establishing priestly bloodlines, makes no mention of the circumstances of their death reported in Leviticus 10.
before their father. The likely sense is “while their father was still alive.”
1And David and the officers of the army set apart for the service the sons of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun who prophesied with lyres and lutes and cymbals. And the roll call of the men for the task in their service was: 2of the sons of Asaph, Zaccur and Joseph and Nethaniah and Asarelah, the sons of Asaph alongside Asaph prophesying by order of the king; 3of Jeduthun, the sons of Jeduthun, Gedaliah and Zeri and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah—six, alongside their father Jeduthun prophesying with the lyre, acclaiming and praising the LORD; 4of Heman, the sons of Heman, Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel and Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti and Romamti-Ezer, Josh-bekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth. 5All these were sons of Heman, the king’s seer, to raise up his horn through God’s words. And God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters. 6All these were alongside their father in song in the house of the LORD with cymbals, lutes, and lyres for the service of the house of God by order of the king—Asaph and Jeduthun and Heman. 7And their number with their kin skilled in song to the LORD, every expert, two hundred eighty-eight. 8And they cast lots for the watches, lesser and greater alike, expert and apprentice. 9And the first lot fell to Asaph, to Joseph, Gedaliah the second—he and his brothers and his sons, twelve; 10the third Zaccur—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 11the fourth Izri—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 12the fifth Nethaniah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 13the sixth Bukkiah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 14the seventh Jesharelah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 15the eighth Jeshaiah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 16the ninth Mattaniah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 17the tenth Shimei—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 18the eleventh Azarel—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 19the twelfth Hashabiah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 20the thirteenth Shubael—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 21the fourteenth Mattithiah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 22the fifteenth, to Jeremoth—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 23the sixteenth, to Hananiah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 24the seventeenth Joshbekashah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 25the eighteenth Hanani—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 26the nineteenth Mallothi—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 27the twentieth, to Eliathah—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 28the twenty-first, to Hothir—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 29the twenty-second, to Giddalti—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 30the twenty-third, to Mahazioth—his sons and his brothers, twelve; 31the twenty-fourth, to Romamti-Ezer—his sons and his brothers, twelve.
CHAPTER 25 NOTES
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1. the sons of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun. The list that follows is of temple choristers and musicians.
who prophesied with lyres and lutes and cymbals. The verb here is a little surprising. From several reports in the Book of Samuel, we know that wandering bands of prophets in the early biblical period used musical instruments to work themselves into a vatic frenzy (a phenomenon that can still be observed among “Holy Rollers” in the United States). In their case, the verb for immersing in ecstasy is the same root but in reflexive conjugation. Here, the passive conjugation (nif ʿal) occurs, which is the form used when the so-called Literary Prophets deliver their message. One may infer a kind of domestication of ecstasy in the temple music: it induced an elevated state, and the words sung—probably the set words of psalms—were regarded as a kind of gateway to the sacred. Thus in verse 3, Jeduthun is said to be “prophesying with the lyre, acclaiming and praising the LORD,” and those paired verbs appear regularly in the psalms of praise.
4. Giddalti and Romamti-Ezer. There is something peculiar about these names. They are two overlapping Hebrew verbs and they appear in direct sequence in Isaiah 1:2—banim giddalti weromamti, “Sons I have nurtured and raised.” Could the Chronicler be inventing names that are intended as an allusion to Isaiah?
5. Heman, the king’s seer. Heman is a musician or composer of psalms, so the link between music and visionary experience is reinforced.
1For the orders of the gatekeepers, for the Korahites, Meshelemiah son of Kore of the sons of Asaph. 2And Meshelemiah had sons, Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth, 3Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Eliehoenai the seventh. 4And Obed-Edom had sons, Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth and Nethaneel the fifth, 5Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth, for God had blessed him. 6And to Shemaiah his son were born sons in authority over their patriarchal houses, for they were substantial men. 7The sons of Shemaiah were Othni and Rephael and Obed and Elzabad—his brothers were substantial men, Elihu and Semachiah. 8All these were of the sons of Obed-Edom, they and their sons and their brothers, substantial men and able for the service—sixty-two did Obed-Edom have. 9And Meshelemiah had sons or brothers, substantial men, eighteen, 10And Hosah of the sons of Merari had sons, Shimri the head, though he was not the firstborn, his father made him head. 11Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth; all the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen. 12These orders of the gate-keepers, according to the chief men, were in watches matching their kin to minister in the house of the LORD. 13And they cast lots, the least and the greatest alike, according to their patriarchal houses, for each gate. 14And the lot on the east fell to Meshelemiah, and for Zechariah his son, a discerning councillor, they cast lots, and the lot fell out to the north. 15For Obed-Edom, to the south, and for his sons, the storehouse. 16For Shuppim and for Hosah, to the west were the Shallecheth Gate on the road going up, one watch corresponding to the other. 17On the east, six Levites, on the north four each day, four on the south each day, four at the storehouse, two and two. 18At the colonnade on the east, four, two on the road and two at the colonnade. 19These are the order of the gatekeepers for the sons of Korah and the sons of Merari. 20And the Levites: Ahijah over the treasuries of the house of God and over the treasuries of the consecrated gifts; 21the sons of Laadan, the sons of the Gershonites belonging to Laadan, Jehieli; 22the sons of Jehieli, Zetham and Joel his brother over the treasuries of the house of the LORD; 23of the Amramites, of the Izharites, of the Hebronites, of the Uzzielites: 24Shebuel son of Gershom son of Moses supervisor over the treasuries, 25and his brothers: Eliezer, Rehabiah his son and Jeshaiah his son and Joram his son and Zichri his son and Shelomith his son, 26he is Shelomith with his brothers over the consecrated gifts that King David consecrated with the heads of the patriarchal houses, the officers of the thousands and the hundreds and the army officers. 27From the battles and from the booty they consecrated to maintain the house of the LORD. 28And all that Samuel the seer and Saul son of Kish and Abner son of Ner and Joab son of Zeruiah had consecrated, all that was consecrated was under Shelomith and his brothers. 29Of the Izharites: Chenaniah and his sons were over Israel for the external tasks, for the overseers and the judges. 30Of the Hebronites: Hashabiah and his sons, substantial men, one thousand seven hundred, over the matters of Israel west of the Jordan for all the tasks of the LORD and for the king’s service. 31Of the Hebronites: Jerijah chief of the Hebronites, they were searched out in the fortieth year of David’s reign through their generations in patriarchal houses, and there were found among them substantial men in Jazer-Gilead. 32And his kin, two thousand seven hundred substantial men, heads of the patriarchal houses, and King David appointed them over the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manassites for all affairs of God and affairs of the king.
CHAPTER 26 NOTES
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28. And all that Samuel the seer and Saul son of Kish and Abner son of Ner and Joab son of Zeruiah. This historical note briefly amplifies the long catalogue of gatekeepers and their stations around the Temples (the details of which are not easy to sort out). It is another attempt by the Chronicler to confirm the legitimacy of the Temple in his time by tracing its treasures all the way back to the first founding of the monarchy.
1And the Israelites according to their count, heads of the patriarchal houses and officers of the thousands and the hundreds and their overseers ministering to the king in every affair of the orders coming and going each month during all the months of the year, each order having twenty-four thousand men. 2Over the first order for the first month: Jashobeam son of Zabdiel, over his order of twenty-four thousand men. 3Of the sons of Perez, head of all the army officers for the first month; 4and over the order of the second month, Dodai the Ahohite, and Mikloth was the supervisor, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 5The third army officer for the third month was Benaiah son of Jehoiada the head priest, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 6This was the Benaiah who was a warrior among the Thirty and was over the Thirty, and over his order was Ammizabad his son. 7And the fourth for the fourth month Asahel brother of Joab and Zebadiah his son after him, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 8The fifth for the fifth month was the officer Shamhuth the Izrahite, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 9The sixth for the sixth month was Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 10The seventh for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite of the sons of Ephraim, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 11The eighth for the eighth month was Sibbecai the Hushathite of the Zarhites, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 12The ninth for the ninth month was Abiezar the Anathothite of the Benjaminites, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 13The tenth for the tenth month was Mahrai the Netophathite of the Zarhites, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 14The eleventh for the eleventh month was Benaiah the Pirathonite, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 15The twelfth for the twelfth month was Heldai the Netophathite of Othniel, and his order was twenty-four thousand men. 16And over the tribes of Israel, of the Reubenites Eliezer son of Zichri was supervisor. Of the Simeonites Shephatiah son of Maachah. 17Of the Levites Hashabiah son of Kemuel of Aaron, Zadok. 18Of Judah, Elihu of the brothers of David. Of Issachar, Omri son of Michael. 19Of Zebulun, Ishmaiah son of Obadiah. Of Naphtali, Jeri-moth son of Azriel. 20Of the Ephraimites, Hosea son of Azaziah. Of the half-tribe of Manasseh, Joel son of Pedaiah. 21Of the half of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo son of Zechariah. Of Benjamin, Jaasiel son of Abner. 22Of Dan, Azarel son of Jeroham. These were the officers of the tribes of Israel. 23And David did not count their numbers from the age of twenty and below, for the LORD had said to multiply Israel like the stars of the heavens. 24Joab son of Zeruiah began to count them but did not finish, and this became grounds for fury against Israel, and their count was not included in the count of the acts of King David. 25And over the king’s treasuries was Azmaveth son of Adiel, and over the treasuries in the open country, in the towns, in the villages, and in the citadels, Jehonathan son of Uzziah. 26And over those doing the tasks of the open country for the tilling of the soil, Ezri son of Chelub. 27And over the vineyards, Shimei the Ramathite, and over what was in the vineyards for the stores of wine, Zabdi the Shiphmite. 28And over the olive trees and the sycamores that were on the coastal plain, Baal-Hanan the Gederite. And over the stores of oil, Joash. 29And over the cattle grazing in Sharon, Shitrai the Sharonite. And over the cattle in the valleys, Shaphat son of Adlai. 30And over the camels, Obil the Ishmaelite. And over the she-asses, Jehdeiah the Meronothite. 31And over the sheep, Jaziz the Hagrite. All these were the officers of the property that belonged to King David. 32And Jehonathan, David’s uncle, was councillor, a discerning man and a scribe. He and Jehiel son of Hachmoni were with the king’s sons. 33And Ahithophel was the king’s councillor, and Hushai the Archite was the king’s companion. 34And after Ahithophel were Jehoiada son of Benaiah and Abiathar, and the commander of the king’s army was Joab.
CHAPTER 27 NOTES
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1. each order having twenty-four thousand men. The total number, then, of functionaries taking monthly turns would be 288,000. Either this is a truly extravagant exaggeration, intended to convey the grandeur of David’s kingship, or the word ʾelef here, as some have proposed, means “unit,” not “thousand.”
7. Asahel. This could scarcely be historical because Asahel was killed in the civil war well before David conquered Jerusalem.
33. Ahithophel … Hushai. In 2 Samuel 16 these two engage in a dramatic confrontation after Ahitophel has gone over to the usurper Absalom and Hushai comes to Absalom’s court as David’s secret agent to foil Ahitophel’s counsel. The Chronicler, as usual avoiding such complications, mentions nothing of all this.
the king’s companion. This term indicates not a personal relationship but an official role in the court.
1And David assembled in Jerusalem all the officers of Israel, the officers of the tribes and the officers of the orders ministering to the king and the officers of the thousands and the officers of the hundreds and the officers of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons with the eunuchs and the warriors, every valiant warrior. 2And King David rose on his feet and said: “Listen to me, my brothers and my people: I—it was in my heart to build a resting house for the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant and as a footstool for the feet of our God, and I prepared to build. 3But God said to me, ‘You shall not build a house for My name because you are a man of war, and you have shed blood.’ 4But the LORD God of Israel chose me of all my father’s house as king over Israel forever, for He had chosen Judah as prince and in the house of Judah my father’s house and my father’s sons. Me did it please Him to make king over all Israel. 5And all of my sons—for many sons did the LORD give me—He chose Solomon to sit on the throne of the LORD’S kingship over Israel. 6And He said to me, ‘Solomon your son, it is he who will build My house and My courts, for I have chosen him for Me as a son, and I will be a father to him. 7And I will make his kingship stand firm forever if he holds strong to do My commands and My laws as on this day.’ 8And now before the eyes of all Israel, the LORD’S assembly, and in the hearing of our God, keep and seek out all the commands of the LORD your God, so that you may inherit the good land and pass it on to your children after you forever. 9And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him with a whole heart and an eager self, for the LORD searches all hearts and discerns every devising of schemes. If you seek Him, He shall be found for you, but if you forsake Him, He shall abandon you. 10See, now, that the LORD has chosen you to build a house as a sanctuary. Be strong and do it.” 11And David gave to Solomon the plan of the entrance hall and the plan for the house and its storerooms and its upper chambers and its inner rooms and the space for the Ark covering, 12and the plan of all that was in the mind of his people for the courts of the house of the LORD and for all the chambers around the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the consecrated gifts, 13and for the orders of the priests and the Levites and for every task of the service of the house of the LORD and for all the vessels of the service of the house of the LORD, 14for the gold by weight of gold, for all the vessels of each and every service, for all the vessels of silver by weight, for all the vessels of each and every service, 15and the weight for the golden lampstands and their lamps, gold by weight, each and every lampstand and its lamps, for the silver lampstands by weight, for the lampstand and its lamps like the service of each and every lampstand, 16and the gold by weight for the tables of the bread in rows for each and every table, and silver for the silver tables, 17and the forks and the basins and the jars, pure gold, and for the golden bowls by weight for each and every bowl, and for the silver bowls by weight for each and every bowl, 18and for the incense altar, refined gold by weight, and for the model of the chariot, the golden cherubim spreading wings and screening the Ark of the LORD’S Covenant. 19“Everything in writing by the word of God to me He granted understanding of all the tasks of the plan.” 20And David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and stalwart and do it. Do not fear and do not be terrified, for the LORD God, my God, is with you. He will not let go of you and will not forsake you until the completion of all the task of the service of the house of the LORD. 21And here are the orders of the priests and the Levites for all the service of the house of God, and with you in every task for everyone answering the call with skill. And the officers and all the people are there for your every bidding.”
CHAPTER 28 NOTES
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9. every devising of schemes. This phrase is a pointed citation of Genesis 6:5, where God, before unleashing the Flood, expresses His knowledge of the inclination of humankind to do evil.
11. And David gave to Solomon the plan. 2 Samuel and 1 Kings make no mention of David’s conveying the plan of the Temple, here said to be written down for him by God, to Solomon. This invention is in keeping with the Chronicler’s agenda to represent David as the virtual though not actual builder of the Temple.
the plan for the house. The translation follows the reading of two ancient versions. The Masoretic Text has “its houses,” a puzzling plural, with no “plan of.”
12. for the courts of the house of the LORD and for all the chambers. The hortatory momentum of David’s speech to Solomon is now broken by a long list of temple spaces and the sumptuous furnishings of the Temple, with gold and silver. Again, the Chronicler pursues his concern with cultic procedures and the grandeur of the cult.
21. for your every bidding. The literal sense of this phrase is “for all your words.”
1And King David said to all the assembly: “Solomon my son, him alone has God chosen, an untried lad, and the task is great, for the structure is not for a human being but for the LORD God. 2And with all my force I have readied for the house of my God the gold for what is to be gold and the silver for what is to be silver and the bronze for what is to be bronze, the iron for what is to be iron, and the wood for what is to be wood, onyx stone and inlays, stone of antimony and for mosaics and every precious stone and marble in abundance. 3And yet more, in my fondness for the house of my God I have given of my own treasure gold and silver for the house of my God beyond what I readied for the holy house 4three thousand talents of gold from the gold of Ophir and seven thousand talents of refined silver to overlay the walls of the house, 5gold for what is to be gold, silver for what is to be silver and for every task in the hands of the craftsmen. And who will answer the call today to dedicate himself to the LORD?” 6And the officers of the patriarchal houses and the officers of the tribes of Israel and the officers of the thousands and of the hundreds answered the call for the king’s task. 7And they gave five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand drachmas and ten thousand talents of silver and ten thousand talents of bronze and one hundred thousand talents of iron for the work of the house of God. 8And whoever had with him gemstones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD through Jehiel the Gershonite. 9And the people rejoiced for having answered the call, for with a whole heart they answered the call to the LORD, and King David, too, greatly rejoiced. 10And David blessed the LORD before the eyes of all the assembly, and David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, God of Israel, our father from everlasting to everlasting. 11Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the might and the splendor and the triumph and the grandeur, indeed, all in the heavens and on the earth. Yours, O LORD, is the kingship, and what is exalted as head over all. 12And wealth and glory are before You, and You rule over all. And in Your hand are power and might, and it is in Your hand to magnify and strengthen them all. 13And now, God, we acclaim You and praise Your splendid name. 14And who am I and who is my people that we should summon power to answer the call in this way? For all things are from You and from Your own hand we have given to You. 15For we are sojourners before You and fleeting settlers like all our fathers. Like a shadow are our days on the earth, and there is no gathering together. 16O LORD our God, all this wealth that I have readied to build You a house for Your holy name is from Your hand, and all is Yours. 17And I know, O my God, that You probe the heart and delight in uprightness. I in my heart’s uprightness have answered the call with all these things, and now Your people who are here I have joyfully seen them answering the call for You. 18LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel our fathers, keep this forever as the inclination of the plans of Your people’s heart, and make their heart stay firm toward You. 19And to Solomon my son grant wholeheartedness to keep Your commands, Your precepts, and Your statutes, to do everything, to build the structure that I have readied.” 20And David said to all the assembly, “Bless the LORD your God.” And all the assembly blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and did obeisance and bowed down to the LORD and to the king. 21And they sacrificed to the LORD and offered up burnt offerings on the morrow of that day—a thousand bulls, a thousand sheep and their libations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. 22And they ate before the LORD on that day with great rejoicing, and they made Solomon son of David king a second time and anointed him to the LORD as ruler and Zadok as priest. 23And Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. 24And all the officers and the warriors and also the sons of King David gave their hand in fealty to King Solomon. 25And the LORD made Solomon very great in the eyes of all Israel and conferred upon him a majesty of kingship that no king before him had possessed over Israel. 26And David son of Jesse had been king over all Israel. 27And the time that he was king over Israel was forty years. Seven years he was king in Hebron, and in Jerusalem he was king thirty-three years. 28And he died in ripe old age sated with days, wealth, and honor, and Solomon his son was king in his stead. 29And the acts of King David, early and late, are written down in the records of Samuel the seer and in the records of Nathan the prophet and in the records of Gad the visionary 30with all his kingship and his valor and the times that passed over him and over Israel and over all the kingdoms of the lands.
CHAPTER 29 NOTES
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1. the structure. The Hebrew birah generally means something like “citadel,” although here it obviously refers to the Temple. Perhaps the term is used to intimate the imposing mass of the future building.
3. my own treasure. The Hebrew segulah indicates a private treasury.
4. three thousand talents of gold. The Chronicler, following his commitment to convey the sumptuousness of Solomon’s temple, begins here a tally of the vast amounts of gold, silver, bronze, and iron that runs on through verse 7.
10. Blessed are you, O LORD. David now launches on a celebration of God’s greatness that is a kind of doxology.
14. For all things are from You and from Your own hand we have given to You. The Chronicler, at this late, post-exilic moment, expresses an uncompromising monotheism in which all things come from an omnipotent God.
15. sojourners … fleeting settlers. The Hebrew shows a breakup of a common hendiadys, ger wetoshav, which essentially means “resident alien” and has a connotation of temporary, unrooted residence. The adjective “fleeting” has been added to “settlers” in the translation in order to convey this sense.
there is no gathering together. Some understand the Hebrew miqweh to refer to “hope,” one meaning of this verbal stem. But in Genesis 1:10 it is used for “the gathering” of waters, and in the present context, life that is like a shadow dissipates, achieving no coherent gathering together.
18. the inclination of the plans of Your people’s heart. This phrase, previously used in a negative sense, is now given a positive turn. In keeping with that reversal, maḥashavot, rendered above as “schemes,” is translated here as “plans.”
22. they made Solomon son of David king a second time. According to the narrative in 1 Kings 1, Solomon was hastily crowned in order to forestall the usurpation of the throne by his half brother Adonijah. None of that is mentioned here, but the Chronicler does assume that Solomon was previously anointed king. The invention of a second coronation is a means of confirming the absolute legitimacy of Solomon’s succession to the throne.
25. no king before him had possessed. Of course, there were only two kings before him, David and Saul. But the grandeur of Solomon’s court is repeatedly evoked in Kings.
29. the acts of King David … are written down in the records of Samuel … and … of Nathan … and … of Gad. Though this wording resembles a recurring formula used in Kings at the conclusion of the report of a particular reign, in Kings the reference is always to royal annals, whereas here the source is books, never mentioned elsewhere, by three different prophets. The evident intention is to suggest a spiritual seal of approval for David’s career.
1And Solomon son of David entrenched himself in his kingship, and the LORD his God was with him and made him very great. 2And Solomon spoke to all Israel, to the officers of the thousands and of the hundreds and to the judges and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the patriarchal houses. 3And Solomon and all the assembly with him went to the high place that was in Gibeon, for there the Tent of God’s Meeting was that Moses servant of God had made in the wilderness. 4But the Ark of God David had brought up from Kiriath-Jearim as David had readied for it, for he had pitched a tent in Jerusalem. 5And the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri had made was there in front of the LORD’S tabernacle, and Solomon and the assembly sought it out. 6And Solomon offered up there on the bronze altar before the LORD, which was at the Tent of Meeting, offered on it a thousand burnt offerings. 7On that night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask what I should give you.” 8And Solomon said to God, “You, Who did great kindness with David my father and made me king in his stead9—now, LORD God, may Your words to David be confirmed that You have made me king over a people as multitudinous as the dust of the earth. 10Now, give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who can judge this great people?” 11And God said to Solomon, “Inasmuch as this was in your heart, and you did not ask for possessions and honor nor the lives of your foes nor for long life did you ask, but you asked for wisdom and knowledge with which you might judge My people over whom I made you king, 12the wisdom and knowledge are given to you, and wealth and possessions and honor I will give you, the like of which no kings before you had nor after you will have.” 13And Solomon came from the high place that was in Gibeon. 14And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen, and he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he placed them in the chariot towns and with the king in Jerusalem. 15And the king made silver and gold in Jerusalem as abundant as stones, and cedars like the sycamores that are in the lowlands. 16And the source of Solomon’s horses was from Egypt and from Kue, and the king’s merchants would take them from Kue at a set price. 17And a chariot coming from Egypt cost six hundred silver shekels and a horse a hundred fifty, and they would bring them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram.
CHAPTER 1 NOTES
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3. the Tent of God’s Meeting … that Moses servant of God had made in the wilderness. Even though there is no historical possibility that the Tent of Meeting could have been preserved until Solomon’s time, this is still another way of confirming the sacrosanct legitimacy of the cult overseen by Solomon.
7. Ask what I should give you. The passage from here through verse is based on 1 Kings 3:5–14, but with abridgements and some alteration of the phrasing.
10. lead this people. The idiom is primarily military and thus in 1 Kings 3:7 it is translated as “lead into the fray.” Here, the military usage seems less relevant.
judge. This verb also means “to govern.” In 1 Kings 3:9 its judicial sense is especially relevant.
13. from the high place. The Masoretic Text has “to the high place,” but this is surely a scribal error because he is going from the high place at Gibeon to Jerusalem.
14. And Solomon gathered chariots. The passage from here to the end of the chapter is taken from 1 Kings 10:26–29 with only a few minor differences in wording. For elucidation of these verses, see the commentary on 1 Kings 10.
1And Solomon resolved to build a house for the LORD’s name and a house for his kingship. And Solomon gathered seventy thousand porters in number and eighty thousand quarriers in the hill country and twelve thousand horsemen and, directing them, three thousand six hundred. 2And Solomon sent to Huram king of Tyre, saying, “As you did with David my father, sending him cedarwood for him to build himself a house in which to dwell, 3look, I am about to build a house for the LORD my God to consecrate to Him, to burn before Him fragrant incense and the perpetual bread in rows, and burnt offerings for morning and for evening, for sabbaths and for new moons and for the LORD’s festivals, and this is upon Israel forever. 4And the house that I am about to build shall be great, for greater is our God than all gods. 5And who can muster strength to build Him a house? For the heavens and the heavens beyond the heavens cannot contain Him, and who am I that I should build for Him save to burn incense before Him? 6And now, send me a skilled man to work in gold and in silver and in crimson and in purple and in indigo and who knows how to engrave with the skilled men who are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem whom my father David readied. 7And send me cedarwood, cypress, and algum wood from Lebanon, for I know that your servants know how to cut down the Lebanon trees, and, look, my servants shall be with your servants 8to ready for me wood in abundance, for the house that I am about to build shall be wondrously great. 9And, look, for the woodsmen, for the tree-fellers, I have set aside as provision for your servants twenty thousand kors of wheat, twenty thousand kors of barley, and twenty thousand bats of wine and twenty thousand bats of oil.” 10And Huram king of Tyre said in writing and sent to Solomon, “In the LORD’s love of His people He has set you over them as king.” 11And Huram said, “Blessed is the LORD, God of Israel, Who made the heavens and the earth, Who gave King David a wise son, possessing insight and discernment, who will build a house for the LORD and a house for his kingship. 12And now, I have sent a skilled man, Huram my master craftsman, 13the son of a woman of the Danite daughters, and his father is a Tyrian man, knowing how to work in gold and in silver, in bronze, in iron, in stone and in wood, in crimson, in indigo, in fine linen, and in purple, to engrave and to do every plan that will be given him with your skilled men of my master David your father. 14And now, the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine of which my master spoke, let them be sent to your servants. 15And we on our part shall cut down the trees from Lebanon according to all your needs and bring them to you as rafts on the sea to Jaffa, and you shall bring them up to Jerusalem.” 16And Solomon made a count of all the sojourning men who were in the land of Israel after the count that David his father had made, and they came to one hundred fifty-three thousand six hundred. 17And he made of them seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand quarriers in the hill country and three thousand six hundred directing the people’s work.
CHAPTER 2 NOTES
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1.And Solomon resolved to build a house for the LORD’s name. This passage on Solomon’s construction project utilizes material from 1 Kings 5 and 1 Kings 8 with expansions, deletions, and changes.
2. Huram. This is an alternate spelling of Hiram, the form used in Kings.
4. greater is our God than all gods. This phrase may be a linguistic fossil from the earlier phase of Israelite history because by this late date, there was no question of the existence of other, lesser gods.
5. For the heavens and the heavens beyond the heavens cannot contain Him. This clause is a quotation of Solomon’s speech at the temple dedication, 1 Kings 8:27.
9. provision. The received text has makot (“blows”?). This translation follows the reading in 1 Kings 5:25, makolet.
11. Blessed is the LORD, God of Israel, Who made the heavens and the earth. This monotheistic flourish is not part of Hiram’s message to Solomon in 1 Kings.
12. Huram my master craftsman. The Hebrew appears to say “Huram my father.” But that was not the name of King Huram’s father, nor was he a half-Danite (that is, Israelite). The translation follows the proposal that ʾav can also mean “master”—here, master craftsman. For the confusing fact that both the king and the master craftsman appear to have the same name, see the comment on 1 Kings 7:13.
13. my master. Here, another word, ʾadoni, is used as a diplomatic form of address, and the same is true in the next verse.
16. all the sojourning men. This verse and the next repeat the beginning of the chapter, but now it is stipulated that the forced laborers enlisted after the census are resident aliens, gerim. That idea is not present in the parallel account in 1 Kings. One may infer that the Chronicler wanted to avoid the notion that Solomon exploited the labor of indigenous Israelites to build the Temple and the palace.
1And Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where He had appeared to David his father at the place that David had readied at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 2And he began to build in the second month on the second day in the fourth year of his kingship. 3And these are the measurements that Solomon established to build the house of God: the length according to the former measure was sixty cubits and the width twenty cubits. 4And the great hall in front had a length the same as the width of the house, twenty cubits, and the height one hundred twenty. And he overlaid it inside with pure gold. 5And the great house he paneled with cypresswood and overlaid it with fine gold and ornamented it with palms and chainwork. 6And he overlaid the house with splendid precious stones, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. 7And he overlaid the house—the beams, the thresholds and its walls and its doors—with gold and carved cherubim on the walls. 8And he made the Holy of Holies, its length along the width of the house twenty cubits and its width twenty cubits, and he overlaid it with fine gold, and he overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. 9And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold, and he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. 10And he made two cherubim in the Holy of Holies, exquisite work, and he overlaid them with gold. 11And the wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in length, each wing five cubits touching the wall of the house and the other wing five cubits touching the other cherub. 12And the wing of each cherub was five cubits touching the wall of the house and the other wing clinging to the wing of the other cherub. 13The wings of these cherubim spread were twenty cubits, and they were standing, facing the house. 14And he made the curtain indigo and crimson and purple in fine linen, and put cherubim on it. 15And he made in front of the house two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and the capitals on top were five cubits. 16And he made chainwork in the inner sanctuary and put it on top of the pillars and made a hundred pomegranates and set them in the chainwork. 17And he set up the pillars in front of the Temple and called the one on the right Jachin and the one on the left Boaz.
CHAPTER 3 NOTES
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1. And Solomon began to build the house. This passage corresponds to 1 Kings 6:14–38, although much of the wording and some of the details are different. No confident reconstruction of the layout and furnishings of the Temple is feasible, but for an elucidation of some of these items, the reader is referred to the commentary on 1 Kings 6.
10. in the Holy of Holies. The Hebrew reads “in the house of the Holy of Holies,” but what is indicated by “house” is unclear. Perhaps it means “area” or “housing,” but it may well be an inadvertent scribal repetition, triggered by the multiple recurrences of “house” in the surrounding text.
1And he made the bronze altar, twenty cubits its length and twenty cubits its width and ten cubits its height. 2And he made the sea of cast metal, twenty cubits from rim to rim, entirely round, and five cubits its height, and thirty cubits its circumference. 3And the figures of oxen were beneath it, around it on all sides, ten cubits, encircling the sea all around, two rows of oxen, cast in a solid piece with it, 4standing on twelve oxen, three facing north and three facing west and three facing south and three facing east, with the sea over them above and all their hindquarters toward the inside. 5And its thickness was a hand-span and its rim like the fashioning of a cup’s rim, like a lily blossom. It held three thousand bats. 6And he made ten washstands and put five on the right and five on the left to wash in them. The articles of the burnt offering they would rinse with them, but the sea was for the washing of the priests. 7And he made ten golden lampstands as they should be, and he placed in the Temple five on the right and five on the left. 8And he made ten tables and set them in the Temple, five on the right and five on the left, and he made a hundred golden basins. 9And he made the court of the priests and the great court and doors for the court, and its doors he overlaid with gold. 10And the sea he set on the right side toward the southeast. 11And Huram made the pails and the shovels and the basins. And Huram finished doing the task that he had done for King Solomon in the house of God: the 12two pillars and the globes and the two capitals on top of the two pillars and the two sets of network that were on top of the pillars, 13and the four hundred pomegranates for each set of network to cover the two capital globes that were on top of the pillars, 14and he made the stands, and the washstands on the stands he made, 15the one sea and the twelve oxen under it, 16and the pails and the shovels and the forks and all their vessels did Huram his master craftsman make for King Solomon for the house of the LORD—burnished bronze. 17The king cast them in the Jordan plain in molds in the earth between Succoth and Zeredah. 18And Solomon made all these vessels in very great abundance, for the weight of the bronze could not be reckoned. 19And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of God and the altar of gold and the tables upon which was the show bread, 20and the lampstands and their lamps to burn as should be done before the inner sanctuary of fine gold, 21and the blossoms and the lamps and the tongs of gold, purest gold; 22and the snuffers and the basins and the ladles and the fire-pans—fine gold, and the entrance of the house, its inner doors to the Holy of Holies, and the doors of the house, of the Temple—gold.
CHAPTER 4 NOTES
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1. And he made the bronze altar. This passage follows 1 Kings 7, at some points closely, at others with divergent details and deletions. The mention of a bronze altar here at the beginning has no counterpart in Kings. Again, the reader is referred to the commentary on the corresponding passage in Kings.
7. the Temple. Whereas earlier biblical Hebrew more consistently uses bayit, “house,” to mean “temple,” this later text often shows a specialized term, heykhal, which means “temple” and, in some other contexts, “palace.”
1And the task that Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought the consecrated things of David his father; the silver and the gold and all the vessels he put in the treasury of the house of God. 2Then did Solomon assemble the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the patriarchal chieftains of the Israelites, to Jerusalem to bring up the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant from the City of David, which is Zion. 3And every man of Israel assembled around the king on the festival which is in the seventh month. 4And all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites carried the Ark. 5And they brought up the Ark of the Covenant and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred vessels that were in the Tent. The levitical priests brought them up. 6And King Solomon and all the community of Israel meeting with him before the Ark were sacrificing sheep and bulls in such abundance that they could not be counted nor numbered. 7And the priests brought the Ark of the LORD’s Covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, to the Holy of Holies, beneath the wings of the cherubim. 8And the cherubim spread wings over the place of the Ark, and the cherubim sheltered the Ark and its poles from above. 9And the poles extended outward, and the ends of the poles could be seen in front of the inner sanctuary but could not be seen from without. And they are there to this day. 10There was nothing in the Ark except the two tablets that Moses had put there on Horeb, when the LORD sealed a covenant with the Israelites as they came out of Egypt. 11And it happened when the priests came out from the sanctuary, all the priests there consecrated themselves, without distinction of orders, 12and the Levite choristers, all of them, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers were dressed in fine linen with cymbals and lutes and lyres, standing to the east of the altar, and with them a hundred twenty priests sounding the trumpets. 13And in unison did the trumpeters and the choristers raise a single voice to praise the LORD, and when the sound went up with the trumpets and with the cymbals and with the instruments of song and when there was praise to the LORD, “for He is good, for His kindness is forever,” the house, the house of the LORD was filled with cloud. 14And the priests could not stand up to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
CHAPTER 5 NOTES
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2. Then did Solomon assemble. This passage corresponds to 1 Kings 8:1–11. Readers are referred to the commentary there.
the City of David. This is a special precinct within Jerusalem.
3. the festival which is in the seventh month. This festival is Succoth. Because it took place just after the completion of the autumn harvest, it was of the three pilgrim festivals the one that drew the largest crowds to Jerusalem, hence its appropriateness for this ceremony of dedication.
8. its poles. In the wilderness, the Ark was carried from place to place and needed these poles for the carriers.
10. put there. “There” is merely implied.
when the LORD sealed a covenant. The Hebrew says merely “sealed,” but the verb, karat, is the one used for sealing covenants.
12. and the Levite choristers. All the details here about the Levite choristers and musicians are added to the text drawn from 1 Kings 8, in keeping with the Chronicler’s interest in cultic performers.
13. the house of the LORD was filled with cloud. “Cloud” is repeatedly the physical manifestation of God’s presence or “glory” (see the next verse), and so this cloud is not from the incense or the burning sacrifices but a miraculous manifestation of the divine.
1Then did Solomon say:
“The LORD meant to abide in thick fog.
2As for me, I have built You a lofty house,
and a firm place for Your dwelling forever.”
3And the king turned his face and blessed all the assembly of Israel with all the assembly of Israel standing. 4And he said: “Blessed is the LORD God of Israel Who spoke with His own mouth to David my father and with His own hands has fulfilled it, saying, 5‘From the day that I brought out My people Israel from the land of Egypt, I have not chosen a town from all the tribes of Israel to build a house for My name to be there, and I have not chosen a man to be prince over My people Israel. 6But I chose Jerusalem for My name to be there, and I chose David to be over My people Israel.’ 7And it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 8And the LORD said to David my father, ‘Inasmuch as it was in your heart to build a house for My name, you have done well, for it was in your heart. 9Only you will not build the house, but your son who issues from your loins, he will build the house for My name.’ 10And the LORD has fulfilled His word that He spoke, and I arose in place of David my father and sat on the throne of Israel as the LORD spoke, and I have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 11And I have set there the Ark in which is the Covenant of the LORD that He sealed with the Israelites.” 12And he stood before the LORD’s altar over against all the assembly of Israel and spread his palms. 13For Solomon had made a bronze stand five cubits in width and three cubits in height, and he stood on it and he kneeled over against all the assembly of Israel and spread his hands to the heavens. 14And he said, “LORD God of Israel: There is no god like you in the heavens and on the earth, keeping the covenant and the kindness for Your servants who walk before You with all their heart, 15which You kept for Your servant David my father, what You spoke to him, and You spoke to him with Your own mouth, and with Your own hand You fulfilled it as on this day. 16And now, LORD God of Israel, keep for Your servant David my father what You spoke to him, saying, ‘No man of yours will be cut off from before Me, sitting on the throne of Israel, if only your sons will keep their way to walk in My teaching as you have walked before Me.’ 17And now, LORD God of Israel, may Your words be shown true that You spoke to Your servant, to David. 18But can God really dwell on earth with humankind? Look, the heavens and the heavens beyond the heavens cannot contain You. How much less this house that I have built. 19Yet turn to the prayer of Your servant and to his plea, LORD my God, to hearken to the glad song and to the prayer that Your servant prays before You, 20so that Your eyes be open to this house day and night, to this place of which You said to set Your name there, to hearken to the prayer that Your servant prays in this place. 21And may You hearken to the pleas of Your servant and of Your people Israel, to which they will pray in this place, and You, may You hearken in Your dwelling place in the heavens and hearken and forgive. 22Should a man offend against his fellow and bear an oath against him to bring a curse on him, and the oath come before Your altar in this house, 23You will hearken in the heavens and judge Your servants to condemn the guilty, to bring down his way on his head, and to vindicate him who is right to mete out to him according to his righteousness. 24And if Your people Israel are routed by an enemy, for they will have offended against You, and they turn back and acclaim Your name and pray and plead before You in this house, 25You will hearken from the heavens and forgive the offense of Your people Israel and bring them back to the land that You gave to them and to their fathers. 26When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain, for the Israelites will have offended against You, and they pray and plead before You in this house and acclaim Your name, they will turn back from their offense, for You will answer them. 27You will hearken in the heavens and forgive the offense of Your servants, Your people Israel, for You will teach them the good way in which they should go, and You will give them rain upon Your land that You have given to Your people in estate. 28Should there be famine in the land, should there be plague, blight, or mildew, locusts, caterpillars, should his enemy besiege him in the land in his gates, any affliction or any disease, 29any prayer, any plea that any man have in all Your people Israel, that every man know his affliction and his pain, he shall spread his palms in this house, 30and You shall hearken from the heavens, the firm place of Your dwelling, and You shall forgive and grant to a man according to all his ways, as You alone know the heart of humankind. 31So that they may fear You to walk in Your ways all the days that they live upon the land that You gave to their fathers. 32And to the foreigner, too, who is not from Your people Israel and has come from a distant land for the sake of Your name and Your strong hand and Your outstretched arm and comes and prays in this house, 33You will hearken from the heavens, from the firm place of Your dwelling, and do as all that the foreigner will call out to You, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Your name to fear You as does Your people Israel and to know that Your name has been called on this house that I have built. 34Should Your people go out to battle against its enemies on a way that You sent them, they shall pray to You through this city that You have chosen and the house that I have built for Your name. 35And You shall hearken from the heavens to their prayer and to their plea, and You shall do justice for them. 36Should they offend against You, for there is no man who does not offend, and You are furious with them and give them to the enemy and their captors take them off to a distant or nearby land, 37but they turn back their heart in the land where they were brought captive and turn back and plead to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have offended and have done wrong and have been evil,’ 38and they turn back to You with all their heart and all their being in the land of their captivity where they were taken captive, and they pray to You through the land that You gave to their fathers and the city that You chose and the house that I have built for Your name, 39You shall hearken from the heavens, from the firm place of Your dwelling, to their prayers and to their pleas and do justice for them and forgive Your people who have offended against You. 40Now, my God, may Your eyes, pray, be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.
41‘And now rise, O LORD God, to Your resting place,
You and the Ark of Your strength.
Let Your priests don victory
and Your faithful ones rejoice in what is good.
42LORD, God, do not turn away Your anointed ones.
Recall the faithful acts of David, Your servant.’ “
CHAPTER 6 NOTES
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1. Then did Solomon say. Everything that follows, with the exception of the last two verses of the chapter, replicates Solomon’s speech in 1 Kings 8:12–50. The differences between the two texts are quite minor (on the order of “in the land of their captors” in Kings and “in the land of their captivity” here) and require no comment. The reader is referred to the commentary on 1 Kings 8.
13. For Solomon had made a bronze stand. This detail is absent from 1 Kings 8.
41. And now rise, O LORD God, to Your resting place. This poetic insertion at the end of Solomon’s speech is taken from Psalm 132:8–10, though there are two divergent formulations, one at the end of the second line of poetry and the other in the second verset of the last line. It is possible that the Chronicler was drawn to quote the psalm because of its representation of the triumphant role of the priests alongside the Davidic monarch.
1And when Solomon finished praying, fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house. 2And the priests could not come into the house, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. 3And all the Israelites were looking on as the fire and the glory of the LORD came down upon the house, and they kneeled with their faces to the ground on the pavement and bowed down, acclaiming the LORD, “For He is good, for His kindness is forever.” 4And the king and all the people were offering sacrifices before the LORD. 5And the king offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand cattle and a hundred twenty thousand sheep, and the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. 6And the priests were standing on their watches and the Levites with their instruments of song that David had made to acclaim the LORD, “For His kindness is forever” as David praised with them, and the priests were blowing the trumpets over against them, and all Israel was standing. 7And Solomon consecrated the midst of the court that was before the house of God, for there he did the burnt offerings and the fat of the well-being sacrifices. For the bronze altar that Solomon had made could not contain the burnt offering and the grain offering and the fat. 8And at that time Solomon performed the festival seven days, and all Israel his people was with him, a very great assembly from Lebo-Hamath to the Wadi of Egypt. 9And they made a solemn convocation on the eighth day, for they had performed the dedication of the house seven days, and the festival was seven days. 10And on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent off the people to their tents joyful and of good cheer over the good that the LORD had done for David and for Solomon and for Israel His people. 11And Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the house of the king, and in all that had come to Solomon’s mind to do in the house of the LORD and in his house he prospered. 12And the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night, and He said to him, “I have hearkened to your prayer and chosen this place for Me as a house of sacrifice. 13Should I shut the heavens and there be no rain, and should I summon the locusts to consume the land, and should I send the plague against My people, 14My people on whom My name is called shall humble themselves and pray and seek My presence and turn back from their evil ways, and I will hearken from the heavens and forgive their offense and heal their land. 15Now, My eyes shall be open and My ears attentive to the prayer of this place. 16And now, I have chosen and consecrated this house for My name to be there forever, and My eyes and My heart shall be there forever. 17As for you, if you walk before Me as David your father did, to do as all I have charged and you keep My statutes and My laws, 18I shall raise up the throne of your kingship as I sealed a covenant with David your father, saying, ‘No ruling man of you in Israel shall be cut off.’ 19But if you turn back and forsake My statutes and My commands that I have given to you and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, 20I will uproot you from My land that I gave to you, and this house that I have consecrated to My name I will fling away from My presence and turn it into a byword and a mockery among all the peoples. 21And this house that was exalted, all who pass by it will be dismayed and say, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land?’ 22And they will say, ‘Because they forsook the LORD, God of their fathers, Who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they held fast to other gods and bowed down to them and served them. Therefore has He brought upon them all this harm.’”
CHAPTER 7 NOTES
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1. fire came down from the heavens and consumed the burnt offering. This descent of celestial fire does not appear in the parallel passage in Kings and is probably inspired by the miraculous fire that consumes Elijah’s offering in 1 Kings 18. There are quite a few verses that do not appear in 1 Kings 8. What is replicated from Kings in this chapter are verses 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10.
12. And the LORD appeared to Solomon. The passage from here to the end of the chapter replicates, with some minor changes, 1 Kings 9:1–9. The reader is referred to the commentary on those verses in Kings.
1And it happened at the end of twenty years after Solomon built the house of the LORD and his house, 2and the towns that Huram had given to Solomon, Solomon had rebuilt and settled Israelites there. 3And Solomon went to Hamath-Zobah and prevailed against it. 4And he rebuilt Tadmor in the wilderness and the storehouse towns that he had built in Hamath. 5And he rebuilt Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon as fortified towns with double doors and bolts, 6and Baalath and all the storehouse towns that Solomon had and all the chariot towns and all the towns of the horsemen and every desire that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and in Lebanon and in all the territory under his rule. 7All the people left of the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivvite and the Jebusite who were not of Israel, 8of their sons who were left after them in the land whom the Israelites had not wholly destroyed, Solomon subjected them to forced labor till this day. 9But of the Israelites whom Solomon had not made slaves for his tasks, they were men of war and commanders of his captains and commanders of his chariots and of his horsemen. 10And these were the commanders of King Solomon’s prefects, two hundred fifty holding sway over the people. 11And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh from the City of David to the house that he had built for her, for he said, “I will not have a woman dwelling in the house of David king of Israel, for it is holy, as the Ark of the LORD came there.” 12Then did Solomon offer up burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the great hall, 13what was due every day to offer up according to the command of Moses, for sabbaths and for new moons and for the festivals three times a year, on the Festival of Flatbread and on the Festival of Weeks and on the Festival of Huts. 14And according to the practice of David his father he set up orders of the priests over their service and the Levites in their watches to praise and to minister over against the priests for what was due every day, and the gatekeepers in their orders for every single gate. Thus was the command of David man of God. 15And they did not swerve from the king’s command concerning the priests and the Levites in all matters and concerning the treasuries. 16And all the tasks of Solomon were firmly established until the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid and until the house of the LORD was entirely finished. 17Then did Solomon go to Ezion-Geber and to Eloth on the seacoast in the land of Edom. 18And Huram sent to him in charge of his servants ships and servants adept in the sea, and Solomon’s servants came to Ophir and took from there four hundred fifty talents of gold and brought it to King Solomon.
CHAPTER 8 NOTES
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1. And it happened at the end of twenty years. This passage corresponds to 1 Kings 9:10–28, although with a few substantial deletions and additions as well as some variant formulations. Readers are referred to the commentary on 1 Kings 9.
2. the towns that Huram had given to Solomon. In Kings, Solomon gives twenty towns to Huram (called Hiram there), evidently in payment for the cedarwood and the skilled laborers. The Chronicler may have found it distasteful to represent Solomon giving away real estate.
8. whom the Israelites had not wholly destroyed. 1 Kings 9:20 has “could not wholly destroy,” an expression of incapacity that the Chronicler decides to erase.
11. I will not have a woman dwelling in the house of David. He is motivated not by misogyny but by a concern for ritual purity in a consecrated place: a menstruating woman would impart impurity.
14. he set up orders of the priests. The details here are absent from 1 Kings 9 and once again reflect the Chronicler’s interest in establishing sacerdotal procedures and attributing them to David.
David man of God. For understandable reasons, David is never given this epithet in the Book of Samuel. It reflects the Chronicler’s agenda of idealizing David and transforming him into a figure of piety.
16. until the house of the LORD was entirely finished. The Hebrew here does not sound entirely idiomatic. 1 Kings 9:24 at this point shows an enigmatic word, milo’, and since its root may suggest “full,” the Chronicler tries to solve the problem by substituting, albeit awkwardly, a more familiar term, shalem, “complete.”
1And the Queen of Sheba heard the rumor of Solomon, and she came to try Solomon with riddles in Jerusalem with a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and gold in abundance and precious stones, and she came to Solomon and spoke to him all that was in her heart. 2And Solomon told her all her questions, and there was no question hidden from Solomon that he did not tell her. 3And the Queen of Sheba saw Solomon’s wisdom and the house that he had built, 4and the food on his table and the seat of his servants and the standing of his attendants and their garments and his cupbearers and their garments and the ascent by which he would go up to the house of the LORD—and she was breathless. 5And she said to the king, “The word that I heard in my land about your doings and your wisdom is true. 6And I did not believe their words until I came and my own eyes saw, and, look, the half of it was not told to me. You exceed in wisdom the rumor that I heard. 7Happy are your men, those who stand in your presence perpetually and listen to your wisdom. 8May the LORD your God be blessed, Who has desired you to sit on His throne as king for the LORD your God through your God’s love for Israel to make them stand forever, and has set you as king over them to do judgment and justice.” 9And she gave to the king a hundred twenty talents of gold and spices in great abundance and precious stones—and there was nothing like that spice which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 10And Huram’s servants as well and Solomon’s servants who had brought gold from Ophir brought sandalwood and precious stones. 11And the king made from the sandalwood ramps for the house of the LORD and for the house of the king and lutes and lyres for the singers—the like of them had not before been seen in the land of Judah. 12And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all she desired, for which she had asked, besides what she had brought to the king. And she turned and went to her land, she and her servants.
13And the weight of the gold that came to Solomon in a single year was a hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, 14besides what he had from what the traders and the merchants and all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land were bringing—gold and silver to Solomon. 15And King Solomon made two hundred shields of beaten gold, six hundred measures of gold he put on each shield, 16and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold, three hundred measures of gold he put on each buckler. And the king put them in the House of the Lebanon Forest. 17And the king made a great ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold. 18Six steps the throne had, and the throne had a golden footstool attached to it, and arms on each side at the seat, and two lions standing by the arms. 19And twelve lions were standing there on the six steps on each side. Its like was not made in all the kingdoms. 20And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Lebanon Forest pure gold. Silver counted for naught in Solomon’s days. 21For the king had ships going to Tarshish with Huram’s servants. Once every three years would the Tarshish ships come bearing gold and silver, ivory, apes, and parrots. 22And King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom. 23And all the kings of the earth would seek Solomon’s presence to hear his wisdom that God had put in his heart. 24And they would bring each his tribute, silver vessels and golden vessels, robes, weapons, and spices, horses and mules, what was done each year. 25And Solomon had four thousand stables for horses and chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, and he led them to the chariot towns, and with the king in Jerusalem. 26And he came to rule over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt. 27And the king made silver in Jerusalem like stones, and cedar he made like the sycamores in the lowlands in abundance. 28And they would bring out horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all the lands. 29And the rest of the acts of Solomon, early and late, are they not written in the words of Nathan the prophet and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Jedo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat? 30And Solomon was king in Jerusalem and over all Israel forty years. 31And Solomon lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 9 NOTES
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1. And the Queen of Sheba heard the rumor of Solomon. This entire chapter is nearly identical with 1 Kings 10. Readers are referred to the commentary there. The hyperbolic representation of Solomon’s vast wealth and profound wisdom (itself probably a relatively late text) clearly appealed to the Chronicler and motivated him to replicate it integrally.
29. And the rest of the acts of Solomon. This coda diverges from the one in 1 Kings 11:41, which refers us to a book of court annals, not to collections of prophecies. Again, the Chronicler wants to associate his subject with the realm of the divine.
1And Rehoboam came to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2And it happened when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard—and he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon—that Jeroboam came back from Egypt. 3And they sent and called to him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 4“Your father made our yoke heavy, and now, lighten the hard labor of your father and his heavy yoke that he put on us, that we may serve you.” 5And he said to them, “Come back to me in another three days.” And the people went off. 6And King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who stood in the service of Solomon his father while he was alive, “How do you counsel to respond to this people?” 7And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be good to this people and show favor to them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants always.” 8And he forsook the counsel of the elders that they had given him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who were standing in his service. 9And he said to them, “What do you counsel that we should respond to this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10And the young men with whom he had grown up spoke to him, saying, “Thus shall you say to the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, and now lighten it from upon us.’ Thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11And now, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, and I will add to your yoke. My father scourged you with whips, and I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ” 12And Jeroboam, and all the people with him, came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” 13And the king answered them harshly, and the king forsook the counsel of the elders, 14and he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy and I will add to it. My father scourged you with whips, and I will scourge you with scorpions.” 15And the king did not hearken to the people, for it was brought about by the LORD in order to fulfill His word that He had spoken through Abijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16And all Israel [saw] that the king had not hearkened to them, and the people responded to the king, saying,
“We have no share in David
nor an estate in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, each man of Israel.
See to your house, O David!”
And all Israel went to their tents. 17As to the Israelites dwelling in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam was king over them. 18And King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and the Israelites stoned him and he died. Then King Rehoboam hastened to mount a chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19And Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.
CHAPTER 10 NOTES
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1. And Rehoboam came to Shechem. This chapter is virtually identical with 1 Kings 12:1–19. The few minor differences are inconsequential—e.g., instead of “To your tents, O Israel” (1 Kings 12:16), verse 16 here has “To your tents, each man of Israel,” the addition of a single syllable in the Hebrew. Readers are referred to the commentary on 1 Kings 12.
16. And all Israel [saw]. The verb is missing and is supplied from 1 Kings 12:16. This is a simple error in the scribal copying of the text from Kings.
1And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem and assembled all the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred eighty thousand picked warriors to do battle with Israel to bring back the kingship to Rehoboam. 2And the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah man of God, saying, 3“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all Judah and Benjamin, saying, 4Thus said the LORD, ‘You shall not go up and you shall not do battle with your brothers. Go back each man to his house, for from Me this thing has come about.’” And they heeded the words of the LORD and turned back from going against Jeroboam. 5And Rehoboam dwelled in Jerusalem and built fortified towns in Judah. 6And he built Bethlehem and Etam and Tekoa, 7and Beth-Zur and Socho and Adullam, 8and Gath and Mareshah and Ziph, 9and Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah, and 10Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, fortified towns that are in Judah and Benjamin. 11And he reinforced the fortified towns and put officers in them and stores of food and oil and wine, 12and in every single town shields and spears, and he reinforced them very strongly. And so Judah and Benjamin were his.
13And the priests and the Levites who were throughout Israel from all their territory took a stance before him. 14For the priests and the Levites had abandoned their pasturelands and their holdings and had come to Judah and to Jerusalem because Jeroboam, with his sons, had excluded them from serving as priests to the LORD. 15And he set up for himself priests for the high places and for the satyrs and the calves that he had made. 16And after them there came to Jerusalem from all the tribes of Israel those who devoted their heart to seek the LORD God of Israel to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers. 17And they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, for they went in the way of David and Solomon for three years. 18And Rehoboam took him as wife Mahahlath daughter of Jerimoth son of David, and Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. 19And she bore him sons—Jeush and Shamariah and Zaham. 20And after he took Maachah daughter of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith. 21And Rehoboam loved Maachah more than all his wives and his concubines, for he had married eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he begat twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. 22And Rehoboam put at the head as prince over his brothers Abijah son of Maachah, for [he meant] to make him king. 23And he wisely spread all his sons through all the regions of Judah and Benjamin to all the fortified towns, and he married them off with wives.
CHAPTER 11 NOTES
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1. And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem. The passage from here to the end of verse 4 replicates 1 Kings 12:21–24. What then follows in this chapter has no counterpart in Kings, although it is uncertain whether the Chronicler was drawing on another old source or composed the section himself.
6. And he built Bethlehem and Etam and Tekoa. Again the Chronicler displays his propensity to buttress his narrative with lists of names.
13. throughout Israel. Because of the report of Jeroboam’s actions that follows, “Israel” must refer to the ten northern tribes.
15. And he set up for himself priests for the high places and for the satyrs and the calves that he had made. This assertion picks up the contention of the Deuteronomist that Jeroboam’s northern cult was idolatrous and takes it a step further by adding “satyrs” (demonic goat-gods) to “high places” and “calves,” which were the cult-icons set up by Jeroboam.
16. from all the tribes of Israel those who devoted their heart to seek the LORD. In the version presented by the Chronicler, there was a moment of revulsion against Jeroboam’s pagan practices among the population of the northern tribes. The historicity of this report is questionable.
17. they … supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years. It is not clear why their support lasted just three years. Perhaps, after better acquaintance with the dubious character of Rehoboam, they concluded that he was no better than Jeroboam.
18. Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. She would be Rehoboam’s aunt, thus posing two questions: marriage with an aunt is prohibited, and as daughter of David’s oldest brother, she probably would have been rather old. The main point, of course, is that Rehoboam takes pains to ally himself with David’s family in order to reinforce his dynastic claims.
22. for [he meant] to make him king. A verb appears to have dropped out before the infinitive, and a likely one is supplied in brackets in the translation.
23. and he married them off with wives. The Hebrew text here looks corrupt. It reads wayishʾal hamon nashim, literally, “and he asked many wives.” The verb shaʾal is not ordinarily used for seeking wives, and the word for “many,” hamon, also looks idiomatically suspect. This translation adopts one proposed emendation, reading waysiʾa lahem nashim. This involves a respacing of the consonants (the kind of error a scribe might easily make) and it assumes that the consonant nun at the end of hamon was introduced by dittography because the next word begins with nun and that the vowel before it was then inserted in order to turn h-m-n into a known word.
1And it happened when the kingship of Rehoboam was firmly established and when he gained strength, that he abandoned the teaching of the LORD, and all Israel with him. 2And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem, for they had betrayed the LORD, 3with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and the troops who came with him from Egypt were beyond numbering—Lybians, Sukkites, and Nubians. 4And he captured the fortified towns of Judah and came up to Jerusalem. 5And Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had come to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “Thus said the LORD: You on your part have abandoned Me, and I as well have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak.” 6And the commanders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The LORD is in the right.” 7And when the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them, but I will grant them a measure of survival, and My wrath shall not pour out against Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. 8But they shall become his servants, that they know My service and the service of the kingdoms of the lands.” 9And Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem and took the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the house of the king. He took everything, and he took the golden bucklers that Solomon had made. 10And King Rehoboam made in their stead bronze bucklers and entrusted them to the officers of the royal sentries who guarded the entrance of the king’s house. 11And it happened when the king would come to the house of the LORD, the royal sentries would carry them and bring them back to the chamber of the royal sentries. 12And when he humbled himself, the LORD’s anger turned back from him so as not to utterly destroy, and throughout Judah, too, there were good things. 13And King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and he reigned, for Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and seventeen years he was king of Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen to set His name there from all the tribes of Israel. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. 14And he did evil because he did not ready his heart to seek the LORD. 15And the acts of Rehoboam, early and late, are they not written in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer in tracing lineage? And there was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16And Rehoboam lay with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And Abijah his son was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 12 NOTES
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2. Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem. See the comment on the parallel verse, 1 Kings 14:25. Most of the material in this chapter does not draw directly on Kings, with the exception of verses 9–12 (parallel to 1 Kings 14:26–28) and verses 15–16 (parallel to 1 Kings 14:29–30).
3. Lybians, Sukkites, and Nubians. These peoples all lived in areas adjacent to Egypt, and mercenaries were recruited from them.
7. a measure of survival. In practical terms, this meant that the Judahites paid a heavy tribute to the Egyptians, including the contents of the Temple and palace treasuries, but their city was not destroyed. The phrase “they shall become his servants” in the next verse essentially means that they will become vassals to Shishak.
15. in tracing lineage. In the Hebrew this is an infinitive and a single word, “to trace lineage.” Its meaning in context is not altogether clear. What might be indicated is that the king’s acts were included in genealogical lists. Such lists, as we have seen, had paramount importance for the Chronicler.
1In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah was king over Judah. 2Three years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Michaiah daughter of Uriel from Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3And Abijah joined battle with a force of four hundred thousand warriors, picked men, valiant warriors, and Jeroboam arrayed his troops for battle, eight hundred thousand picked men, valiant warriors. 4And Abijah arose on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel. 5Do you not know that the LORD God of Israel has given kingship over Israel forever to David and to his sons, in a covenant of salt? 6And Jeroboam son of Nebat, Solomon’s servant, arose and rebelled against his master. 7And there gathered round him empty worthless men, and they were hard against Rehoboam when Rehoboam was but a lad and soft-hearted and could not stand strong against them. 8And now you mean to prevail in strength over the LORD’s kingdom in the land of David’s sons when you are a great crowd and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made as gods. 9Have you not driven off the LORD’s priests, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made yourselves priests like the peoples of the lands? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a bull from the herd and seven rams becomes a priest to ungods. 10But we, the LORD our God we have not forsaken, and priests, sons of Aaron, minister to the LORD, and the Levites are at the task. 11And they offer to the LORD burnt offerings every morning and every evening and aromatic incense and the bread in rows on a pure table and the golden lampstand and its lamps burning morning and evening, for we keep the watch of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken Him. 12And, look, at our head is God and His priests and the sounding trumpets to sound out against you. O men of Israel, do not battle with the LORD God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!” 13And Jeroboam had laid an ambush to come from behind them, and they were in front of Judah while the ambush was behind them. 14And Judah turned, and, look, the battle was in front of and behind them, and they cried out to the LORD with the priests blasting the trumpets. 15And the men of Judah shouted, and it happened when the men of Judah shouted that God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16And the men of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. 17And Abijah and his troops struck them with a mighty blow, and the slain that fell of Israel were five hundred thousand picked men. 18And the men of Israel were brought low at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed for they relied on the LORD God of their fathers. 19And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and captured towns from him—Bethel and its hamlets and Jeshanah and its hamlets and Ephrain and its hamlets. 20And Jeroboam could not muster power again in the days of Abijah, and the LORD struck him and he died. 21And Abijah grew strong and took himself fourteen wives and begot twenty-two sons and twenty daughters. 22And the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways are written in the record of the prophet Iddo. 23And Abijah lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. And Asa his son was king in his stead. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.
CHAPTER 13 NOTES
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2. his mother’s name was Michaiah daughter of Uriel from Gibeah. 1 Kings 15:2 reports the mother to be Maachah daughter of Absalom. In fact, the rest of this chapter conveys an account of Abijah’s reign and his military activities that does not appear in Kings, and it is perhaps drawn from another source.
3. four hundred thousand warriors. As is usual, this number and the ones that follow are highly inflated.
5. a covenant of salt. The idiom suggests an irrevocable covenant.
6. his master. This strategically chosen term makes Jeroboam an underling rebelling against his legitimate master, Rehoboam, the Davidic monarch.
9. Whoever comes to consecrate himself. The illegitimate priesthood is the cultic counterpart of the illegitimate king of the northern tribes.
10. priests, sons of Aaron. The Chronicler is true to his agenda in stressing cultic purity as the chief manifestation of the legitimacy of the Judahite monarchy. This suggests that he has either composed this text himself or doctored it.
12. men of Israel. This phrase (literally, “sons of Israel”) usually means “Israelites,” but that English term might suggest the subjects of both the northern and the southern kingdoms, whereas here and below the clear reference is to the men in the forces of the northern kingdom, Israel.
15. the men of Judah shouted. This is probably a battle cry, meant to strike fear in the enemy.
20. the LORD struck him and he died. The “striking” suggests the infliction of a disease or stroke or heart attack. Such an end of Jeroboam’s life is not mentioned in Kings, but the Chronicler wants to emphasize that Jeroboam is punished for his acts.
21. grew strong. The implication is that with his military superiority assured, he had abundant time to assemble a harem and beget many children.
22. the record. The Hebrew term used is midrash, which occurs only once more in the Bible, also in Chronicles. It is an all-purpose term that can mean “expounding,” “inquiry,” and more, and it later became a set term for biblical exegesis by the early rabbis.
1And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God. 2And he removed the foreign altars and the high places and shattered the cultic pillars and hacked down the cultic poles. 3And he told Judah to seek the LORD, God of their fathers, and to do the teaching and the commands. 4And he removed the high places and the incense stands from all the towns of Judah, and the kingdom before him was quiet. 5And he built fortress towns in Judah, for the land was quiet, and he faced no war in those years, as the LORD had granted him respite. 6And he said to Judah, “Let us build up these towns and circle them with walls and towers, double doors and bolts, while the land is before us, for we sought the LORD our God. We sought, and He granted us respite all around.” And they built and prospered. 7And Asa had a force of three hundred thousand men bearing spears and shields, and from Benjamin, two hundred eighty thousand bearing bucklers and drawing the bow. All of these were valiant warriors. 8And Zerah the Cushite sallied forth with a force of a million, and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah. 9And Asa sallied forth against him, and they deployed for battle in the Valley of Zephita by Mareshah. 10And Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “O LORD, with You there is no difference whether to help the great or the powerless. Help us, LORD our God, for we have relied on You, and in Your name we have come against this multitude. Let no mortal hold You back.” 11And the LORD routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled. 12And Asa pursued them, together with the troops who were with him, as far as Gerar. And many of the Cushites fell, unable to revive, for they were broken before the LORD and before His camp. And they bore off very abundant booty. 13And they struck the towns around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD was upon them, and they plundered all the towns, for there was much to plunder in them. 14And tents of herdsmen they struck as well and captured sheep in abundance and camels. And they went back to Jerusalem.
CHAPTER 14 NOTES
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1. And Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD. The Chronicler hews to the theology of the Deuteronomistic History: Asa imposes cultic purity on Judah, and as a reward he is granted respite from his enemies and then an impressive military victory
6. while the land is before us. In context, this phrase means: while the land is at our disposal, free from the interference of invaders.
8. Zerah the Cushite. There are two peculiarities here. “Cushite” consistently refers to Nubians, and it is somewhat improbable that an expeditionary force of Nubians, whose homeland is south of Egypt, would invade Judah far to the north. Some scholars contend that there were Nubian mercenaries in the Egyptian army, but there is no mention here of Egyptians, and a mercenary would not have been put in charge of a vast military force. This Nubian general, moreover, bears a perfectly good Hebrew name. In sum, the historicity of this entire episode is doubtful. It should be said that the Book of Kings has an entirely different narrative about Asa.
12. as far as Gerar. This is a coastal town in Philistine territory.
13. And they struck the towns around Gerar. It is questionable that these towns could have been Nubian possessions. Asa’s army (if in fact this happened) does what armies sweeping everything before them generally do—it destroys, and plunders whatever in its path offers gain, regardless of whether this population is hostile.
1And the spirit of God was upon Azariah son of Oded. 2And he came out before Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him, and if you seek Him, He will be there for you. But if you abandon Him, He will abandon you. 3And for a long time Israel was without a true God and without priest and teacher and without teaching. 4And when it was in straits, it turned back to the LORD God of Israel and sought Him out, and He was there for them. 5And in those times it was unsafe for the wayfarer, for there were great upheavals for all the dwellers of the lands. 6And nation was ground against nation and town against town, for God had panicked them with every sort of distress. 7As for you, be strong and let not your hands slacken, for there are wages for your acts.” 8And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he summoned strength and took away all the digusting things from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns that he had captured from the hill country of Ephraim, and he restored the altar of the LORD that was in front of the great hall of the LORD. 9And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those sojourning with them from Ephraim and from Manasseh and from Simeon, for many of Israel had crossed over to him when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. 10And they gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s kingship. 11And they sacrificed to the LORD on that day from the plunder. They brought seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. 12And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of Israel with all their heart and with all their being. 13And whoever did not seek the LORD God of Israel would be put to death, from the least to the greatest, from man to woman. 14And they vowed to the LORD in a loud voice and with shouting and with trumpets and with ram’s horns. 15And all Judah rejoiced over the vow, for with all their heart they vowed and with all their will they sought after Him, and He was there for them. And the LORD granted them respite all around. 16And Maachah, too, King Asa’s mother, he removed from being queen mother, as she had made a horror for Asherah. And Asa cut down her horror and pulverized it and burned it in the Kidron Wadi. 17But the high places did not disappear from Israel, yet the heart of Asa was whole all his days. 18And he brought his father’s sacred things and his own sacred things to the house of God—silver and gold and vessels.
CHAPTER 15 NOTES
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2. He will be there for you. Literally, “He will be found for you.”
5. for all the dwellers of the lands. The plural “lands” implies a condition of political upheaval extending beyond the borders of Judah.
9. many of Israel had crossed over to him. That is, they switched their allegiance from the northern kingdom to Asa.
15. their will. In this context, the Hebrew ratson, which usually means “favor” or “being pleased,” appears to show the meaning it has in rabbinic Hebrew, “will.”
16. And Maachah, too. This verse and the next are the only ones in this chapter that closely reproduce textual material from the Deuteronomistic History, replicating 1 Kings 15:13–14.
17. the heart of Asa was whole all his days. 1 Kings 15:14 has “was whole with the LORD all his days,” which is more coherent, and the two missing Hebrew words may simply have been skipped in the transcription of the earlier text.
1In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s kingship Baasha went up against Judah and built Ramah so as not to allow anyone to come and go who belonged to Asa king of Judah. 2And Asa took out silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the house of the king and sent them to Ben-Hadad king of Aram who dwelled in Damascus, saying, 3“There is a pact between you and me and between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go, revoke your pact with Baasha king of Israel, that he withdraw from me.” 4And Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa and sent the commanders of the troops that he had against the towns of Israel, and he struck down Ijon and Dan and Abel-Mayim and all the storehouses of the towns of Naphtali. 5And it happened, when Baasha heard, that he left off building Ramah and brought his task to an end. 6And King Asa took all Judah, and they bore off the stones of Ramah and its timbers with which Baasha had built, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah. 7And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram and did not rely on the LORD your God, the force of the king of Aram has escaped from your hand. 8Were not the Cushites and the Lybians a vast army with very many chariots and horsemen, and because you relied on the LORD, He gave them into your hand? 9For the LORD—His eyes roam through all the earth to lend strength to those wholeheartedly with Him. You have been foolish in this, for from now on you will have wars.” 10And Asa was vexed with the seer and put him in stocks because of his anger against him over this. And Asa abused some of the people at that time. 11And, look, the early and late acts of Asa are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. 12And in the thirty-ninth year of his kingship Asa was ailing in his feet until his ailment was acute, but even in his ailment he did not seek the LORD but rather physicians. 13And Asa lay with his fathers, and he died in the forty-first year of his reign. 14And they buried him in his tomb that he had dug in the City of David, and they laid him out in his resting place, which was filled with spices of various kinds compounded by the perfumer’s art, and they lit a very great fire for him.
CHAPTER 16 NOTES
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1. Baasha went up against Judah. The passage from here through verse 6 reproduces 1 Kings 15:17–22 with only minor changes. See the comments there.
7. Hanani the seer. Although he is mentioned in 1 Kings, there is no report there of this extended prophetic exhortation.
8. the Cushites and the Lybians. The historical reference of this invasion from Africa of Nubians and Lybians is elusive.
10. And Asa abused some of the people at that time. The most plausible reason for his acting harshly (the literal sense of the verb is “to shatter”) toward these people is that they somehow expressed support for Hanani’s castigation of the king.
11. the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. Since the common designation, “the book of the acts” is not used, this is in all likelihood a reference not to royal annals but to the text we call the Book of Kings.
12. ailing in his feet. See the comment on 1 Kings 15:23.
14. filled with spices of various kinds. The obvious motive would be to mask the odor of the corpse in its early stages of decomposition. This detail does not appear in 1 Kings 15.
they lit a very great fire for him. This is not, strictly speaking, a funeral pyre, because cremation was not practiced in ancient Israel. One infers that it was a grand public gesture of commemoration, celebrating the life of a person regarded, at least by some, as a great and virtuous king.
1And Jehoshaphat his son was king in his stead, and he became strong over Israel. 2And he stationed forces in all the fortified towns of Judah and stationed garrisons in the land of Judah and in the towns of Ephraim that Asa his father had captured. 3And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, for he walked in the former ways of David his father and did not seek the Baalim, 4but the God of his fathers he sought and by His commands he walked, not like the acts of Israel. 5And the LORD made the kingship firm in his hand, and all Judah offered tribute to Jehoshaphat, and he had wealth and honor in abundance. 6And his heart was exalted in the ways of the LORD, and what is more, he removed the high places and the cultic poles from Judah. 7In the third year of his kingship he sent out to his commanders Ben-Hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethaneel and Michaiah to teach in the towns of Judah. 8And with them were the Levites Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tob-Adonijah, the Levites, and with them Elishama and Jehoram, the priests. 9And they taught in Judah, and with them was the book of the LORD’s teaching, and they went round in all the towns of Judah and taught among the people. 10And the terror of the LORD was upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round Judah, and they did not do battle with Jehoshaphat. 11And from the Philistines they were bringing tribute to Jehoshaphat, tribute of loads of silver. The Arabs, too, were bringing him flocks—seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred he-goats. 12And Jehoshaphat grew greater and greater, and he built fortress towns and storehouse towns in Judah. 13And he had vast tasks in the towns of Judah, and men of war, valiant warriors, in Jerusalem. 14And this was their muster by their patriarchal houses in Judah, over the commanders of the thousands Adnah was commander, and with him were three hundred thousand valiant warriors. 15And by him was Jehohanan the commander, and with him were two hundred eighty thousand. 16And by him was Amasiah son of Zichri the commander, who answered the call for the LORD, and with him were two hundred thousand valiant warriors. 17And from Benjamin: Eliada the valiant warrior, and with him armed with bow and buckler two hundred thousand. 18And by him Jehozabad, and with him were a hundred eighty thousand vanguard fighters. 19These were the ones ministering to the king besides those the king had stationed in the fortress towns throughout Judah.
CHAPTER 17 NOTES
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1. over Israel. The designation “Israel” here for what appears to be the southern kingdom of Judah may reflect later usage, when there was no longer a northern kingdom and “Israel” came to refer to all that was left. Alternately, the preposition here could also mean “against,” in which case the report of fortifications that follows would indicate Jehoshaphat’s consolidating military strength against his northern rival.
4. not like the acts of Israel. Here the reference must be to the northern kingdom, viewed by the Judahite establishment as idolatrous. This might lend support to construing the phrase in verse 1 as “against Israel.”
9. the book of the LORD’s teaching. This could be Deuteronomy (although, in historical terms, it was not actually written yet) or the Five Books of Moses.
14. And this was their muster. As repeatedly elsewhere, the Chronicler gives way to his propensity for providing roll-call lists, perhaps out of a sense that the catalogues of names were necessary to authenticate his narrative.
three hundred thousand valiant warriors. The total number of fighting men is over a million, many times the number of troops that Judah mustered at any point in its history. As elsewhere, numerical hyperbole is in full display.
19. These were the ones ministering to the king. The sense is that these were the troops stationed in Jerusalem. Many others, as indicated, were deployed in the fortress towns throughout the kingdom.
1And Jehoshaphat had wealth and honor in abundance, and he married into the family of Ahab. 2And he went down at the end of some years to Ahab in Samaria, and Ahab slaughtered sheep and cattle in abundance for him and for the people with him, and he enticed him to go up to Ramoth-Gilead. 3And Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me to Ramoth-Gilead?” And he said to him, “I am like you, my people like your people in battle.” 4And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Inquire, pray, this day, the word of the LORD.” 5And the king of Israel gathered the prophets, four hundred men, and he said to them, “Shall we go against Ramoth-Gilead for battle, or shall I desist?” And they said, “Go up, that God may give it into the king’s hand.” 6And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there still here any prophet of the LORD, that we might inquire of him?” 7And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man through whom to inquire of the LORD, but I hate him, for he does not prophesy good about me but all his days, evil. He is Michaiah son of Imla.” And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say thus.” 8And the king of Israel called to a certain eunuch and said, “Hurry here Micaiah son of Imla.” 9And the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were each sitting on his throne dressed in royal garb, sitting on the threshing floor at the entrance gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them. 10And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah made himself iron horns and said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until you destroy them.’” 11And all the prophets were prophesying thus, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-Gilead and prosper, and the LORD shall give it into the hand of the king.” 12And the messenger who had gone to call Michaiah spoke to him, saying, “Look, the words of the prophets with one mouth are good for the king. Let your word, pray, be like one of them, and you should speak good things.” 13And Michaiah said, “As the LORD lives, that which my God says will I speak.” 14And he came to the king, and the king said to him, “Michaiah, shall we go up to Ramoth-Gilead to battle, or shall I refrain?” and he said to him, “Go up and prosper, and they shall be given into your hand.” 15And the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear that you shall speak to me only truth in the name of the LORD?” 16And he said, “I saw all Israel scattered over the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each go back home in peace.’” 17And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not say to you that he will not prophesy good about me but evil?” 18And he said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne with all the army of the heavens standing in attendance at His right hand and His left. 19And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel, that he go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead?’ And one said this way and one said another way. 20And a spirit came out and stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ And the LORD said to him, ‘How?’ 21And it said, ‘I will go out and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And he said, ‘You shall entice and you shall also prevail. Go forth and thus do.’ 22And now, look, the LORD has placed a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets, but the LORD has spoken evil against you.” 23And Zedekiah son of Chenaanah approached and struck Michaiah on the cheek and said, “In what way has the spirit of the LORD passed from me to speak to you?” 24And Michaiah said, “You are about to see on that day when you will enter the innermost chamber to hide.” 25And the king of Israel said, “Take Michaiah and bring him back to Amon the commander of the town and to Joash the king’s son. 26And say, ‘Thus said the king: Put this fellow in the prison-house and feed him meager bread and meager water until I return safe and sound.” 27And Michaiah said, “If you really return safe and sound, the LORD has not spoken through me.” 28And the king of Israel went up, and Jehoshaphat king of Judah with him, to Ramoth-Gilead. 29And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle, but you, don your royal garb.” 30And the king of Aram had charged his chariot commanders, saying, “You shall battle against neither small nor great but against the king of Israel alone.” 31And it happened, when the commanders of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, “He must be the king of Israel,” and they swerved against him to do battle. And Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD aided him, and God drew them away from him. 32And it happened, when the commanders of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from him. 33And a man drew the bow unwitting and struck the king of Israel between the joints of the armor. And he said to the charioteer, “Turn back your hand and take me out of the fray, for I am wounded.” 34And the battle surged on that day, and the king of Israel was propped up in the chariot facing Aram till evening, and he died as the sun went down.
CHAPTER 18 NOTES
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3. And Ahab king of Israel said. Everything from this point to the end of the chapter replicates 1 Kings 22:3–35, with only a few minor variations. Readers are referred to the commentary on the parallel passage in Kings.
31. God drew them away from him. 1 Kings 22 has no report of divine intervention, and the Arameans’ recognition that this is not Ahab (verse 32) makes such intervention unnecessary. The verb in the received text, wayesitem, means “enticed them,” but several ancient versions show wayesirem, “drew them away” or “removed them.”
34. the king of Israel was propped up in the chariot. 1 Kings 22:35 has his blood pooling on the floor of the chariot, a detail the Chronicler chooses to omit.
1And Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his house in Jerusalem. 2And Jehu the seer son of Hanani went out to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Would you aid the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? For this there is fury against you from before the LORD. 3Yet good things are found with you, for you rooted out the cultic poles from the land and readied your heart to seek God.” 4And Jehoshaphat dwelled in Jerusalem, and he went out among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim and led them back to the LORD God of their fathers. 5And he stationed judges in the land in all the fortified towns of Judah, in every single town. 6And he said to the judges, “See to what you are doing, for not for the sake of humankind do you judge but for the sake of the LORD, and He is with you in matters of judgment. 7And now, may the fear of the LORD be upon you. Watch and do, for there is no injustice or favoritism or bribe taking with the LORD our God.” 8And in Jerusalem as well Jehoshaphat stationed the Levites and the priests and some of the patriarchal chiefs of Israel for the LORD’s judgment and for disputes. And they came back to Jerusalem. 9And he charged them, saying, “Thus shall you do—in the fear of the LORD, in good faith, and with a whole heart. 10And any dispute that may come to you from your brothers dwelling in their towns, whether about bloodshed or about the teaching, the commands, the statutes, or the laws, you shall warn them so that they do not incur guilt to the LORD and fury come upon you and your brothers. Thus shall you do and you shall not incur guilt. 11And, look, Amariah the high priest is over you for every matter of the LORD and Zebadiah son of Ishmael the prince of the house of Judah for every matter of the king, and the Levites are before you. Act firmly, and may the LORD be with him who is good.”
CHAPTER 19 NOTES
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1. And Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned safely to his house. There is no counterpart in Kings to the material in this chapter. The subject matter interests the Chronicler, whether he culled it from an old source or composed it, because it involves administrative details of the monarchy and a judicial bureaucracy in which the Levites and the priests play a role.
2. Would you aid the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Given what has immediately preceded in the narrative, the probable reference of Jehu’s words of denunciation is to the recent alliance with Ahab, a northern monarch who easily qualifies to be called “wicked.”
3. Yet good things are found with you. Jehoshaphat, despite his ill-considered alliance with the nefarious Ahab, has, after all, devoted himself to purging pagan practices in Judah.
7. there is no injustice or favoritism or bribe taking with the LORD our God. In the legislation against these practices in the Torah, the grounds are that they constitute wrongdoing and exploitation in the social and legal realm. Here, however, the rationale is ultimately theological: God in His divine perfection constitutes the absolute standard of justice—“not for the sake of humankind do you judge but for the sake of the LORD” (verse 6)—to which we must aspire.
8. for the LORD’s judgment and for disputes. Some scholars think that the former term here refers to cultic regulations and the latter to what we would call torts. This proposal may be questioned because as has just been made clear in verses 6–7, all legal issues ultimately refer to God. The two terms here, then, may be virtually synonymous or even a hendiadys.
11. And, look, Amariah … is over you for every matter of the LORD and Zebadiah … for every matter of the king. The division is not between cultic and secular but rather between general laws, which include items governing moral behavior and social and economic justice, all assumed to be God’s commands, and matters having to do with the obligations of the populace to the monarchy. Given the reference to going out to the towns in the preceding verse, it may be that Amariah and Zebadiah were thought to preside over a court of appeals in Jerusalem.
1And it happened afterward that the Moabites and the Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat to do battle. 2And [people] came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude has come against you from the other side of the sea, from Edom, and here they are in Hazazron-Tamar, which is Ein-Gedi. 3And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned to inquire of the LORD and proclaimed a fast for all Judah. 4And Judah gathered to seek the LORD, even from all the towns of Judah did they come to seek the LORD. 5And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah in the house of the LORD in front of the New Court. 6And he said, “O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens, and You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand are power and might, and none can stand up against You? 7Have not You, O our God, dispossessed the dwellers of this land before Your people Israel and have given it forever to the seed of Abraham who loved you? 8And they settled within it and built in it for You a sanctuary for Your name, saying, 9‘If evil comes upon us, sword or flood or pestilence or famine, we shall stand before this house and before You, for Your name is in this house, and cry out to You from our straits, and You will listen and rescue.’ 10And now, look, the Ammonites and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You did not let Israel come among them when they came from the land of Egypt, for they swerved away from them and did not destroy them—11and, look, they are paying us back by coming to drive us out of our inheritance that You gave us. 12Our God, will You not judge against them? For we have no strength before this great multitude coming against us, and we do not know what we should do, for our eyes are upon You.” 13And all Judah were standing before the LORD, their little ones, their wives, and their children, too. 14And the spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah son of Benaiah son of Jeiel son of Mattaniah the Levite of the sons of Asaph in the assembly. 15And he said, “Listen closely, all Judah and dwellers of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus said the LORD of you: You, do not fear and do not be terrified by this great multitude, for not yours is the battle but God’s. 16Tomorrow, go down against them. They are about to come up the Ascent of Ziz, and you shall encounter them at the end of the wadi facing the wilderness of Jeruel. 17It is not for you to do this battle. Take your stance, stand still, and see God’s rescue of you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not fear and do not be terrified. Tomorrow sally forth before them, and the LORD will be with you.” 18And Jehoshaphat bowed, face to the ground, and all Judah and the dwellers of Jerusalem prostrated themselves before the LORD to bow down to the LORD. 19And the Levites, of the Kohathites and of the Korahites, arose to praise the LORD God of Israel in a very loud voice. 20And they awoke early in the morning and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa, and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and dwellers of Jerusalem. Trust in the LORD your God and staunchly trust in His prophets and prosper.” 21And he counseled with the troops and stationed choristers for the LORD and praise-sayers for the holy majesty as they went out before the vanguard, saying,
“Acclaim the LORD,
for His kindness is forever.”
22And as they were beginning with glad song and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the Ammonites and Moab and Mount Seir who were coming to Judah, and they were routed. 23And the Ammonites and Moab stood against the dwellers of Mount Seir to wipe them out and to destroy them, and when they had finished off the dwellers of Seir, each aided his brother to destroy his fellow. 24And Judah had come to Mizpah, to the wilderness, and they turned to the multitude, and there they were, corpses fallen to the ground, and there were no survivors. 25And Jehoshaphat and his troops came to plunder their booty, and they found among them in abundance possessions and garments and precious vessels, and they despoiled them beyond carrying, and three days were they plundering the booty, for it was great. 26And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Blessing, for there they had blessed the LORD. Therefore have they called the name of the place the Valley of Blessing to this day. 27And all the men of Judah and Jerusalem came back with Jehoshaphat at their head to come back to Jerusalem in rejoicing, for the LORD had given them joy over their enemies. 28And they came to Jerusalem with lutes and with lyres and with trumpets to the house of the LORD. 29And the terror of the LORD was upon all the kingdoms of the lands where they heard that the LORD had done battle with Israel’s enemies. 23And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was peaceful, and his God granted him respite all around. 31And Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he was king in Jerusalem twenty-five years. And his mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. 32And he went in the way of his father Asa and did not turn away from it, to do what was right in the eyes of the LORD. 33Only the high places were not removed, and the people still did not ready their heart for the God of their fathers. 34And the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, early and late, are written in the records of Jehu son of Hanani, which are included in the book of the kings of Israel. 35And afterward Jehoshaphat joined forces with Ahaziah king of Israel—he acted wickedly. 36And he joined forces with him to build ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-Geber. 37And Eliezer son of Dodavah from Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “As you have joined forces with Ahaziah, the LORD shall wreck what you have made.” And the ships were broken up and were unable to go to Tarshish.
CHAPTER 20 NOTES
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1. the Meunites. The Masoretic Text has “the Ammonites,” which cannot be right because the Ammonites have already been mentioned. The Septuagint shows “Meunites,” although the precise identification of this people remains uncertain. This entire narrative of a victory over forces invading from east of the Jordan and from the Dead Sea, through verse 30 here, does not appear in Kings.
2. from the other side of the sea. The sea in question is the Dead Sea, referred to in Hebrew as the Salt Sea.
6. are You not God in the heavens. The Chronicler is careful to make his Jehoshaphat theologically correct, invoking God’s omnipotence as he pleads for help in this hour of national distress.
10. Mount Seir. This is obviously an ellipsis for “the inhabitants of Mount Seir,” which was a central site for the Edomites, still another trans-Jordanian people, but not mentioned in the report in verse 1.
11. they are paying us back. This is sarcastic because the Israelites had refrained from attacking these peoples on their way into the land of Israel.
22. as they were beginning with glad song and praise. The picture that emerges is an odd one, though framed to make a theological point: the kingdom of Judah, ominously threatened by a large invading force, exhibits not grave concern but exultation because of the people’s confidence that, in the words from Psalms just sung by the Levites, God’s “kindness [also, loyalty] is forever,” and He will grant them victory.
the LORD set ambushes. This is a crucial, if tricky, moment in the report of the victory. Evidently, what happened was that Jehoshaphat’s army managed to defeat a force of superior numbers by trapping it in ambushes. Since this is a strategy of cunning, not dependent on a frontal assault against the enemy, it is attributed to God, presumed to have inspired the Judahites with the military wisdom to set the ambushes.
23. And the Ammonites and Moab stood against the dwellers of Mount Seir. Evidently, the alliance was a fragile one. Perhaps the Ammonites and the Moabites thought that it was the dwellers of Mount Seir who had led them into the Judahite trap, and so they turned against them.
each aided his brother to destroy his fellow. The dwellers of Mount Seir having been destroyed, a general sense of distrust and dissent broke out in the ranks of the invaders, and they began to slaughter each other. Such panic and confusion among enemy troops are regularly ascribed in the Bible to God’s intervention.
25. garments. The received text reads “corpses,” which does not make sense in a list of objects of plunder. Some Hebrew manuscripts have begadim, “garments,” a reading also reflected in three ancient versions and followed in this translation.
30. And the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was peaceful. The period of peace is attributed to this dramatic victory over the invaders from the east, which is imagined to persuade the surrounding countries that Judah cannot be attacked because it is protected by its God.
31. And Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. At this point, the Chronicler picks up the narrative of Jehoshaphat’s reign from 1 Kings 22:41–49.
34. the book of the kings of Israel. This text cannot be canonical Book of Kings or court annals because it incorporates the writings of Jehu the seer. This could be an old document available to the Chronicler, or it could be his invention.
36. to build ships to go to Tarshish. This appears to be based on a mistaken understanding of “Tarshish ships” by the Chronicler. Tarshish was a destination far to the west in the Mediterranean, and ships built in Ezion-Geber, which is on the Gulf of Akabah far to the south of the land of Israel, could not possibly sail there. “Tarshish ships” probably refers not to the destination of the ships but to a type of craft constructed for long voyages.
37. As you have joined forces with Ahaziah, the LORD shall wreck what you have made. All that is said in 1 Kings 22:49 is that the ships were broken up—perhaps, exposed to a fierce storm after their construction. The Chronicler on his part feels the need to introduce a theological explanation: Jehoshaphat’s joint venture with Ahaziah proves to be ill fated because it was wrong—“he acted wickedly”—for him to enter into any sort of alliance with Ahaziah, the son of the evil King Ahab.
1And Jehoshaphat lay with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David, and Jehoram his son was king in his stead. 2And he had brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah and Jehiel and Zechariah and Uzziah and Michael and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. 3And their father gave them many gifts of silver and of gold and of valuables together with the fortified towns in Judah, but the kingship he gave to Jehoram, for he was the firstborn. 4And Jehoram rose up over his father’s kingdom and grew strong and killed all his brothers by the sword and also some of the commanders of Israel. 5Thirty-two years old was Jehoram when he became king, and eight years he was king in Jerusalem. 6And he went in the ways of the kings of Israel as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was wife to him. And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. 7But the LORD did not want to destroy the house of David because of the covenant that He had sealed with David, and as He had said to grant him and his sons a lamp for all time. 8In his days did Edom rebel from under the hand of Judah, and they set a king over themselves. 9And Jehoram crossed over with his commanders and with all his chariots, and it happened as he arose in the night, the Edomites surrounding him struck him and the chariot commanders. 10And Edom has rebelled from under the hand of Judah until this day. Then did Libnah rebel at that time from under his hand, for he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers. 11He also made high places in the hill country of Judah and led the dwellers of Israel to go whoring and made Judah stray. 12And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, “Thus said the LORD God of David your father: Because you have not gone in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father and in the ways of Asa king of Judah, 13but you went in the ways of the kings of Israel and led the dwellers of Jerusalem to go whoring as the house of Ahab led them to go whoring, and even your brothers of your father’s house, who were better than you, did you kill, 14the LORD is about to afflict your people and your wives and all your possessions with a great plague. 15And as for you, you will be stricken with great illnesses, with illness of the bowels, till your bowels come out because of the illness after days upon days.” 16And the LORD stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabs who were alongside the Cushites. 17And they came up against Judah and breached into it and captured all the possessions that were in the house of the king and also his sons and his wives, and there was left him no son except Jehoahaz the youngest of his sons. 18And after all this the LORD afflicted him in his bowels with an incurable illness. 19And it happened as the days passed, at the end of two years, that his bowels came out because of his illness and he died in terrible throes; and they did not light a fire for him like the fire for his fathers. 20Thirty-two years old he was when he became king, and eight years he was king in Jerusalem, and he went off in unseemly fashion, and they buried him in the City of David but not in the tombs of the kings.
CHAPTER 21 NOTES
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2. And he had brothers. Most of the material in this chapter does not appear in 2 Kings 8, the parallel chapter on Jehoram. The one exception is the passage from verse 5 to verse 10, which corresponds to 2 Kings 8:17–22.
Uzziah. The Masoretic Text has “Azariah,” already mentioned. This translation adopts a proposed emendation.
4. Jehoram rose up over his father’s kingdom and grew strong and killed all his brothers. The murder of his brothers is a means of consolidating his “strength,” his position on the throne. Fratricide for this reason is all too common in the historical record of royal houses in many kingdoms.
9. the Edomites surrounding him struck him. The received text says that he struck the Edomites, but the context makes clear that the opposite was the case. See the explanatory note on 2 Kings 8:21.
11. led the dwellers of Israel to go whoring. “Whoring” is the standard metaphor for idol worship in biblical usage.
12. And a letter came to him from Elijah the prophet. The letter is surely fictitious. It is unlikely that Elijah was still alive at this point, and the stories about him are all concerned with his confronting the royal house of the northern kingdom, not Judah. There is also no indication elsewhere that prophets used written correspondence to castigate kings. Elijah was no doubt introduced because he figures as the implacable castigator of the vices of Israelite kings.
15. illness of the bowels. Jehoram’s death by a ghastly intestinal disorder is absent from Kings. It may be that the Chronicler drew on a source that reported this painful and humiliating end, which the writer in Kings felt was indecorous to include.
20. he went off in unseemly fashion. The meaning of the Hebrew adverbial phrase is uncertain. It would seem to mean, literally, “without desire.” Some propose the sense is “unlamented” or “unpraised,” without much philological warrant.
1And the dwellers of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his stead, for the band that had come into the camp with the Arabs had killed all the older ones, and Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah. 2Forty-two years old was Ahaziah when he became king, and one year was he king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Athaliah daughter of Omri. 3He, too, went in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother would counsel him to act wickedly. 4And he did evil in the eyes of the LORD like the house of Ahab, for they were councillors to him after his father’s death to his ruination. 5By their counsel, too, did he go, and he went with Jehoram son of Ahab to battle against Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-Gilead, and the Arameans struck Jehoram. 6And he turned back to heal in Jezreel from the wounds they had inflicted in him at Ramah, and Ahaziah son of Jehoram king of Judah came down to see Jehoram son of Ahab in Jezreel, for he was failing. 7And the defeat of Ahaziah was from God for coming to Jehoram. And when he came, he went out with Jehoram to Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab. 8And it happened when Jehu was carrying out judgment against the house of Ahab, that he found the commanders of Judah and Ahaziah’s nephews ministering to Ahaziah, and he killed them. 9And they searched for Ahaziah and captured him when he was hiding in Samaria, and they brought him to Jehu and he was put to death. And they buried him, for they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart.” But there was no one in the house of Ahaziah to muster strength for the kingship. 10When Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed of the house of Judah. 11And Jehosheba, the king’s daughter, took Joash, Ahaziah’s son, and stole him away from the king’s sons who had been put to death, and she put him and his nurse in the bedchamber and hid him. Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram, wife of Jehoiada the priest hid him from Athaliah, for she was Ahaziah’s sister, and they did not put him to death. 12And he was with them hiding in the house of God six years, while Athaliah reigned over the land.
CHAPTER 22 NOTES
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2. Forty-two years old was Ahaziah. This is clearly a mistake because that would make him two years older than his father. 2 Kings 8:26 gives his age as twenty-two.
6. Ahaziah. The received text erroneously has “Azariah,” but some Hebrew manuscripts and three ancient versions read “Ahaziah.”
9. they brought him to Jehu and he was put to death. The account in 2 Kings 9 differs somewhat in its report of Ahaziah’s execution.
10. she arose and destroyed all the royal seed of the house of Judah. The Masoretic Text has “she spoke with all the royal seed.” Some Hebrew manuscripts have instead of the Masoretic watedaber the verb wateʾabed, “she destroyed.” It may be that the Chronicler was so horrified by the spectacle of the queen mother murdering her grandchildren that he substituted a more innocuous term. Verses 10–12 closely follow 2 Kings 11:1–3, and readers may consult the commentary on those verses in Kings.
1And in the seventh year Jehoiada gained strength and took the commanders of the hundreds, Azariah son of Jeroham and Ishmael son of Jehohanan and Azariah son of Obed and Maaseiah son of Adaiah and Elishaphat son of Zichri into a pact with him. 2And they went round through Judah and gathered together the Levites from all the towns of Judah and the patriarchal chiefs of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem. 3And all the assembly sealed a pact with the king in the house of God. And he said, “Look, the king’s son shall be king as the LORD spoke concerning the sons of David. 4This is the thing that you must do: a third of you, who of the priests and of the Levites begin your weekly duty, shall be for the gatekeepers of the thresholds, 5and a third in the king’s house, and a third at the Foundation Gate, and all the people shall be in the courts of the house of the LORD. 6And none shall enter the house of the LORD except the priests and those ministering to the Levites. They may enter, for they are holy. And all the people shall keep the LORD’s watch. 7And the Levites shall draw round the king, every man with his weapon in hand, and whosoever enters the house shall be put to death. And be you with the king when he comes in and when he goes out.” 8And the Levites and all Judah did as all that Jehoiada the priest had charged, and each took his men, those beginning their weekly duty with those finishing their weekly duty, for Jehoiada had not dismissed the divisions. 9And Jehoiada the priest gave the commanders of the hundreds the spears and the shields and the bucklers that were King David’s, which were in the house of God. 10And he stationed all the people, each man with his weapon in his hand, from the south corner of the house to the north corner of the house, by the altar and by the house, all round the king. 11And they brought out the prince and put the crown and the regalia on him, and they made him king. And Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, “Long live the king.” 12And Athaliah heard the sound of the people and the sentries and those praising the king, and she came to the people at the house of the LORD. 13And she saw, and, look, the king was standing by his pillar at the entrance, and the commanders and the trumpets were by the king, and all the people of the land were rejoicing and blowing the trumpets, and the choristers were with instruments of song, proclaiming to praise. And Athaliah rent her garments and said, “A plot, a plot!” 14And Jehoiada the priest brought out the commanders of the hundreds, the mustered men of the force, and said to them, “Take her out from the colonnades, and whoever comes after her by the sword shall be put to death,” for the priest said, “Let her not be put to death in the house of the LORD.” 15And they locked hands around her, and she came by way of the Horse Gate to the king’s house. 16And Jehoiada made a pact between him and all the people to be a people of the LORD. 17And all the people came to the house of Baal and shattered it and smashed its altars and its images, and Mattan the priest they killed in front of the altar. 18And Jehoiada appointed guards in the house of the LORD in the hands of the priests and the Levites whom David had placed over the house of the LORD to offer up burnt offerings to the LORD as written in the teaching of Moses, in rejoicing and in song, as ordained by David. 19And he stationed gatekeepers over the gates of the house of the LORD, that no person unclean in any respect should enter. 20And he took the commanders of the hundreds and the leaders and the rulers of the people and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the house of the LORD, and they came in through the Upper Gate of the king’s house and seated the king on the throne of the kingdom. 21And all the people of the land rejoiced, while the town was quiet. And Athaliah they had put to death by the sword.
CHAPTER 23 NOTES
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1. And in the seventh year. This report of the coronation of Joash and the overthrow and execution of his murderous grandmother corresponds closely to 2 Kings 11:4–20, with only minor divergences in wording. The names of the commanders in this verse, for example, do not appear in 2 Kings 11, but their inclusion is in keeping with the Chronicler’s concern with listing names. Readers may consult the commentary on 2 Kings 11.
2. And they went round through Judah. In Kings, the plot against Athaliah is organized within Jerusalem. Mustering support throughout the kingdom may reflect the Chronicler’s desire to show that the nation as a whole took part.
4. a third of you. The arrangement by thirds as stipulated in Kings is somewhat confusing, and the Chronicler does a certain amount of rewording in an effort—not particularly successful—to clarify the maneuver.
6. And none shall enter the house of the LORD except the priests and those ministering to the Levites. This detail is added to the account taken from Kings in accordance with the concern in Chronicles for sacerdotal purity.
1Seven years old was Joash when he became king, and forty years he was king in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Zibiah from Beersheba. 2And Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest. 3And Jehoiada took for himself two wives, and he begat sons and daughters. 4And it happened afterward that Joash thought to restore the house of the LORD. 5And he gathered the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the towns of Judah and gather from all Israel silver to repair the house of your God from one year to the next. As for you, hurry in this matter.” But the Levites did not hurry. 6And the king called to Jehoiada the head and said to him, “Why did you not demand of the Levites to bring from Judah and from Jerusalem the impost fixed by Moses servant of the LORD and the assembly for Israel for the Tent of Meeting? 7For wicked Athaliah and her sons had breached the house of God and even rendered all the sacred things of the house of the LORD to the Baalim.” 8And the king spoke, and they made a certain chest and set it in the gate of the house of the LORD on the outside. 9And they made a proclamation in Judah and Jerusalem to bring to the LORD the impost fixed by Moses servant of God over Israel in the wilderness. 10And all the commanders and all the people rejoiced and brought it and flung it into the chest till it was full. 11And it happened whenever the chest was brought for the king’s inspection by the Levites and they saw that there was abundant silver, the king’s scribe would come with the official of the high priest and empty the chest and bear it off and return it to its place. Thus did they do day after day, and the silver was collected in abundance. 12And the king and Jehoiada gave it to those doing the tasks of the work for the house of the LORD, and they hired masons and carpenters to renovate the house of the LORD and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD. 13And those performing the tasks did them, and the task went well in their hands, and they put the house of God in its proper form and made it sound. 14And when they finished, they brought the remaining silver before the king and Jehoiada, and they made it into vessels for the house of the LORD, vessels for ministering and pails and ladles and vessels of gold and silver, and they offered up burnt offerings in the house of the LORD perpetually, all the days of Jehoiada. 15And Jehoiada grew old and sated with days, and he died, a hundred thirty years old he was when he died. 16And they buried him in the City of David with the kings, for he had done good in Israel and with God and with His house. 17And after the death of Jehoiada the commanders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king heeded them. 18And they abandoned the house of the LORD God of their fathers and served the cultic poles and the idols, and there was fury against Judah and Jerusalem because of this guilt of theirs. 19And He sent among them prophets to turn them back to the LORD and they warned them, but they did not listen. 20And the spirit of God invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, and he stood over the people and said to them, “Thus said God: Why are you transgressing the LORD’s command when you will not prosper? For you have abandoned the LORD, and He will abandon you.” 21And they plotted against him and stoned him by the king’s command in the court of the house of the LORD. 22And King Joash did not recall the kindness that Jehoiada his father had showed him, but he killed Jehoiada’s son, who as he was dying said, “Let the LORD see and seek it out.” 23And it happened at the turn of the year that the force of Aram came up against him, and they came to Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the commanders of the people and sent all that was plundered from them to the king of Damascus. 24For the force of Aram had come with few men, but the LORD gave a very large force into their hands, for they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. And against Joash they exacted punishment. 25And when they went off, for they left him with grievous wounds, his servants plotted against him because of the bloodshed of the son of Jehoiada the priest, and they killed him in his bed. He died, and they buried him in the City of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26And these were the plotters against him: Zabed son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. 27As to his sons and the many declarations against him and the renovation of the house of the LORD, they are written in the elaboration of the book of kings. And Amaziah his son was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 24 NOTES
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1. Seven years old was Joash when he became king. While this initial formula is the same as the beginning of 2 Kings 12, most of the material here is different from that in Kings. The chapter in Kings does include the story of the chest with the hole or slot for putting in silver, but even in that instance many of the details diverge.
5. But the Levites did not hurry. There is no indication in Kings of this delay by the Levites. It is hard to see how such a detail would serve the agenda of the Chronicler, so one may assume that he was drawing on a source that reported this behavior.
7. For wicked Athaliah and her sons had breached the house of God. In the account in Kings, she figures only as a ruthless murderer. The Chronicler adds to this condemnation the crime of her violating the sanctity of the Temple by introducing pagan worship there.
10. rejoiced and brought it. The sense might be, joyfully brought it.
14. vessels of gold and silver. Evidently, some of the donated silver was set aside to purchase gold, which was then used for fashioning some of the sacred vessels.
15. a hundred thirty years old he was when he died. As a rule, such notations of extravagant longevity are not used after the patriarchs and Moses (who made it to 120, an age that would become proverbial in Hebrew and Yiddish): the Chronicler evidently wanted to enhance Jehoiada’s stature as a supremely virtuous character.
18. And they abandoned the house of the LORD God of their fathers and served the cultic poles and the idols. This turning of Joash to paganism after the death of his mentor Jehoiada is not reported in Kings. The version in Kings does provide an account of Joash’s murder by conspirators, but only here—on what historical basis we cannot know—is it said that he was killed in vengeance for having ordered the death of Jehoiada’s son Zechariah.
22. he killed Jehoiada’s son. The Hebrew says only “he killed his son,” but the name has been added in the translation to avoid the suggestion that Joash might have killed his own son.
25. they left him with grievous wounds. Presumably, the weakened condition of the wounded Joash made him an easy mark for the assassins.
26. Zabed son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. The fact that both assassins had foreign mothers may have meant that they had fewer compunctions about killing a Judahite king.
27. the elaboration. The Hebrew is the multiple-purpose term midrash. It probably does not mean “commentary” here (its common later signification), and since it clearly contains narrative material, a sense such as “elaboration” seems plausible.
1Twenty-five years old was Amaziah when he became king, and twenty-nine years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD but not with a whole heart. 3And it happened when his kingship was firmly in his grasp that he killed his servants who had struck down the king his father. 4But their sons he did not put to death, for as it is written in the Teaching, in the Book of Moses as the LORD charged, saying, “Fathers shall not die over sons, and sons shall not die over fathers, but each man shall die for his own offense.” 5And Amaziah gathered Judah and set them out by patriarchal houses with the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin, and he counted them from twenty years old upward and found them to be three hundred thousand picked men mustered to the army, wielding spear and shield. 6And he hired from Israel one hundred thousand valiant warriors with a hundred talents of silver. 7And a man of God came to him, saying, “O king, let not the army of Israel come with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all the Ephraimites. 8But you yourself, come, do it, be strong for battle, [else] God will make you stumble before the enemy, for there is power in God to aid or to make stumble.” 9And Amaziah said to the man of God, “And what is to be done about the hundred talents that I have given to the Israelite troop?” And the man of God said, “God can give you much more than this.” 10And Amaziah set apart the troop that had come to him from Ephraim in order for them to go back to their place, and their anger against Judah flared up fiercely, and they returned to their place in flaring anger. 11And Amaziah gathered strength and led his troops, and he went to Salt Valley and struck down ten thousand Seirites. 12And the Judahites captured ten thousand alive and brought them to the Rock and flung them from the top of the Rock, and they were all dashed to pieces. 13And the members of the troop whom Amaziah turned back from going with him to battle raided the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon and struck down from them three thousand and plundered abundant booty. 14And it happened after Amaziah had come from striking down the Edomites that he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up for himself as gods and bowed down before them, and to them he would burn incense. 15And the LORD’s anger flared against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet. And he said to him, “Why did you seek out the gods of the people who did not save the people from your hand?” 16And it happened as he spoke to him that he said to him, “Have they made you a councillor to the king? Cease! Why should they strike you down?” And he said, “For God has counseled to destroy you, for you have done this and not heeded my counsel.” 17And Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel, saying, “Come let us face each other down.” 18And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle which is in Lebanon sent to the cedar which is in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as wife,’ and the beast of the field which is in Lebanon came by and trampled the thistle. 19You thought, you have struck down Edom, but you are carried away by your own heart to gain glory. Now, stay in your house. Why should you provoke evil and fall, you and Judah with you?” 20But Amaziah did not heed, for it was from God in order to give him into his hand, for he had sought out the gods of Edom. 21And Joash king of Israel came up, and they faced each other down, and Amaziah king of Judah was in Beth-Shemesh which is Judah’s. 22And Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his tent. 23But Joash caught Amaziah son of Joash son of Jehoahaz in Beth-Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem and breached the wall from the Gate of Ephraim as far as the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits. 24And [he took] all the gold and the silver and the vessels that were found in the house of God in charge of Obed-Edom and the treasuries of the king’s house and the hostages, and he went back to Samaria. 25And Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. 26And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, early and late, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? 27And from the time Amaziah swerved away from the LORD, they hatched a plot against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, and they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there. 28And they bore him off on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.
CHAPTER 25 NOTES
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1. Twenty-five years old was Amaziah. From here to the end of verse 4 is a replication, with minor changes, of 2 Kings 14:1–6. Verse 11 reproduces 2 Kings 14:7, and verses 17–28 pick up 2 Kings 14:8–20. Readers are referred to the commentary on 2 Kings 14 for all this material.
6. And he hired from Israel one hundred thousand valiant warriors. Hiring mercenaries from the northern kingdom was an extraordinary step, and a man of God is quick to rebuke Amaziah for this act.
7. all the Ephraimites. Ephraim is a synonym for the northern kingdom.
11. Seirites. This is another name for the Edomites, who dwelled on Mount Seir.
12. the Rock. This may be what is called in Hebrew to this day Sela Edom, the site later of the Nabatean city of Petra.
13. And the members of the troop … raided the towns of Judah. Angered by being turned back from the battle—where they might have augmented their payment as mercenaries by taking booty—they despoil Judahite towns.
from Samaria. Samaria is in the territory of the kingdom of Israel, but the phrase here may mean “from the border of Samaria.”
14. he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up for himself as gods. This detail of Ahaziah’s idolatry may be introduced by the Chronicler to spell out the bill of accusations against him and explain his subsequent downfall. It does not appear in Kings.
16. God has counseled … my counsel. The prophet sarcastically flings back the term that Ahaziah has used in confronting him. The next verse, even as it picks up verbatim the narrative in 2 Kings 14, adds “took counsel” in order to underscore that the king of Judah is now following a plan counter to God’s counsel, one that will lead to disaster.
20. for it was from God. The spelling out of a divine plan to punish Ahaziah does not occur in Kings.
into his hand. The received text merely says “in hand,” but two ancient versions attest to the possessive.
24. [he took]. The Masoretic Text lacks a subject and a verb, and the translation here follows the Syriac.
27. from the time Amaziah swerved away from the LORD. This causal explanation, indicating that the conspiracy was a righteous reaction to Amaziah’s cultic dereliction, does not appear in Kings.
28. the City of Judah. This locution is odd because it is not elsewhere used as an epithet for Jerusalem or any part of it. The parallel text in Kings has the expected “the City of David,” as do a few Hebrew manuscripts, and that may well be the correct reading.
1And all the people of Judah took Uzziah, when he was sixteen years old, and made him king in Amaziah his father’s stead. 2He built up Eloth and settled it for Judah after the king lay with his fathers. 3Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he became king and fifty-two years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. 4And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as all that Amaziah his father had done. 5And he sought out God in the days of Zechariah, who imparted instruction in the fear of God, and in the days he sought out the LORD, God made him prosper. 6And he sallied forth and did battle against the Philistines and breached the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built towns near Ashdod and among the Philistines. 7And God aided him against the Philistines and against the Arabs dwelling in Gur-Baal, and the Meunites. 8And the Ammonites gave tribute to Uzziah, and his name went as far as the approach to Egypt, for he had become very strong. 9And Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem by the Corner Gate and by the Valley Gate and by the Angle, and reinforced them. 10And he built towers in the wilderness and hewed many cisterns, for he had abundant cattle and farmers and vintners on the plain and on the mountains and on the cropland, for he loved the soil. 11And Uzziah had a force doing battle mustered for the army as a troop in the number of their complement under Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the overseer under the direction of Hananiah of the king’s commanders. 12The full number of the heads of the patriarchal houses for the warriors was two thousand six hundred. 13And under them was an army force of three hundred thousand five hundred doing battle with the strength of the force to aid the king against the enemy. 14And Uzziah readied for all the army shields and spears and helmets and armor and bows and slingstones. 15And he made cunningly fashioned devices to be in the towers in Jerusalem for shooting arrows and large stones. And his name went out afar, for he was wondrously aided, and so he grew strong. 16And as he grew strong, he became so overweening as to act ruinously, and he betrayed the LORD his God and came into the LORD’s temple to burn incense on the incense altar. 17And Azariah the priest came in after him, and with him were priests to the LORD, eighty valiant men. 18And they stood up against King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD but for the Aaronide priests who are consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have betrayed, and it is no glory for you from the LORD God.” 19And Uzziah was angry, the censer for burning incense in his hand, and as he raged against the priests, skin blanch broke out on his forehead in front of the priests upon the incense altar. 20And Azariah the high priest turned toward him with all the priests, and look, he was stricken with skin blanch on his forehead, and they rushed him out of there, and he, too, pressed to go out, for the LORD had infected him. 21And King Uzziah was stricken with skin blanch to his dying day, and he stayed in the quarantine house, for it was decreed from the house of the LORD, and Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land. 22And the rest of the acts of Uzziah, early and late, Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet wrote down. 23And Uzziah lay with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belongs to the kings, for they said, he was stricken with skin blanch. And Jotham his son became king in his stead.
CHAPTER 26 NOTES
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1. Uzziah. In the parallel text in 2 Kings 15, followed here loosely, and, intermittently, he is called Azariah. Some claim that Uzziah was a throne-name, but the contradiction may be the result of a confusion in transmission.
4. as all that Amaziah his father had done. Amaziah ended up devoting himself to pagan practices, so the wording may reflect the sheer momentum of a formulaic phrase.
5. in the fear of God. The Masoretic Text has bireʾot, “in the visions [?],” but many manuscripts and four ancient versions show beyirʾat, “in the fear of.”
10. he built towers in the wilderness. There is some archaeological evidence for this extensive project of building fortifications.
11. a force doing battle mustered for the army as a troop. This was in all likelihood a unit of elite fighters, as the proliferation of military terms in what follows suggests.
15. for he was wondrously aided. The verb “aid,” ʿazar, has a technical sense of being “bolstered in battle.”
16. he became so overweening. Literally, “his heart grew haughty.”
18. It is not for you, Uzziah. One notes that they address him abruptly by his name and do not use his royal title, even though the narrator has just referred to him as “King Uzziah.”
19. skin blanch. The disease, tsaraʿat, is traditionally rendered as “leprosy,” but the symptoms do not correspond to leprosy—the chief symptom is a loss of pigmentation—hence the coined name in this translation. In any case, it was thought to be highly contagious, necessitating quarantine. In Kings, no mention is made of the violation of the cult as the reason for the affliction.
21. the quarantine house. For an explanation of this translation choice, see the comment on 2 Kings 15:5.
Jotham his son was over the king’s house. He appears to have served as regent during his father’s extended illness.
22. Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet wrote down. Although Isaiah and Jotham were contemporaries, this authorship is unlikely, reflecting the Chronicler’s propensity to ascribe further histories of the sundry kings to prophets and seers.
23. the burial field that belongs to the kings. More literally, “that is the king’s.” What the phrase indicates is that because of Uzziah’s affliction with an infectious and humiliating disease, he was not buried in the royal tombs but in a burial plot—perhaps adjacent—that belonged to the kings.
1Twenty-five years old was Jotham when he became king, and sixteen years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as all that Uzziah his father had done, only he did not come into the LORD’s Temple, and the people were still acting ruinously. 3He built the Upper Gate of the house of the LORD, and he built extensively on the wall of the Ophel. 4And towns did he build in the hill country of Judah, and in the woods he built forts and towers. 5And he battled with the kings of the Ammonites and prevailed over them, and the Ammonites gave him in that year a hundred talents of silver and ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand kors of barley. This did the Ammonites bring back to him, and also in the second and third year. 6And Jotham grew strong, for he made his ways firm before the LORD his God. 7And the rest of the acts of Jotham and all his battles and his ways, look, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. 8Twenty-five years old he was when he became king, and sixteen years he was king in Jerusalem. 9And Jotham lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. And Ahaz his son was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 27 NOTES
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1. Twenty-five years old was Jotham. This brief notice on the reign of Jotham replicates 2 Kings 15:32–36 and 38.
2. only he did not come into the LORD’s Temple. This detail, which follows on the episode of Uzziah’s presuming to burn incense that appears only in Chronicles, is absent in the parallel text in Kings.
the people were still acting ruinously. 2 Kings 15:35 specifies a cultic transgression: “The people were still sacrificing and burning incense on the high places.”
5. And he battled with the kings of the Ammonites. Kings does not report this war with the Ammonites, but it may reflect an authentic report from another source on which the Chronicler drew.
1Twenty years old was Ahaz when he became king, and sixteen years he was king in Jerusalem, but he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD like David his father. 2And he went in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he even made molten images for the Baalim. 3And he it was who burned incense in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and burned his sons in fire like the abominations of the nations whom the LORD had dispossessed before Israel. 4And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places and on the hills and under every lush tree. 5And the LORD his God gave him into the hand of the king of Aram, and they struck against him and took many captives from him and brought them to Damascus. And he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, and he struck a great blow against him. 6And Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred twenty thousand in Judah on a single day, all of them valiant men, as a result of their forsaking the LORD God of their fathers. 7And Zichri the Ephraimite warrior killed Maaseiah the king’s son and Azrikam, prince of the house, and Elkanah, viceroy to the king. 8And the Israelites took captive from their brothers two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters, and they also plundered abundant booty from them and brought the booty to Samaria. 9And a prophet of the LORD was there, Oded was his name, and he went out before the army coming to Samaria and said to them, “Look, in the wrath of the LORD God of your fathers against Judah He has given them into your hand, and you killed from among them in a rage that has reached the heavens. 10And now, you intend to reduce the Judahites to male slaves and slavegirls for yourselves. Why, there are only guilty acts between you and the LORD your God. 11And now, hear me and give back the captives whom you took from your brothers, for the LORD’s smoldering wrath is against you.” 12And men of the chiefs of Ephraim arose—Azariah son of Johanan, Berechiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum, and Amasa son of Hadlai—against those who had come back from the army. 13And they said to them, “You shall not bring the captives here, for you intend to add to your guilty acts against the LORD our offenses and our guilt, for great is our guilt and the smoldering wrath against Israel.” 14And the vanguard left the captives and the plunder before the commanders and all the assembly. 15And the men who had been singled out by name arose and took the captives in hand and clothed their nakedness from the booty, clothed them and gave them sandals and fed them and gave them drink and rubbed them with oil and led on donkeys all who had stumbled and brought them to Jericho, city of the palms, to their brothers, and came back to Samaria.
16At that time King Ahaz sent to the king of Assyria to aid him. 17Again the Edomites had come and struck against Judah and taken captives. 18And Philistines raided the towns of the lowland and the Negeb belonging to Judah and captured Beth-Shemesh and Aijalon and Gederoth and Socho and its hamlets and Timnah and its hamlets and Gimzo and its hamlets, and they settled there. 19For the LORD had brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Judah, for he had loosed restraints in Judah and had grievously betrayed the LORD. 20And Tilgath-Pilneser king of Assyria came against him and brought him into straits, and Tilgath-Pilneser did not support him. 21For Ahaz had plundered the house of the LORD and the house of the king and the commanders and had given it to the king of Assyria, but with no aid for him. 22And in the very moment of his straits, he still betrayed the LORD—this was King Ahaz. 23And he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus who were striking him down, and he thought, “The gods of the kings of Aram aid them. I will sacrifice to them and they will aid me.” But they served to make him and all Israel stumble. 24And Ahaz collected the vessels of the house of God and cut to pieces the vessels of the house of God and closed the doors of the house of the LORD and made himself altars in every corner in Jerusalem. 25And in every single town of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and he vexed the LORD God of his fathers. 26And the rest of his acts and all his ways, early and late, they are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 27And Ahaz lay with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem, for they did not bring him to the graves of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 28 NOTES
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1. Twenty years old was Ahaz. Although this text follows the opening and closing formulas for the entry on Ahaz in 2 Kings 16, the details of the narrative are rather different.
3. the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. This notorious place—Hebrew geiʾ ben-hinnom, or geihinnom—became a term for “hell” in the transliterated form “gehenna.”
5. And he was also given into the hand of the king of Israel. This version does not make entirely clear what is spelled out in 2 Kings 16, that there was a military alliance between Aram and the kingdom of Israel against Judah.
6. Pekah son of Remaliah. He is the monarch of the northern kingdom.
8. two hundred thousand women, sons, and daughters. While the number, as usual, is greatly inflated, the capture of women and children indicates that the forces of the northern kingdom penetrated deep into the territory of Judah.
11. give back the captives whom you took from your brothers. Though there has been deadly war between Israel and Judah, the two kingdoms remain “brothers,” members of one nation, and so the population of Judah cannot be treated by Israel as though it were made up of foreigners who could be enslaved without compunction.
15. clothed their nakedness … and gave them sandals. This detail suggests that the captive Judahites had been torn from their homes. The deprivation of food and water is an indication that they had been treated roughly.
rubbed them with oil. As with the Greeks, rubbing olive oil on the body was part of the regimen of the good, comfortable life.
16. to aid him. As elsewhere, this verb indicates military aid.
20. did not support him. Ahaz’s request of military assistance from Assyria (verse 16) proves to be futile.
23. he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus. In Kings he merely copies the design of the state-of-the-art altar in Damascus, and idolatry is not involved.
they served to make him and all Israel stumble. No real agency is attributed to the Aramean gods. In Ahaz’s deluded perception, these gods have the power to help him, and it is this delusion that makes him stumble.
27. for they did not bring him to the graves of the kings of Israel. In Kings, he is actually buried in the City of David among the royal tombs. The Chronicler evidently wants to make the point that Ahaz suffered exclusion from the most honored burial grounds because of his paganizing ways. It should also be noted that Chronicles is not consistent in its use of “Israel”; in the war reported above, “Israel” clearly designates the northern kingdom, but here it is used interchangeably with “Judah.”
1Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and twenty-nine years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD as all that David his father had done. 3In the first year he was king in the first month he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and reinforced them. 4And he brought the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the eastern square. 5And he said to them, “Hear me, Levites. Now consecrate yourselves and consecrate the house of the LORD God of your fathers, and take out what is impure from the sacred space. 6For our fathers betrayed and did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD and forsook Him, and turned their faces away from the LORD’s sanctuary and turned their backs. 7They also closed the doors of the great hall and extinguished the lamps and did not burn incense and did not offer up burnt offerings to the God of Israel. 8And the fury of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and He turned them into a horror and a desolation and a hissing as you see with your own eyes. 9And, look, our fathers fell by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives fell captive because of this. 10Now it is my intention to seal a covenant with the LORD, God of Israel, that His smoldering wrath turn back from us. 11My sons, do not fall away, for you the LORD has chosen to stand before Him to minister to Him, to be for him ministers and offerers of incense.” 12And the Levites arose, Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah of the Kohathites, and of the Merarites Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehalelel, and of the Gershonites, Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah. 13And of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel, and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah. 14And of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei. And of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15And they gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and came, according to the king’s command by the words of the LORD to purify the house of the LORD. 16And the priests came inside the house of the LORD to purify, and they took out to the court of the house of the LORD whatever was unclean that they found in the LORD’s temple, and the Levites received it to take it out to the Kidron Wadi. 17And they began consecrating on the first of the month, and on the eighth day of the month they came into the great hall of the LORD and consecrated the house of the LORD for eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18And they came inside to King Hezekiah and said, “We have purified all the house of the LORD and the altar for burnt offerings and all its vessels and the table for the bread in rows and all its vessels. 19And all the vessels that King Ahaz had shunted aside during his kingship through his betrayal we have readied and consecrated, and here they are before the altar of the LORD.” 20And King Hezekiah rose early and gathered all the commanders of the city and went up to the house of the LORD. 21And they brought seven bulls and seven rams and seven sheep and seven he-goats as an offense offering for the royal house and for the sanctuary and for Judah, and he said to the Aaronide priests to offer them up on the altar of the LORD. 22And they slaughtered the cattle, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar, and they slaughtered the sheep and cast the blood on the altar. 23And they presented the offense-offering goats to the king and the assembly and placed their hands on them. 24And the priests slaughtered them and purged the altar with their blood to atone for all Israel, for the king had said that the burnt offering and the offense offering were for all Israel. 25And he set the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with lutes, and with lyres, as by the command of David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet, for by the LORD was the command through His prophet. 26And the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with trumpets. 27And Hezekiah said to bring up the burnt offering to the altar, and as the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began with trumpets and the instruments of David king of Israel. 28And all the assembly were bowing down and the song was sounding forth and the trumpets were playing—all of it till the burnt offering was done. 29And as the offering was finished, the king and all those with him kneeled and bowed down. 30And King Hezekiah, together with the Levite officers, said to praise the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer, and they praised in utmost rejoicing and did obeisance and bowed down. 31And Hezekiah spoke out and said, “Now you have consecrated yourselves to the LORD. Approach and bring sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the house of the LORD.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and the thanksgiving offerings, and all whose heart urged them—burnt offerings. 32And the number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought came to seventy bulls, a hundred rams, two hundred sheep, all these for burnt offering to the LORD. 33And the consecrated gifts—six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep. 34But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, and their brothers the Levites supported them until the task was finished and until the priests had consecrated themselves, for the Levites were more devoted to consecrate themselves than the priests. 35And besides the abundance of burnt offerings there was the suet of the well-being sacrifices and the libations for the burnt offerings. And the service of the house of the LORD was firmly established. 36And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced that God had established it for the people, for the thing had come about in a trice.
CHAPTER 29 NOTES
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1. Hezekiah became king. The corresponding report about Hezekiah in the Deuteronomistic History begins in 2 Kings 18, but all the details are different, with the two sources agreeing only that Hezekiah was a pious king who initiated cultic reforms.
3. he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. His predecessor Ahaz had closed them.
4. And he brought the priests and the Levites and gathered them in the eastern square. Hewing to his sacerdotal agenda, the Chronicler concentrates on Hezekiah’s consecrating the temple officiants and then on the details of the sacrificial cult. In Kings, the emphasis is on Hezekiah’s removing the hilltop sanctuaries.
6. turned their backs. Literally, the back of the neck.
9. our fathers fell by the sword. The reference may be to the incursion of the Assyrian emperor Sennacherib into Judah, though that would be the case only if this rededication took place after 701 B.C.E.
10. it is my intention. Literally, “it is with my heart.” In biblical idiom, the heart is the organ in which thoughts are framed and plans are devised.
12. And the Levites arose. Once again, the Chronicler proceeds to provide a list of names as a kind of authentication of his report.
22. the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. As elsewhere, blood in cultic contexts is thought to have a purgative power. See verse 24.
26. the instruments of David. In the Book of Samuel, David is identified as a singer and a player of the lyre, but by this late date, the general ascription of Psalms to him was taking hold, so the instruments of the singers of psalms are imagined to be ones for which he had established a precedent.
28. were bowing down … was sounding forth … were playing. The repeated use of the participial form of the verb is meant to convey a continuing action and to evoke the presentness of the grand scene of celebration in the Temple.
31. you have consecrated yourselves. A different expression is used here from the one that appears in verse 15. Its literal sense is “you have filled your hands.”
34. the Levites were more devoted. Literally, “were more straight-hearted.”
36. God had established. The grammatical form of the verb is anomalous and may reflect the loosening of Hebrew usage in the Second Temple period.
1And Hezekiah sent out to all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote missives to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem to perform the Passover to the LORD God of Israel. 2And the king and his officers and all the assembly in Jerusalem took counsel to perform the Passover in the second month. 3For they could not do it at its set time for the priests had not consecrated themselves in the required numbers and the people had not gathered in Jerusalem. 4And the thing seemed right in the eyes of the king and in the eyes of all the assembly. 5And they set word to send about a proclamation through all Israel from Beersheba to Dan to come to perform the Passover to the LORD God of Israel in Jerusalem, for they had not for the most part done as was written. 6And the couriers went with missives from the hand of the king and his officials through all Israel and Judah and by the king’s command, saying, “Israelites, turn back to the LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that He turn back to the survivors remaining of you from the grip of the kings of Assyria 7And be not like your fathers and like your brothers, who betrayed the LORD God of your fathers, and He made them a desolation, as you can see. 8Now, do not be stiff-necked like your fathers. Pledge yourselves to the LORD your God and come into His sanctuary that He sanctified for all time, and serve the LORD your God, that His smoldering wrath turn back from you. 9For when you turn back to the LORD, your brothers and your sons will be given mercy before their captors and will return to this land, for gracious and merciful is the LORD your God, and He will not take His presence from you if you turn back to Him.” 10And the couriers were passing from town to town in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them. 11Yet men from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun submitted and came to Jerusalem. 12In Judah as well the hand of God was at work to give them a single heart to do the command of the king and the officials by the word of the LORD. 13And a great crowd gathered in Jerusalem to do the Festival of Flatbread in the second month, a very great assembly. 14And they rose up and removed the altars that were in Jerusalem, and all the incense stands they removed and flung them into the Kidron Wadi. 15And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice on the fourteenth of the second month, and the priests and the Levites were ashamed and consecrated themselves and brought burnt offerings to the house of the LORD. 16And they stood at their station according to their rule, according to the teaching of Moses man of God, the priests sprinkling the blood which they got from the hand of the Levites. 17For many were there in the assembly who had not consecrated themselves, and the Levites were over the slaughter of the paschal lambs for all who were unclean, to consecrate to the LORD. 18For most of the people, many from Ephraim and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun, had not been purified, yet they ate the Passover sacrifice not as it was written. So Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good LORD atone for everyone 19who has readied his heart to seek the LORD God of his fathers, though not in the purity of the sanctuary.” 20And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people. 21And the Israelites who were in Jerusalem performed the Festival of Flatbread seven days with great rejoicing, the Levites and the priests praising the LORD with loud-sounding instruments for the LORD. 22And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites skilled in deft skill for the LORD, and they completed the festival in seven days, offering well-being sacrifices and confessing to the LORD God of their fathers. 23And all the assembly took counsel to do another seven days, and they did seven days in rejoicing, 24for Hezekiah king of Judah had contributed to the assembly a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. And the priests consecrated themselves in large numbers. 25And all the assembly of Judah and the priests and the Levites and all the assembly coming from Israel and the sojourners coming from the land of Israel and the dwellers in Judah rejoiced. 26And there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel there had not been its like in Jerusalem. 27And the levitical priests arose and blessed the people, and the LORD heard their voice, and their prayer came up to His holy abode, to the heavens.
CHAPTER 30 NOTES
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1. to all Israel and Judah. Hezekiah came to the throne in 715 B.C.E., six years after the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrians. If the report here is grounded in historical fact, it provides evidence that, although many of the subjects of the northern kingdom were deported by the Assyrians, substantial numbers of them remained. Hezekiah’s political move, then, is to unite the whole Israelite population, north and south, around the Temple cult in Jerusalem.
to perform the Passover. Of the three pilgrim festivals, it was Passover that confirmed the notion of national identity. Compare the celebration of Passover at the beginning of Joshua just before the conquest of the land.
2. to perform the Passover in the second month. The prescribed time for Passover is in the first month, but provision is made to observe the holiday a month later for persons on a journey who are then unable to come to the Temple at the fixed time. By analogy, then, because in this instance many of the priests were not yet consecrated—and evidently the northern population could not arrive in time—the festival is postponed for one month.
7. He made them a desolation. This is an explicit reference to the destruction of the northern kingdom by Assyria.
8. Pledge yourselves. Literally, “give a hand.”
9. will be given mercy. The Hebrew says merely “for mercy.” This may be an ellipsis or may reflect loose usage.
10. Ephraim … Manasseh … Zebulun. All these are to the north.
12. the hand of God was at work. The Hebrew says merely “the hand of God was.”
14. the Kidron Wadi. This was a site for the disposal of rubbish.
15. were ashamed. Presumably, because they had not previously consecrated themselves.
16. which they got. This is merely implied by ellipsis.
18. had not been purified. What is at issue is ritual purity. These northerners, having come from a long journey to Jerusalem, did not have time to undergo the required ablutions before the Temple ceremony.
20. healed the people. The verb here is a little surprising. It may simply mean in this context “made whole,” because there is no suggestion that the pilgrims were suffering from some illness. The verb “to heal” does have extended meanings in biblical usage.
22. encouraged. Others understand this as “persuaded.” The literal Hebrew idiom is “spoke to the heart.”
they completed the festival. The Masoretic Text reads wayoʾkhlu, “they ate” the festival. This translation follows the Septuagint, which evidently had before it a Hebrew text that showed the more likely wayekhalu, “they completed.”
27. the LORD heard their voice. The received text reads “and it was heard in their voice,” which is dubious Hebrew usage. Both the Septuagint and the Vulgate show YHWH as the subject of the active form of this verb, which makes much better sense and follows a familiar pattern: God hears and the prayer reaches Him.
1And when all this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the towns of Judah and smashed the cultic pillars and hacked down the cultic poles and shattered the high places and the altars throughout Judah and Benjamin and Ephraim and Manasseh to the last one, and all the Israelites went back, each to his holding, to their towns. 2And Hezekiah set up the orders of the priests according to their orders, each according to his service for the priests and for the Levites, for the burnt offerings and for the well-being sacrifices to minister and to acclaim and to praise in the gates of the LORD’s camps. 3And the king’s portion for the morning and evening burnt offerings and the burnt offerings for sabbaths and new moons and festivals was as written in the Teaching of the LORD. 4And he said to the people, to those dwelling in Jerusalem, to give the portion of the priests and the Levites, so that they could devote themselves to the Teaching of the LORD. 5And as the word spread, the Israelites gave abundantly the best of the grain, wine, oil, and honey, and all produce of the field, and the tithe of all in abundance they brought. 6And the people of Israel and Judah dwelling in the towns of Judah on their part also brought tithes of cattle and sheep and tithes of sacred gifts consecrated to the LORD their God, and they put them in piles. 7In the third month the piles began to heap up, and in the seventh month they were completed. 8And Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the piles, and they blessed the LORD and His people Israel. 9And Hezekiah inquired of the priests and the Levites about the piles, 10and Azariah the high priest of the house of Zadok, said to him, “Ever since the gift offering began to come to the house of the LORD, there has been eating to the full and much left over, for the LORD has blessed His people, and this vast amount was left over.” 11And Hezekiah said to ready chambers in the house of the LORD, and they readied them. 12And they faithfully brought the gift offering and the tithe and the sacred gifts. And over them as supervisor was Conaniah the Levite and Shimei his brother as assistant. 13And Jehiel and Azaziah and Nahath and Asahel and Jerimoth and Jozabad and Eliel and Ismachiah and Mahath and Benaiah were officials under the authority of Conaniah and Shimei his brother by the designation of King Hezekiah, and Azariah was supervisor of the house of God. 14And Kore the son of Imnah the Levite was the gatekeeper on the east over the freewill offerings to God to distribute the gift offerings of the LORD and the most sacred donations. 15And alongside him were Eden and Miniamin and Jeshua and Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shechaniah in the towns of the priests to distribute to their brothers in the orders, great and small alike, 16besides the males from three years old who traced their lineage, for all who came into the house of the LORD for daily obligations for their service in their daily watches according to their orders 17and the lineage of the priests according to their patriarchal houses and the Levites from twenty years old in their watches, in their orders 18and the lineage of all their little ones, their wives and their sons and their daughters, for all the assembly, for they faithfully consecrated themselves in holiness, 19and for the Aaronide priests in the pasturelands of their towns, in each and every town, men who had been singled out by name, to give portions to every male among the priests and to all who traced their lineage among the Levites. 20And Hezekiah did in this manner throughout Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God. 21And in every act that he undertook in the service of the house of God and in the Teaching and in the commands to seek his God with all his heart he did and prospered.
CHAPTER 31 NOTES
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1. all Israel who were present. In the somewhat confusing switch between the two meanings of “Israel,” the reference here is to Judahites.
all the Israelites. Now the term refers to the subjects of the northern kingdom.
2. And Hezekiah set up the orders of the priests. Hezekiah’s religious reform reported in 2 Kings 18 is translated here by the Chronicler into an elaboration of the arrangements for the cultic bureaucracy, with only a brief mention of eliminating idolatry at the beginning.
the gates of the LORD’s camps. This is a somewhat surprising designation for the Temple.
5. the best. Some understand this in its more literal sense, “the first.”
11. And Hezekiah said to ready chambers. These would be storerooms to house the huge surplus of donations in produce that had piled up.
15. And alongside him were. These words begin a run-on sentence that continues all the way to the end of verse 19. It is another instance in which the Chronicler’s control of Hebrew style seems questionable.
16. from three years old. This could well be a mistake for “thirty” since the males referred to have come to serve in the Temple.
who traced their lineage. This recurring term seems syntactically a little fuzzy, but the general point is clear—that these portions to be given to the priests and Levites are for males who can confidently trace their lineage within the tribe of Levi.
20. Hezekiah did in this manner throughout Judah. In Kings, Hezekiah is seen as an exemplary king chiefly because he rooted out idolatry in his kingdom. Although that is of course mentioned by the Chronicler, the king’s principal doings “in this manner” are his establishing the sacerdotal hierarchies and his instituting a system of gifts—which is to say, material support—for the priests and the Levites.
1After these faithful acts, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and he came into Judah and encamped against the fortified towns and meant to breach them to take them over. 2And Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, intent on doing battle against Jerusalem. 3And he took counsel with his commanders and his warriors to stop up the waters of the springs that were outside the city, and they supported him. 4And many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the wadi surging through the land, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?” 5And he mustered strength and rebuilt the breached wall and put up towers on it and outside it another wall and fortified the Millo in the City of David and made abundant weapons and shields. 6And he appointed battle commanders over the troops and gathered them around him in the square of the city gate and encouraged them, saying, “7Be strong and stalwart. Do not be afraid and do not be terrified by the king of Assyria and by the great throng that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. 8He has the power of flesh, but the LORD our God is with us to aid us and to fight our battle.” And the troops relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9After this, Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem—he and all his commanders with him being at Lachish—to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all Judah that was in Jerusalem, saying, 10“Thus said Sennacherib king of Assyria: ‘In what do you trust that you sit besieged in Jerusalem? 11Is not Hezekiah enticing you to make you die in hunger and in thirst, saying, The LORD will save us from the grip of the king of Assyria? 12Has not Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars and said to Judah, saying, Before a single altar you shall bow down and upon it you shall burn incense? 13Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the lands able at all to save their land from my hand? 14Who among all the gods of these nations that my fathers utterly destroyed was able to save his people from my hand, that your god should be able to save you from my hand? 15And now, let not Hezekiah delude you and let him not entice you in this fashion, and do not put faith in him, for no god, no nation or kingdom was able to save its people from my hand and from the hand of my fathers. How much more so your gods will not save you from my hand.’” 16And his servants spoke still more against the LORD and against Hezekiah His servant. 17And he wrote letters to insult the LORD God of Israel and to say about him, saying, “Like the gods of the nations of the lands that did not save their people, so Hezekiah’s god will not save his people from my hand.” 18And they called out in a loud voice in Judahite to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall to frighten them and panic them so that they might capture the city. 19And they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as about the gods of the peoples of the land, the work of human hands. 20And King Hezekiah and Isaiah son of Amoz the prophet prayed about this and cried out to the heavens. 21And the LORD sent a messenger and he wiped out every valiant warrior and prince and commander in the camp of the Assyrian king, and he turned back in disgrace to his land. And he entered the house of his god, and the offspring of his own loins took him down there by the sword. 22And the LORD rescued Hezekiah and the dwellers of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria and from everyone’s hand and gave them respite all around. 23And many were bringing tribute to the LORD to Jerusalem and precious gifts to Hezekiah king of Judah, and he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations thereafter.
24In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill. And he prayed to the LORD, and He answered him and gave him a sign. 25But Hezekiah did not respond according to what had been granted him, for his heart grew haughty, and there was fury against him and against Jerusalem. 26And Hezekiah humbled himself after his heart had been haughty, both he and the dwellers of Jerusalem, and the LORD’s fury did not come down on them in Hezekiah’s days. 27And Hezekiah had very great wealth and honor, and he made for himself treasuries for silver and for gold and for precious stones and for spices and for shields and for lovely vessels, 28and storehouses for the yield of grain and wine and oil, and stables for every kind of beast, and for the flocks—pens. 29And towns did he provide for himself and herds of sheep and cattle in abundance, for God gave him very abundant possessions. 30And he, Hezekiah, stopped up the upper outlet of the waters of the Gihon and directed them down to the west of the City of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all he did. 31And so in the affair of the spokesmen of the Babylonian commanders who sent to him to inquire about the sign that was in the land when God abandoned him to test him to know what was in his heart. 32And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and his loyal deeds, they are written in the vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 33And Hezekiah lay with his fathers, and all Judah and the dwellers of Jerusalem did him honor in his death. And Manasseh his son was king in his stead.
CHAPTER 32 NOTES
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1. Sennacherib king of Assyria came. The story of the Assyrian assault against Jerusalem and of the sudden withdrawal of the besieging army is reported in 2 Kings 18–19. Although the general outline of the narrative here is similar to the one in Kings, the details are different, and only at a few points is the actual wording taken from Kings.
3. And he took counsel with his commanders and his warriors. The sundry defensive measures enumerated here do not appear in Kings. Perhaps the Chronicler did not want to present Hezekiah as entirely passive in the face of the Assyrian onslaught.
7. Be strong and stalwart. Hezekiah’s exhortation to the troops also does not appear in Kings.
10. In what do you trust. The “you” is plural because the Assyrian emissaries are addressing the people, trying to split them off from their king, whom they represent as misleading his subjects.
12. Has not Hezekiah taken away His high places and His altars. See the first comment on 2 Kings 18:4.
13. the gods of the lands. There is a list of lands in the parallel text in Kings, perhaps omitted here because the names were no longer familiar.
18. Judahite. This is of course Hebrew. In Kings, Hezekiah’s courtiers plead with the Assyrians to use Aramaic instead so that the people will not understand, but it is precisely to the people that the Assyrians want to address their words.
21. and the offspring of his own loins took him down there. In Kings, their names are given. See the first comment on 2 Kings 19:37.
24. In those days Hezekiah fell mortally ill. The parallel account appears in 2 Kings 20, though the details are not the same.
gave him a sign. The sign is specified in Kings—the shadow of the sundial is made to go backward.
25. his heart grew haughty. Hezekiah’s arrogance is not part of the report in Kings, but the reference may be to his showing all his wealth to Babylonian ambassadors (2 Kings 20:12–19).
26. the LORD’s fury did not come down on them in Hezekiah’s days. The Chronicler adds this note because of his awareness that “the fury” overtook Judah in 586 B.C.E.
31. the affair of the spokesmen of the Babylonian commanders. This also probably refers to the Babylonian delegation that visited Jerusalem as reported in 2 Kings 20:12–19. The inquiry about the sign would be about the miraculous sign or portent of the sundial, word of which is here supposed to have reached as far as Babylonia.
1Twelve years old was Manasseh when he became king, and fifty-five years he was king in Jerusalem. 2And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD like the abominations of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites. 3And he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had smashed and put up altars to the Baalim and made cultic poles and bowed down to all the array of the heavens and worshipped them. 4And he built altars in the house of the LORD of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem My name shall be forever.” 5And he built altars to all the array of the heavens in both courts of the house of the LORD. 6And he passed his sons through the fire in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom and performed sorcery and divined and did witchcraft and conjured ghosts and familiar spirits. He did much that was evil in the eyes of the LORD to vex Him. 7And he placed in the house of God a sculpted image that he had made of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel will I set My name forever. 8And I will no longer remove the feet of Israel from the soil on which I set your fathers—but only if they keep to do what I charged them in regard to all the teaching and the statutes and the laws through Moses.” 9And Manasseh led Judah and the dwellers of Jerusalem astray to do what was evil more than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites. 10And the LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they did not listen. 11And the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, and they captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him in fetters and led him off to Babylonia. 12And in his distress he implored the LORD his God and greatly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. 13And he prayed to Him and entreated Him, and He heard his plea and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingship, and Manasseh knew that the LORD was God. 14And afterward, he built an outer wall for the City of David west of the Gihon in the wadi on the approach to the Fish Gate, and it encircled the Ophel. And he raised it very high, and he posted military commanders in all the fortified towns in Judah. 15And he removed the alien gods and the image from the house of the LORD and all the altars that he had built on the mount of the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, and he flung them outside the city. 16And he repaired the altar of the LORD and sacrificed upon it well-being sacrifices and thanksgiving sacrifices and said to Judah to worship the LORD God of Israel. 17But the people were still sacrificing on the high places, though only to the LORD their God. 18And the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer to his God and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, they are in the acts of the kings of Israel 19and his prayer and the granting of his entreaty and all his offense and his betrayal and the sites on which he built high places and set up cultic poles and idols before the time he humbled himself, they are written with the words of his seers. 20And Manasseh lay with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son became king in his stead.
21Twenty-two years old was Amon when he became king, and two years he was king in Jerusalem. 22And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD as Manasseh his father had done, and to all the idols that Manasseh his father had made he sacrificed and he worshipped them. 23And he did not humble himself before the LORD as Manasseh his father had humbled himself, for he, Amon, incurred even more guilt. 24And his servants hatched a plot against him and put him to death in his house. 25And the people of the land struck down all the plotters against King Amon, and the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his stead.
CHAPTER 33 NOTES
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1. Twelve years old was Manasseh. Verses 1–10 replicate 2 Kings 21:1–9 with only minor changes. Readers are referred to the commentary on 2 Kings 21.
11. And the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria. This episode does not appear in the parallel passage in Kings.
12. greatly humbled himself before the God of his fathers. The writer in Kings does not record any such act of contrition on the part of a king whom he regards as relentlessly evil. Perhaps the Chronicler was uncomfortable with this entirely bleak portrait. It is questionable whether Manasseh was actually exiled for a time as reported here.
19. and his prayer. This looks like an inadvertent repetition of “his prayer” in the previous verse.
his seers. The Masoretic Text has ḥozay, “my seers.” Some think it is a name, but “his seers,” reflected in the Septuagint, is more likely.
20. And Manasseh lay with his fathers. The passage from here to the end of the chapter replicates 2 Kings 21:18–26, and readers may consult the one extended comment on that passage. There are a few minor changes of the text from Kings, with the one salient difference being in verse 23, “And he did not humble himself before the LORD as Manasseh his father had humbled himself,” which of course could not appear in Kings because the writer in Kings knows nothing of this episode of contrition.
1Eight years old was Josiah when he became king, and thirty-one years he was king in Jerusalem. 2And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and he went in the ways of David his father and did not swerve to the right or to the left. 3And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a lad, he began to seek out the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places and the cultic poles and the idols and the molten images. 4And they shattered the altars of the Baalim in his presence, and the incense stands above them he hacked down, and the cultic poles and the idols and the molten images he smashed and pulverized and threw them over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. 5And the bones of the priests he burned on their altars, and he purged Judah and Jerusalem. 6And in the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim and Samaria as far as Naphtali in their squares all around 7he shattered the altars, and the cultic poles he ground into dust, and all the incense stands he hacked down in all the land of Israel. And he returned to Jerusalem.
8And in the eighteenth year of his reign after purging the land and the house, he commissioned Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the governor of the city and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder to repair the house of the LORD his God. 9And they came to the high priest Hilkiah and gave him the silver brought to the house of God that the Levites, guardians of the threshold, had gathered from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and Benjamin, and he returned to Jerusalem. 10And they gave it to those appointed over those doing the tasks in the house of the LORD, and they in turn gave it to those doing the tasks in the house of the LORD to repair the breaches of the house. 11And they gave it to the carpenters and to the builders to buy quarried stone and wood for the couplings and for the roof-beams of the buildings that the kings of Judah had let fall into ruin. 12And the men were doing the tasks faithfully, and over them were appointed Jahath and Obadiah the Levites, of the Merarites, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the Kohathites, to direct them, and Levites expert in musical instruments 13were over the porters and directing all who did the tasks and every kind of labor, and from the Levites there were scribes and overseers and gatekeepers. 14And when they took out the silver brought to the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the teaching of the LORD by Moses. 15And Hilkiah spoke out and said to Shaphan the scribe, “I have found a book of teaching in the house of the LORD.” And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. 16And Shaphan brought the book to the king, and furthermore brought back word to the king, saying, “All that has been given into the hand of your servants they are doing: 17They have melted down the silver that is in the house of the LORD and given it over to those appointed and to those doing the tasks.” 18And Shaphan the scribe told the king, saying, “Hilkiah the priest gave me a book,” and Shaphan read it to the king. 19And it happened when the king heard the words of the teaching, that he rent his garments. 20And the king charged Hilkiah and Ahikan son of Shaphan and Abdon son of Micah and Shaphan the scribe and Asaiah the king’s servant, saying, 21“Go, inquire of the LORD on my behalf and on behalf of those remaining in Israel and in Judah concerning the words of the book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that has been poured down on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD to do as all that is written in this book.” 22And Hilkiah and those the king had charged went to Huldah the prophetess, wife of Shallum son of Tokhath son of Hasrah keeper of the wardobe, and she was living in Jerusalem in the Mishneh, and they spoke to her in this manner. 23And she said to them, 24“Thus said the LORD: ‘I am about to bring evil on this place and on its inhabitants, all the imprecations written in the book that they read out to the king of Judah 25in return for their forsaking Me and burning incense to other gods so as to vex Me with all their handiwork, and My wrath will pour down on this place and will not be extinguished.’ 26And to the king of Judah who has sent you to inquire of the LORD, thus shall you say to him: Thus said the LORD God of Israel—’The words that you have heard, 27inasmuch as your heart has quailed and you humbled yourself before Me, and you rent your garments and wept before Me, I, too, have heard, said the LORD. 28I am about to gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil that I am about to bring on this place and on its inhabitants.’” And they brought back word to the king. 29And the king sent out and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem. 30And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and every man of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the Levites and all the people from the greatest to the least with him, and he read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that was found in the house of the LORD. 31And the king stood on his platform and sealed the covenant before the LORD to walk after the LORD and to keep His commands and His precepts and His statutes with all his heart and with all his being to do the words of the covenant written in this book. 32And he made all who were in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand by it, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem acted according to the covenant of God, God of their fathers. 33And Josiah removed all the abominations from all the lands that were the Israelites’, and he impressed all who were in Israel to serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not swerve from the LORD God of their fathers.
CHAPTER 34 NOTES
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1. Eight years old was Josiah. Verses 1 and 2 replicate 2 Kings 22:1–2, omitting only the name of Josiah’s mother.
3. And in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a lad, he began to seek out the God of David his father. This is not part of the report in 2 Kings 22. The Chronicler may have wanted to emphasize that Josiah’s fabled piety began when he was still an adolescent.
in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem. This would be 628 B.C.E., seven years before the discovery of the book of teaching in the Temple. In Kings, the purging of the apparatus of idolatry is said to take place after that discovery (2 Kings 23:4–20), and the details are different.
6. in the towns of Manasseh and Ephraim. This is still the region of the northern kingdom of Israel, at this point extinct for nearly a century. It provides another indication that a substantial Israelite population may have remained in this part of the country after the Assyrian deportations of 721 B.C.E.
in their squares. The Masoretic Text here reads, enigmatically, behar bateyhem (“in the mountain of their houses”?). This translation follows the Syriac reading, bereḥovoteyhem.
8. And in the eighteenth year. Everything from this point to the end of verse 32 closely replicates 2 Kings 22:3–23:3. Readers are referred to the commentary on that section of the text in Kings.
9. all the remnant of Israel. This phrase is an explicit statement that the inhabitants of the northern region were the descendants of a population that survived the Assyrian exile.
33. And Josiah removed all the abominations. This verse serves as a summary of the detailed report in 2 Kings 23:4ff. of Josiah’s purging the kingdom of idolatry.
1And Josiah made a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem, and they slaughtered the paschal lamb on the fourteenth of the first month. 2And he stationed priests on their watches and made them stalwart for the service of the house of the LORD. 3And he said to the Levites instructing all Israel, who were consecrated to the LORD, “Put the Holy Ark in the house that Solomon son of David king of Israel built. You no longer have to bear it on your shoulders. Now serve the LORD your God and His people Israel. 4And be ready according to your patriarchal houses, according to your orders, as by the writ of David king of Israel and the writing of Solomon his son. 5And stand in the sanctuary according to the divisions of the patriarchal houses for your brothers who are of the people, by the divisions of patriarchal houses for the Levites. 6And slaughter the paschal lamb and consecrate yourselves and prepare it for your brothers according to the word of the LORD through Moses.” 7And Josiah contributed sheep and goats for the people, everything for the Passover sacrifices, for all who were present, thirty thousand in number, and three thousand cattle. These were from the property of the king. 8And his officials for the freewill offering for the people, for the priests, and for the Levites, Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, overseers of the house of God for the priests, gave for the Passover sacrifices two thousand six hundred, and three hundred cattle. 9And Conaniah and Shemaiah and Nethaneel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the Levite officers, contributed on behalf of the Levites for the Passover sacrifices five thousand five hundred cattle. 10And the service was firmly set, and the priests stood at their station, and the Levites according to their orders by the king’s command. 11And they slaughtered the paschal sacrifices, and the priests cast the blood while the Levites did the flaying. 12And they removed the burnt offering to give it to the people according to the people’s divisions of patriarchal houses to offer to the LORD as written in the book of Moses, and the same for the cattle. 13And they roasted the paschal sacrifice over fire according to the regulation, and the consecrated gifts they cooked in pots and cauldrons and pans and rushed them to all the people. 14And afterward they prepared for themselves and for the priests because the Aaronide priests were busy offering up the burnt offering and the suet until nightfall, and the Levites prepared it for themselves and for the Aaronide priests. 15And the Asaphide choristers were at their station according to the command of David, and Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, the king’s seers, and the gatekeeper for each and every gate, did not have to turn away from their service, for their Levite brothers prepared it for them. 16And all the LORD’s service was firmly set on that day to do the paschal sacrifice and to offer up burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD according to the command of King Josiah. 17And the Israelites present did the paschal sacrifice at that time and the Festival of Flatbread seven days. 18And no Passover like it had been done in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, and all the kings of Israel had not done like the Passover that Josiah and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel present and the dwellers of Jerusalem did. 19In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s kingship this Passover was done.
20After all this by which Josiah had readied the house, Necho king of Egypt came up to do battle at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah sallied forth to meet him. 21And he sent messages to him, saying, “What do I have to do with you, king of Judah? It is not against you today but against the house at war with me, and a god has said to me to hurry. Desist from the god that is with me, lest he destroy you.” 22But Josiah did not turn away from him, for he had donned his armor to do battle with him and did not listen to Necho’s words from God, and he came to do battle in the Valley of Megiddo. 23And the archers shot at King Josiah and the king said to his servants, “Bear me away, for I am grievously wounded.” 24And his servants bore him away from the chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had and carried him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem were mourning for Josiah. 25And Jeremiah wrote a lament for Josiah, and all the male and female singers recited it in their lamentations, and they are written in Lamentations. 26And the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds of loyalty as is written in the Teaching of the LORD, 27and his acts early and late, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and of Judah.
CHAPTER 35 NOTES
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1. Passover … paschal lamb. The same Hebrew word, pesah,̣ sometimes refers to the festival and sometimes to the sacrifice of the lamb that is the key element in the celebration of the festival. The meaning must be judged according to context, and this initial verse clearly uses the term in the two different senses.
2. And he stationed priests. None of this cultic detail appears in Kings.
4. as by the writ of David king of Israel and the writing of Solomon his son. There is no mention in Samuel and Kings of any such writing, but, once again, the Chronicler seeks to confirm the legitimacy of the practice of the cult through the legitimacy of the Davidic dynasty elected by God.
7. everything for the Passover sacrifices. Here the term is used in the plural and includes animals other than lambs.
11. cast the blood. There is no object of the verb in the Masoretic Text, but three ancient versions show “the blood.”
15. the king’s seers. The received text has “seer,” but some Hebrew manuscripts show a plural, appropriate for the chain of several names to which this term is in apposition. There is a tradition that the priesthood included visionaries.
20. Necho king of Egypt came up to do battle at Carchemish. This and what follows have a parallel in 2 Kings 23:29–30, but the details here differ and only a little of the language is drawn from Kings. Necho was joining his Assyrian allies in a battle against the Babylonians.
21. the house at war with me. Literally, “the house of my war.” Though it is not certain, “house” may refer to the royal house of Babylonia.
22. for he had donned his armor. The usual meaning of the Hebrew verb translated as “donned” is “disguised himself,” and so the conjectural translation is based on context. The death of the king in his chariot at the hand of an archer is reminiscent of Ahab’s death on the battlefield (1 Kings 22:30–35), and in that scene, Ahab in fact disguises himself, so a confusion may have crept into the transposing of the story from Kings.
Necho’s words from God. Necho was surely speaking about one of his own gods, but our writer wants to convert this into an oracle from the one and only God.
he came to do battle in the Valley of Megiddo. This is in the Land of Israel, far to the west of Carchemish on the Euphrates. Megiddo, however, is a kind of crossroads, and Josiah may have engaged the Egyptian force there on its way to the Euphrates.
24. the second chariot that he had. This would appear to be a kind of auxiliary vehicle—some speculate, for carrying arms. Perhaps Josiah’s chariot was damaged by arrows at the same time its rider was hit. Alternately, it might have been a lighter, faster vehicle for conveying the wounded king.
25. they are written in Lamentations. This looks like a reference to the Book of Lamentations, but there is scant evidence in it of a lament for Josiah. In any case, this passage is one trigger for the tradition that Lamentations was composed by Jeremiah.
1And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem. 2Twenty-three years old was Jehoahaz when he became king, and three months he was king in Jerusalem. 3And the king of Egypt removed him in Jerusalem and imposed a levy on the land of a hundred talents of silver and talents of gold. 4And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and brought him to Egypt. 5Twenty-five years old was Jehoiakim when he became king, and eleven years he was king in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD his God. 6Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylonia came up against him and bound him in fetters to bring him to Babylonia. 7And Nebuchadnezzar brought some of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylonia and placed them in his palace in Babylonia. 8And the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim and his abominations that he did and what was found against him, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son was king in his stead. 9Eighteen years old was Jehoiachin when he became king, and three months and ten days he was king in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD. 10And at the turn of the year King Nebuchadnezzar sent and had him brought to Babylonia with the precious vessels of the house of the LORD, and he made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. 11Twenty-one years old was Zedekiah when he became king, and eleven years he was king in Jerusalem. 12And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the LORD. 13And also against King Nebuchadnezzar he rebelled, and he was too stiff-necked and too hard-hearted to turn back to the LORD God of Israel. 14And also all the priestly officers greatly betrayed as with all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD that He had consecrated in Jerusalem. 15And the LORD God of their fathers had sent His messengers to them, constantly sending, for He had pity on His people and on His abode. 16But they insulted God’s messengers and scorned His words and mocked His prophets until God’s wrath came up against His people beyond remedy. 17And He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he slew their young men by the sword in their sanctuary and had no pity on young man and virgin, elder and graybeard—everything God gave into his hand. 18And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king and his officers—he brought all to Babylonia. 19And they burned the house of God and shattered the walls of Jerusalem, and all its citadels they burned in fire, destroying all its precious vessels. 20And he exiled the survivors of the sword to Babylonia, and they became slaves to him and to his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia 21to fulfill the word of the LORD through Jeremiah, “Until the land expiates its sabbath years, all the days of the desolation that it kept a sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.”
22And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, as the word of the LORD through Jeremiah was completed, the LORD roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, and he sent round an oral proclamation through all his kingdom, and also a writing, saying, 23“Thus said Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD God of the heavens given me, and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever be among you of all His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.”
CHAPTER 36 NOTES
1. And the people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king. The first five verses of this concluding chapter correspond fairly closely to the passage that starts with the second sentence in 2 Kings 23:30 and continues through verse 37. Readers are referred to the commentary on that passage in 2 Kings.
6. Nebuchadnezzar … bound him in fetters to bring him to Babylonia. This report of the deportation of Jehoiakim to Babylonia does not appear in Kings.
9. Eighteen years old was Jehoiachin. The Masoretic Text has “eight,” which cannot be right because he would scarcely have been old enough to do evil in the eyes of the LORD. The parallel text in 2 Kings 24:8 has “eighteen,” as does the Septuagint. The following account of his exile by Nebuchadnezzar is confirmed by Kings, though the two narratives differ in details.
12. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet. The conflict between Zedekiah and Jeremiah, including the king’s burning the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies, is recounted in several narrative segments in Jeremiah.
who spoke from the LORD. Literally, “from the mouth of the LORD,” with no verb.
15. His messengers. These are the prophets.
17. everything God gave into his hand. The Hebrew merely says “He gave into his hand,” but the translation supplies “God” in order to avoid the confusion between the divine “He” and the “he” who is Nebuchadnezzar.
21. Until the land expiates its sabbath years. This verse, or at least a close approximation, actually appears in Leviticus 26:34, not in Jeremiah. The Chronicler is drawn into this attribution through the invoking at the end of the verse of Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of desolation (Jeremiah 25:12). That prophecy would become a kind of touchstone for hopes of a future restoration after the period of destruction. The Book of Daniel, written in the second century B.C.E., still clings to this prophecy and tries to rescue the relevance of the numbers by interpreting “seventy” as seven seventies.
all the days of the desolation that it kept a sabbath. Here, “kept a sabbath,” shavatah, has a negative meaning, referring to the long period when the land lay untilled and desolate.
23. All the kingdoms of the earth has the LORD God of the heavens given me. In keeping with his pious theology, the Chronicler represents Cyrus as a staunch monotheist.
and let him go up. This is a single word in the Hebrew, weyaʿal, and according to the Hebrew canonical order, which this translation follows, it is the very last word of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish tradition has accordingly made much of the appearance of this word at the very end: it is the verb used for “going up” from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel (and retained as such in modern Zionist usage), and it concludes this story of exile and Scripture as a whole on a literally upbeat note, Cyrus’s urging the exiled people to go back up to its native land. The long narrative of the Book of Kings ends with a description of Jehoiachin’s comfortable circumstances in Babylonian exile, granted a place of honor among exiled kings. The text in Chronicles, produced perhaps a century and a half later, after the Return to Zion, chooses to jump forward to Cyrus’s decree and thus to an intimation of the nation restored to its homeland.
