Tuesday, July 24, 2012

AZAMRA Bible: Jeremiah 51-52

Can we do תפילות prayers for:

AZAMRA?

So that through them The האור Light, רפואה The Healing and The ואהבה Love of ישועת יהוה Yeshuath YHWH may come back to הארץ The Land of Israel?
BS"D KNOW YOUR BIBLE: Jeremiah 51-52
Study Notes by Avraham ben Yaakov

NOTE: With thanks to the Creator of the Universe, we today complete our study of the book of Jeremiah. In preparation for the fast of Tisha B'Av (July 29) commemorating the destruction of the Temple, we will for the next two days (July 26 & 27) study Eichah (Lamentations), which is customarily read on that fast-day. No email will be sent on Tisha B'Av itself, but on the following day (July 30) we will with G-d's help begin our study of the book of Ezekiel.

JEREMIAH CHAPTER 51

The previous long chapter about the destruction of Babylon is now followed by an even lengthier chapter continuing with the same theme.

V 1: "Behold I will raise up against Babylon and against those that dwell in Lev-qamay, a destroying wind…" The commentators point out that LEV-QAMAY, which literally means "the heart of those that rise against Me", is made up of the letters corresponding to KASDIM (=Chaldeans) in the AT-BASH cipher (where TAV stands for ALEPH and SHIN for BEIT etc.)

V 5: "For Israel has not been widowed not Judah from his God…" The coming destruction of Babylon is not a matter of chance. It is God's vengeance against her for destroying His Temple and exiling Judah. Thus the passage continues (v 10): "HaShem has brought forth our vindication…"

V 11: "HaShem has raised up the spirit of the kings of Medea". Darius king of Medea conquered Babylon in 3389 (=371 B.C.E.). Jeremiah wrote down the present prophecy in the fourth year of Tzedekiah (see v 59), which was in the year 3327 (=433 B.C.E.). Thus Jeremiah prophesied the fall of Babylon at the hands of Medea 62 years before it occurred.

Vv 15-19 appear with very minor verbal differences in Jeremiah 10:12ff.

Vv 20ff: "You are My battering ram and weapons of war: with you I will smash (VENIPATZTI) the nations…" In the words of Rashi (ad loc.): "Up until now I have preserved you to be a destroyer and to smash the peoples against whom I have decreed exile." The prophet emphasizes that Babylon's power and glory were not due to her intrinsic greatness but were given to her by God purely in order to serve His ulterior purpose of punishing the nations. In vv 20-23 the word VENPATZTI, "I will smash," appears NINE TIMES.

Vv 34f: "Nevuchadrezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me…" These are the words of Zion and Jerusalem. Although Judah had sinned and deserved God's punishment, Nebuchadnezzar's greed and cruelty were disproportionate, and God would justly punish him in order to avenge His people and His city. Cf. Psalms 137:8-9.

V 39: "When they are heated I will make feasts for them, and I will make them drunk…" This is exactly what happened when Babylon fell in the reign of Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar, who made a great feast, became drunk, exhibited the captured vessels of the Holy Temple and was killed that very night, as described in Daniel ch 5.

V 45ff: "Go out from her midst, My people…" During the period in which Jeremiah delivered the present prophecy, he was consistently urging the people of Judah to submit to Babylon and accept God's decree of exile. Yet at exactly the same time he was prophesying that 62 years later the Jews would leave Babylon.

V 56: "For HaShem is the God of recompense, He shall surely pay back." These words express the essential moral of the entire book of Jeremiah, most of which is made up of his warnings to Judah that God would punish them for their sins with destruction and exile. The inhabitants of Judea were in denial, but after all his warnings, Jeremiah was proved correct when events turned out exactly as he had prophesied and the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, killed or exiled its inhabitants and destroyed the Temple, as described in chapters 39ff. This was how God "paid back" Judah. Afterwards the turn of Babylon would come, because although she was merely an instrument in God's hand, she was far from being righteous and committed great evil in the way she carried out her mission, and God would "pay back" Babylon with her eventual destruction.

V 59: This verse implies that King Tzedekiah went in person to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign (seven years before the destruction of the Temple) in order to meet with Nebuchadnezzar, and this is the opinion of Midrash Seder Olam. However the opinion of Targum Yonasan is that Tzedekiah himself did not go to Babylon but sent Serayah as his emissary (see RaDaK). The purpose of the mission was to conciliate Babylon, yet at this very moment Jeremiah saw that Nebuchadnezzar would not be conciliated but would destroy Jerusalem, and that this very act would seal the fate of Babylon, which would be destroyed. Thus seven years before the destruction of the Temple Jeremiah instructed that the scroll of his prophecies of the coming destruction of Babylon should be tied to a heavy stone and cast into the River Euphrates as a sign that Babylon would eventually sink.

V 64: "Thus far the words of Jeremiah." This marks the end of the prophecies of Jeremiah: the remainder of the book is narrative.

CHAPTER 52

The major part of this chapter (verses 1-27 and 31-34) appears almost word for word in the concluding section of the Book of Kings (II Kings ch 24 vv18-20 and ch 25 vv 1-21 & 25-30). The only differences of substance between the chapter here and the section in Kings are: (a) Kings 25:22-26 gives a brief account of the appointment of Gedaliah ben Ahikam and his assassination, which was described in detail in Jeremiah ch 40; (b) Our present chapter in Jeremiah vv 28-30 gives precise figures of the numbers of (male) members of the tribes of Judah who were exiled to Babylon in three successive waves of exile.

These three waves of exile were: (1) the exile of King Yechonyah (=Yeho-yachin), which took place "in the seventh year" after Nebuchadnezzar subdued his father, King Yeho-yakim – 3023 exiles (v 28); (2) "In Nebuchadnezzar's eighteenth year: this was the exile of Tzedekiah which took place with the destruction of the Temple – 832 exiles (v 29); (3) "In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar": Midrash Seder Olam (quoted by Rashi) explains that in this year Nebuchadnezzar conquered Tyre and swept away Judeans who had fled there and to the regions of Ammon and Moab – 745 exiles (see Rashi on vv 28-30).

This sober account of the destruction of Jerusalem, the plunder of the Temple vessels and the complete exile of all the surviving members of the tribe of Judah concludes the book of Jeremiah, showing the vindication of all of his prophesies about the coming calamity despite the fact that most of the people of his time refused to believe them and openly scoffed and persecuted him. Thus we see that the truth of prophecy does not depend on whether people accept it or not. "Many are the thoughts in the heart of a man, but it is the counsel of HaShem that will stand" (Proverbs 19:21).

Jeremiah prophesied calamity, but he also prophesied redemption and restoration. The fact that all his prophesies of calamity came about is our guarantee that those of restoration will also come about. His prophesy ends with the release of King Yeho-yachin from prison after the death of Nebuchadnezzar. King Yeho-yachin was given a position of honor in Babylon, and this in itself was a sign of hope. During his captivity Yeho-yachin repented, and although when he was a sinner he had been cursed that he would die childless, the decree was revoked and he had a child who fathered Zerubavel, who rebuilt the Holy Temple.

MAY HASHEM LET US WITNESS ALL OF JEREMIAH'S PROPHECIES OF REDEMPTION AND RESTORATION SPEEDILY IN OUR DAYS. AMEN.

ABY

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Please Say Yes to Abba Yahweh and His Laws.

Please read the Mitzvoth go to: Positive Commandments and the Negative Commandments), easy to read. It is very important to know them. For, the understanding of the rest of The Scriptures.

Hab 2:3 For the chazon (vision) is yet for a mo’ed (an appointed time); it speaks of HaKetz (the End), and does not lie; though it tarry, wait for him

Moshiach— see: Sanhedrin 97b, ‘It has been taught; R. Nathan said: This verse pierces and descends to the very abyss:11 For the Vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though he tarry, wait for him (Moshiach); because it will surely come, it will not tarry.12]; because he (Moshiach) will surely come, and will not tarry.

(11) Just as the bottom of an abyss cannot be reached, so is it impossible to grasp the full purport of this verse (Rashi).
(12) Hab. II, 3.

Believe…..

Hab 2:4 Hinei (behold), his nashamah (soul) which is puffed up is not upright in him; but the tzaddik (righteous) shall live by his emunah (believe).

Through Moshiach, Yeshuah from Yahweh who give you emunah (believe)…..

Gen 15:6 And he believed in Yahweh; and He credited emunah (faith)] to him as tzedakah (righteousness).

Please read the whole book of HaNavi Habakuk?

The Koran teaches us that you have to die…….

But, please Yudah (Jews) and Ephraim (most Christians) Listen to His Voice:

Hab 1:12 Art thou not mikedem

(‘everlasting’ also said of Moshiach, indicating Moshiach’s eternal divine nature: Dan 7:14 And there was given Him (Moshiach) dominion, and honor, and sovereignty, that all people, Goyim, tongues, should pey-lammed-chet. [1] (worship as deity) (see Dan 3:12, serve, reverence as deity Him (Moshiach). His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His (Messianic) Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.] see Michah 5:1[2];)

Yahweh Elohai (my Elohim) Kedoshi (my Holy One)? We shall not die. Yahweh, Thou hast appointed them (these Chaldean) for mishpat (ordinance); O Tzur, Thou hast ordained them (these Chaldean) for reproof.

Please take it serious what Abba Yahweh is telling us in:

Deu 18:15 Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohim) will raise up unto thee a Navi (prophet) from among thee, of thy achim (bretheren), kamoni (like me.....

Exo 32:30 The next day Moshe said to the people, "You have committed a terrible sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh; maybe I will be able to atone for your sin."); unto him ye must listen;

Deu 18:16 According to all that thou desired of Yahweh Eloheicha (your Elohimin) Chorev (to be burnt dried up, ruined, wasted) in the Yom HaKahal (day of the congregation), saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh Elohav (your Elohim), neither let me see this eish hagedolah (‘great fire’) any more, that I die not.

Deu 18:17 And Yahweh said unto me, They have well-spoken that which they have spoken.

Deu 18:18 I will raise them up a Navi (prophet) from among their achim (brethren), like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Joh 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have samchut (authority) to lay it down, and I have samchut to receive it again. This mitzvah I received from HaAv (the Father).

Deu 18:19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not listen unto My words which he shall speak Bishmi (in My Name), I will require it of him.

Joh 8:28 Therefore, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach said to them, When you perform the hagbah (lifting up) of the Ben HaAdam, you will have da'as (knowledge) that Ani Hu [YESHAYAH 41:4; SHEMOT 3:14-16], and from myself I do nothing, but as HaAv (the Father) of me taught me, these things I speak.

Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiah Yeshuah – is Yeshuah Yahweh. Like it is said in:

Gen_49:18 I have waited for Thy Yeshuah (Salvation), Yahweh.

Exo_15:2 Yahweh is my oz and zimrah (song of praise), and He is become to me Yeshuah (salvation); He is Eli (my Elohim), and I will praise Him; Elohei Avi (the Elohim of my Father), and I will exalt Him.

And not a half-god, or another mighty-one who came between HaShem and us! (Not, ‘It Suph’!) I believe many of us (Jews and Ephraimites!) have to learn that!

[1] Dictionary of the Talmud. M. Jastrow p. 1178 פלח