Destined to be Caught in a Snare, how this Prophecy is to be Fulfilled: And notice a Composite Message of Sweetness and Bitterness! “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” Amos 3:2
The Targum, which originated in the Aramaic language and is strongly linked to the work of Ezra, holds significance for shedding light on biblical concepts. When the Masoretic Text can be vague, uncertain, or unclear, the Targum often offers clearer meaning, broader insight, and deeper understanding.
Yes, sometimes the Targum clarifies metaphors and interprets idioms or difficult passages instead of translating them literally, which often makes no sense. Such an endeavor should be highly commended rather than criticized.
For example, the Targum interprets natural imagery—like cedars, cypresses, oaks, forests, and fire—as metaphors for political political and social structures, especially kings, rulers, governors, and wealthy elites. Such imagery can be sweeping: forests laid waste, lions roaring as their habitat is destroyed, and power structures crumbling. Fire symbolizes divine punishment, sweeping through defenses and dismantling the very foundations of their power.
Translating such natural imagery literally could convey limited information or even distort it, but Ezra was determined to share their true meaning. He was a righteous man, for God had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, to follow it, and to teach the statutes and judgments in Israel Ezra 7:10.
(1) Lamentations 1:2 She weepeth sorely in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
When Moses the Prophet sent messengers to spy out the land, the messengers returned and gave forth a bad report concerning the land of Israel. This was the night of the ninth of Ab. When the people of the House of Israel heard this bad report which they had received concerning the land of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and the people of the House of Israel wept that night.
Immediately the anger of the LORD was kindled against them and he decreed that it should be so in that night throughout their generations over the destruction of the Temple.
When it was told through prophecy to Jeremiah the High Priest that Jerusalem would be destroyed at the hand of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar unless they repented, he immediately entered and rebuked the people of the House of Israel, but they refused to accept it. Therefore the wicked Nebuchadnezzar came and razed Jerusalem and set fire to the Temple on the ninth day in the month of Ab.
On that night, the Congregation of Israel wept bitterly and her tears flowed down her cheeks. There was no one to speak comfortingly to her heart from among all her idols after whom she loved to follow. As a result, all her friends were wicked to her; they turned against her and became her enemies. Lamentations 1:2 Aramaic
— the revelation of the ninth of Ab as the date (1) the people wept bitterly, distrusting God, when Moses received a bad report after sending them to spy out the land; and (2) Nebuchadnezzar sent the Babylonian army to destroyed Jerusalem and set fire to God’s Temple are two such details where the Targum provides greater clarity that both catastrophes occured on the same ninth day of Ab.
(2) Lamentations 1:3-4Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest; all her persecutors overtook her in her straits. 4 The highways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
The House of Judah went into exile because they were oppressing the orphans and the widows and because of the great servitude to which they were subjecting their brothers, the sons of Israel, who had been sold to them. And they did not declare freedom to their servants and handmaids who were of the seed of Israel. As a result they themselves were delivered into the hand of the nations. And the Congregation of the House of Judah dwells among the nations and finds no rest from the hard labor to which they subject her. All who pursued her overtook her as she was hiding in the border regions and they persecuted her. Lamentations 1:3 Aramaic
All the while that Jerusalem was built, the sons of Israel refused to go up to be seen before the LORD three times a year. Because of Israel’s sins Jerusalem was destroyed and the roads to Zion are made mournful, for there is no one entering her at the time of the festivals. All the gates are desolate and her priests groan because the sacrifices have ceased. Her virgins mourn because they have stopped going out on the fifteenth of Ab and on the Day of Atonement (which is on the tenth day of Tishri) to dance the dances. Therefore she too is very bitter in her heart. Lamentations 1:4 Aramaic
— the revelation as to why the House of Judah went into Captivity is another example above where the Targum provides wider insight where the Masoretic Text is less precise. Here it is stated that eventually, the house of Judah also didn’t go to keep God’s solemn feasts in Jerusalem, spelt out as the three times a year in God’s presence, that God sent them into Captivity.
(3) Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement, because he willingly walked after the commandment [of man]. Hosea 5:11
“The nobles of the house of Ephraim are subdued in their judgments, for their judges turned aside to pursue false money.” Hosea 5:11 Jonathan
— the verse above is another example, which clears up the uncertainty regarding the cause of their calamity; by the tyranny of their kings or nobles, and the injustice of their judges, who looked only for monetary gains, not God’s commandment. The original Masoretic is uncertain, and the English King James version doesn’t make sense until enlightened and elucidated by the Targum.
(4) Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and thy judgements are as the light that goeth forth. Hosea 6:5
“Therefore, because I warned you by the mission of the prophets and you did not return, I brought upon you killers, for you transgressed against the word of My will; and My judgment goes forth like a river.” Hosea 6:5 Jonathan
— the Targum reveals the consequence of rejecting God’s prophets is another example where it offers greater clarity and deeper insight where the Masoretic Text is subject to ambiguities.
(5) The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad because of the multitude of thine iniquity and great hatred. Hosea 9:7
— the Masoretic Text is disjointed, its meaning unclear: why the prophet is a fool isn’t explained. The Targum provides a much better flow of thoughts.
“The days of punishment have come, the days of requital for sins have arrived. The house of Israel shall know that true prophets were prophesying to them, but they treated them as fools, and false prophets they considered delightful—because your sins multiplied and your transgressions grew strong.” Hosea 9:7 Jonathan
(6) Israel is an empty vine; he bringeth forth fruit unto himself. According to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. Hosea 10:1
— the people of Israel are often compared to a vine, but “empty ” in the English translation is ambigious; Israel is an empty, or perhaps a luxuriant vine; and such an one from whence fruit might be expected, planted in good soil, pouring out much fruits, emptying itself;
— the Septuagint understands it in a positive sense, rendering it, “a flourishing vine, her fruit is abundant” putting forth branches, leaves and fruit; Hosea 10:1 Septuagint
— but the Targum renders it posiviely initially and in reverse eventually:
“Israel is a luxuriant vine, established by its practice of Torah. But the fruit of their deeds brought exile. When I increased their prosperity, they increased idol worship. When I brought goodness to their land, they built altars before their images.” Hosea 10:1 Jonathan
— although Israel is likened positively to a “luxuriant vine” the fruit of their deeds caused them to be yielding unrighteousness, their abundance should bring blessing, more fruit or material wealth, the better the harvests, but it soon brings more altars to their gods; the more the obelisks or pillars to pagan gods;
— and in the context of this chapter, the Targum rendering is more complete and correct, as the text below says Israel’s hearts are divided between God and their idols, as in Ahab’s time between God and Baal; or for today, between God and the world; rather than wholly belonging to God.
(7) I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not enter into the city. Hosea 11:9
— the phase “and I will not enter into the city” is vague; but the Targum enlightens it with wider insight,
“I will not act with the full force of My anger, nor will My word return to destroy the house of Israel. For I am God, My word endures forever, and My deeds are not like the deeds of flesh that dwell upon the earth. Thus I have decreed by My word that My holy Presence shall be among you, and I will not exchange it for another city besides Jerusalem.” Hosea 11:9 Jonathan
(8) That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. Joel 1:4
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you. Joel 2:25
— locust … cankerworm … caterpiller … palmer worm—the reverse order from Joel 1:4, where God will restore not only what has been lost by the full-grown consuming locust, but also what has been lost by the less destructive licking locust, and swarming locust, and gnawing locust;
— Jamieson-Fausset: four stages of locusts, rather than four species of locusts: (1) the gnawing locust; (2) the swarming locust; (3) the licking locust; (4) the consuming locust;
— and the Lord will restore to you, that is, for the house of Jacob, make up the years that the locust hath eaten your crops, the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm, his great army which he sent among you, the insects of Joel 1:4 being named in the reverse order;
— the Targum reveals this was God talking, not of literal locusts, but locusts symbolic of foreign oppressors, of a succession of an invading foreign human army instead:
“I will repay you with good years in place of the years stolen from you by idol-worshippers, nations, tongues, rulers, and kingdoms, through the punishment of the great army I sent against you.” Joel 2:25 Jonathan
(9) “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord,” Amos 4:6
— this is confusing, what is the cleanness of teeth? although it is hinted the “want of bread in all your places;”
— the Targum explains the idiom, “clean teeth” to mean it’s a curse: there was no food to dirty them:
“And I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities and lack of food in all your places. Yet you did not return to My worship, says the Lord,” Amos 4:6 Jonathan
(10) In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation and say, ‘We are utterly despoiled; He hath changed the portion of my people. How hath He removed it from me! Turning away, He hath divided our fields.’” Micah 2:4
— in the day of judgment, people will compose a parable and a lament about the corrupt elites; they will lament and declare that they have been completely plundered; the land that belonged to God’s people has been taken from them and handed to others; they would be expelled from their inheritance and their portion is divided among those who hate them;
— the Targum expresses how this parable becomes a proverb by intensifing the moral and emotional weight of the Masoretic text: that is, emphasizing those who plundered will have themselves utterly plundered:
“At that time a proverb and a lament will be taken up about you, and in the lament it will be said: ‘We have been plundered—utterly plundered! The portion of my people has been taken away and given to others; from their inheritance they are driven out; their portion is divided to those who hate them.’” Micah 2:4 Jonathan
— the people who once exploited others will themselves be plundered, their inheritance lost, and their land divided among outsiders. It is a prophetic reversal: the oppressors become the oppressed, and their downfall becomes proverbial.
(11) The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. Nahum 1:1
— the burden of Nineveh; but why was this given wasn’t given, Jonah had earlier being sent to this city to warn them with ruin for their sins; at that time the king and all his people humbled themselves and repented and the threatened destruction was averted;
— but the Targum clears this up: that they soon relapsed to their former iniquities, and that Nahum prophesied after Jonah a considerable time, perhaps a hundred to a hundred and fifty years later; they reverted to sinning again;
The burden of the cup of cursing which Nineveh is to be made to drink. First Jonah, son of Amitti, of Gath Hepher, proph[e]sied against her, and she turned from her sins; and now that she sinned again, Nahum from the house of Koshi prophesied against her again, according as it is written in this record. Nahum 1:1 Jonathan
(12) Thus saith the Lord: “Though they be quiet and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more; Nahum 1:12
— thus saith the Lord, Though the enemies be quiet and likewise many, yet shall they be cut down when he, the king from the Assyrians, shall pass through, but it’s not clear where or over what the passage is meant to be, making the text vague and ambiguous;
— however, the Targum clarifies this ambiguities by adding that the passing through are the crossing of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Thus saith Jehovah: Though perfect in counsel and great in number be the peoples who are assembled to afflict thee, O Jerusalem, and they cross the Tigris and pass over the Euphrates and come to afflict thee, though I have made thee serve, I will not make thee serve again. Nahum 1:12 Jonathan
— and this seems to parallel a familiar scene in Revelation:
“Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates . . . And the number of the army of horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand, and I heard the number of them.” Revelation 9:14,16
(13) Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgement; and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction. Habakkuk 1:12 — O Lord God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you?
Q (1) If thou art from everlasting, we are not going to die, are we? O Lord, you have appointed them, a nation more wicked than Judah, for judgement; and you, O Rock, have established them for correction.
— the Targum recognizes God’s justice but struggles with the paradox of using such a violent nation as His instrument, says
“Are You not, O Lord, the one who created the world from the beginning? You are God, the true Judge over all Your creatures; holy in works of faithfulness; your word endures forever. O Lord, You have established him (the Chaldean) to execute judgment; and You have made him strong to bring punishment.” Habakkuk 1:12 Jonathan
(14) A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon “Shigionoth.” O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. Habakkuk 3:1-2
— the Targum provides great insight of allowing time for the wicked to repent, says,
“A prayer that Habakkuk the prophet prayed when it was revealed to him about the length of time given to the wicked—that if they return to the Torah with a whole heart, they will be forgiven, and all the sins they committed before Him will be pardoned. This is the prayer.”
“O Lord, I have heard the report of Your strength and I was in awe. O Lord, great are Your works: You give an extension of time to the wicked—if they return to Your Torah, they will be forgiven; but if they do not return, they provoke You during the years of life You granted them.
Therefore You are destined to make Your strength known in the years when You have said You will renew the world, to exact punishment from the wicked who transgressed Your word, and to remember the righteous who do Your will with mercy.” Habakkuk 3:1-2 Jonathan
(15a) Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. Zechariah 3:3 — “Joshua the High Priest” he was wearing filthy garments:
— the Masoretic Text is ambigious, not explaining why he was filthy; but the Targum explains
“And Joshua had sons who had taken wives not fit for the priesthood, and he was standing before the angel.” Zechariah 3:3 Jonathan
Ordinary priests may NOT marry:
a divorced woman
a zonah (a woman who had prohibited sexual relations)
a ḥalalah (a woman born from an invalid priestly union)
These categories are not moral judgments — they are legal statuses that determine whether a woman may enter the priestly family.
The High Priest has even stricter rules: He may marry only a virgin, and may not marry:
a widow
a divorcee
a previously sexually active woman
any woman with a disqualifying status
And I said, “Let them set a clean miter upon his head.” So they set a clean miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.
(15b) And He answered and spoke unto those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And unto him He said, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.” Zechariah 3:4
“And he answered and said to those who minister before him, saying; and they said to him, ‘Remove the women who are not fit for the priesthood from his house.’ And he said to him, ‘See, I have removed your sin from you, and I will clothe you in pure garments.’” Zechariah 3:4 Jonathan
— saying, Take away the filthy garments from him, this signifying the removal of the people’s guilt, their wives not authorised to be married; and unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, that is, by an act of complete forgiveness, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
(15c) And I said, “Let them set a clean miter upon his head.” So they set a clean miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by. Zechariah 3:5
“And I said, ‘Set a pure turban on his head,’ and they set a pure turban on his head, and they brought to him a woman who is fit for the priesthood, and the angel of the Lord stood by.” Zechariah 3:5 Jonathan
(16a) Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’” Zechariah 4:7
“What do you think this foolish kingdom is before Zerubbabel? Behold, it is like a plain and he shall reveal his Anointed (the Messiah), whose name was spoken beforehand and he shall rule over all kingdoms.”
— thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Messiah, the Son whose name is said from eternity. A man like Cyrus or Josiah may be anointed, but neither of their names could have come from eternity, nor could any of these men rule all nations, except the Son of God. (Ezra, the one who inspires the translationof the Sacred Text into the Targum, also knows about Zerubbabel being the Messiah!).
— who art thou, 0 great mountain? The construction of the Temple being a monstrous obstacle, but before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, he would easily overcome all the difficulties connected with the completion of this momentous work;
— and the angel shall bring forth the headstone thereof, the uppermost stone of its walls, the headstone or the corner stone in the building up of his church, fulfilled only by the Messiah;
— with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it! that is, May God grant grace to this stone and to the building which it represents, so that it may stand forever!
(16b) “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you” Zechariah 4:9
“The hands of Zerubbabel began to build this house and his hands shall complete it, and you shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to prophesy to you.”
— thus together with Zechariah 4:7Targum it testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent from God, the Father; hence Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah;
— the hands of Zerubbabel, the Messiah, have laid the foundation of this house during his first coming, his hands shall also finish it, whence it follows that the entire situation has a deeper significance than that of a mere earthly Temple, namely, that the Lord, in the Word that was made flesh, was coming to complete the Temple of the Kingdom of God;
Remember, laying side by side along with the Masoretic Text, the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and Persia, these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Hebrew Text quoted.
(17) The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus, shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. Zechariah 9:1 — the location of Hadrach in the Masoretic Text is unknown,
— the land of Hadrach is a cryptic name; but the Targum interprets “the land of Hadrach” as “the southern land,” a geographic land where Esau once lived; and thus as well as the land of Damascus in the north shall be returned to the Lord;
“The oracle of the word of the Lord in the southern land, and Damascus shall be turned to be from the land of His Presence, for before the Lord the deeds of human beings are revealed, and He is revealed over all the tribes of Israel.”
— when the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel shall be drawn toward the Lord, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah being directed to the Lord and both will return to the land of Promise, taking over both the land of the Syrians with Damascus in the north and Negev in the south.
(18) Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. — the phase “out of him” wasn’t established clearly; was it the shepherd or house of Judah? and what came forth the corner? Zechariah 10:4
“From him [Judah] will come his king, from him his Messiah (anointed one), from him the strength of his warfare, and from him all his leaders shall arise together.”
— that is, “cornerstone” by which is meant a king or ruler, the corner-stone on which the entire building of the new Kingdom rests; out of him the nail; the Targum says, “out of him his anointed one (Messiah)” the pegs of the wall, from which the household utensils were suspended, types of the dependable men in a state;
(19) The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi. Malachi 1:1
— the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel; by which is meant the prophecy of this book, so called because it is heavy, burdensome and distressful, either for the prophet to carry or the people to bear;
— but the Targum interprets the book not as the prophecy of a figure named Malachi, which has been assumed to be a pseudonym, but as a message delivered by or through Ezra, whom it identifies as the prophetic “messenger;”
“A divine message of the LORD about Israel, delivered by the hand of His messenger, who is called Ezra the Scribe.” Malachi 1:1 Jonathan
— the Septuagint says the same: that “the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of his messenger.” That is, there is no mention of a prophet named Malachi; although it fell short of naming who the author was.
This would also explain why Ezra (nor any other prophets or books) does not refer to a prophet named Malachi, while he did refer to other prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14);
Second, this identification is plausible, because book of Malachi reprimands the people for the same things Ezra did, such as marrying foreign pagan women;
Third, “Malachi” focuses heavily on corrupt priests, as Ezra, a priest himself, urged the people to follow the law; thus Ezra (and Ezekiel) held the office of both priest and scribe;
Finally, besides being a Priest and a Scribe, Ezra was here established also as a Prophet; hence in Rabbinic tradition, Ezra’s status is elevated to a level nearly equal to that of Moses; or as some would say, a second Moses.
(20) If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto My name,” saith the Lord of hosts, “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. Malachi 2:2
— if ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart, if they persisted in your callousness over against God’s commands, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, by a worship in agreement with His commands;
— why the deaf ear turns into a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings, both upon priests and people; those that bring the bad offerings, such as their corn, wine and oil; yea, God have cursed you already because you do not lay it to heart, presenting an indifferent front to the Lord’s admonitions;
— the Targum provides deeper insight by repeating that the fear of the Lord is lacking,
“If you do not accept this command, and if you do not set My fear upon your heart to give honor to My name, says the Lord of Hosts, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will turn your blessing into a curse—indeed, I have already cursed it—because you are not placing My fear upon your heart.” Malachi 2:2 Jonathan
As Ezekiel continues his visions of God in Jerusalem, the focus of his prophecy is for the children of Israel at the endtime. In the next two chapters, the children of Israel refers to both the northern house of Israel and the southern house of Judah.
In chapter 9 it has the core subject about those who preside over God’s Sanctuary in the endtime, the remnants. Yet these remnants are to be slain: “Slay utterly old and young . . . and begin at my Sanctuary,” Ezekiel 9:6.
But an even smaller remnants are spared; why are they spared and not the others?
Ezekiel’s Vision of God for the endtime rebellious house of Israel
Ezekiel 9
1 He cried also in mine ears with a loud voice, saying, “Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand.”
— he, the Divine, cried also in mine ears with a loud voice; that is, the Shekinah, whom the prophet saw in the Temple, and who directed him from place to place, now wanted to show him all the abominations committed there;
— saying, cause them that have the charge over the city to draw near; or “those appointed over the city,” that is, the city of Jerusalem after the four abominations shown in chapter 8; by whom are meant the ministering angels, who had the charge of executing God’s judgements upon the city;
— even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand; weapons of war, as bows and arrows, sword and spear, each of these had a weapon proper for that kind of destruction which he was to effect; and so, some to slay with sword, other with the pestilence, another with famine;
“And it came to pass that I heard a great voice saying: ‘Draw near, you who are appointed over the city, and let each man have his weapon of destruction in his hand.’”
2 And behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his side. And they went in and stood beside the brazen altar.
— in the good old days, these “six men” or six destroyers, or angels of wrath, or they could be the generals of Nebuchadnezzar Jeremiah 39:3;
— but if this “six men” are meant to be prophecy, then who are they? In modern times, could they be Chechens, Syrians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Libyans and Afghans? Or perhaps some other combinations?
— or, as Ezekiel 38:22 renders it, I will strike thee with six plagues; those mentioned, namely, pestilence, blood, overflowing rain, hailstones, fire, brimstone; in the Talmud, it was expressed as “Anger, Wrath, Fury, Destroyer, Breaker, Annihilator;”
“And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate that faces north, each man with his weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed in garments, with a scribe’s ink‑case at his waist. And they went up and stood beside the bronze altar.”
3 And the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
— Ezekiel was explicitly commanded to write down his visions, Ezekiel 43:11; so he was the man who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side;
— and the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub; that is, the glorious God; or the Shekinah, removed from thence, as a token of his being about to depart from the temple, and with its protection removed, the temple would be destroyed in a short time;
— the Targum says, “the glory of the God of Israel departed in the cherub on which he dwelt, in the house of the holy of holies;” the cherubim removed with him, as were his chariot in which he rode;
Shekinah, the Glory of God left the Temple and Jerusalem was soon destroyed
4 and the Lord said unto him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and who cry because of all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof.” — and the Lord said unto Ezekiel;
— and you shall mark a sign: you shall mark a sign on the foreheads of the righteous men in order to show the destroyers those men whom they should not strike;
— it is a Rabbinical thought that Gabriel had orders to write the letter ת (tav; the last letter of the alphabet) in ink upon the foreheads of the righteous, which signified תחיה, “thou shall live.” And for the wicked the same letter ת were written in blood upon the foreheads, but it signified תמות, “thou shall die.”
— the letter ת in the original paleo Hebrew looks like an x sign;
“And the Lord said to him: ‘Pass through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and you shall mark a sign upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and who groan over all the abominations that are committed in her midst.'”
5 And to the others He said in mine hearing, “Go ye after him through the city and smite. Let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity. — He said into mine hearing; that is, God spoke into Ezekiel’s ears;
— the remnant fell by the sword of the Chaldeans, but God found out some way to spare or secure them; as in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans;
— the Christians were spared in a city on the mountains, called Pella, east of the Jordan; and certain Jews, including some Pharisees of the House of Hillel; they escaped to Yavne along the coast of the Mediterranean sea;
“And to these He said in my hearing: ‘Pass through the city after him and kill; let your eye not spare, and do not have pity.'”
6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” Then they began with the elder men who were before the house.
— and begin at my sanctuary; the Temple, the house of God, and the priests and Levites that dwelt there; and in today’s climate, the synagogues, the churches; the chapels, the assemblies or some other terms;
— begin at My sanctuary means “begin with my elects” those who professed themselves to be saints of the Lord, and were separated and devoted to his service; and so the Rabbins say, do not read ממקדשי, “at my sanctuary;” but ממקודשי, “at those that sanctify me” or “my sanctified ones” which they interpret of those that keep the whole law, from “aleph” to “tau;”
“Old man, youth, virgin, child, and women — you shall kill for destruction; but do not approach any man on whom is the mark. And begin from My sanctuary, and begin with the old men who are before the House.”
7 And He said unto them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go ye forth.” And they went forth and slew in the city. — and fill the courts with the slain; the court of the priests, and the court of the Israelites, and the court of the women, and all the chambers where the priests and Levites were;
“And He said to them: ‘Defile the Temple and fill the courtyards with the slain; go forth!’ And they went forth and struck in the city.”
8 And it came to pass, while they were slaying them and I was left, that I fell upon my face and cried, and said, “Ah Lord God! Wilt Thou destroy all the residue of Israel in Thy pouring out of Thy fury upon Jerusalem?”
— when Ezekiel was delivering his message to both houses of Israel and Judah, they were already in captivity. He was among the captives at the river Chebar, so Ezekiel’s messages were actually meant for those living far into the future, in our time, to the modern house of Israel, the chief of whom is Ephraim, the United States of America;
“And it came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left alone, that I fell upon my face and cried out and said: ‘Accept my prayer, O Lord God! Are You destroying all the remnant of Israel by pouring out Your fury upon Jerusalem?'”
A Nation Full of Blood Crimes!
9 Then said He unto me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood and the city full of perverseness; for they say, ‘The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.’
— both the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is immeasurably great, and the land is full of blood-guiltiness, and the city full of perversion;
— for they say God hath forsaken the land, and he seeth not. Ezekiel 9:10. So also shall my eye not look with pity, and I will not spare; I will give their way upon their head. Ezekiel 9:11
“And He said to me: ‘The sins of the house of Israel and Judah are exceedingly great; the land is filled with those guilty of murder, and the city is filled with the perversion of justice; for they have said, “The Lord has removed the inhabitants of the land,” and “Nothing is revealed before the Lord.”‘”
10 And as for Me also, Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their ways upon their heads.” — a parallel Scripture, “As you have done [unto others], it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head” Obadiah 1:15
“And He said to me: ‘The sins of the house of Israel and Judah are exceedingly great; the land is filled with those guilty of murder, and the city is filled with the perversion of justice; for they have said, “The Lord has removed the inhabitants of the land,” and “Nothing is revealed before the Lord.”‘”
11 And behold, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, “I have done as Thou hast commanded me.” — the man clad in linen returns, announcing the execution of God’s commands;
“And behold, the man who was clothed in the garment (linen), who had the tablet (writing kit) at his side, brought back word, saying: ‘I have done as You commanded me.'”
~~~~
More on Ezekiel 9:6 Slay utterly old and young . . . and begin at my sanctuary:
Today many pretentious Christians, especially among the CoG Communities, believe they will go into a place of safety? But this is just day dreaming. It’s far more likely that lightnings and thunderstorms would begin with these professing Christians.
Deuteronomy 16:18 “You shall appoint judges and officers in all your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with righteous judgment.
Deuteronomy 17:11 According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee, and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee, thou shalt do: thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee, to the right hand, nor to the left. 12 And the man who will do presumptuously, and will not hearken unto the priest who standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God, or unto the judge, even that man shall die.
Moses knew he would die soon and his understanding had been conveyed to the judges, the Levites and priests where the true interpretation of the law were taught.
So in the book of Deuteronomy Moses spoke and explained unto all Israel “according unto all that the Lord had given him” as to how to keep them, the blessing they would have if they obey, or cursing if they disobey, in a language they could understand. Men may have good intentions, but may do things seen as presumptuously?
The Jews were prophesied they would mourn One whom they had rejected: “And they shall look to Me whom they have pierced; then they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only son” (Zechariah 12:10). But these Christians have nothing to mourn?
Currently these endtime virgins are described as lukewarm and in need of nothing, but would they not mourn when they realise that they had been blind, wretched and naked, seeing finally that Christ had suffered far more through His torn flesh and shed blood than they had ever realised? No?
Today more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honoring the SUN by observing SUNday. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the SUN toward the east,” Ezekiel 8:16.
Others, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, the Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a SUNday. Always on SUNdays.
And these are supposedly in God’s sanctuary, but God says He is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of His mouth! No? Regardless, there are those being described in Revelation 3:17 — wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: or else I will spew thee out of My mouth (v16,19).”
Despite the above, there’ll be a remnant that are spared: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and who cry because of all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof,” Ezekiel 9:4. These remnants “who sigh and who cry” will be marked with a letter ת in ink on the forehead;
— but the question is, do we qualify to be in this category?
Ezekiel 10
In Chapter 10, Ezekiel was again in a vision, very much like that in the first chapter, but with a different view; the design being to represent the wrath of God against Jerusalem and his departure from the city and Temple. A throne much like that in Ezekiel 1:26 is described.
1 Then I looked, and behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them, as it were, a sapphire stone with the appearance of the likeness of a throne. — description much like in chapter 1
“And I saw, and behold—in the firmament above the heads of the cherubim there appeared something like a precious stone, like the appearance of the likeness of a throne, seen above them.”
2 And He spoke unto the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in in my sight.
— and He spake unto the man clothed with linen; that is, the God of Israel gave orders to the man clothed in linen, who appears in another character, and represents the Chaldean or Roman army; these “coals of fire” were an emblem of the wrath of God against Jerusalem;
“And He spoke to the man clothed in the garments (linen) and said: ‘Go in between the whirling wheels, beneath the cherub, and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.’ And he went in as I watched.”
3 Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. — now the cherubim stood on the right side of the house; according to the Targum, it was the south side of the house (the idolatries could be seen from the north); opposite the north; that’s where the gross idolatries were committed;
“And the cherubim were standing on the south side of the House (the Temple) when the man entered; and the thick cloud filled the inner courtyard.”
4 Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’S glory. — this is a token and intimation of the Lord’s leaving of the temple; and a little before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans;
“And the Glory of the Lord rose up from the cherub upon which it had rested, and rested above, opposite the threshold of the House; and the House was filled with the thick cloud, and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the Glory of the Lord.”
5 And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when He speaketh. — and the sound of the cherubim’s wings was heard even to the outer court; or court of the Gentiles;
— the swift ministry of the apostles, signified by the “cherubim’s wings” went into all the earth, and throughout the Gentiles; the sound of the Kingdom, and redemption by Christ; the sound of this in the swift ministry of the apostles, signified by the “cherubim’s wings” going out into all the earth, especially to the Gentile world;
“And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of the Almighty when He speaks.”
6 And it came to pass that when He had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, “Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims,” then he went in and stood beside the wheels.
— the cherubims stood as servants waiting; then the chariot of fire being taken from between the wheels;
“And when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, ‘Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim,’ he went and stood beside the wheel.”
7 And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen, who took it and went out.
— who took it, and went out; took the fire, and went out of the Temple, and scattered it upon the city of Jerusalem; so representing the Chaldean, or rather the Roman army, burning it with fire;
“And the cherub stretched out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was between them, took it, and placed it into the hands of the man clothed in linen; and he took it and went out.”
8 And there appeared in the cherubims the form of a man’s hand under their wings. — one of them put forth his hand, which was seen by Ezekiel, but this was only the “form” of one; which may not to be taken literally, but as seen in the vision of prophecy; and being under their wings indicates secrecy and privacy;
“And there appeared to the cherubim the form of a human hand beneath their wings.”
9 And when I looked, behold, the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone. — a beryl stone is of sea-green colour;
— the Targum renders it in general, “a precious stone;”
“And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside one cherub and another wheel beside another cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the color of a precious stone.”
All four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel
10 And as for their appearance, all four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel. — and as for their appearances, all four had one likeness, see picture above;
“And as for their appearance, the four of them had one likeness, as if it were a wheel within a wheel.”
11 When they went, they went upon their four sides. They turned not as they went, but to the place whither the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. — the wheels were not guided by some external impetus, but by the cherubim themselves;
“When they moved toward their four directions, they went; they did not turn as they moved, for toward the place the first face turned, they went after it, and they did not turn as they moved.”
12 And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about — even the wheels that the four had. — and the wheels were full of eyes; that is, the rings or circles of the wheels, as in Ezekiel 1:18; even the four wheels were “full of eyes;”
“And all their flesh, and their backs, and their sides, and their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around, for all four of the wheels.”
13 As for the wheels, it was cried unto them in my hearing, “O wheel.” — the word “galgal הַגַּלְגַּ֖ל whirl” could be better rendered “chariot” instead of “wheel;” “chariot” or whirl representing very well the collection of wheels;
“To the wheels, it was called ‘Wheel,’ and I heard.”
14 And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, and the second face was the face of a man, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. — these faces represent four archetypal forms of life in biblical symbolism—exalted, intelligent, powerful and swift;
As for the likeness of their faces, all four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side, and all four had the face of an ox on the left side; all four also had the face of an eagle. Ezekiel 1:10
— compare to chapter 1 of the description of the cherub, the first face was the face of an OX; the ox, being placed toward the west, now this is a face of a CHERUB, indicating, perhaps, that now in chapter 10, the face of an ox and a cherub has a change of significance. If so, what are they? Why the change of the face from that of an OX to that of a CHERUB?
— Jewish commentary (Talmud, Hagigah 13b) explains that Ezekiel prayed for the “ox” face to be changed because it reminded God of the Sin of the Golden Calf. Hence it was replaced with the face of a cherub;
— note, on the west side were Benjamin (Norway), Manasseh (United Kingdom and the Commonwealth) and Ephraim (the United States); all children of matriarch Rachel; they all have enormous natural resources, but not much from any of the other matriarchs;
“Each one had four faces: one was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a human, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.”
Ox (West), Eagle (North), Man (South), Lion (East)
15 And the cherubims were lifted up. This is the living creature that I saw by the River of Chebar.
“And the cherubim rose; they are the creatures that I saw at the River Kebar.”
16 And when the cherubims went, the wheels went alongside them; and when the cherubims lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also turned not from beside them;
“And when the cherubim moved, the wheels moved with them; and when the cherubim lifted their wings to rise upward toward heaven, the wheels did not turn, but they too rose correspondingly with them.”
17 When they stood, these stood, and when they were lifted up, these lifted up themselves also; for the spirit of the living creature was in them. — when they stood, these stood; when the one were inactive, lifeless, and without motion, making no progress in knowledge, experience, and practice, the other were so likewise;
“They stand in their place, and when they rise, they rise with them, for the spirit of the creatures is in them.”
18 Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house and stood over the cherubims. — the departure of Shekinah from the Holy of Holies to the east gate of the Temple, with the motion of the cherubim and wheels along;
“And the Glory of the LORD, which had been dwelling upon it, rose up from above to the threshold of the House and settled upon the cherubim.”
19 And the cherubims lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the Lord’S house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over above them.
— again, the departure of Shekinah from the Holy of Holies with the cherubims lifting up their wings and went along with the wheels toward the east gate;
“And the cherubim lifted their wings and rose upward toward heaven, and I saw them as they went out, and the wheels were beside them; and it stood at the entrance of the eastern gate of the House of the LORD, and the Glory of the God of Israel was above them.”
20 This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the River of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.
“These are the creatures I saw beneath the Glory of the God of Israel at the River Kebar, and I recognized that they were cherubim.”
21 Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings. — and everyone four wings: the Septuagint reads eight wings; the Syriac version six;
“Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings, and the likeness of a human hand was beneath their wings.”
22 And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I saw by the River of Chebar, their appearances and themselves. They went every one straight forward.
— they went everyone straight forward; their motion as well as their form were alike; they kept one even course, looking right on, and their eyes right before them;
“And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces I saw at the River Kebar; their appearance was the same, and each creature went straight ahead in the direction of its face.”
~~~
More on the Ox and the Unicorn:
His glory is like the firstling of his ox (bullock), and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh,” Deuteronomy 33:17.
In the above verse, the Ox (verse 14 above) and Ephraim are named first, the firstborn of his (Joseph’s) “bullock is his glory”: the reference being to Ephraim; followed by Unicorn and Manasseh.
Although Manasseh was the firstborn, Joseph the father crossed his hands and placed Ephraim as firstborn, hence Ephraim, often known as the thirteenth tribe, represents not just the house of Joseph, but more often the house of the 10-tribes Northern Kingdom.
The Coat of Arms of the United States; thirteen Stars, thirteen stripes, thirteen leaves, thirteen letters and thirteen Arrows – the thirteenth tribe
A Unicorn in the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom
In Rabbinic teachings: the myriads (ten thousands) slain by Joshua, of the tribe of Ephraim: These are the myriads descended from Ephraim:
— Rashi: and the thousands of Manasseh: these are the thousands slain by Gideon, who was of the tribe of Manasseh. These are the thousands descended from Manasseh.
— also; his ox. whose strength is as mighty as that of an ox, to conquer many kings; and his horns are the horns of a re’em. The ox is powerful, but its horns are not beautiful; [on the other hand,] a re’em has beautiful horns, but it is not powerful. [Moses thus] blessed Joshua with the power of an ox and the beauty of a re’em ‘s horns. — [Sifrei 33:17]
In his blessings Jacob ascribes to Ephraim ten thousands, and to Manasseh only thousands; thus foreshadowing, that Ephraim the younger was to be the more numerous of the two, as Jacob had before prophesied of them.
“If we don’t take over Greenland, Russia or China will,” Trump said.
Canadian, British and German troops in Greenland, but Trump and White House stay defiant.
And in a unsurprising twist, Trump said in a social media post that Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland would face a taiff of 10% that would climb to 25% on June 1 if a deal is not in place for “the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland” by the United States.
The White House has said the arrival of European troops in Greenland will not change Donald Trump’s ambitions to acquire the Arctic island.
Canadian, British, French and German Troops assisting Danish military in Greenland, but Trump and White House stay defiant
“I don’t think troops in Europe impacts the president’s decision-making process or impact his goal of the acquisition of Greenland at all,” White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday when asked whether recent announcements of European boots on the ground would affect Trump’s calculus.
Several European countries, including France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands, confirmed this week they are sending troops to Greenland to take part in a Danish military exercise — with some already on the ground. It comes after Trump’s press secretary held up ‘despicable’ images in a worrying press conference.
Trump continues to push Greenland plan
Estonia is also involved in the planning and “is ready to put boots on the ground if requested.” NATO is not participating in the drill, which is described as an inter-governmental exercise.
The US president has repeatedly raised the possibility of using military force to take control of Greenland, claiming the territory risks falling under the influence of Russia and China.
A Royal Danish Air Force military plane already stationed at airport of Nuuk
After meeting with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House on Wednesday, Denmark’s foreign minister said Denmark and Greenland “still have a fundamental disagreement” with Washington.
France signals military presence
French President Emmanuel Macron told the country’s armed forces earlier on Thursday that France would deploy land, air and naval assets to Greenland in the coming days.
“France and Europeans must continue, wherever their interests are threatened, to be present without escalation, but uncompromising on respect for territorial sovereignty,” he said.
The UK and Norway are publicly supporting a proposal to create a NATO mission known as Arctic Sentry, which would expand the alliance’s presence in the region and aim to reassure Trump of Europe’s commitment to Arctic security.
As Ezekiel continues his visions from God, his visions are actually prophecies and judgement against the children of Israel at the endtime.
“Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off’ Ezekiel 12:27
Ezekiel 7
1 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, — the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language could be traced to Ezra; expresses it as “The word of prophecy from the Lord.” If it is a prophecy from Ezra’s perspective, it was meant for the future, into the end time, our time.
Remember, laying side by side along with the Masoretic Text, the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and Persia, these returnees could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them then and to us today from the Hebrew Text quoted.
2 “Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel: “An end! The end is come upon the four corners of the land.
— the Targum says, “the punishment of the end, or the punishment determined to come upon the four winds of the earth;” this Targum version recognizes that the house of Israel, the modern-day Israelites, would be from all over the face of the earth, spread over the four winds!
— in Ezekiel 6:3 the message was to the “mountains of Israel,”referring to the United States, UK and France. . . . “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” — the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
— to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene;
— and now “are all over the face of the earth, spread over the four winds” as the Targum says; which would include Australia, New Zealand, Canada (and perhaps South Africa) and numerous small colonized islands around the world;
— and in this context, “the land of Israel” and “over the face of the earth” would most certainly include the modern state of Israel already in the Promised Land;
“And you, son of man—thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end has come; the end of punishment has arrived, coming upon all four corners of the land.”
3 Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send Mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations.
— and I will judge thee according to thy ways; a parallel Scripture here: “Because thou hast despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee” Habakkuk 2:8
“Now the end of punishment has come upon you. I will pour out My wrath on you, repay you according to your conduct, and bring upon you the consequences of all your abominations.”
4 And Mine eye shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity; but I will recompense thy ways upon thee, and thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
— the punishments would be so great that “ye shall know who the Lord is,” to whom vengeance belongs; who takes notice of all their sinful actions, and punishes for them;
— the phrase says, and the punishment of “thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee.” Of course he is referring to the house of Israel in this instance;
“My word will not spare you, and I will not show mercy. I will bring upon you the guilt of your conduct, and the consequences of your abominations will fall upon you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
5 “Thus saith the Lord God: An evil, an only evil, behold, is come! — the Targum says, “evil after evil, lo, it cometh.” That is, one evil after another; when one evil is gone, another comes;
“Thus says the Lord God: Evil after evil—behold, it is coming.”
6 An end is come, the end is come! It watcheth for thee; behold, it is come. — the repeating of “is come” are for emphasis as these words show the eagerness and concern of the prophet’s mind; the speed and haste destruction was making, or is to come;
— and the great hardheartedness and stupidity of the people, which requires constant repetitions; the Targum says
“The end has come—the end of punishment is coming upon you; behold, it is arriving.”
7 The morning is come unto thee, O thou that dwellest in the land; the time is come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains. — again, the repeating of “is come” for multiple assurance that it is prophetic coming in the near future;
— the Targum says, “and there is no fleeing or escaping to the tops of the mountains.”
8 Now will I shortly pour out My fury upon thee, and accomplish Mine anger upon thee; and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense thee for all thine abominations.
— very similar to verve 3 above; “and I will judge thee according to thy ways” parallel Scripture as above; and below:
“Because thou hast despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee” Habakkuk 2:8; or “Because you have plundered many nations, all the nations that survive will plunder you because of the bloodshed and the violence you have inflicted on cities and all their inhabitants;”
“Now, as the moment approaches, I will pour out My wrath upon you; My anger will fall upon you, and I will repay you according to your conduct, bringing upon you all your abominations.”
9 And Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity. I will recompense thee according to thy ways and thine abominations that are in the midst of thee; and ye shall know that I am the Lord that smiteth.
— the Lord that smiteth; in other places it only said, “ye shall know that I am the LORD,” without saying in what respect; here this is specified “the Lord that smiteth” – they shall know that God is the One who carried out judgement as these calamities are from him;
“My Word will not spare, and I will not have compassion; I will bring upon you according to the sins of your ways, and the retribution for your abominations will be within you, and you will know that I am the Lord who has brought the blow upon you.”
10 “Behold the day, behold, it is come! The morning is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded. — the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded; both these phrases could be understood of Sennacherib; he was the rod, with which the Lord smote his people, as the Assyrian monarch is called the rod of his anger, Isaiah 10:5,
— the Assyrian monarch was a very proud prince, and had budded and blossomed, and so was king Nebuchadnezzar, whom God had prepared as “the rod” for the chastisement as three times God describes Nebuchadnezzar as “my servant” (Jeremiah 25:9; 27:6; 43:10);
— the Targum says, “a ruler has been revealed, a wicked one hath appeared.”
11 Violence is risen up into a rod of wickedness; none of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of any of theirs; neither shall there be wailing for them. — neither shall there be wailing for them; the destruction would be so thorough, that there would be but few left to mourn;
— and those that were left would be struck with such a stupor and amazement at the calamity, that they would not be capable of mourning; or with such a dread of the enemy, that there would be no place for lamentation over their dead friends and relations;
“Snatchers / Marauders have risen to trouble the wicked—yet they are not from them, nor from their assemblies, nor from their sons, nor from their sons’ sons.”
12 The time is come, the day draweth near. Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all the multitude thereof.
— for wrath and judgement is upon the whole house of modern Israelites, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free, buyer and seller; “all the multitude” all those that are in good circumstances, and all those that are in bad ones; so that they were all upon the same level, all in the same case and condition;
“The time for the repayment of sins has arrived; the day of punishment for sins is near. The buyer will not rejoice, and the seller will not mourn, because wrath from before Me is upon all their assemblies.”
13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they were yet alive; for the vision is touching the whole multitude thereof, which shall not return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.
— for the seller shall not return to that which is sold; in the year of jubilee, because he shall be in captivity: according to the law in Leviticus 25:13, when a man had sold his possession, he returned to it again in the year of jubilee;
— but in captivity, that could be 190 years for the house of Israel, and 40 years for the house of Judah, though there would be jubilees, yet those that had sold their estates, being captives in another land, could not be returned to them;
— the length of the house of Judah’s captivity of in Babylon was directly related from the length of time they neglected to observe the land Sabbath according to II Chronicles 36:19-21:
And they burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all the palaces thereof with fire and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. 20 And those who had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia,
21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her Sabbaths; for as long as she lay desolate she kept Sabbath, to fulfill threescore and ten years, II Chronicles 36:19-21: ‘by the mouth or spoken by Jeremiah’ this is a reference to the seventy years of captivity as spelt out in Jeremiah 25:11;
“Because the seller will not return to what was sold, and while they are still alive they will be brought down within themselves; for the prophets prophesied to all their assemblies to turn back in repentance, but they did not repent. Each person is distressed by the sins of his own soul, and until they stand firm in repentance they will not be strengthened.”
14 “They have blown the trumpet, even to make all ready; but none goeth to the battle, for My wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. — they have blown the trumpet, as an alarm of war, and see what will be the effect of it, but they shall be dispirited, people are so enfeebled and none come forth for a fight;
— this parallels another verse: “The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle” Psalm 78:9;
“They go out with the sounding of the horn and prepare with weapons of war, but no one goes to battle, because wrath from before Me is upon all their assemblies.”
15 The sword is on the outside, and the pestilence and the famine within. He that is in the field shall die with the sword, and he that is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.
— the sword will come from outside their borders; war is throughout the country and pestilence and famine within the borders; together they shall destroy the whole. He who endeavours to flee from the one shall fall by another, except a small remnant;
“The sword is outside, and death and famine are inside; whoever is in the field will be killed by the sword, and whoever is in the city, famine and death will consume him.”
16 But they that escape of them shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity.
— so Israel, once dwelling in its peaceful valleys, shall flee from their foe to the mountains, were justly to be made the scene of its flight and shame. The significance of the dove (Isaiah 59:11) represents the mournful repentance of Israel hereafter (Zechariah 12:10-12);
— a few shall escape the pestilence, famine, and sword and flee to the mountains, where they will live a very miserable and uncomfortable life; barren and desert places, where they shall find no subsistence, nor have any agreeable company and conversation, but live in solitude and distress;
— like doves, though usually frequenting the valleys, mount up to the mountains when fearing the bird-catcher (Psalm 11:1); they gather together in the mountains and hide themselves in the holes of the rocks, on the sides of the valleys, from birds of prey;
“And the survivors will escape from them and will be on the mountains like the doves of the valleys, all of them moaning—each person because of the sins of his own soul.”
17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water. — all hands shall be feeble; no strength in them, like jelly, to lay hold on weapons of war to defend themselves, or fight the enemy;
“All hands will become weak, and all knees will flow with water.”
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be upon all faces, and baldness upon all their heads. — no heart nor courage in them, to go forth and meet their enemy; and even afraid to lift up their voice in mourning, lest they should be heard, being pursued, and be taken;
“They will gird themselves with sackcloth, and trembling will cover them; shame will be on all their faces, and baldness will be on all their heads.”
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed; their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels, because it is the stumbling block of their iniquity.
— gold and silver as being of no use to preserve them from the sword, famine and pestilence, but instead an hindrance in their flight from the enemy;
— this could also be interpreted as their idols of gold and silver, which shall be as items of contempt, to be cast away. Greed and the love for riches are their iniquity, covetousness, and idolatry, at which they stumbled, and fell into sin, and so into punishment for them;
“Their silver they will throw into the streets, and their gold will be for defilement; their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord’s wrath. They will not satisfy their souls nor fill their stomachs, because it will be for the stumbling of their sins.”
20 “As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and of their detestable things therein; therefore have I set it far from them.
— the beauty of his ornament should be set in the majesty of his Temple, but man has made it an abominations and an detestable thing for themselves; hence God has distanced himself from them;
“And the beauty of His adornment He gave for glory, but they made in it the images of their abominations, their detestable idols; therefore He gave it to them for defilement.”
21 And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil, and they shall pollute it. — and, they, the new “Babylonians,” shall pollute it; by entering into their land and spoiling it, by pillaging and burning all they possess;
“And I will hand it over into the hand of the wicked for plunder, and to the guilty ones of the earth for spoil, and they will defile it.”
22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute My secret place; for the robbers shall enter into it and defile it. — because of their sins, God allows the Chaldeans, the Greeks and the Romans, not only to destroy Jerusalem; but to enter God’s temple, even the holy of hollies: to deface it, plunder it, and burn it to the ground;
“And I will remove My Shekhinah (Divine Presence) from them, because they have defiled the land of the House of My Shekhinah; and the wicked shall enter into it and profane it.”
23 “Make a chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence. — or “judgement of bloods,” capital crimes, such as are deserving of death, particularly murder, or shedding of innocent blood, gun violence especially in the United States today;
“Make chains! For the land is full of those guilty of murder, and the city is full of robbery.”
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses. I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease, and their holy places shall be defiled.
— many refugees now coming across the Southern Border: Afghans, Syrians, Iraqis, Palestinians, Latinos and Mexicans are now in American cities;
— would some of them or their children turn into extremists like the Chechens did an attack in Boston with further plan to travel to Times Square in New York to unleash more bombs and mayhem?
“And I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses; and I will bring to an end the pride of the wicked, and their sanctuaries shall be profaned.”
25 Destruction cometh; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.
— a parallel Scripture in Ezekiel 20 to add more depth:
“And say to the forest of the South: ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein'” Ezekiel 20:47
“Destruction has come; and they shall seek peace, but there is none.”
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor. Then shall they seek a vision of the prophet, but the law shall perish from the priest and counsel from the ancients.
— mischief upon mischief; loss upon loss, one sorrow on the neck of another; vision shall perish from the prophet, the law from the priest, and counselors from the ancients;
— being rejected and be threatened, the prophets wouldn’t be able to continue giving wise counsel; for the law shall perish from them. Other “wise men” and celebrated statesmen could devise foolish schemes; and in trying to avert disasters, they hasten their own ruin;
— and God will thus declare some uncomfortable truths of Israel’s false prophets:
“His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10.
“Then the Lord said unto me, ‘The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart’” Jeremiah 14:14!
“Calamity upon calamity shall come, and rumor upon rumor shall be; and they shall seek instruction from a scribe, but Torah (law) shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the wise.”
27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do unto them according to their way, and according to their deserts will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
— all those of the Royal houses of Europe, and their princes, all their chief rulers, shall mourn with desolation but they wouldn’t be comforted;
— the Scriptures are saying: “In their judgements will I judge them:” the same measure they have meted out to others shall be measured unto them. All these judgements are to make them know the only Lord God of this universe is fair, just and equitable;
“The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled; I will do unto them according to their ways, and according to their laws (judgments) will I punish them; and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 8
In this chapter Ezekiel was carried in vision to Jerusalem and begins a new scene of prophecy extending to the twelfth chapter in one vision. This, according to Archbishop Usher, was the sixth year of Ezekiel’s captivity.
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.
— that the hand of the Lord fell upon me; which the Targum interprets is the spirit of prophecy, which came with power upon him: it indicates the spirit of God was upon him, revealing to him the things that would soon take place;
— the “elders of Judah” could be the elders that were carried captives along with Jehoiachin; but more probably these were those that came from Jerusalem inquiring about the fate of the holy city;
— notice the “elders of Israel” also came, but they appeared later in Ezekiel 14; they, too, are inquiring about their fate;
“And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, the prophet said: I was sitting in my house, and the elders of the house of Judah were sitting before me; and the spirit of prophecy from before the Lord God rested upon me there.”
“A likeness as the appearance of fire; or the appearance of a man?”
2 Then I beheld, and lo, a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of His loins even downward, fire, and from His loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the color of amber.
— there are many variations interchanging between fire and man among all the English versions of the Scriptures; is it the appearance of fire or is it the holiness of the Divine?
— the Septuagint renders it, “behold the likeness of a man”; reading איש, “a man”, for אש, “fire.”
Hence there are many variations interchanging between fire and man among all the English versions of the Bible. Here is one great example, the Message Bible:
In the sixth year, in the sixth month and the fifth day, while I was sitting at home meeting with the leaders of Judah, it happened that the hand of my Master, God, gripped me. When I looked, I was astonished. What I saw looked like a man—from the waist down like fire and from the waist up like highly burnished bronze. He reached out what looked like a hand and grabbed me by the hair.
The Spirit swept me high in the air and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple’s inside court where the image of the sex goddess that makes God so angry had been set up. Right before me was the Glory of the God of Israel, exactly like the vision I had seen out on the plain. Ezekiel 8:1-3 MSG
“And I looked, and behold, a likeness like the appearance of fire; the appearance of a Glory which the eye is not able to see, and it is not possible to look upon it. From [what appeared to be] its waist and downward, the appearance of fire; and the appearance of a Glory which the eye is not able to see and it is not possible to look upon it. And from its waist and upward, like the appearance of a brightness, like the color of Hashmal (amber/electrum).”
— Hashmal (חַשְׁמַל) is the mysterious glowing substance Ezekiel saw in his first vision; there it was rendered as a shining brilliance, a supernatural luminosity.
— the Targum renders both the one and the other part of the description thus, “and I saw. . . a likeness the look of fire, the look of glory, which the eye cannot see, nor is it possible to look upon it; and beneath the look of fire, and the look of glory, which the eye cannot behold, nor is it possible to contemplate it; and above, as the look of brightness.”
3 And He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
— and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem; so it was represented to Ezekiel in a true vision, which was of God, that he was carried from Chaldea to Jerusalem; not that he really was, for he was still in Chaldea when that vision was over;
“And he put forth the likeness of a hand and took me by a lock of my head; and a spirit lifted me between the earth and the heavens, and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of prophecy that rested upon me from before the Lord, to the entrance of the inner gate that faces the north, where the seat of the Image of Jealousy—which provokes anger—was located.”
4 And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain. — is this the Shekinah? Yes, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there; in the Temple, between the cherubim, where the glory of the divine Majesty dwelt;
— the Shekinah is a visible manifestation of God on earth, whose presence is portrayed through a natural occurrence of clouds and fire. Shekinah Glory means “He caused to dwell,” referring to the divine presence of God. So this was the same Shekinah that accompanied the children of Israel in the wilderness during the Exodus;
“And behold, there was the Glory of the God of Israel, like the vision that I had seen in the valley.”
5 Then said He unto me, “Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north.” So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and beheld northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.
— Isaiah 14:13 indicates God’s throne is toward the north: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the side of the north,” and God is jealous of the numerous idols the house of Israel were ironically practicing in “Jerusalem” and “in His Sanctuary;”
“And He said to me: ‘Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.’ So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate was this Image of Jealousy at the entrance.”
6 He said furthermore unto me, “Son of man, seest thou what they do, even the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should depart far off from My sanctuary? But turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations.”
— God was setting the stage to reveal greater abominations that the house of Israel had committeth in His Sanctuary? That’s why he withdrew from his sanctuary?
— this “house of Israel” would most likely be the southern house of Judah (verse 17 below) where his sanctuary is placed (Jerusalem); but then again, He could be referring to the broader sanctuary, where He meant the house of Israel as a whole; (more at the end)
“And He said to me: ‘Son of man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations that the House of Israel are committing here, to cause [Me] to distance [Myself] from My Sanctuary. But you shall turn again and see even greater abominations.'”
7 And He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the door.”
“And He brought me to the gate of the court; and I looked, and behold, there was a hole in the wall.”
8 Then said He unto me, “Son of man, dig now in the wall”; and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door. — it was probable that they imitated the Egyptians in this kind of idolatry; for the Egyptians used to worship several kinds of beasts and reptiles;
— according to some accounts, a multitude of chambers were built, which had elegant paintings of all the beasts sacred in Egypt; it is not unlikely they imagined they evaded the law against setting up any image or idolatry to worship, by having them only portrayed or painted on the wall;
“And He said to me: ‘Son of man, dig now into the wall’; and I dug into the wall, and behold, there was one door.”
9 And He said unto me, “Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.” — and behold the wicked abominations they do here; the idolatries there committed, wicked in themselves, and abominable to God;
“And He said to me: ‘Go in, and see the evil abominations that they are doing here.'”
10 So I went in and saw; and behold, every form of creeping things and abominable beasts and all the idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. — every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts;
— these description of the idolatrous rites practiced clearly indicates their Egyptian origin; thus even after some 700 to 800 years since Exodus, they were still enslaved in their pagan minds and thoughts;
“And I went in and I saw, and behold: every form of creeping thing and beast—abominations—and every idol that the house of Israel worships, drawn on the wall all around.”
11 And there stood before them seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and in the midst of them stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, with every man his censer in his hand; and a thick cloud of incense went up. — seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel;
— the whole Sanhedrin, or the great court of judicature in Jerusalem, which were originally appointed in Moses’ time to be judges and officers over the people, and govern, judge and direct them according the tenets established in Exodus 18:21–22 and Deuteronomy 17:9–12;
— Shaphan was a righteous scribe in the days of King Josiah, associated with the discovery of the Book of the Law (II Kings 22); and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan was standing among them;” this name is shocking in context; as he was shown as a leader in secret idolatry;
— and today, the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem has been reestablished and is functioning; and perhaps, seen from God’s point of view, they are found wanting, complicit in crimes, just as “Jaazaniah, son of Shaphan, standing among them;”
“And seventy men from the elders of the house of Israel, and Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them, were standing before them; and each man had his incense‑pan of incense in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense‑smoke was rising.”
12 Then said He unto me, “Son of man, hast thou seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his images? For they say, ‘The Lord seeth us not. The Lord hath forsaken the earth.’”
— every man in the chambers of his imagery? the Septuagint renders it, “in his hidden” or “secret chamber;” that is, in those chambers which belonged to the priests and Levites;
— on the walls they had their secret rites or mysteries performed, in imitation of the heathens; who had mysteries of their religion privately observed; to which none were admitted; as those of Osiris among the Egyptians; of Ceres with the Grecians; and of Bona Dea among the Romans;
“And He said to me: Have you seen, Son of Man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing—each man in the chamber of his hidden inner room? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has left the land.’”
13 He said also unto me, “Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.” — more revelations; for modern days, all on records and he says, “I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel,” Hosea 6:10;
“And He said to me: Again you will return and see greater abominations that they are doing.”
14 Then He brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord’S house which was toward the north; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. — Tammuz, an idol of Chaldeans, is nowhere else mentioned in Scripture, but is identified only here;
“And He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the House of the Lord that faces north; and behold, there were women sitting, weeping for Tammuz.”
15 Then said He unto me, “Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.” — these latter wickedness may be accounted greater, because they were acting in a more sacred place;
“And He said to me: Have you seen, Son of Man? Again you will return and see abominations greater than these.”
16 And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’S house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east.
— the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, led by the high priest, making up the “twenty five men” were not only worshipping the sun: they were doing so in the very temple of God, with their backs turned against the presence of God!
— the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die). These 25 men corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord” — they turned their backs to the most holy place; which is the utmost contempt for God:
Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17
3 And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, 5 then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5
— also, Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;
— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;
— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;
— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honoring the SUN by observing SUNday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the SUN toward the east; whose penalty is to be stoned to death – ’till they die.
— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a SUNday; always on a SUNday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says He is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of His mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!
And below is a parallel from the book of Revelation 14:
6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue and people,
7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgment is come. Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters.”
8 And there followed another angel, saying, “Babylon is fallen! Fallen is that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand,
10 the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out unmixed into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” Revelation 14:6-11
“And He brought me into the inner court of the House of the Lord, and behold: at the entrance of the Temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty‑five men, their backs toward the Temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing and prostrating themselves eastward to the sun.”
17 Then He said unto me, “Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence and have returned to provoke Me to anger; and lo, they put the branch to their nose.
— blood, murders and various form of killings and gun violence in our societies today; this “house of Judah” would be the second “house of Israel” in verse 6 above (more at the end);
“And He said to me: Have you seen, Son of Man? Is it a small thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they have done here? For they have filled the land with violence, and they come to provoke Me to anger; and behold, they put the branch to their noses.”
18 Therefore will I also deal in fury. Mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in Mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” — yet will God not hear them; as they turned their backs on him, God will turn a deaf ear to them, and not regard their cries;
— the Targum says, “they shall pray before me, with a great voice, and I will not receive their prayer.”
“And I also will act in wrath; My word will not spare, and I will not have mercy. They will cry before Me with a loud voice, but I will not accept their prayer.”
~~ chap8&14end;19,33&36beg ~~
The house of Israel verses the house of Judah
Although Isaiah 8:14 refers to “both houses of Israel” or the “two houses of Israel” it implies the single house of Jacob, the full twelve tribes.
But Jacob was given a new name, Israel, in which the full house of Israel as in Ezekiel 20:40, the twelve tribes are all included. And after King Solomon, the single house of Jacob or now call Israel was broken into two, the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.
Hence, the names of the two houses are separated, namely the 10-tribes “house of Israel” and the 2-tribes “house of Judah.” Further, the “two houses of Israel” in Isaiah 8:14 is redefined as “the house of Jacob” in Isaiah 8:17.
State it in another way in more details, the word “Israel” has five (or even six) possible meanings:
(1) Israel in place of Jacob, since the angel gave Jacob a new name, Israel; Genesis 32:28
(2) Jacob said, “and let my name be named on them” Genesis 48:16; that is, the name “Israel” is to be installed to the children of Joseph: Ephraim and Manasseh;
(3) the children of Israel, or all the house of Israel as in Ezekiel 20:40 in the sense of all the progeny of Jacob, all twelve tribes; sometimes expressed as the “whole house of Israel;”
(4) the house of Israel in Ezekiel 4:3-5 as a single northern “house of Israel” which would mean the ‘first’ house of Israel or the house of 10-tribes Israel; and then another as;
(5) the ‘second’ house of Israel or the 2-tribes house of Judah as in Ezekiel 4:6; this happened during Rehoboam reign when the kingdom was broken into the house of Israel (north) and the house of Judah (south); in this context, the house of Israel could be the 2-tribes Israel as in Ezekiel 8:6,11,12 and Matthew 15:24;
(6) Israel, the modern state of Israel, established in 1917 by the Balfour declaration and gained independence in 1948.
In understanding prophecies, the third and fourth meanings are mostly in use; the fifth very rarely. Still, it may seem confusing, but one should be able to separate the two by sounding out the context.
Several Muslim-majority states are in talks with Pakistan to acquire the JF-17 fighter jet, co-produced with China, as they scramble to upgrade their air forces amid shifting regional security dynamics.
According to multiple reports from Reuters, Pakistan is in talks or has reached preliminary arrangements with Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, and Bangladesh over fighter jets, drones, and related defense systems, with negotiations at varying stages.
Retired Pakistan Air Force air marshal Aamir Masood told Reuters that a preliminary $4 billion agreement had been reached with the Libyan National Army for an unspecified number of JF-17s and other trainer aircraft produced by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.
Masood also said a separate $1.5 billion package was “effectively” finalized with Sudan’s government for light-attack aircraft, surveillance systems, suicide drones, and “possibly” JF-17s, claiming it could give Khartoum an edge over the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
He added that Islamabad is discussing a $4 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia. In September, the two nations signed a mutual defense pact “soon after Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas negotiators in Qatar.”
Pakistan has also floated an “arms-for-debt” component of around $2 billion, Masood said, while warning signs of regional rivalries loom over Sudan, where backers diverge.
French-made Rafale fighters of the Indian Air Force at an Indian airbase
During a flash war with India last year, Islamabad showcased the battlefield performance of Chinese-made aircraft.
The battle involved more than 100 fighter jets, with Pakistan claiming it shot down five Indian aircraft, including three French-made Rafales. At the same time, US officials later confirmed that at least two Indian jets were lost, before a US-brokered ceasefire took hold.
The battle was described by analyst Pepe Escobar as “the largest and most high-tech air battle of the young 21st century,” arguing that the clash produced no real winners and ultimately served the interests of outside powers rather than either side.
According to an earlier report by Reuters, two Pakistani sources said “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are in talks to convert about $2 billion of Saudi loans into a JF-17 fighter jet deal,” and one added, “The jets were the primary option among others under discussion.”
Chapter 5 is a prophecy using Jerusalem as an example of the judgments which God were about to execute on its inhabitants with famine, pestilence, sword and dispersion; and what were the reasons of God’s judgements on that great city; and the nature, its rise and its fall.
The revealing of its timing is when God said to Ezekiel: “Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off’ (Ezekiel 12:27). Or as the RSV has it: “The vision that he sees is for many days hence, and he prophesies of times far off.”
And this warning is to “all the house of Israel” (verse 4) or the full house of Jacob; that is, to all the thirteen tribes.
Ezekiel 5
1 “And thou, son of man, take thee a sharp knife, take thee a barber’s razor and cause it to pass over thine head and upon thy beard. Then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair.
— the Septuagint reads this in conjunction with the former, thus, “take thee a knife” or a “sword, sharper than a barber’s razor” – in another translation: “a sword sharper than a barber’s razor.”
— and cause it to pass upon thine head, and upon thy beard; the “head” was a symbol of the city of Jerusalem, the metropolis of Judea; the “beard” of the cities, towns and villages about it; and the “hair” of both, of the common people; the cutting off the hair was a common mark of mourning (see Job 1:20; Isaiah 22:12; Jeremiah 7:29); and the shaving of them indicates their disgrace and destruction.
“And you, son of man, take for yourself a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take weighing scales for yourself and divide the hair.”
2 Thou shalt burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and thou shalt take a third part and smite about it with a knife, and a third part thou shalt scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
The first third “fire” would also include pestilence and famine: “Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.” Lamentations 5:10; see also Ezekiel 5:12 below.
The Septuagint: A fourth part thou shalt burn in the fire in the midst of the city, at the fulfillment of the days of the siege: and thou shalt take a fourth part, and burn it up in the midst of it: and a fourth part thou shalt cut with a sword round about it: and a fourth part thou shalt scatter to the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them.
One already passed, more along the way . . .
— the rubble of the World Trade Centre in New York smoulders following a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Russia and China immediately expressed solidarity and willingness to work with the US to defeat terrorism;
“A third of the hair you shall burn with fire inside the city when the days of the siege are completed. A second third you shall strike with the sword around the city. And the final third shall be scattered, and sword‑bearers will pursue them.”
3 Thou shalt also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in thy skirts. — and bind them in thy skirts; signifying both a very small number, a small remnant and their preservation. These were to be carried captive to a new Babylon; lived there and be preserved;
“Take a small number of the hairs from there, and bind them in the fold of your garment.”
4 Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. — and this warning of captivity or in great restraint, is to “all the house of Israel;” that is, the northern house of Israel, for 190 years; and the southern house of Judah, for 40 years;
— the message in this chapter is to ALL the house of Israel; that is to each of the ten tribes of Israel, AND to the two or three tribes of Judah;
— a parallel message in the Book of Revelation is also going into the WHOLE World:
6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue and people,
7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgment is come. Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6-7
— and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. Anciently, this was fulfilled in Gedaliah and the Jews that were with him, over whom the king of Babylon had made him governor, who were slain by Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah: Jeremiah 41;
“Take some even from the small remnant, throw them into the fire, and burn them. In this way, fire—symbolizing judgment—will go out upon all the house of Israel.”
5 “Thus saith the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. — it is the city of Jerusalem that is set in the midst of the nations; that it might be a witness as a true religion, with a true God, and a true form of worship, and set an example to them;
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I placed her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.”
God’s judgement on Jerusalem, first in 586 BC, then again in AD 70
6 And she hath changed My judgements into wickedness more than the nations, and My statutes more than the countries that are round about her; for they have refused My judgements and My statutes. They have not walked in them.
— she, Israel, hath changed my judgements into wickedness more than the nations; the word “changed” signifies to “rebel against” or to “transgress” and that, she, that is, Jerusalem or Israel, has “rebelled” against my judgements and “transgressed” them in a wicked manner, even to a greater degree than the nations of the world;
— witness LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (questioning), intersex, asexual (agender)); woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that count darkness as light, and light as darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Isaiah 5:20;
— and my statutes more than the countries that are around her. “Judgements” are God’s verdict, and “statutes” are the same as laws and ordinances of worship, being just and righteous, and firm and unalterable; witness God’s inferno judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah; and again, Jerusalem, in 70 AD;
— for they have refused my judgements and my statutes; they refused to comply with them, and to yield an obedience to them, and that with loathing, disdain and contempt as the word s signifies; everyone seems to ignore the significance of the inferno on Sodom and Gomorrah; and of Jerusalem from 66 to 70 AD;
“She rejected My laws more than the surrounding nations, and My statutes more than the countries around her. They became weary of My judgments and did not walk in My statutes.”
7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Because ye multiplied more than the nations that are round about you, and have not walked in My statutes, neither have kept My judgements, neither have done according to the judgements of the nations that are round about you, — these are more abominable than the heathens; one example is that LGBTQIA is more perverse in Israelitish nations;
— a parallel Scripture in Hosea: “I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled” Hosea 6:10
“Thus says the Lord God: Because you behaved worse than the nations around you—walking neither in My statutes nor keeping My judgments, nor even following the ordinary customs of the nations—you have brought this judgment upon yourselves.”
8 therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgements in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations. — God’s judgement in the sight of the nations; as notorious as thy sins, so shall thy punishment be. The nations shall see my hand in it, and my own justice;
— these are serious stuff; for example, the world will see if Fort Detrick and/or the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the Source of Covid-19? And before the sight of the nations?
— the history of Fort Detrick; how they received the Unit 731 biolab transplant and how they nurtured those secrets from then on? Also, perhaps, the full extent of “We lied, we cheated, we stole… we had entire training courses” exposed for the world to see?
“We lied, we cheated, we stole… we had entire training courses”
— without going into details, others could be (1) chemical weapons in various countries across the world, one example: orange agents during Vietnam war; (2) moon landing hoax; (3) 9/11 World Trade Centers killers; (4) Covid-19 origin; (5) the minds and hands behind Nord Stream I and II attacks;
“Therefore, thus says the Lord God: I Myself am bringing My anger upon you, and I will carry out judgment within you in full view of the nations.”
9 And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do any more, because of all thine abominations. — “because of all thine abominations;” God shows the reason why He deals with the full house of Israel in greater severity than with the surrounding heathen nations;
— not comparable to any other nation, not even to Sodom and Gomorrah, when they were destroyed by fire from heaven; not in Egypt, when he inflicted his plagues on Pharaoh and his people. More than the Nazi concentration camp? More than the Armenian genocide in 1916? More than the Japanese Unit 731 germ experiment in Harbin? It is going to be very ugly!
“I will bring upon you a punishment unlike anything I have ever done before, and unlike anything I will do again—because of all your abominations.”
10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgements in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.
— cannibalism, the fathers eating their sons; which was long ago prophesied of by Moses, Leviticus 26:27; and was fulfilled at several times in the people of Israel, as at the siege of Samaria, II Kings 6:28; at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, Lamentations 4:10;
— and at the siege of the same city by Titus Vespasian, as Josephus relates; for though these instances only show that mothers ate their children, yet no doubt the fathers took part with them; and if mothers, who are naturally more tender, could do this, it is much more reasonable to suppose that fathers did the same;
— the whole remnant of thee will I scatter: this was verified when they were fetched away who were left at the departure of the besiegers, and when the very small remnant fled into Egypt with Jeremiah; but this will be repeated in the future;
“Therefore, fathers will eat their children and children will eat their fathers during the siege. I will carry out My judgments upon you, and I will scatter the remainder of your people to every wind.”
11 “Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because thou hast defiled My sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall Mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.
— as I live, the most solemn of oaths, pledging the self-existence of God: the calamities of the Babylonian were surpassed by the Roman siege, and these again were but a foreshadowing of still more terrible destruction at the last days;
“Therefore, as I live—because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your abominations and detestable acts—I will cut off your strength. My word will not spare, and I will not show mercy.”
12 A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
— a third part of them shall die with the pestilence and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee; and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; signified by the third part of the hair, smitten with a knife; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds; the greatest part of which were carried into captivity;
“A third of the people will die of plague and famine inside the city; a third will be killed by the sword around it; and a third will be scattered to every direction, with the sword pursuing them.”
13 Thus shall Mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal when I have accomplished My fury upon them.
— and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it; that is, they shall find by experience what the Lord had spoken by His prophets, and had threatened to bring upon them;
“My anger will be fully spent, My fury will rest upon them, and I will be satisfied. Then they will know that I am the Lord, whose word has been spoken and will be fulfilled, when My anger has been poured out upon them.”
14 “Moreover I will make thee a waste and a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by. — moreover God will make thee a reproach among the nations that are round about thee, in the sight of all that pass by;
“I will make you a ruin by the sword and a desolation among the nations around you, in full view of everyone who passes by.”
15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about thee, when I shall execute judgements upon thee in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken it. — I the Lord have spoken it; which means, “I the Lord have decreed it;”
“You will become a desolation and an object of scorn; those around you will whistle in astonishment and be appalled when I carry out My judgments upon you in anger, fury, and fierce wrath. I, the Lord, have declared this.”
16 When I shall send upon them the evil arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction, and which I will send to destroy you, and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread,
“In My severity I will send against you the crushing blow of famine—destructive forces prepared to ruin you. I will increase the famine upon you, and your food supply will collapse.”
17 so will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee, and I will bring the sword upon thee. I, the Lord, have spoken it.” — evil beasts, literally lions, wolves and wild boars, alligators, bears and bisons, cobra and scorpions;
— and even domestic pets, like dogs, turned violent; God the Almighty have spoken it: who is able to perform it, and He did decreed it, both at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC and by Titus in AD 70; and surely a series of bigger ones in the future;
“I will send famine, wild beasts, bereavement, plague, and slaughter upon you; and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken this decree.”
Ezekiel 6
The phase, ye or they “shall know that I am the Lord” has been expressed 3 times in this chapter alone (v7, 13, 14) and in all, 57 times in the book of Ezekiel. On some occasions, the phase could apply to some Gentile nations, but for this chapter, it applies sorely to the house of Israel, emphasizing that their shepherd, or prophets, despite invoking His name, preaching as if they know so much, actually just didn’t know their God.
“Then the Lord said unto me, ‘The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart’” Jeremiah 14:14.
1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, — the message in this chapter is more to the house of Israel as the next verse indicates, and less to the house of Judah;
— a parallel message in the Book of Revelation is also going into the world:
6 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation and kindred, and tongue and people,
7 saying with a loud voice, “Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His Judgment is come. Worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea and the fountains of waters.” Revelation 14:6-7
— the Targum emphasises a new prophetic message, says
“A new prophetic message came to me from the Lord.”
2 “Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them — Son of man, set thy face towards the mountains of Israel; or cities of Israel, their future inhabitants; not the ancient ten tribes, for they had been carried captive long before this time, even in the times of Hezekiah;
— but a prophecy far into the future (Ezekiel 12:27 “Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off’), unless it can be thought that this prophecy was designed to show the reason of their Assyrian captivity, which wasn’t;
“Son of man, take up a prophetic message directed at the mountains of Israel, and proclaim My judgment against them.”
3 and say: ‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. — this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, UK and France. . . .
— and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys; the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
— and to the rivers (or ravines), where during the nineteenth century, the British Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” their colonies, their new territories; and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British Navy left the scene;
“Say to the mountains of Israel: Hear the word of the Lord. God declares judgment on the mountains, hills, ravines, and valleys—Behold, I am bringing sword‑wielders against you, and I will destroy your high places.”
— behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you; the Targum paraphrases it, “I am bringing sword‑wielders against you, and I will destroy your high places;” meaning God will destroy their high places;
4 And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. — your temples and altars, built on high places, and devoted to idolatrous worship, would end with utter destruction;
“Your altars will be smashed, your incense‑stands will be broken, and I will throw the bodies of your slain before the lifeless forms of your idols.”
5 And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. — and God will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols, which is repeated for emphasis;
“I will place the corpses of the Israelites before the lifeless forms of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.”
6 In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.
— in all your homes and cities shall be destroyed; which indicates that the desolation should be widespread, wherever they had cities, towns and villages and places to dwell in;
— the idolatry being universal as is said in Jeremiah 2:28; but where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. Of course, this chapter has application for modern Israel;
“In all your dwelling‑places the cities will be ruined, and the towns will become desolate. Your altars will be smashed and broken, your idols abolished, your incense‑stands cut down, and all the works of your hands wiped out.”
7 And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
— flash forward to a parallel Scripture; and speaking of the house of Jacob today: “I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD” Ezekiel 35:4. This implies the house of Israel, even their numerous churches, doesn’t know God today! They preached a false vision from the deceit of their own heart, Jeremiah 14:14!
“The dead will fall in your midst, and you will know that I am the Lord.”
8 “‘Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations when ye shall be scattered through the countries.
— situations would be getting more and more seriously downcast and disheartened; and ultimately Ezekiel asks: “Ah, Lord God! Wilt Thou make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” Ezekiel 11:13
“Yet I will leave for you survivors of the sword among the nations, in the lands where you are scattered.”
9 And they that escape from among you shall remember Me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart which hath departed from Me, and with their eyes which go a whoring after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
— they that escape of you shall remember God (or, as the Targum quoted by Gill says, learn the fear of me); and those that escape the sword, the pestilence, and the famine, these shall be led into captivity, shall plainly see that it is God who has done this, and shall humble themselves on account of their abominations, leave their idolatry, and worship God alone;
— and this the house of Judah have experienced from the Babylonian captivity many times, again and again, down to the present day; but the house of Israel will be dealt with in the last days, perhaps the last 190 years according to Ezekiel 4 (Septuagint version).
“And your survivors shall remember the fear of Me among the nations where they were taken captive, for I have broken their foolish heart which strayed from My service, and the vision of their eyes which erred after their idols; and they shall be weary of themselves and look [with regret] upon the evil they have done, for all their abominations.”
10 And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them. — the emphasis of the words is, “When the slain shall fall in the midst of you, then at last ye shall know that I am the Lord.” Again, this implies in numerous times that the house of Israel doesn’t know God today!
— only when God do some evil on the house of Israel would they wake up and know the Lord. And a parallel Scripture here: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” Amos 3:2
“They will know that I am the Lord, for I did not decree this calamity upon them for nothing.”
11 “‘Thus saith the Lord God: Smite with thine hand and stamp with thy foot, and say: “Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel!” For they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.
— smite with thine hand and stamp with thy foot; all expression of anguish and sorrow: the word “alas” or “woe” as in the Targum is an interjection of mourning and lamentation;
— for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; which are repeated from Ezekiel 5:12; and the persons on whom they should be separately executed are mentioned in Ezekiel 6:12. Again the term “the house of Israel” is used above;
“Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hands and stamp your feet, and cry ‘Woe!’ over all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
12 He that is far off shall die of the pestilence, and he that is near shall fall by the sword, and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine; thus will I accomplish My fury upon them.
— central theme of falling by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence are repeated for emphasis. And sometimes in different order indicates they are all mixed and mingled together until “I accomplish My fury upon them;”
“Those who are far away will die by pestilence; those who are near will fall by the sword; and those who survive and flee into the fortified cities will die by famine. Thus My wrath will be poured out upon them.”
13 Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols.
— modern day idolatries are alive and well; in all corners, caves and hideout of the house of Israel, people will be caught in a snare; anything that they love in our heart and life: Wealth, Prosperity, Career Success, Image, Safety & Security;
“You will know that I am the Lord when you see their slain lying among the carcasses of their idols, scattered around their altars—on every high hill, on all the mountain tops, under every leafy tree, and under every thick terebinth—where they used to offer sacrifices to all their abominations.”
14 So will I stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations; and they shall know that I am the Lord.’”
— again, the ending of this chapter “and they shall know that I am the Lord” implies that the house of Israel doesn’t know God today;
— by now we have established that 70 AD was one of God’s judgement on Judah and Jerusalem, but it’s a microcosm for the wider Israelites at the endtime. So what were God’s judgement in 70 AD? And which sects managed to escape fire and death? History recorded only two sects that escaped the inferno of 70 AD:
(1) The Christians, known as Nazarenes in Acts 24:5. They escaped to a northern town called Pella, east of the Jordan River.
(2) Some Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, who was smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin. They escaped to Yavne and, later, his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about 359 AD concerning the rules of the calendar.
All other sects died and “disappeared” in the 70 AD inferno: (a) All Sadducees, Herodians, Boethusians; (b) Essenes, together with (c) the House of Shammai Pharisees and (d) the Zealots. They all “disappeared” by receiving their sword and fire. Were these sects facing their judgement as warned by Ezekiel?
Pella, East of the Jordan River
If the 70 AD inferno was only a microcosm, how could those who deviate from the God ordained Calendar, who have similar deceptive beliefs as the original Essenes, escape Ezekiel’s and John’s warning during the Last Days? Wouldn’t there be another Sodom and Gomorrah? And wouldn’t they also share its fate? It’s an unpleasant ending, but that’s what the Scriptures indicate.
When Jerusalem went through a fire inferno in 70 AD and all Sadducees disappeared from history. “Disappeared from history” seems like a whitewashed phrase. They were in fact burnt off like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? Amos 3:6.
Such prophecy of evil and death were proven true, that the Sadducees were sharing the same fate with king Zedekiah, described as ‘the wicked ones … whose reign over Israel will be brought down … his wives, his children, and his infant will go into captivity’ Jeremiah 39:4-7
Like the Samaritans, the Sadducees rejected not only the Oral Torah and the Rabbinic understanding of the Torah, but instead accepted the Samaritan interpretation of their Passover and Pentecost celebration. By doing so, they rejected the Prophets (like Ezekiel) and their Writings. God included His holy city of Jerusalem in this judgement in 70 AD as a microcosm for us to be forewarned, so take heed;
“I will unleash the blow of My power upon them, and I will turn the land into a desolation. From the wilderness of Diblath onward, all their settlements will be laid waste, and they will know that I am the Lord.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared a social media publication including a claim that the US military used a weapon that led Venezuelan forces to vomit blood during the raid that captured authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro.
“Stop what you are doing and read this,” said Leavitt in a social media publication along with several flags of the US. The message in question is an alleged account from a person who claimed to witness the raid that took place in early January.
According to the post, Venezuelan forces’ “radar systems shut down without any explanation.” “The next thing we saw were drones, a lot of drones, flying over our positions,” he added.
The guard went on to say that only a “small number” of ground forces arrived in the premises, but they were “technologically very advanced” and “didn’t look like anything we’ve fought against before.”
The guard then noted that Venezuelan forces attempted to fight, but the confrontation was a “massacre.” “We were hundreds, but we had no chance. They were shooting with such precision and speed… it seemed like each soldier was firing 300 rounds per minute. We couldn’t do anything,” he added. Overall, some 100 Venezuelan forces were killed in the January 3 attack, according to Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Asked if their weapons had chances to pose some kind of counter-attack to US forces, the guard said no because “it wasn’t just the weapons.” “At one point, they launched something—I don’t know how to describe it… it was like a very intense sound wave. Suddenly I felt like my head was exploding from the inside. We all started bleeding from the nose. Some were vomiting blood. We fell to the ground, unable to move,” the guard noted,
A former intelligence source told The New York Post that, if confirmed, it would be the first time an energy weapon is used in combat by the US.
He added that he had “never seen anything like it” and most “couldn’t even stand up after that sonic weapon or whatever it was.” The interviewer then asked the guard if he thought the rest of the region “should think twice before confronting the Americans,” to which he answered “without a doubt.”
“I’m sending a warning to anyone who thinks they can fight the United States. They have no idea what they’re capable of. After what I saw, I never want to be on the other side of that again. They’re not to be messed with.”
And now consider this Prophecy
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
“And Esau kept hatred in his heart against Jakob his brother, on account of the order of blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, I will not do as Kain did, who slew Habel in the life (time) of his father, for which his father begat Sheth, but will wait till the time when the days of mourning for the death of my father come, and then will I kill Jakob my brother, and will be found the killer and the heir,” Genesis 27:42 Jonathan
After the Lord had pointed out to prophet Ezekiel the difficulties of his calling, God prepared him for the performance of his office, by inspiring him with the divine word which he is to announce to a rebellious house:
“And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions. Be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house” Ezekiel 2:6.
Chapter 3 starts with further account of Ezekiel’s calling and mission; of his preparation and work; of the people to whom he was sent to; of what happened to him; of the nature of his office, and what followed upon the renewal of his calling.
And remember, Ezekiel’s prophetic message wasn’t for the house of Judah but to the house of Israel; hence we must try to read the prophetic meaning behind all those historical setting. Its timing was a great distance into the future (Ezekiel 12:27), into our time and the message is primarily and principally for the United States of America; and, secondarily, her Western allies.
Ezekiel began to see Visions of God, “Son of man, eat this scroll.”
Ezekiel 3
1 Moreover He said unto me, “Son of man, eat what thou findest: eat this scroll, and go, speak unto the house of Israel.” — eat this roll; not literally, but figuratively, as John is bid to eat the little book, digest it; let it be thy nourishment; and let it be thy meat and drink to do the will of thy Father who is in heaven;
— Revelation 10:9; that is, read it, meditate upon the things contained therein; and digest them, that he might be able to impart them, and make them known to others: it is explained further in the Targum: “receive what is written in this roll,” and “go, and prophesy to the house of Israel.”
— the Targum affirms this message is to the house or people of Israel, says
“God said to me: Human being, fully accept the message I am giving you—everything written in this scroll. Only after you have internalized it should you go and deliver its prophecy to the people of Israel.”
2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. — after Ezekiel have accepted what is written in the scroll, he was to internalize it and then go to prophesy to Israel;
“I inclined my soul, and He made me wise in what is written in this scroll.”
3 And He said unto me, “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this scroll that I give thee.” Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness.
— it was joyous for Ezekiel to receive such a Divine message, and be let into the secrets of Divine counsel. It’s liked the Parable of the King inviting one special friend for the Eight Day to end the Feast; for just one special guest;
— Gill: And he said unto me, son of man, cause thy belly to eat…. or “devour” and consume; that is, concoct and digest; do not cast it out of thy mouth, as soon as thou hast tasted of it; but let it go down into the stomach, and there digest it; and from thence into the belly, that so, upon the whole, virtue may be received, and nourishment come by it:
— and fill thy bowels with this roll that I give thee; eat to satiety;
“God said to me: If you fully accept the message written in this scroll, your inner being will be filled and satisfied. When I accepted it, its words became sweet in my mouth like honey.”
Remember, the Targum, whose origin was in the Aramaic language, could be traced to Ezra speaking to the returning exiles who couldn’t understand Hebrew, but was expounded to them in a language they could understand.
4 And He said unto me, “Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with My words unto them. — and he said unto me, son of man, go; that is, after he had eaten the roll; for then was he qualified to prophesy: not to the house of Judah but to the house of Israel;
— parallel Scriptures in Ezekiel 36:1, “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is inferring the desolations of the United States, UK and France; “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys (v4)” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
“Now that you have fully absorbed the message I gave you, go to the people of Israel and deliver My prophetic words to them—exactly as I have revealed them.”
5 For thou art not sent to a people of strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel — but to the house of Israel; who were a people of the same speech and language with the prophet (Protestants of Western Europe: principally the United States, UK and France);
— all spoke and understood the Hebrew language; nor were the things he delivered such as they were altogether strangers to being the same, for substance, which Moses, and the other prophets, had ever taught.
— the Targum confirms consistently the message is to the house of Israel, says
“You are not being sent to foreign peoples whose languages are obscure or difficult. Your mission is to prophesy to your own people, the House of Israel—even though they will be the ones who refuse to listen.”
6 not to many people of strange speech and of a hard language, whose words thou canst not understand. Surely, had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee.
— surely, I had NOT sent thee to “a people of strange speech and of a hard language,” they would have hearkened unto thee; which shows an aggravation of the obstinacy and disobedience of the people of Israel;
— that had the Gentiles been favoured with the same means of instruction they would have been obedient. That is, Gentiles, people with a strange speech and of a hard language, “they would have hearkened unto thee” would have repented and would have done better!
“I am not sending you to foreign nations with difficult languages—nations who, despite the language barrier, would actually listen. Instead, I am sending you to Israel, who will refuse to hear you even though they understand you perfectly.”
7 But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee, for they will not hearken unto Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. — again, the message is to the house of Israel;
— they were not willing; they were stiffnecked; they have no desire, no inclination, to hear and hearken; but the reverse: as stiffnecked as in Exodus 32:9; and indeed the reason why they did not hearken to him was not because they rejected Ezekiel and his words, but because they rejected the Lord and his reproofs (admonitions).
“Israel will refuse your prophecy—not because they cannot understand you, but because they are unwilling to accept God’s word. Their stubbornness, brazenness, and hardness of heart make them resistant to the message.”
8 Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. — Ezekiel would have to behave with an undaunted spirit against them, and with great intrepidity, amidst all opposition made against him;
“I am giving you the strength and firmness you need—your resolve will be as unyielding as theirs, so that you can stand before them without fear.”
9 As an adamant, harder than flint, have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.” — adamant as the diamond, as it is translated (Jeremiah 17:1, the sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond);
— but now Ezekiel’s forehead would be harder still, as the house of Israel were as hard as flint, but as the diamond cuts flint, so Ezekiel’s words would be made by Divine power to cut through all resistance;
“I have fortified you with extraordinary inner strength—harder than the hardest stone—so that you will not fear or collapse before Israel’s stubborn resistance.”
10 Moreover He said unto me, “Son of man, all My words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears. — God shows what is meant by the eating of the book, that is, to internalize them in heart and mind;
“Before you speak My words to Israel, you must first take them fully into yourself—listen attentively, and let them settle in your heart.”
11 And go, get thee to those of the captivity, unto the children of thy people, and speak unto them and tell them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God,’ whether they will hear or whether they will forbear.”
— “Go, get thee unto thy people,” note that God did not say here, “unto my people,” but “unto thy people,”
— the apostasy of Israel was so complete that God no longer recognized them as his people, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Hosea, “I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more” (Hosea 9:15); and God will cast them away, “and they shall be wanderers among the nations” (v17);
“Now go to your fellow exiles and deliver My message to them. Speak My words faithfully, whether they choose to accept them or refuse to change their ways.”
12 Then the Spirit took me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing, saying, “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place.” — a voice of great rushing; this was the same noise made by the wings of the living creatures that formed the chariot of God. See Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10;
“As the divine spirit carried me into my mission, I heard behind me the thunderous sound of the heavenly beings praising God’s glory as His Presence moved.”
13 I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels opposite them, and a noise of a great rushing. — again, a voice of great rushing; this was from the chariot of God;
“As the divine spirit carried me, I heard the thunderous sound of the heavenly creatures’ wings striking together, the wheels moving beside them, and the great rumbling of the divine chariot in motion.”
14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. — Ezekiel could feel the hand of the Lord was strong upon him;
— then the spirit took me up; it could be the wind, or an angel, often expressed as the spirit of God; who lifted up Ezekiel from the ground, from the place where he was, among the captives by the river Chebar; and was carried to another company of captives, who were at another place by the same river, as appears by comparing Ezekiel 1:1 with Ezekiel 3:15;
“The divine spirit carried me forward, and I went with a heavy, troubled heart, stirred intensely within myself, because the powerful force of God’s prophecy was pressing upon me.”
15 Then I came to those of the captivity at Telabib, who dwelt by the River of Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. — seven days at Telabib, a change of place and company, but still by the same “river of Chebar,”
— at the sad condition his people were in; and above all at the dreadful things he had to deliver to them; he was in “silent” through grief and trouble, a great time for reflection;
“After being carried by the divine spirit, I arrived among the Judean exiles living by the River Kebar. I sat with them in stunned, contemplative silence for seven days, absorbing their situation and the weight of the prophetic mission God had placed upon me.”
16 And it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
“After seven days of silent reflection among the exiles, God’s prophetic word came to me again, initiating the next stage of my mission.”
17 “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word out of My mouth, and give them warning from Me. — Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, thus if he warned the wicked, he would not be chargeable with their ruin;
“Human being, fulfill your prophetic duty to Israel: receive My message faithfully and warn them clearly, so they do not continue sinning before Me.”
18 When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die,’ and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
— if any shepherd are not giving warning, they themselves shalt surely die;
— and for others, if he turn not from his wickedness, and thou givest him not warning, he shalt die in his iniquity, which he should not have committed; but his blood will God require at their hand; God will visit their soul for the loss of his;
“If you fail to warn a wicked person of the danger of his path, he will still die for his own sins—but you will be held accountable for not warning him.”
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.
— such warning is so serious that it is repeated in Ezekiel 33:1-6:
1 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of thy people and say unto them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man from their borders and set him as their watchman, and 3 if when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet and warn the people, 4 then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh not warning, if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet and took not warning: his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. 6 But if the watchman see the sword come and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned, if the sword come and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand’ Ezekiel 33:1-6
“If you warn a wicked person and he refuses to change, his fate is his own responsibility — but you have fulfilled your duty and preserved yourself from guilt.”
20 Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
— better translated as “Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and God place an obstacle before him, he will die; but since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood;”
“If a righteous person falls into sin and you fail to warn him, he will die for his wrongdoing — but you will also be held accountable, because you did not fulfill your duty as watchman.”
21 Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.”
— << there seems to be some missing events to fill the gap. Ezekiel must have delivered his message, least he would die as a watcher, but he didn’t, signifying he must have delivered the warning. On his return, he was made dumb by God who asked him to stay at home until the fulfillment of his warning: the destruction of Jerusalem: Ezekiel 24:26-27. This is historical but the real message is for the endtime and is to the house of Israel >>
“If you warn a righteous person and he listens, avoiding sin, he is preserved — and you, as the watchman, have fulfilled your duty and preserved yourself from guilt.”
22 And the hand of the Lord was there upon me; and He said unto me, “Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.” — considerable time must had passsed for this new event to come to pass;
“After receiving the watchman commission, the prophetic spirit rested upon me again, and God summoned me to a solitary valley where He would continue revealing His word.”
23 Then I arose and went forth into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the River of Chebar; and I fell on my face.
“I went to the valley as commanded, and there I encountered the same overwhelming divine glory that I had seen in my first vision. Overcome by its presence, I fell on my face.”
24 Then the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me and said unto me, “Go, shut thyself within thine house. — instead of sending him to a public assembly, God orders him to confine himself to his own lodgings: “Go, shut thyself within thy house;”
“After the divine glory appeared to me, the spirit empowered me to stand, and God spoke again—this time commanding me to withdraw into my house, beginning a new phase of prophetic isolation and symbolic action.”
25 But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them. — put bands upon thee; signifying the bonds and chains of their future captivity who were yet at Jerusalem; shall bind thee with them;
— this indicates the severity with which their conquerors would treat them, they would bind their bonds fast, close, and this will be pain and grief to those bound;
“I am placing My words upon you in a way that binds and restricts you, and you must remain isolated — you are not to go out among the people.”
26 And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be to them a reprover, for they are a rebellious house. — reprover, that is, someone who finds fault or imputes blame, that thou shall be dumb which is to be understood not just literally, as if he was really struck dumb;
— and that such silence should be charged upon him by the Lord, that he, Ezekiel, should be as if his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth, as if he was a dumb man: and so the Septuagint version renders it, “I will bind thy tongue, and thou shalt be dumb;”
“I will render you mute so that you cannot rebuke them, because their stubbornness has made them unresponsive to My words. Your silence itself becomes part of the prophetic message.”
27 But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God.’ He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear; for they are a rebellious house.
— God will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth; but he, Ezekiel, will give them the message to deliver when the time is ripe;
— they, the house of Israel, are so rebellious, it is useless to give them further warning. But then again, God set the time, when to be silent and when to speak when the time is right;
“When I choose to speak with you, I will enable you to speak again. You will deliver My message exactly as I give it, and whether the people accept or refuse is their own affair — for they are a stubborn people.”
Ezekiel 4
1 “Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem; — now turning their attention to the house of Judah, Ezekiel received God’s command to depict Jerusalem as a tile or a clay tablet; take a tile and lay it before thee;
— God often foreshadowed impending judgements by significant emblems, which usually strike more powerfully than words; and to take one of those earthen vessels and break it in the sight of the elders of the Jews, (Ezekiel 19) that they might thereby be sensibly taught the greatness of God’s power, and their own frailty;
“Begin your prophetic demonstration by taking a stone and turning it into a model of Jerusalem under siege, so the exiles can see — not just hear — the coming destruction.”
2 and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mound against it. Set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. — lay siege against it; it seemed at this time that Jerusalem would soon become the subject of another siege;
— but if Jerusalem had already fallen then this mentioning of siege could be a futurist event, perhaps in the year 70 AD; and, lastly, the event of this siege could be a microcosm for the endtime, for a wider audience, for the house of Israel in the next verse, and its timing was a great distance into the future (Ezekiel 12:27);
“After setting the stone before you as a model of Jerusalem, construct upon it a full depiction of the siege—draw the siege lines, build the siege works, set up battering‑rams, and surround it with military camps—so the exiles can see the judgment that is coming.”
3 Moreover take thou unto thee an iron plate and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face against it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel. — here we’re reminded that the main message is “to the house of Israel,” not the house of Judah;
“Place an iron barrier between yourself and the model of Jerusalem to symbolize the unbreakable, divinely‑decreed siege. Fix your face toward it and enact the siege, for this dramatic performance is meant to warn Israel of the judgment that is coming.”
4 “Also lie thou upon thy left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it: according to the number of the [LXX: hundred and fifty] days that thou shalt lie upon it, thou shalt bear their iniquity. — the focus is the iniquity of the “house of Israel;”
— the Targum affirms this prophecy is for the northern house of Israel, says
“As part of your prophetic demonstration, lie on your left side for many days. Each day represents a year of Israel’s accumulated guilt, which you symbolically bear on their behalf. This physical act is a sign to the exiles of the judgment coming upon the northern kingdom.”
— the Septuagint has another phase: “according to the number of the hundred and fifty days,” which is absent (most probably deleted; and if so, why) in the Masoretic text.
5 For I have laid upon thee the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. — nobody attempt or able to analyze what this 390 years for the house of Israel mean, except:
— Rashi: three hundred and ninety days: We learned in Seder Olam (ch. 26): This teaches us that Israel sinned for three hundred and ninety years from the time they entered the Land until the ten tribes were exiled therefrom.
— well, if Rashi’s premise is true, that the 390 years were since the house of Israel entered the Promised Land from the other side of the Jordan to the time of their exile, then using the same principle, Judah’s 40 years of iniquity would have started the same time but ended around the time Joshua ended his reign when he died an an age of 110, or shortly after? It just doesn’t add up and doesn’t make sense!
— and by the way, the Septuagint version of this verse says it is 190 years instead of 390 years in verse five; so is this easier to understand? Maybe! Perhaps and perhaps only, the downfall of the house of Israel would start first and last for 150 years before the house of Judah joins them for the last 40 years for the final total 190 years as spelt out in the Septuagint? What do you think?
“I am assigning you 390 days of lying on your left side, each day symbolizing a year of Israel’s accumulated guilt. Through this enacted sign, you will make their long history of sin visible to them.”
6 And when thou hast accomplished them, lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.
— this follows the same a-day-for-a-year principle from Numbers 14:14, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year shall ye bear your iniquities;”
— Rashi: the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: This teaches us that the house of Judah sinned, from the time that the ten tribes were exiled until Jerusalem was destroyed, forty years; — but these figures and reasoning don’t sound right; why start only after the northern 10 tribes had gone into captivity; and the time gap was about 135 to 150 years, not 40?
“After completing the symbolic 390‑day act for Israel, you must lie on your right side for 40 days to represent Judah’s years of guilt. This second posture completes the prophetic demonstration of the judgment coming upon both kingdoms.”
— reading from verse 4 to verse 6 in the Septuagint, it seems the 190 days are made up of 150 days for Israel and consequently another 40 days for both Israel and Judah:
4 And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days which thou shalt lie upon it: and thou shalt bear their iniquities. 5 For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel. 6 And thou shalt accomplish this, and shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year. Septuagint version
7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.
— while Ezekiel was lying either on the left side or the right, his face was to be directed to the siege of Jerusalem, indicating this is prophetic “thou shalt prophesy” pointing to the year 70 AD; but more probably, another one at the endtime;
“As you continue your symbolic siege of Jerusalem, fix your face firmly toward the model city, raise your arm in a posture of attack, and proclaim the prophetic judgment that is coming upon it.”
8 And behold, I will lay bands upon thee, and thou shalt not turn thee from one side to another until thou hast ended the days of thy siege. — confined and not allowed to move left or right, indicating of some bad time, another captivity;
“I am binding you to this prophetic task: you must remain fixed in position, unable to turn, until you have completed the full number of days symbolizing the siege and guilt of Israel and Judah.”
9 “Take thou also unto thee wheat and barley and beans, and lentils and millet and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side; three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof.
— Gill: Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches…. the first of these was commonly used to make bread of; in case of want and poverty, barley was used; but, for the rest, they were for cattle, and never used for the food of men but in a time of great scarcity; wherefore this was designed to denote the famine that should attend the siege of Jerusalem.
— Gill: no mention is made of the forty days, perhaps they are understood, a part being put for the whole; or they were included in the three hundred and ninety days. The Septuagint and Arabic versions read only a hundred and ninety days.
“Prepare a mixture of grains and legumes—food of scarcity—and eat it in measured portions throughout the 390 days you lie on your side. This restricted diet symbolizes the famine and deprivation that will strike Jerusalem during the siege.”
10 And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day. From time to time shalt thou eat it. — this is a prophecy of another famine, same as the great scarcity during the siege of Jerusalem from 66 to 70 AD;
“Your daily food must be strictly rationed — only twenty shekels’ worth — and eaten in small, irregular portions. This restricted diet symbolizes the famine that will strike Jerusalem during the siege.”
11 Thou shalt drink also water by measure, a sixth part of a hin. From time to time shalt thou drink. — again, this is the difficulties of getting food and drink during famines at the endtime;
“Your water, like your food, must be strictly rationed. Drink only a tiny measured amount each day, and drink it in small, irregular intervals — for this is how Jerusalem will suffer during the siege.”
12 And thou shalt eat it as barley cakes, and thou shalt bake it with dung that cometh out of man in their sight.” — the captives to languish in hunger and distress, though not compelled to make bricks from straw but asked to bake their food with shits! Yak! Is this a better deal than the time during their Egyptian captivity?
— the Israelites in Egypt were never asked to bake their food with dungs, let alone man’s dung; this indicates the severity of their coming famines;
“As part of your prophetic demonstration, you must bake your meager barley bread over human dung, in full view of the people, to show them that in exile they will be forced to eat their food in a state of impurity and humiliation.”
13 And the Lord said, “Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the nations, whither I will drive them.” — the above “thus shall” indicates it is a designated futuristic time from God;
— this new captivity would be “among the nations” that is, quite unlike the Egyptian captivity, where only Egypt was involved;
— and Ezekiel’s perspectives as the house of Israel shall spend 190 years in captivity, so the mystery of 390/190/150/40 years remains in the future. Any other possibilities? None that I know off;
“The shocking way you cook your bread is a sign: when Israel is exiled, they will be forced to eat their food in a state of impurity among foreign nations.”
14 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, my soul hath not been polluted; for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.” — then said I, ah, Lord God!… the interjection “ah” is expressive of sighing and groaning;
— Gill: neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth; corrupt or, putrefied, or whatsoever was unclean by law, as swine’s flesh, or any other. The argument is that since he had never eaten of anything forbidden by the law of God, he could by no means think of eating that which was abhorrent to nature; as bread baked with men’s dung was;
“Ezekiel pleads with God, explaining that he has always lived in ritual purity and has never eaten anything forbidden. He asks God not to require him to defile himself by cooking his bread over human dung.”
15 Then He said unto me, “Lo, I have given thee cow’s dung for man’s dung, and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.” — cow’s dung, obviously an improvement over man’s excretion, which Ezekiel seemed to have bargained for, like Abraham did in bargaining with God in his days;
“God responds to Ezekiel’s plea by allowing him to use cow dung instead of human dung for baking his bread. This preserves Ezekiel’s personal purity while still conveying the prophetic message of defilement that awaits Israel in exile.”
16 Moreover He said unto me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight and with care, and they shall drink water by measure and with astonishment,
“The symbolic famine you have enacted is about to become real. Jerusalem’s bread supply will collapse, and its people will eat and drink in fear, scarcity, and shock.”
17 that they may lack bread and water, and be stunned one with another, and be consumed away for their iniquity. — in summary, the Lord will take away their provision, that they may die from famines, punished for all their sins;
— and disappointed of all that their false prophets promised them; and under strangest disappointments, be filled with horrors, at the woeful miseries of one another, and falling dead in each other’s helpless sight, consumed “for their iniquity;”
“The famine you have been symbolically acting out will become real: food and water will run out, people will waste away together, and their suffering will be the consequence of their own wrongdoing.”
~~~~
Below is the Septuagint (and Arabic versions too; John Gill says so (v9)) and putting all together, a possible explanation to the mystery of the 390/190/150/40 years:
4 And thou shalt lie upon thy left side, and lay the iniquities of the house of Israel upon it, according to the number of the hundred and fifty days which thou shalt lie upon it: and thou shalt bear their iniquities. — start with the ten tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years
5 For I have appointed thee their iniquities for a number of days, for a hundred and ninety days: so thou shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Israel. — start with the 10 tribes but end with the full house of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years
6 And thou shalt accomplish this, and shalt lie on thy right side, and shalt bear the iniquities of the house of Juda forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year. Ezekiel 4:4-6 Septuagint. — after the start of the 10 tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years, the 3 tribes house of Judah join in for another 40 years;
7 So thou shalt set thy face to the siege of Jerusalem, and shalt strengthen thine arm, and shalt prophesy against it. 8 And, behold, I have prepared bonds for thee, and thou mayest not turn from thy one side to the other, until the days of thy siege shall be accomplished. — under bonds and couldn’t move from side to side indicate confined in captivity, as was in Egypt;
9 Take thou also to thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and bread-corn; and thou shalt cast them into one earthen vessel, and shalt make them into loaves for thyself; and thou shalt eat them a hundred and ninety days, according to the number of the days which thou sleepest on thy side. Ezekiel 4:9 Septuagint.
From the start with 10 tribes northern house of Israel and end with the full house of Israel: 190 years; why the difference? Perhaps Judah had undergo numerous pogroms and cleansings whereas Ephraim has none since the day when they went captivity and into apparent oblivion.
We’re now in the Hebrew year 5786 and we’ll need another 214 years to usher the Divine Plan from the year 6000 onward into the 7th Millennium as most believe. Of course, this is on the assumption that God’s calendar had been accurately kept since the day Adam was created as the Jewish custodians claim.
If we add 214 years to this Gregorian calendar year 2026 we’ll come to 2240 when the 7th Millennium would start. Working backward 190 years will bring us to the Gregorian year 2050. So could the year 2050 be the start of the house of Israel’s “iniquity?” — “thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them;” in captivity to start the 190 years?
No, perhaps not: the 190 years may end with the appearance of “My servant David,” in the “valley full of dry bones” (Ezekiel 37) scenario where the full house of Israel would dwell securely rather than in captivity. Some indications are that this period is a hundred year period involving “Gog and all his multitude” to the beginning of the Millennium (Ezekiel 40); but more probably, this period could be only seven years.
If the latter figure of seven years is accepted, the start of the 190 years would be pushed back another seven years, which would be the Gregorian year 2043, that is, the year 2050 less 7 years; which seems having a higher possibility than the figures (of 390/40 years) offered by the Masoretic Text.
Hence the year 2043 could commence the house of Israel’s ‘captivity!’
On reflection, the children of Israel were in Egypt for about 210 years, so cheers; this captivity of 190 years is 20 years shorter. These analyses may run away with imaginations, but the incorporation of prophecies always has elements of uncertainties and so these predictions could be prone to errors.
Okay, one Question that comes to mind is, “Why the iniquity for the house of Israel is much longer than for the house of Judah?” Perhaps the answer could be broken into two parts: (1) the house of Judah, the Jews, have undergone pogroms numerous times over the last two and a half millennium whereas the house of Israel have remained largely unscathed since their only captivity was by the Assyrians;
And a related second reason: (2) the house of Judah has already been restored to the Land of Promise; whereas the house of Israel are still largely intact and dwelling “among the nations” (Lamentations 1:1, Ezekiel 12:15). It would take one or two decades for conditions to build up within and around the full house of Israel to want to return back to their homeland to team up with the house of Judah for the fulfilment of the prophecy of the joining of the two sticks in Ezekiel 37.
And finally, these analyses are not written in stone and so any thoughts to the contrary are most welcome. Are there any other possibilities or factors that have been left out but could or should be considered? Thanks for reading.
ICE just launched a “wartime recruitment” campaign and seeks agents who want to “defend” their “culture.” There will be more Renee Goods.
On January 3, four days before the horrific killing of Renee Nicole Good, the Department of Homeland Security put out a press release. The headline bragged: “ICE Announces Historic 120% Manpower Increase, Thanks to Recruitment Campaign That Brought in 12,000 Officers and Agents.”
The statement went on to boast (bolded language in the original): “After receiving more than 220,000 applications to join ICE from patriotic Americans, ICE blew past its original hiring target of 10,000 new officers and agents within a year.
In fact, we have more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000. With these new patriots on the team, we will be able to accomplish what many say was impossible and fulfill President Trump’s promise to make America safe again.”
It appears that Good’s executioner—and it’s hard to think of a more apt word for someone who fires three point-blank shots at the head of an obviously unarmed civilian who is trying to drive away—was not one of these “new patriots.” The incident his defenders have taken to invoking, in which he was dragged by a car and ended up with 33 stitches, reportedly happened last June, before the hiring spree.
But even that raises the obvious question: If he was injured, if he was “traumatized” by that event, as Vice President JD Vance said Thursday, what in the world was he doing still out in the field?
An investigation may answer that question (or, since it’s going to be led by Kash Patel’s FBI, maybe it won’t). But our common sense, and what we have learned in the last year about these people, tells us that he was still in the field for the same reason that ICE has hired 12,000 people in six months, recruiting specifically for people with an enthusiasm for guns and the military.
The Trump administration wants to force showdowns that lead inevitably to what happened in Minneapolis Wednesday.
Take a look at the recruitment social media post that DHS placed on X last August: “Serve your country! Defend your culture! No undergraduate degree required!”
Let’s break that down. “Serve your country.” OK, nothing objectionable about that. But then we take a very Trumpian-Millerian turn: “Defend your culture.” Who is that aimed at? What set of emotional reactions is that command supposed to fire, and in whom? What “culture,” precisely, is it referring to? And finally, the reassurance that the job is open to practically anyone.
Well, anyone of a certain mindset, that is. On New Year’s Eve, ICE announced that it was initiating a new $100 million recruitment campaign that it referred to as a “wartime recruitment” strategy. The campaign, as The Washington Post put it, will target people “who have attended UFC fights, listened to patriotic podcasts, or shown an interest in guns and tactical gear.”
Any organization that goes from 10,000 to 22,000 in six months has hired some very unqualified people. If that organization is, say, the Candy Stripers, that might not be much of an issue. But if the organization is one that gives its employees badges and masks and riot gear and SIG Sauer P320 semiautomatic pistols (or maybe a Glock 19, to which the agency began transitioning last year), you’ve got a problem.
That’s exactly what Donald Trump, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, and Corey Lewandowski (whose exact role at DHS is the focus of many questions) have done. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill passed last July, you might recall, tripled ICE’s budget, from around $10 billion a year to close to $30 billion.
All told, as Margy O’Herron of the Brennan Center pointed out last year, the bill “allocates more than $170 billion over four years for border and interior enforcement, with a stated goal of deporting one million immigrants each year.
That is more than the yearly budget for all local and state law enforcement agencies combined across the entire United States.” She added that “the largest percentage increase goes to finding, arresting, detaining, and deporting immigrants already living in the US, most of whom have not committed a crime and many of whom have had lawful status.”
It’s clear what all this adds up to. There will be more Renee Goods. And they will all be smeared and trashed by Trump and his followers. Vance said Thursday, as have any number of MAGA-ites on social media, that she was driving right at the shooting officer. Proof of this, they say, lies in the fact that first bullet hole went through her windshield.
Yes, it did. But look at where it went through the windshield. It’s all the way over to the right, just a couple of inches from the driver’s-side pillar. If she was driving right at him, wouldn’t that bullet hole be closer to the center of the windshield? The video shows clearly that she was turning the car to the right. But even if there is ambiguity about the first shot, there is no ambiguity whatsoever about the second and third.
Good was executed. And now her reputation and life and values are being killed. Perhaps taking cues from Noem, who accused Good of an act of “domestic terrorism,” Vance referred to the victim as part of a left-wing conspiracy. A reporter asked him to amplify on that, and he couldn’t. He also said Good represented a “lunatic fringe.”
No, Mr Vice President. Renee Good represents tens of millions of honest, decent, and patriotic Americans. Tens of millions of us who want to live in a humane and compassionate multiracial democracy where citizens, even if they are trying to obstruct a law enforcement action they object to (there is still some question whether Good was doing this), are subjected to the legal process and given their rights and not shot point-blank, where people who aren’t citizens but are otherwise law-abiding don’t have to live in fear, and where the “culture” we “defend” is a culture based not on blood and soil but the rule of law.
The real lunatic fringe in this country is the one that sanctions the execution of a citizen and then spends days smearing her and that imagines itself to be at war with its own people and precipitates these kinds of confrontations in the first place. That fringe is doubling down, and hiring and hiring and hiring. This is going to get much worse.
Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD saith thus: “Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, ‘Alas! Alas!’ And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing. And in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I will pass through thee,” saith the LORD. Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! To what end is it for you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light: as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? Amos 5:16-20
Ezekiel experienced his visions while living among the captives in Chaldea, whereas Jeremiah had begun prophesying long before that period of exile. For this reason, the book of Ezekiel was placed after Jeremiah. The name Ezekiel is commonly understood to mean “the strength of God” or “strengthened by God.”
Since Ezekiel was regarded as a major prophet, the events he recorded carry significant meaning. Although these events were historical, they hold implications for our time, particularly concerning the end times.
Ezekiel’s main message wasn’t just for the house of Judah, but also for the house of Israel, whose captivity took place about 135 years before Judah’s. So, we should try to understand the prophetic meaning behind all those historical settings.
Ezekiel among other captives by the River Chebar when he had visions from God
Nobody seems to grasp the various symbols and riddles in the book of Ezekiel well enough to piece them together into a clear and cohesive picture. The Jews couldn’t see how the house of Israel still had any relevance since their exile, while Christians have self-righteously convinced themselves they had replaced the Israelites and claimed God’s promises of eternity for themselves. Both perspectives are serious misunderstandings.
Hence, shepherds who think they know it all are severely reprimanded by God.
Then the Lord said unto me, ‘The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke unto them. They prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought and the deceit of their heart’” Jeremiah 14:14
“His watchmen are BLIND; they are all ignorant; they are all DUMB dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require My flock at their hand and cause them to cease from feeding the flock, neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more. For I will deliver My flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them. Ezekiel 34:10
The secret is out when God revealed its timing to Ezekiel:
“Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off’ (Ezekiel 12:27). Or as the RSV has it: “The vision that he sees is for many days hence, and he prophesies of times far off.”
That’s right, God had inspired the house of Israel to say that its timing was a great distance into the future, into our time and the message is primarily and principally for Ephraim, the head of the northern tribes, the United States of America and, secondarily, its European allies.
1 Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the River of Chebar, that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
— the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language could be traced to Ezra, paraphrases the words thus, “and it was in the thirtieth year after Hilkiah the high priest found the Torah scroll in the Temple, in the court under the porch, in the middle of the night, after the moon had risen, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah;”
— Ezekiel was among the captives by the river Chebar in Chaldea; some thought it was the river Euphrates, others a distributary. Ezekiel was among the captives and this was around the year 587/586 BC, resulting in the exile of the inhabitants of Jerusalem to Babylon. The northern Kingdom Israel was taken as captives earlier around 721 BC (ie about 135 years earlier), hence the significance is that Ezekiel’s visions are prophetic;
— “and I saw visions of God.” And so at the end: “And I saw, and behold, a storm wind, etc.” — a similar case like John in Revelation when he was in visions;
— in his introduction to Ezekiel, John Gill wrote that there were already synagogues in Babylon; he states: “the account R Benjamin Tudelensis is that there is a synagogue of the Prophet Ezekiel by the river Euphrates; and over against the synagogue sixty towers; and between every tower a synagogue. In the court of the synagogue is a library;” ~ this means there were numerous synagogues while the Jews were in Babylon.
2 On the fifth day of the month (which was the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity),
3 the word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. — Ezekiel (1:3) was a priest; in the Jerusalem Targum, the Prophet Ezekiel is called the son of Jeremiah the prophet (Gill);
— the Targum indicates Ezekiel could have started prophesying in the land of Israel before coming into Babylon, says
“The prophetic word came from before the Lord to Ezekiel son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of Israel — again, a second time — and it was spoken with him in the land of the Chaldeans, by the River Kebar; and there the spirit of prophecy rested upon him from before the Lord.”
4 And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself; and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire. — “A whirlwind came out of the north;” Nebuchadnezzar, whose land, Babylonia, lay north of Judea. Chaldea was denominated by Jeremiah prophecy;
— from the north, see also Jeremiah 1:14-15; Jeremiah 4:6; Jeremiah 6:1; it was from that direction that the Assyrian and the Chaldæan conquerors were accustomed to descend upon the Holy Land;
“And I saw, and behold: a storm‑wind was coming from the north, a great cloud, and a blazing fire, and a radiance surrounded it; and from within the cloud and the storm‑wind there was something like the appearance of ḥashmal emerging from within the fire.”
— ḥashmal is a mysterious term—often described as a blinding, unendurable brilliance associated with the appearance of the divine likeness on the throne (v 27).
5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. — out of the midst of that same whirlwind from the north (v4) came “the likeness of four living creatures.”
“And from within it, the likeness of four creatures; and this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a human being.”
6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. — as in Ezekiel 10:21, each cherub has four wings, or two elsewhere (Exodus 25:20; in the Temple overshadowing the mercy-seat, or in the garden of Eden keeping the way of the tree of life, always indicate the immediate presence of God). But in Isaiah 6:2, each seraphim has six wings;
— Rabbi Rashi (1040-1105 France): and each one had four faces: “Each one” means that the human countenance had four faces, as did that of the lion, the eagle, and the ox, totaling sixteen [faces] to one living being. It was thus for each living being, and four wings for each of the faces, totaling sixty-four wings for each living being. This is [why] Jonathan paraphrased: two hundred fifty-six wings;
— in the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language of understanding the Scriptures could be traced to Ezra; multiplies the faces in a strange monstrous manner, paraphrasing the words thus, “each had four faces, and there were four faces to everyone “of them”, and every creature had sixteen faces; the number of the faces of the four creatures was sixty and four.”
“Each creature had four faces, and each one had four faces, making sixteen faces for a single creature. The total number of faces for the four creatures was sixty‑four. Each creature also had four wings, and each one had four wings, giving sixteen wings for each face and sixty‑four wings for a single creature. The total number of wings for the four creatures was two hundred and fifty‑six.”
Ezekiel’s vision of four living creatures, each has four faces!
7 And their feet were straight feet, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass.
“Their legs were straight, and the hoof of their feet was like the hoof of a rounded calf. As they moved, they shook the world, and they gleamed like burnished bronze.”
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and all four had their faces and their wings.
“Human‑like hands were set beneath their wings on all four sides, so that they could take coals of fire from between the cherubim, beneath the firmament above their heads, and place them into the hands of the fiery beings to scatter over the place of the wicked, destroying those guilty of transgressing His word. And their faces and their wings were the same for all four of them.”
9 Their wings were joined one to another. They turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward.
“They were arranged facing one another; their wings did not turn as they moved, and each creature went straight forward in the direction of its face.”
10 As for the likeness of their faces, all four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side, and all four had the face of an ox on the left side; all four also had the face of an eagle.
“The creature moved straight in the direction of its face; wherever it was willed for them to go, they went, and they did not turn as they moved.”
13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire and like the appearance of lamps; it went up and down among the living creatures, and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.
“The appearance of the creatures was like burning coals of fire, like the look of blazing torches; fire flared up between the creatures, the fire shone brightly, and lightning came forth from the fire.”
14 And the living creatures ran and returned, like the appearance of a flash of lightning. — not only was the appearance of the cherubim thus glittering, but also their speed as they “ran and returned” was liked that of lightning.
“The creatures went forth to carry out the will of their Master, whose Presence rests above them in the heights. Their many‑eyed faces see in every direction, and they encircle and cover the world. The creatures move and return as one, swift as lightning.”
15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold, a wheel was upon the earth by each of the living creatures with his four faces.
“And I looked at the creature, and behold, a single wheel was positioned upright, reaching upward toward the height of heaven, beside the creature, corresponding to its four faces.”
16 The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the color of beryl, and all four had the same likeness; and their appearance and their work was, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
“The wheels and their construction looked like a precious stone; all four had the same form, and their appearance and workmanship were like the structure of a wheel set inside another wheel.”
17 When they went, they went upon their four sides; and they turned not when they went.
“Their upper surfaces were set facing the firmament, and they were tall and awe‑inspiring; and their backs were filled with eyes all around, on all four of them.”
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
“When the creatures moved, the wheels moved in correspondence with them; and when the creatures rose upward toward the height of heaven, the wheels rose together with them.”
20 Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went; thither was their spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up opposite them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
“Wherever it was willed for them to go, they went; to whatever place the will directed them, they went. And the wheels rose together with them, for the spirit of the creatures was within the wheels.”
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up opposite them, for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
“When the creatures move, they move; when they stand, they stand; and when they rise upright toward the height of heaven, the wheels rise together with them, for the spirit of the creatures is in the wheels.”
22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creatures was as the color of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.
“Over the heads of the creatures there appeared a firmament, resembling strong, gleaming ice, stretched out above them.”
23 And under the firmament were their wings straight, the one toward the other; every one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side of their bodies.
“Beneath the firmament, their wings were arranged facing one another; each had two wings covering them, and each had two wings covering their bodies.”
24 And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech as the noise of a host. When they stood, they let down their wings;
“I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of many waters, like a voice from before the Almighty; in their movement it was like the sound of speech, as they praised and blessed their eternal Master, the King of the worlds. It was like the sound of the heavenly angelic hosts. But when the divine voice spoke, they stilled their wings.”
25 and there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads when they stood and had let down their wings.
“When it was His will to make His word heard by His servants, the prophets of Israel, a voice was heard from above the firmament, from between the cherubim beneath the firmament over their heads; and in their places the creatures stilled their wings before the divine speech.”
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, with the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness in appearance of a man above upon it.
“Above the firmament over their heads there appeared something like a precious stone in the form of a throne, and upon that throne was a figure with the appearance of a human, high above.”
27 And I saw as the color of amber, with the appearance of fire round about within it. From the appearance of His loins even upward and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.
“I saw something like the radiance of ḥashmal, like the appearance of fire within it all around—an overwhelming brilliance that no eye could look upon. Above it was a splendor too intense to behold, and below it I saw the appearance of fire, with brightness surrounding it.”
28 As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of One who spoke.
— this was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God: of the divine Shekinah; His omnipotence and omniscience; the same BEING that dwelled in the Temple in Jerusalem, now manifested Himself to Prophet Ezekiel showing him events that are set to come, far into their future.
“Like the appearance of a rainbow in the cloud on a rainy day, so was the radiance surrounding Him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice speaking.”
Ezekiel 2
1 And He said unto me, “Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.” — the Most High said unto Ezekiel; “Son of man” emphasizes Ezekiel’s insignificance as mere human; it’s applied to Daniel only once (Daniel 8:17), while to Ezekiel it is used over ninety times; both were prophets during captivity in Babylon;
“Then He said to me: ‘Human being, stand up on your feet, so that I may speak with you.’”
2 And the spirit entered into me when He spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, so that I heard Him who spoke unto me. — this is the spirit of God that entered Ezekiel and spoke to him;
“A spirit entered into me as He spoke, and it lifted me to my feet, and I was able to hear the One speaking to me.”
3 And He said unto me, “Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation (H1471 goy) that hath rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me, even unto this very day;
— “I send thee to the children of Israel;” this targeted nation (H1471 goy) couldn’t be Judah, which were already in captivity, and not the Israel of old, the northern kingdom either, since it was already exiled by the Assyrians some 135 years earlier;
— connecting Scripture:
“Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off’ Ezekiel 12:27. So the message has to be meant for the endtime, to the endtime house of Israel, “a rebellious nation (goy single; that is, collectively, a nation) that hath rebelled against Me.”
— the Targum also refers to the children of Israel, says
“He said to me: ‘Human being, I am sending you to the children of Israel — to a rebellious people who have defied My word. They and their fathers have rebelled against Me right up to this very day.’”
4 for they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I send thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God.’ — “for they are impudent children and stiffhearted: hard-hearted; elsewhere stiffnecked: impudent—literally, “hard-faced” (Ezekiel 3:7,9);
— And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people,” Exodus 32:9; showing no respect; obstinate, stubborn, with hearts that were like an adamant stone, and harder than the nether millstone; impenitent, obdurate, and inflexible;
“The children of Israel are brazen‑faced and hard‑hearted, yet I am sending you to them. You must say to them: ‘Thus says the Lord God.’”
5 And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
— John Gill: “yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them; so that they were left without excuse, which was the purpose of the prophet being sent unto them; although there was little or no hope of reclaiming them; but, however, by such a step taken, they could not say that they had no prophet sent to reprove them for their sins, and warn them of their danger; had they, they would have listened to him, and so have escaped the evils that would come upon them.”
“Whether they accept the teaching or refuse to turn from sin—since they are a rebellious people—they will nevertheless know that a prophet has been among them.”
6 “And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns be with thee and thou dost dwell among scorpions. Be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.
— be not afraid of their words; as before; with which they are like briers, thorns and scorpions, being very grievous, defamatory and mischievous: as if “thou dwellest in the midst of a people whose works are like to scorpions.”
“And you, human being — do not fear them or their words. They are rebellious and stubborn toward you, and you dwell among people whose deeds are like scorpions. Do not fear what they say and do not be intimidated by them, for they are a rebellious people.”
Ezekiel’s message to Ephraim, “a people whose words and looks are like scorpions.”
7 And thou shalt speak My words unto them, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious. — “And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them,” Ezekiel 2:5
“Proclaim My prophetic words to them — whether they accept the teaching or refuse to turn from sin — for they are a rebellious people.”
8 But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee. Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house. Open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee.”
— “Open thy mouth, and eat what I give thee” ~ this means Ezekiel was to hear it and internalize the message, then the people to whom such messages of God may come should also hear it read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest it, and be warned of this message;
“And you, human being—receive what I am speaking to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious people. Submit yourself and accept what I am giving you.”
9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me; and lo, a scroll of a book was therein. — behold a hand was sent unto me; a hand stretched out toward me.
“I looked, and I saw something like a hand stretched out toward me, and in it was a scroll.”
10 And He spread it before me; and it was written within and without, and there were written therein lamentations and mourning and woe.
— “it was written within and without;” that is and it was written on the front and back, contrary to the state of rolls in general, which are written on the inside only, but this was also written on the outside, perhaps indicating a message of unusual urgency;
— in Chabad Bible, “lamentations” are interpreted as retribution of the righteous in this world; “mourning” are gift of reward to the righteous, over which they will sing in the world to come; and “woe” are of the punishments of the wicked in the world to come. Gill, quoted the Targum says, “if the house of Israel transgress the law, the people shall rule over them; but, if they keep the law, lamentation, and mourning, and sorrow, shall cease from them.”
“He spread the scroll out before me, and I saw that it was written on the front and on the back — recording what had happened from the beginning and what would occur in the end. It said that if the house of Israel transgress the Torah, the nations will rule over them; but if they obey the Torah, calamity, suffering, and sighing will cease from them.”
— this verse seems like what is in Zechariah 5: a scroll written on the front and back
. . . and there were written therein lamentations and mourning and woe
“Belligerent” was how one Democratic lawmaker described a diatribe given by top White House adviser Stephen Miller on CNN Monday evening regarding the Trump administration’s right to take over Venezuela – or any other country – if doing so is in the interest of the US.
To Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), however, Miller was simply providing viewers with “a very good definition of imperialism” as he described the worldview the administration is operating under as it takes control of Venezuela and eyes other countries, including Greenland, that it believes it can and should invade.
“This is what imperialism is all about,” Sanders told CNN‘s Jake Tapper. “And I suspect that people all over the world are saying, ‘Wow, we’re going back to where we were 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, where the big, powerful countries were exploiting poorer countries for their natural resources.’”
The senator spoke to Tapper shortly after Miller’s interview, in which the news anchor asked whether President Donald Trump would support holding an election in Venezuela days after the US military bombed the country and abducted President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
Miller refused to directly engage with the question, saying only that it would be “absurd and preposterous” for the US to install Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the leader of the country, before asking Tapper to give him “the floor” and allow him to explain the White House’s view on foreign policy.
“The United States is using its military to secure our interests unapologetically in our hemisphere,” said Miller. “We’re a superpower and under President Trump we are going to conduct ourselves as a superpower. It is absurd that we would allow a nation in our backyard to become the supplier of resources to our adversaries but not to us.”
Instead of “demanding that elections be held” in Venezuela, he added, “the future of the free world depends on America to be able to assert ourselves and our interests without an apology.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that Venezuela “stole” oil from the United States. The country is believed to have the largest oil reserves in the world, and the government nationalized its petroleum industry in 1976, including projects that had been run by US-based ExxonMobil. The last privately run oil operations were nationalized in 2007 by then-President Hugo Chavez.
Miller offered one of the most explicit explanations of the White House’s view yet: that “sovereign countries don’t get sovereignty if the US wants their resources,” as Representative Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) translated in a social media post.
Moulton called Miller’s tirade “genuinely unhinged” and “a disturbing window into how this administration thinks about the world.”
Miller’s remarks followed a similarly blunt statement at a UN Security Council emergency meeting by US Ambassador Michael Waltz.
“You cannot continue to have the largest energy reserves in the world under the control of adversaries of the United States,” said Waltz.
Miller’s description of the White House’s current view on foreign policy followed threats from Trump against countries including Colombia, Mexico and Greenland, and further comments suggested that the administration could soon move to take control of the latter country – even though it is part of the kingdom of Denmark, which along with the US is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“Greenland should be part of the United States,” said Miller. “The president has been very clear about that. That is the formal position of the US government.”
He dismissed the idea that the takeover of Greenland, home to about 56,000 people, would involve a military operation – although Trump has said he would not rule out using force – and said that “nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
The vast island is strategically located in the Arctic Circle and has largely untapped reserves of rare-earth minerals.
Danish and Greenlandic officials have condemned Trump’s latest threats this week, with Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, warning that, in accordance with the NATO treaty, “everything would come to an end” if the US attacks another NATO country.
“The international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world’s strongest defensive alliance – all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another,” she told Danish news channel Live News on Monday.
The Danish government called an emergency meeting of its Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday to discuss “the kingdom’s relationship with the United States.”
On CNN, Sanders noted that as Trump sets his sights on controlling oil reserves in Venezuela and resources in Greenland, people across the president’s own country are struggling under rising costs and financial insecurity.
“Maybe instead of trying to run Venezuela,” said Sanders, “the president might try to do a better job running the United States of America.
USNI News Fleet and Marine Tracker: January 5, 2026
In the Caribbean Sea
Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) is operating in the Caribbean Sea.
The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group is operating in the Caribbean Sea.
The Amphibious Ready Group includes USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), USS Fort Lauderdale (LPD-28), USS San Antonio (LPD-17) and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit based in Camp Lejeune and Marine Corps Air Base New River.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed Gerald R Ford and its escorts to US Southern Command in October to support the Trump administration’s ongoing counter-drug efforts, a Pentagon spokesperson said on social media, as reported by USNI News.
On the flight deck of the Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford
In Japan
Aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) is in Yokosuka, Japan. Amphibious warship USS Tripoli (LHA-7) is in Sasebo.
In the South China Sea
Aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) is operating in the South China Sea.
Destroyer Squadron 21 is based in Naval Station San Diego, Calif, and embarked with Abraham Lincoln.
USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), homeported at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
USS Spruance (DDG-111), homeported at Naval Station San Diego, Calif.
In the Persian Gulf
Littoral Combat Ships USS Canberra (LCS-30), USS Tulsa (LCS-16) and USS Santa Barbara (LCS-32) are operating in U.S. 5th Fleet with the Navy’s first operational mine countermeasure mission packages.
There are three independently deployed guided-missile destroyers in the Persian Gulf.
USS Mitscher (DDG-57), homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
USS Roosevelt (DDG-80), homeported at Naval Station Rota, Spain.
USS McFaul (DDG-74), homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
In the South Pacific
USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10) Polar-class heavy icebreaker continues en route to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for Operation Deep Freeze.
The Targum consistently interprets the book not as the prophecy of a person named Malachi, but as a message delivered by a “messenger;” whom it identifies as Ezra; the prophetic “messenger.”
This would also explain why Ezra (nor any other prophets or books) does not refer to a prophet named Malachi, while he did refer to other prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14).
As one of the last of the prophets, Ezra wrote this book, Malachi, which begins with a prophecy of a forerunner of the coming of the Messiah; and the effects and consequences of his coming, and the prophecy of uniting the messages of the Father of the Old Testament and the Son in the New.
Ezra wrote this book, Malachi, have been assumed to be a pseudonym
Malachi 3
1 “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. Behold, He shall come,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— behold, the Lord of hosts will send his messenger, the special prophet spoken of Isaiah 40:3, who was John the Baptist, the passage upon which the present statement is evidently founded, and he shall prepare the way before me, Mark 1:3; and the Lord whom ye seek, the Son of God, and promised Messiah, for whose who were so anxiously waiting;
— shall suddenly come to his Temple; and here Simeon, Anna and others were waiting for him, Luke 2:22; appeared suddenly to dwell in the midst of his people, of his Church, even the Messenger of the Covenant, the Son of God Himself, whom ye delight in, namely, all those who still desire the covenant of the Lord with his people to he fulfilled;
— behold, so the announcement is once more made with impressive solemnity, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. This is the preaching of the Kingdom of God in order to prepare the hearts for the great coming of the Messiah;
“Behold, I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will enter His Temple. And the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — behold, he is coming,” says the Lord of Hosts.
2 “But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.
— but who may abide the day of his coming? be able to endure that Day of Judgement upon the disobedient and secure? Cf Matthew 3:8-12; Luke 3:9. And who shall stand when he appeareth? Cf Joel 2:11.
— for he is like a refiner’s fire, separating pure doctrines from ones of dross compared to fire, Jeremiah 23:29; false ones shall be burned like chaff, or which separates the dross from the pure metal, and like fullers’ soap, thoroughly to cleanse the garment of His elect from all impurities;
“But who can endure the day of His coming, and who can stand when He is revealed? For His wrath is like a smelting fire, and like the fuller’s lye with which they whiten cloth.”
3 And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
— and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, the entire Messianic era being a time of testing and of judgement, John 9:39, culminating in the final day of Judgement;
— and he shall purify the sons of Levi, for the judgement begins at the house of God, and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness, so that all the members of the Millenium priesthood, in fact, might serve him in holiness and righteousness;
— the “refiner’s fire” shall purify the sons of Levi; both the Boethusians, who hailed from the Egyptian paganism and the Hellenised Sadducees, who played harlotry with Greek gods, couldn’t escape the consuming inferno in AD 70. The Boethusians and the Sadducees were members of two Jewish sects that kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction in the prophesied refiner’s purification of the Levites;
“He will be revealed as one who refines and purifies, like a man who refines and cleanses silver. He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and like silver, and they will then bring an offering before the Lord in righteousness.”
— but the inferno in AD 70 could also be a microcosm of the end-time Captivity!
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and of Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.
— after the “refiner’s fire” then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, the entire Elect worshiping him in spirit and in truth, as in the days of Moses, when the children of Israel were still in truth as His chosen;
“Then the offering of the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be acceptable before the Lord, as in ancient days and as in former years.”
5 “And I will come near to you in judgement; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and those who turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not Me,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and I will come near to you to judgement, namely, the judgement of wrath upon the wicked; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the transgressors of the First and Second Commandments;
— and against the adulterers, those disregarding the Sixth Commandment, and against false swearers, with reference both to the Second and the Eighth Commandments, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, by withholding them altogether or by underpaying him;
— the widow, and the fatherless, as being without a natural protector, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, Cf Deuteronomy 27:19, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts, this last point indicating the source of all iniquity lack of the fear of the Lord.
— the Targum says “my Word shall be among you as a swift witness,”
“I will be revealed against you to execute judgment, and My word will stand among you as a witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who defraud the hired laborer of his wages, and against those who oppress the widow and the orphan and pervert the justice of the convert — for they did not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.
6 “For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. — for I am Yehovah, I change not, I’m also the Everlasting, the Eternal indicating that He is the same from everlasting to everlasting;
— therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, literally, “and ye, the Sons of Jacob, ye are not yet consumed,” that is, the Lord will keep the true spiritual Israel safe while he sends his judgement upon the wicked in their midst. Even so the Church of God may also go into Captivity in the midst of hypocrisy and deceit, while the wicked will finally be destroyed;
— but some sects escaped death during the inferno of AD 70; were not consumed:
(1) the Christians, known as Nazarenes in Acts 24:5. They escaped to a northern town called Pella, west of the Jordan River; these were those that acknowledged Yeshua as the Messiah and keeping God’s laws, statutes and ordinances;
(2) the Hillel branch of Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, he was smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin. They escaped to Yavne, and later to Tiberias; his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the calendar.
— the Shammites branch of Pharisees, together with the wicked Boethusians and Sadducees, all were deemed as chaff and were consumed during the inferno of AD 70. Take heed! This is God’s judgement!
— the Targum says “for I the Lord have not changed . . . my judgement,”
“For I, the Lord, have not changed — My existence is from eternity — and you, children of Israel, imagine that you are like people who perish in this world; but this judgment does not cease.”
7 “Even from the days of your fathers, ye have gone away from Mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto Me, and I will return unto you,” saith the Lord of hosts. “But ye said, ‘In what manner shall we return?’
— even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them, this being the reason why he has withheld the fullness of his blessing and salvation from them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts, his appeal being made in all sincerity, since he wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth;
— but ye said, still blind toward their transgressions, Where shall we return? They did not realize that the real service of Yehovah must be a growth from within, from a heart which lives in his fear, keeping his laws, statutes and ordinances. Therefore the prophet asks, in turn, in order to arouse them to a consciousness of the true meaning of worship,
“From the days of your ancestors you have strayed from My covenant and have not kept it. Return to My worship, and I will turn toward you with My word to do good for you, says the Lord of Hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’”
8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed Me! But ye say, ‘Wherein have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and offerings. — will a man rob God, defraud him? Is not the very idea preposterous and revolting? Yet ye have robbed me, actually trying to defraud Yehovah of the service which he rightly expected;
— but ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? And the answer is, in tithes and offerings, keeping back from the priests and Levites their dues, for these the people had deliberately withheld, thus making a mockery of their worship of Yehovah.
“Would a person provoke a judge? Yet you are provoking Me. And if you say, ‘How have we provoked You?’ — it is in the tithes and the offerings.”
9 Ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. — ye are cursed with a curse, as a consequence of such behavior; for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation,
— for the practice rebuked was general among the people; the first-fruits of their ground and cattle and other offerings which were allotted to the priests, Deuteronomy 18:4, out of which revenue they were to provide the daily sacrifices and also to maintain the Levites, who attended upon the service in the Temple; therefore he admonishes them with great solemnity:
“You are certainly cursed, and before Me you are provoking [My anger] — the whole nation.”
10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and put Me to the proof now herewith,” saith the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
— bring ye all the tithes, the entire tithes, not only a part, into the storehouse, not keeping back a part, as heretofore, that there may be meat in mine house, provision for the daily sacrifices, and for the maintenance of the priests and Levites, as food for his servants, Numbers 18:24;
— and prove me now herewith, to find out whether he is not still the same righteous and holy God as of old, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, in plentiful harvests, that there shall not be room enough to receive it, your prosperity being practically limitless;
“The prophet said: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be sustenance for those who serve in My Sanctuary. Test Me now in this, says the Lord of Hosts: if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out goodness for you until you say, ‘It is enough.’”
11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and God will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, not permitting the locusts or caterpillar or any such devouring creature that eats up the herbage, corn and fruits of trees; to devour the crops, to ravage the land; and these creatures shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, all the ordinary field-crops;
— neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts, that is, that these devourers or locusts, that they should not cause the vine to be abortive; the grapes would not fall before they had matured.
“I will rebuke the destroyer for you, and it will not destroy the produce of your land, and your vine in the field will not cast its fruit,” says the Lord of Hosts.
12 “And all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land,” saith the Lord of hosts. — and when they shall see the land freed from the devouring locusts,
— all nations shall call you blessed, praising them for the obvious blessings which they enjoyed as a gift of Yehovah; for ye shall be a delightsome land, as seen by your neighbouring nations, an object of pleasure, saith the Lord of hosts;
“All the nations will praise you, for you will be dwelling in the land of My Presence and doing My will there,” says the Lord of Hosts.
13 “Your words have been defiant against Me,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘What have we spoken so much against Thee?’
— you have spoken arrogantly against me, saith the Lord, namely, in the murmuring which he has rebuked above. Yet ye say, What have we spoken against thee? The Lord’s answer through his prophet is;
“Your words have been strong against Me, says the Lord; and if you say, ‘What have we spoken before You?’”
14 Ye have said: ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
— when you said, ‘it doesn’t pay to serve God; what do we ever get out of it? It is vain to serve God, it does not pay; and what profit is it that we have kept his laws, statutes and ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?
“You have said: ‘It is no benefit to serve before the Lord, and what profit have we gained? For we have kept His charge, and we have walked in mourning before the Lord of Hosts.’”
15 So now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered.’”
— and now we call the proud and arrogant, they had actually reached the stage when they praised the wicked, with their apparent happiness in matters of this world; yea, they that work wickedness are set up, they abound in riches and honours; they are the lucky ones, in their presumptuous opinion;
— yea, they that tempt God are even delivered, as if they tried to provoke him, even these men escape those dangers and calamities; they have no misfortune, they have everything that their heart desires; they seem to escape judgement and go on with impunity;
“And now we call the wicked fortunate; even those who do evil are established, even they advance before the Lord and escape.”
16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who feared the Lord and who thought upon His name.
— then, namely, when the scoffers were making these blasphemous remarks, they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, they made it a practise to encourage one another over against such blasphemous talk;
— and the Lord hearkened and heard it, by the omniscience of God, who hearkens and hears everything; he paid attention to their remarks, and a book of remembrance, records, annals and chronicles was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name, the subject of their conversations being things which pertained to his glory.
“Then those who fear the Lord spoke—each man with his companion—and it was heard before the Lord, and it was revealed before Him, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who think upon His Name.”
17 “And they shall be Mine,” saith the Lord of hosts, “in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son who serveth him.
— and they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, the precious people of his inheritance, 1 Peter 2:9, in that day when God make up his jewels, when he would impart to them the fullness of his glory;
— and God will spare them, in manifesting his tender mercies upon them and as a man spareth his own son that serveth him, ready to show his love and goodness in such an instance;
“They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, on the day when I am destined to make them My treasured possession; and I will have compassion on them, as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.”
18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.
— then shall ye, those who were now grumbling, return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, noting the difference between the two classes, even such who believe in God and keeping his laws, statutes and ordinances;
— those that are justified by his righteousness; and those that are wicked, also in the manner in which God dealt with them, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. The time of judgement is still at hand, but infidels and scoffers and by their characters and judgement that will be issued to them by the Judge; and the different sentences passed and executed on them;
— doing his commandments is the final reward, that is, fulfilling the laws, statutes and ordinances:
I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.”
Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. Revelation 22:13-14
Malachi 4
1 “For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble. And the day that cometh shall burn them up,” saith the Lord of hosts, “that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
— for, behold, the day cometh, the day before Christ’s return, reaching to a global destruction, is compared to a burning oven; the wicked to stubble, whose ruin would be utter and complete being considered a day of sifting;
— because it culminates in the Day of Judgement, that shall burn as an oven, one which holds the refiner’s fire; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, under the fire of His wrath, Cf Matthew 3:10-12;
— and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, Cf Isaiah 5:24; Zephaniah 1:18, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch, which signifies complete destruction; the final, eternal destruction of the wicked being coincidental with the last Judgement. Such is the terrible fate of those who do not avail themselves of the Lord’s mercy;
“Behold, this day has come like a furnace in the city, and all the wicked and all the servants of sin are weak like chaff, and the day will burn them up,” says the Lord of Hosts, “and He will not spare any of them, one by one.”
2 But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves from the stall.
— but unto you that fear God’s name, Malachi 3:16, whose names were written in the book of remembrance; who loved the laws of their God, and kept them, shall the Sun of Righteousness, the Messiah, with the fullness of his power;
— arise with healing in His wings, by which are meant its rays and beams of his righteousness sent out through his Word; and ye shall go forth, with joyfully uplifted heads, and grow up as calves of the stall, in strength, vigour and spiritual stature, nourished by the Word of God. Cf John 1:14.
And the sun of the fear of My name shall rise for you with healing in its wings, and you shall rise and leap like calves of the stall.”
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and ye shall tread down the wicked, whose final overthrow is consistently prophesied in Scripture; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet, the ashes of the wicked, powerless and worthless; like the ashes of the Boethusians and the Sadducees, were destroyed in the inferno of Jerusalem, and many of them burned to ashes in the flames in the latter day by which it will similarly be consumed;
“And the wicked shall be crushed, behold, they shall be as the dust under the soles of your feet on the day that I do,” says the Lord of Hosts.
4 “Remember ye the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgements. — remember ye the Laws (statutes and ordinances) of Moses, God’s servant; they were apt to forget: hence this exhortation is given now;
— because no other prophet after the book of Malachi would be sent unto them, which God had commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgements, the Word which contained His solemn covenant; to be observed by the children of Israel, and which were shadows of things to come;
“Remember the Torah of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, with its statutes and judgments.”
5 “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. — behold, God will send you Elijah, the prophet, a prophet like him,
— namely, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, Matthew 11:10-14; Matthew 17:10-13; Luke 1:17, before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, Joel 2:31, namely, before the Lord himself would begin his administration, which ushered in the Millennium, just after the Final Judgement;
“Behold, I am sending to you the prophet Elijah before the coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” — and “Elijah the prophet” shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers,
— this shows in what John’s office would consist: in the turning of men to God, and uniting the father and children in one act of reconciliation: so that the father will turn to the religion of his son who is converted to Christ, and the son will embrace the faith of their true fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;
— in having them both realize the love of the Father in sending his Son, the Messiah and in the subsequent salvation wrought for all men, Luke 1:17, or uniting the Chosens of the Old Testament who are their fathers in the faith to Elects of the New who are their children; or a link between the testaments;
— lest the Lord of hosts will come and smite the earth with a curse, namely, in the event that men will not heed the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. The Jews as a nation rejected the Messiah and have come under the curse as in AD 70 and AD 132. But this did not result in the overthrow of the Kingdom of God and the Church. The Elect, rather, has heeded and is heeding the Word of God and would enjoy the fullness of the blessings promised throughout the Old and New Testament; thus uniting the messages of both the Father and Son. Selah!
“Behold, I am sending to you the prophet Elijah before the coming day, the great and terrible day of the Lord.”
And finally, after the Final Judgement, these are the true elect—all have the common traits of keeping God’s Commandments—that shall be saved:
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” Revelation 12:17
“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” Revelation 14:12
“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the Tree of Life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” Revelation 22:14
The British from the Daily Mail carefully leaked the details of the operation to kidnap Maduro. So, it’s very useful to read this for those who hysterically praise the American military and compare this operation with the SVR to discredit our army.
Maduro was leaked by his direct subordinate – Vice President Delsi Rodriguez, who oversaw the oil industry and special services in the country. She is directly connected to Eric Prince – Trump’s adviser and the owner of the PMC Academi, as well as to Richard Grenell – one of the main decision-makers of the American president.
Trump said, “Maduro wanted to negotiate at the end, but I said no, too late.”
Rodriguez participated in negotiations with the Americans in Doha through the mediation of the Qatari royal family. And it was she who proposed an acceptable for the US option “Madurism without Maduro,” that is, to remove the president, but not to overthrow the power completely, because in this case, the cartels would start ruling the country, chaos would begin and Haiti 2.0 would happen, and crowds of refugees would flee to the US.
In August, the CIA sent operatives to Venezuela, and they monitored Maduro, passing on all the information about him, down to what he was wearing, what he was eating, and about his pets. This allowed them to quickly find and kidnap the country’s leader.
Rodriguez intends to make peace with the US, allow American companies to extract minerals and attract foreign investments, but at the same time continue the “Bolivarian rhetoric.”
So, dear friends, this case is indeed a deal, but not with those we thought. By the way, Grenell offered Maduro to resign and emigrate to Qatar, but he refused, and then a decision was made (somewhere in October) about the need to overthrow the President of Venezuela.
One provocative possibility is that the kidnapping “was a Trojan Horse operation,” which would remove questions about betrayal and incompetence and explain “many inconsistencies,” Lidovskoy says.
“The gist of this theory is that a US delegation accompanied by armed guards arrived at Maduro’s residence to discuss the parameters of a peace deal at a dinner, to conduct peace talks, to find common ground.”
This would explain the lack of incoming fire by Venezuelan air defenses on US helicopters.
“Once inside, the delegation’s armed guard (revealed to be special forces) shot all of Maduro’s guards – who were unprepared for this – and captured the president. And only when the signal came in that something had gone wrong and the president had been captured did the bombing of Venezuelan bases and key air defense points begin, providing a smokescreen for the US withdrawal.”
And below is a Prophecy concerning the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
The Book of Malachi spoke to the Jewish exiles some 100 years after their initial return, after the days of Zechariah and Haggai; he served God either at the time of Nehemiah or immediately after his time.
So although Zechariah was the last of the prophets, the more commonly accepted opinion is that Malachi, is not a proper name, because it means “messenger” was the last; hence his message was regarded “the end of the prophets.”
And the Targum consistently interprets the book not as the prophecy of a figure named Malachi, but as a message delivered by or through Ezra, whom it identifies as the prophetic “messenger.”
The Septuagint says the same: that “the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of his messenger.” That is, there is no mention of a prophet named Malachi; although it fell short of naming who the author was.
This would also explain why Ezra (nor any other prophets or books) does not refer to a prophet named Malachi, while he did refer to other prophets such as Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1, 6:14).
Second, this identification is plausible, because book of Malachi reprimands the people for the same things Ezra did, such as marrying foreign pagan women.
Finally, “Malachi” focuses heavily on corrupt priests, as Ezra, a priest himself, urged the people to follow the law; thus Ezra (and Ezekiel) held the office of both priests and prophets.
Malachi is not a proper name of a person, because it means “messenger.” It has been assumed to be a pseudonym for Ezra
Malachi 1
1 The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by the hand of Malachi. — the burden of the word of the Lord to Israel; by which is meant the prophecy of this book, so called because it is heavy, burdensome and distressful, either for the prophet to carry or the people to bear;
— but the Targum interprets the book not as the prophecy of a figure named Malachi, which has been assumed to be a pseudonym, but as a message delivered by or through Ezra, whom it identifies as the prophetic “messenger;”
“A divine message of the LORD about Israel, delivered by the hand of His messenger, who is called Ezra the Scribe.”
— hence Ezra was a scribe, a priest, and a prophet; so highly respected and revered that the Jews regarded him as a second Moses.
2 “I have loved you,” saith the Lord. “Yet ye say, ‘Wherein hast Thou loved us?’ Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” saith the Lord. “Yet I loved Jacob,
— God reminds them that the Idumeans, were descended from Abraham as well as they, and from a progenitor who was their own brother to their progenitor Jacob: the message was that the birthright may not have been given to Jacob but more importantly it was God’s love to the house of Israel;
— who is Esau today? The answer lies in the book of Obadiah; and Jonathan Targum identifies Esau (Sepharad of the Southland identified) as Spain! Obadiah 1:20; the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain, hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim;
— Wikipedia: Sepharad (/sɛfəræd/or səˈfɛərəd/ Hebrew: סְפָרַד Sp̄āraḏ; also Sefarad, Sephared, Sfard) is the Hebrew name for Spain. A place called Sepharad, probably referring to Sardis in Lydia (‘Sfard’ in Lydian), in the Book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20, 6th century BC) of the Hebrew Bible. The name was later applied to Spain. (Later version of wikipedia, as above, changed it to “Iberian peninsula,”
“I have loved you, says the LORD. And if you ask, ‘How have You loved us?’—Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? says the LORD. Yet I loved Jacob.”
3 and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” — and God hated Esau, or “rejected” him as the Targum says;
— God did not love him as Jacob: even though both were equally descended from Abraham, had an equal claim to his blessing; they lay in the same womb together; they were twins; and if any could be thought to have the advantage by birth, Esau had it, being born first; Genesis 25:23; Esau is Edom Genesis 36:8);
— for the dragons of the wilderness; so called to distinguish them from sea dragons and these land dragons are no other than serpents of an enormous size; were found in the mountains; such as were bred in caves or in the flat country; and such as were found in fens and marshes;
— Genesis 27:39; “Your dwelling will be away from the richness of the earth and away from the dew from the sky above” so the Targum renders it, “into the wasteness of the desert” or into a waste desert where none but such sort of animals inhabit;
— one Report by McKinsey says of the 60 millions Latinos in US, they often live in ‘deserts’ where adequate housing, groceries are hard to find. “Nearly 9 in 10 of the Latino residents in such communities lived in five states: California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas.”
McKinsey: Latinos are projected to make up 22.4 percent of the US labor force by 2030 and more than 30 percent by 2060 (Latinos population to 111.2 million by ’60);
“Esau I have rejected, and I have turned his mountains into desolation, and his territory into a wilderness of jackals.”
4 Whereas Edom saith, “We are impoverished, but we will return and rebuild the desolate places;” but thus saith the Lord of Hosts: “They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them the Border of Wickedness and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.
— whereas Edom saith, We, or the Idumeans, are impoverished; the posterity of Esau, who live South of the children of Jacob, acknowledging themselves being greatly reduced by the desolations made in their country, cities, towns and houses, being plundered of all their valuable things; as if the Edomites should know they are poor and impoverished and their land is laid waste:
— they shall build, but the Lord will throw down; they attempted to rebuild their cities and towns, but could not succeed, God was against them; the Spanish Empire at its height in the mid-18th century governed 13% of the world’s land – 7.5 million square miles; but since then they could never reclaim that status;
The Spanish Empire at the height of its power in the mid-18th century
— and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever; not for seventy years only, as against the Jews, Zechariah 1:12, but those from the posterity of Edom are to be poor, impoverished and despised forever;
“Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. Obadiah 1:2 — thou art greatly despised; another parallel in Jeremiah 49:15 “For lo, I will make thee small among the nations and despised among men,” as the term beaners (Latinx or Latinos?) could allude to. The southern wall in the United States is “the Border of Wickedness.”
Rashi on Obadiah 1:2: Behold I have made you small: In contrast with what his father called him, his big son, and his mother called him her big son, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: In My eyes, he is small. And our Sages expounded: small for they have neither script nor language;
“The Edomites will say, ‘We have been brought low, but we will return and rebuild the ruins.’ But the Lord of Hosts says: They may build, yet I will demolish. They will be called the territory of a wicked people, and a people upon whom God’s wrath rests forever.”
5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, ‘The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel.’ — and your eyes from the house of Jacob shall see… the destruction of the Edomites,
— and their fruitless attempts to rebuild their desolate places; and the difference between them and the Israelites, who were returned to their own land and inherited it, when they could not; and the love of God to the one, and his hatred of the other:
— and ye shall say, the Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel; following the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848, the United States magnified their border by more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land from Mexico, expanding US territory by about one-third. Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the US states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15 million and US assumption of its citizens’ claims against Mexico; (Cf Habakkuk 2:8);
“Your eyes will see, and you will say: ‘Great is the glory of the LORD, even beyond the border of Israel.’”
6 “A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is Mine honor? And if I be a master, where is the fear of Me? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, who despise My name. And ye say, ‘Wherein have we despised Thy name?’
— a son honoreth his father and a servant his master, in agreement with the commandment of God; If, then, I be a Father, where is mine honor? Why were they persisting in their unnatural behavior and denying him the obedience which he had a right to expect? and so the Targum says, “lo concerning a son it is said (or commanded) that be should honour his father; and of a servant, that he should fear (or show reverence) before his master;”
— and if I be a Master, where is my fear? fear and reverence are due to the Lord from his people, considered in such a relation to them; both a fear of wrath and punishment; and also a Godly filial fear, Why did they not give him the reverence and respect which were his due? asked the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name, who ought to have honoured and feared the Lord; and yet they despised his name, or made it contemptible; by not paying that regard to his authority, as a Father and master:
— and ye say, as if honestly resenting the charge against them or pretending to be innocent and guiltless, Wherein have we despised thy name? the priest were very ones who should have been leaders in such worship in keeping and the teaching of the Law and ordinances;
“A son honors his father, and a servant fears his master. If I am a Father, where is the honor you give Me? And if I am a Master, where is the fear of Me? — says the LORD of Hosts to you, O priests who disgrace My Name. And if you say, ‘How have we disgraced Your Name?’…”
7 Ye offer polluted bread upon Mine altar; and ye say, ‘Wherein have we polluted Thee?’ In that ye say: ‘The table of the Lord is contemptible.’
— ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar, in connection with some of the offerings brought to the Lord; not made of fine wheat flour, nor of pure frankincense put upon or by each row, as the law required, Leviticus 24:5;
— and ye say, wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the Lord is contemptible, their practise of offering sacrifices which were expressly forbidden by God and their manner in the entire administration of their work being an insult to the holiness of the God Almighty. Cf Leviticus 22:21-22
“You bring near upon My altar a defiled offering. And if you say, ‘How is it defiled?’— it is because you say, ‘The table of the LORD is contemptible.’”
8 And if ye offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not evil? And if ye offer the lame and sick, is that not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor! Will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person?” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? or “there is no evil” that is, in their opinion. And if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? this of the daily meat offering, which went along with the daily sacrifice of the lambs, and part of which was burnt on the altar, Exodus 29:40 or rather this designs sacrifice in general, sometimes called “bread” Leviticus 3:11;
— and so the Targum above says, “ye offer upon my altar a defiled or an abominable offering” such as having blemishes in them, were blind or lame; and thus not the requisites of a sacrifice in them; or were offered not in a right manner, or by bad men or those with a wicked mind;
— offer it now unto thy governor, so the Lord ironically bids them do; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? asked the Lord of hosts; will he thank thee for it? or on the contrary, will he not resent it as an affront to him? and if so it would be with an earthly prince, how can it be thought that to offer the blind, lame and sick should be acceptable to the King of kings and Lord of lords?
“When you bring a blind animal for sacrifice— is that not bad? And when you bring one that is lame or sick— is that not bad? Present it now to your governor who rules over you: would he be pleased with you, or would he show you favor? says the LORD of Hosts.”
9 “And now, I pray you, beseech God that He will be gracious unto us. This has been by your hand: Will He regard your persons?” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and now, Malachi or actually Ezra prays unto them, beseech God that he will be gracious unto you: these are the words of the prophet to the priests; and are spoken either seriously, exhorting them to that part of their office which lay in interceding for the people that God would be gracious to them, and forgive their sins;
— this hath been by your means, that is, this their hand had done; that such sacrifices were offered up; they indulged the people in such practices and encouraged them; the fault was theirs; or this curse, as from Malachi 1:14:
— now try asking God to be kind to you; will he welcome you? Can you ever imagine that God will have any respect to your prayers, when you have acted so vile a part, and been the cause of so much sin and evil? no, he will not, as is asserted in the next verse:
“And now—pray before God, that He might accept your prayer from your hands. But after this that you have done, will He show you favor? says the LORD of Hosts.”
10 “Who is there even among you who would shut the doors for nought? Neither do ye kindle fire on Mine altar for nought. I have no pleasure in you,” saith the Lord of hosts, “neither will I accept an offering from your hand.
— there were four and twenty porters to open and shut the doors, four on each side; yet the Lord asked, is there any among you who would shut the doors to the Temple at even for me?
— so that you could not light fires on my altar for no reason. If one would but lock the doors leading to the altar of burnt offering, in order to keep anyone from bringing any vain oblations! I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, being thoroughly disgusted at the lack of care with their custodianship, neither will God accept an offering at your hand, no matter of what kind it was;
“Who is there among you who would even shut the doors of My Temple, so that you would not bring a defiled offering upon My altar? I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of Hosts, and I will not accept an acceptable offering from your hands.”
11 For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place incense shall be offered unto My name, and a pure offering; for My name shall be great among the nations,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— for from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, as far as the world extends, God’s name shall be great among the Gentiles, including those recruits gained for the Church of the New Testament from the heathen world;
— and in every prayers of the faithful, shall be offered unto God’s name; for my name Yehovah shall be great among the nations, saith the Lord of hosts, for the kingdom of God was started by the Jews (through the Messiah Yeshua and his twelve apostles), then to be expanded to the other tribes and then to all the nations;
— Rashi: My Name is great among the nations: Our Sages stated (Men. 110a): For they call Him the God of the gods. Even one who has an idol knows that He is the God Who is over all of them. Our Sages, explained: these are the scholars who are engaged in the laws of the Temple service everywhere, and likewise, every prayer of Israel that they pray anywhere is to Me as a pure oblation and My great Name is sanctified through you, and your prayer is like a pure offering before Me. This is the explanation of the verse: Now why do you profane My Name? Is it [that I am] not great among the nations?
— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)
“For from the rising of the sun to its setting, My name is great among the nations. And at every time that you do My will, I accept your prayers. My great name is sanctified through you, and your prayer is like a pure offering before Me. For My name is great among the nations,” says the Lord of Hosts.
12 “But ye have profaned it in that ye say, ‘The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His meat, is contemptible.’
— but ye have profaned it, that is, the name of the Lord, which they are said to despise, Malachi 1:6 and pollute, Malachi 1:7 and is a reason why they and their offerings were rejected: in that ye say, The table of the Lord Is polluted, Cf v. 7, and the fruit thereof, even his meat is contemptible; the word for fruit as sometimes use as figure of speech, the fruit of the lips, Isaiah 57:19
“But you are profaning Him, for you say: ‘The table of the Lord is defiled,’ and the offerings from it are contemptible.”
13 Ye said also, ‘Behold, what a weariness is it!’ And ye have sniffed it,” saith the Lord of hosts. “And ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick; thus ye brought an offering! Should I accept this from your hand?” saith the Lord.
— ye also complained about your calling; such as slaying the sacrifices; removing the ashes from the altar; putting the wood in order; kindling the fire, and laying the sacrifice on it: or of the people that brought the sacrifice, who, when they brought a lamb upon their shoulders, and laid it down, said, how weary are they in bringing it, suggesting it was so heavy, fat and fleshy;
— and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts; ye have puffed and panted and blown as persons weary with bringing such a heavy lamb, when it was so light that, if it was blown at, it would fall to the ground; or publicly showing other contempt for the work of their Temple;
— and the whole should render, “and ye have grieved me” that is, the Lord, by bringing such sacrifices, and complaining of weariness and by your hypocrisy and deceitfulness;
— and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick, in a contemptuous disregard for the Lord; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this at your hand? asked the Lord;
“And if you say, ‘Look—we have brought our full offering and we have presented it,’ says the Lord of Hosts— yet what you bring is stolen, or lame, or sick, and this you bring as an offering— shall I accept it favorably from your hands? says the Lord.”
14 “But cursed be the deceiver who hath in his flock a male, and vow and sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing. For I am a great King,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and My name is dreadful among the heathen.
— but cursed be the deceiver; a cunning, crafty, subtle man who thinks and contrives, speaks and acts in a very artful and deceiving manner; which hath in his flock a male, without spot and blemish as the law requires for sacrifice;
— and vow and sacrifice to the Lord a corrupt thing; that was a female or had blemishes in it; for the law required what was perfect and without a blemish for a vow; what was superfluous or deficient in its parts might do for a freewill offering, but not for a vow,
— for I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts; the King of the whole world, the King of kings and Lord of lords; and therefore to be honoured and reverenced suitable to his dignity and greatness;
— and my name is to be feared among the nations; because of God’s judgements executed to the house of Israel for 190 years and the house of Judah for 40 years; for details, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline;
— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)
“Cursed is the one who acts deceitfully, who has a male animal in his flock and is obligated by a vow, yet sacrifices what is blemished before the Lord. For I am a great King, says the Lord of Hosts, and My name is revered among the nations.”
Malachi 2
1 “And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. — and now, O ye priests, those that even dare to despise and profane the name of the Lord;
— that suffered such corrupt and illegal sacrifices: these commandment and judgement are for them, they must be aware of the seriousness of the situation and accept the Lord’s rebuke and threat accordingly.
2 If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto My name,” saith the Lord of hosts, “I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart.
— if ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart, if they persisted in your callousness over against God’s commands, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, by a worship in agreement with His commands;
— why the deaf ear turns into a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings, both upon priests and people; those that bring the bad offerings, such as their corn, wine and oil; yea, God have cursed you already because you do not lay it to heart, presenting an indifferent front to the Lord’s admonitions;
— the Targum provides deeper insight by repeating that the fear of the Lord is lacking,
“If you do not accept this command, and if you do not set My fear upon your heart to give honor to My name, says the Lord of Hosts, then I will send a curse upon you, and I will turn your blessing into a curse—indeed, I have already cursed it—because you are not placing My fear upon your heart.”
3 Behold, I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.
— behold, God will corrupt your seed, by your marrying unconverted foreign women, producing illegitimate or unworthy priestly descendants, a corrupt service that produces a corrupted lineage, a divine rebuke that affects their future generations, spread dung upon your faces as an expression of His extreme contempt;
— second, the dung of your solemn feasts, that of the excesses of such pagan feasts (1) Astarte, the queen of heaven; from whom Easter is derived; Jeremiah 7 and Jeremiah 44; (2) the palm tree, Mithra, the sun-god, now proliferates during Christmas; with decorated with lights, tinsel, red and green ribbon, poinsettias and other crowning glory; Jeremiah 10:3-5;
— (3) heavenly bodies, especially the Sun, hence professing Christians have shifted the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday by outlawing the keeping of the Sabbath. — thus saith the Lord: “Learn not the way of the heathens. . .” Jeremiah 10:2; his wrath and subsequent judgement of throwing dungs onto our faces is the central theme of Jeremiah’s message against idolatrous worship!
— and one shall take you away with it, treating them as though they were themselves dung, to be thrown out in disgraceful heaps; with the dung spread upon them; they looking like a heap of dung, being covered with it, and had in no more account than that;
“Behold, I will rebuke you with the disgrace of foreign seed, and I will scatter the refuse of your sins upon your faces, and I will abolish the abundance of your festival offerings, and your portion from them will be withheld.”
Remember: the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us from the verses quoted.
4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— and ye shall know, by the token of this punishment, that I have sent this commandment unto you, this decree of covenant and punishment which they thought they might so calmly disregard, that my covenant might be with Levi, who were the Levites, including the priests;
— especially in Leviticus 23 regarding all of God’s feast days, involving all the priests and Levites, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord’s sentence of punishment upon all those who despised his worship was included in the original covenant through the tribe of Levi to be teachers and light to others: first to the house of Jacob then to rest of the world.
“And you shall know that I have sent this command to you so that My covenant with Levi may continue, says the Lord of Hosts.”
5 “My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him for the fear with which he feared Me and was afraid before My name. — my covenant was with the priests and Levites of life and peace, with the promise of life and peace attached; and God gave them, namely, life, deliverance and salvation;
— to the priests and levites for the fear wherewith they feared me, as an example to the rest of the world as a reward for leadership with this attitude, and was afraid before my name, Cf Numbers 25:12;
— the Targum says, “I gave him the perfect doctrine of the law, or the doctrine of the perfect law that he might fear before me.”
— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)
“My covenant was with him—life and peace—and I gave him perfect instruction in My Torah; he feared My name.”
6 The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found on his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, and turned many away from iniquity.
— the Truth of the Law was with the tribe of Levi, so that everything which they did and taught was in agreement with divine truth, and iniquity should not be found in their lips;
— they walked with me in peace and equity, in an ideal situation of peace, integrity and righteousness and did turn many away from iniquity, this being the praise which the Lord bestowed upon true members of the tribe of Levi in setting an example;
“The Torah of truth was in his mouth, and no falsehood was found on his lips. In peace, in uprightness, and in integrity he walked before Me, and he turned many back from sin.”
7 For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
— as teachers of the covenant the priest’s lips should keep and teach knowledge, preserving the right understanding of worship among the people as a precious treasure, and they, the people, should seek the Law at the mouth of the priests, to be instructed by them;
— for they are messengers of the Lord of hosts. That is what the Lord found praiseworthy in members of the tribe of Levi in the early days of Moses; that it should continue as it should he;
“For the lips of the priest should guard knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he is a minister before the Lord of Hosts.”
8 But ye have departed from the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— but ye, the present members of the tribe are departed out of the way, leaving the path shown them by the Law of the Lord; ye have caused many to stumble at the Law, you have either perverted the sense of the law, or encouraged others to break it by your bad example; so that they became guilty of transgressing the Law;
— ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi by your evil practices you have broken or rendered void that covenant: by your not performing that part of the covenant which the tribe of Levi was bound to perform; saith the Lord of hosts.
“But you have strayed from the path; you have caused many to stumble in the Torah; you have ruined the covenant with Levi, says the Lord of Hosts.”
9 “Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people, according as ye have not kept My ways but have been partial in the law.”
— therefore have God also made you contemptible and base, an object of contempt and loathing when your city and temple were destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, and they were carried away again as captives and slaves and became a taunt and a proverb in all places where they went to:
— before all the nations of the world among whom you were scattered: according as ye have not kept my ways, but have been partial in the Law, in applying the Law to the conduct of the people; in the observance of it, taking no notice of the weightier matters when required.
“And I also will make you despised and lowly before all the people, because you are not keeping the proper ways before Me and you are showing partiality in the Torah.”
10 Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
— have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us? These questions, the sense of these words, that there ought to be no partiality used in the law, or any respect had to persons, in that the rich and the poor have all one Father and one Creator;
— why do we deal treacherously, faithlessly, by perverting justice, having respect to persons, favouring one to the prejudice of another, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers? the covenant made with them at Sinai, Leviticus 19:15; which should govern all our lives;
“Is there not one Father for all of us? Has not one God created us? Why then should a man act falsely toward his brother, violating the covenant made with our ancestors?”
11 Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which he loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange god.
— Judah hath a disregard of the covenant of impartiality, not only every man against his brother, by being partial in the law; and an abomination is committed throughout the nation, in Judah and in Jerusalem, the capital, which should have led in the observance of the Law;
— for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the Lord which He loved, whom the Lord had chosen as his holy people, as of Judah, who was holiness to the Lord; and others of the holy place, the sanctuary and all holy things belonging thereto;
— and hath married the daughter of a strange god, by the fact that numerous members of the nation had entered into the marriage relationship with women addicted to idolatry, an act which was distinctly prohibited in the Law of God, Exodus 34:11; Deuteronomy 7:1-4; “and they were pleased to take to them wives, the daughters of the people” the Gentiles;
— King Herod took the daughter, Mariamne, of Boethus (of Egypt of the high-priestly family of Boethus: Simon, son of Boethus from Alexandria) to wife and made her father the high priest of Jerusalem; they lived in luxurious splendor, using silver and golden vessels all their lives; hence the birth of profanity serving in the Temple of Jerusalem;
“The house of Judah has acted treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for the men of Judah have profaned themselves—though they had been holy before the Lord whom He loves—and they have chosen to take for themselves wives who are daughters of idol‑worshippers.”
12 The Lord will cut off the man who doeth this — the master and the scholar — out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the Lord of hosts.
— the Lord will cut off the man that is guilty of such treachery and idolatry: or “to the man that doeth this” all that belong to him, his children and substance: the utter destruction, not of a single man and his family only, but of the whole Jewish nation and its polity, civil and ecclesiastical;
— they shall “be cut off” – the Boethusians and the Sadducees, members of two Jewish sects that kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction with Jerusalem in AD 70 inferno. (The Hellenised Sadducees who played harlotry with the Greeks couldn’t escape the same fate)
“May the Lord cut off from the man who does this—both son and grandson—from among the descendants of Jacob; and if he is a priest, he shall no longer have the right to offer a sacrifice in the Temple of the Lord of Hosts.”
13 And this have ye done again, covering the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out insomuch that He regardeth not the offering anymore, nor receiveth it with good will from thy hand.
— and this have ye done again, as another transgression which the Lord found it necessary to rebuke their prayers, covering the altar of the Lord with hypocritical tears with weeping and crying aloud, to come to the Sanctuary and there register their lament over the injustice received; pretending great humiliation for their sins:
— insomuch that he, the God of the covenant, regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with goodwill at their hand, he wanted nothing of their worship and expresses an utter rejection and abrogation of their sacrifices;
“And this is the second thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears—those who weep and groan because there is no longer any turning toward the offering, nor any acceptance of it with favor from your hands.”
14 Yet ye say, “Why?” Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously; yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant.
— yet ye asked, apparently surprised that the Lord should repudiate their prayers, Wherefore? Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, every true marriage being entered into with his sanction and the Lord therefore being the witness for the rights of the wife;
— against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, in breaking the promised faith, the troth which had been plighted; yet is she thy companion, the partner of her husband’s joys and sorrows, and the wife of thy covenant, she with whom the husband had entered into the relation controlled by a mutual promise;
“And if you say, ‘Why?’—it is because the Lord testifies between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have acted deceitfully, though she is your partner and the wife of your covenant.”
15 And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the spirit. And why one? That He might seek a godly seed! Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
— and did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit, literally, “And not one acted so who still had a particle of reason,” that is, this manner of acting was unknown among men of reason. Of course, the people might raise the objection, And wherefore one? What did Abraham do when he repudiated Hagar?
— that he might seek a godly seed. The object of Abraham in going in to Hagar was not to gratify the lust of the flesh, but he honestly thought that he might thus get the son whom God had promised him. Therefore, Malachi concludes, take heed to your spirit, watching over themselves with the greatest care, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth, namely, by lightly dismissing her;
“Did not Abraham, who was one and unique, become the source from whom the world was blessed? And what did that One God seek from him except that a righteous offspring be established before the Lord? So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act deceitfully toward the wife of your youth.”
16 “For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that He hateth putting away; for one covereth violence with his garment,” saith the Lord of hosts. “Therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.”
— for the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away, Cf Deuteronomy 24:1; for one covereth violence with his garment, or “iniquity covers his garment,” saith the Lord of hosts so that it would cling to him forever;
— therefore take heed to your spirit that ye deal not treacherously. The same thought is found in the New Testament, not only in various sayings of Jesus concerning the sanctity of the marriage covenant, but also in the words of Peter regarding the living together of a man with his wife according to reason. Cf 1 Peter 3:7.
“For if you hate her, send her away, says the Lord God of Israel, and do not cover wrongdoing with your garment, says the Lord of Hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not act deceitfully.”
17 Ye have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet ye say, “Wherein have we wearied Him?” When ye say: “Every one who doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and He delighteth in them,” or “Where is the God of judgement?”
— ye have wearied the Lord with your words, with their dissatisfied grumbling over recent events. Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? the same disobedient people again standing out in opposition to God, in resenting the rebuke of Ezra, His priest and prophet;
— when ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them, such as homosexuality and the LGBTqia or LGBTQ+ movement which is sinful because it goes against God’s nature and revelation in Scripture; this being the statement of godless insolence in direct opposition to the rebuke of the priest and prophet Ezra, or
— Where is the God of judgement? Since you see that the way of the wicked prospers, and the righteous are afflicted and stumble; hence the great mass of the people boldly declared that there was no foundation for the prophet’s threat, that the talk of the coming Judgement was unfounded. Cf II Peter 3:4. Over against this question of doubt and unbelief the Lord places a very definite statement.
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination” Leviticus 18:22
Grace and mercy come with keeping of His laws, statutes and ordinances; otherwise,
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
“You have wearied the Lord with your words. And if you say, ‘How have we wearied Him?’ — it is by saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such people are pleasing to Him,’ or by asking, ‘Where is the God who brings justice?’”
~~~
More on God’s name, Yehovah.
God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).
It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter ‘J’ that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe, including our English language. Even in 1611 when the first edition English Bible, the King James was published, the prophet Jeremiah was known as Ieremiah. Similarly, the name Jehovah is a very late comer.
But the Orthodox Jews have gone overboard, so holy is his name, they believe, they refrain from even calling his name, referring to him as Hashem, that is, “The Name,” which isn’t his name; just pointing, saying somewhat ‘you know what name I mean.’ His name is Yehovah, and is also not Yahweh, which is the Samaritan counterfeit version.
It is the same as the name Jesus we used today; if his name was used in his time two thousand years ago, he would have been known as Yeshua instead of Jesus. But never mind, as had often been the case, the essence is more important than the form.
His name Yehovah, is specifically stated, and should be used. Titles are okay, but sometimes He asked us pointedly to call on His name. The following verses translated as the LORD erred in presenting His name:
I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32
“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1
When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.
Among the last of the Prophets, Zechariah’s writing is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, yet Jews pray everyday at the Wailing Wall for the coming of the Messiah. “Oh blind Guides!” Would God have any obligation to hear such prayers? Or, would he prefer to kindle a fire in the midst of them?
Chapter 1
— Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye unto Me, —‘and I will turn unto you,’ saith the Lord of hosts — ‘Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings’ — but they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord — I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse — and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white — Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, four horns — “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem”
~ Chapter 2
— And he said unto me, “To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof — and what is the length thereof” — “Run, speak to this young man, saying, — ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls’ — Come forth, and flee from the land of the north,” saith the Lord — for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye — “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come — and I will dwell in the midst of thee,” saith the Lord
— Joshua was clothed with filthy garments — “Take away the filthy garments from him” — “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee” — For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua — upon one stone shall be seven eyes
~ Chapter 4
— “What seest thou?” And I said, “I have looked and behold, a candlestick — all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon — and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof — and two olive trees, one the right side of the bowl, the other upon the left — “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel — saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts — Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain — “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; — his hands shall also finish it — the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent the Father — testifies that Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah
— a flying roll, the curse that goeth forth over the face of the earth — one side for one who steals, the other side for one who swears — two categories of curses — similar to what Ezekiel saw: of lamentations, mourning and woe — the ephah was the measure of unrighteousness and of deceits — a woman who sitteth in the midst of the ephah — and behold, there came out two women — to build it a house in the land of Shinar
~ Chapter 6
— there came four chariots out from between two mountains — in the first chariot were red horses; of wars and bloodshed — and in the second chariot black horses; north; of mourning and death — and in the third chariot white horses; north; implying joy and victory — and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses; south — these are the four spirits of the heavens
— ‘the Unspoken Will of God — When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month — even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me? — execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassions — and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor — and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart — “Therefore it has come to pass that as He cried and they would not hear, — so they cried and I would not hear,” saith the Lord of hosts
~ Chapter 8
— “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy — and I was jealous for her with great fury’ — “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I am returned unto Zion — that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid — that the [Ezekiel] Temple might be built — “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth — the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth — shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts
— the burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Syria and Damascus — together with Damascus, Tyre and Sidon; cities of Phenicia — Ashkelon and Gaza shall see Tyre’s destruction and fear; and be very sorrowful — and the Lord will encamp about His house, His Temple — and I will cause My glorious Shekinah to dwell in My Sanctuary — O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! — He is just and lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass — O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece; and shall go with whirlwinds of the South
~ Chapter 10
— there would be early spring and the latter autumn rain — for the idol shepherd have spoken vanity, lies and false dreams — the Targum says about His people, “they are scattered as sheep are scattered” — “And I will strengthen the house of Judah and the house of Joseph” — “And I will strengthen them in the Lord — and they shall walk up and down in His name,” saith the Lord
— Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars — saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter — give the flock the reasons why they would soon be suffering with captivity — a shepherd with two staves (a) Pleasantness, like “Josiah, the anointed” — and (b) Destroyers, like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” both are the Lord’s staves — Three shepherds also I cut off in one month — and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me — Could these three be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh?
~ Chapter 12
— The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel — I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about — when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. — And I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem — And I will pour upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication — and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced — and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son — and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn
— “In that day there shall be a fountain opened — to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem — and God will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit — who speaks through the false prophets to pass out of the land — “Awake, O sword, Smite the Shepherd — and the sheep shall be scattered — and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones. — “two parts therein shall be cut off and die — And I will bring the third part through the fire — and will refine them as silver is refined
~ Chapter 14
— Behold, the day of the Lord cometh — For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle — Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations — And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives — every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem — shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts — and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles
Colombian President Gustavo Petro issued a stark three-word warning to President Donald Trump amid ramped-up attacks against alleged drug trafficking in Latin America: “Come get me!”
“Come get me,” Petro said. “I’m waiting for you here. Don’t threaten me, I’ll wait for you right here if you want to.”
He continued, “I don’t accept invasions, missiles, or assassinations, only intel. Come speak here with intelligence, and we’ll receive you and talk face-to-face with facts, not lies. Stop getting lied to by Colombian political mafias who condemned us to 700,00 deaths and made us the world’s most unequal country.”
It comes after Trump appeared to hint at a possible military operation in Colombia, with a brutal two-word comment about the country’s “sick” leader who allegedly peddles cocaine to Americans.
The statement was made just one day after the US executed a special forces raid in Venezuela, resulting in the capture of both Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, over alleged drug trafficking charges.
Maduro is sitting for his first hearing Monday morning in a Manhattan federal court, where police had to break up a brawl among protestors outside the courtroom.
Following Maduro and Flores’ arrest and extradition to New York City, Trump issued threats of military intervention to other South American countries, including Colombia, Cuba and Mexico, unless changes were made to address drug trafficking crime.
“He’s making cocaine,” Trump said Saturday of Petro, repeating his previous claims. “They’re sending it into the United States. So he does have to watch his a–.”
Critics questioned why Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted for drug trafficking and sentenced to 45 years in US prison, days prior to Maduro’s capture.
At a press conference on Saturday, Trump was pressed on the pardon. He said Hernandez was “persecuted very unfairly.”
Trump suggested following Maduro’s arrest that the US would “takeover” Venezuela amid transition, controlling its lucrative oil industry, which he made clear was one of the core objects of the military operations.
“The oil companies are going to go in and rebuild their system,” Trump said Sunday night. “It was the greatest theft in the history of America.
“Nobody has ever stolen our property like they have. They took our oil away from us,” he claimed. “They took the infrastructure away and all that infrastructure is rotted and decayed, and the oil companies are going to go in and rebuild it.”
The White House informed oil companies that they will need to rebuild oil rigs in Venezuela to be compensated for seized assets, Politico reports.
And below is a Prophecy concerning the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
During the Millennium the Feast of Tabernacle is prophesied to be reinstated, but sacrifices, the foremost of which is the Passover, is also hinted at.
The differentiations of nationalities are reduced in importance and so are the sexes—there wouldn’t be Gentiles nor Jews; or a Court for the Women and another for the Gentiles in the Ezekiel Temple in Jerusalem, but only designated as Inner Court or Outer Court.
Zechariah 13
1 “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
— the Lord declares, “On that day a fountain will be opened for David’s family and for those who live in Jerusalem to wash away their sin and stain.
2 And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.
— and it shall come to pass that God will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, so that the very names which had formerly been in the mouths of men everywhere were no longer mentioned, and they shall no more be remembered;
— and God will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit who speaks through the false prophets, to pass out of the land. Historically, this was one of the results of the preaching of the Truth, as we saw in the case of the people of Ephesus when Paul proclaimed the true God to them, Acts 19:19
“And it shall come to pass in that time—says the Lord of Hosts—that I will remove the name of the idols of the nations from the land so that they will no longer be remembered, and I will also abolish the false prophets and the unclean spirit from the land.”
Q How would God abolish these false prophets and cut them off since they are all so deeply entrenched in the land?
3 And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother who begot him shall say unto him, ‘Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord’; and his father and his mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.
— if a man still prophesies presumptuously, his father and his mother, who gave birth to him, will say, ‘You don’t deserve to live because you speak lies in the name of the Lord.’ Then both his parents shall stab him when he prophesies; this is in line with the command of the Lord in the Old Testament. Cf Deuteronomy 18:20.
“And it shall be that if a man still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you have spoken falsehood in the name of the Lord,’ and his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him because of his false prophecy.”
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a garment of hair to deceive.
— and if those prophets still assert presumptuously, they shall be ashamed every one of his vision that he hath prophesied; to deceive, to impress men with their status as prophets, just as men nowadays affect the dress, speech and manners of certain professions in order to make an impression;
“And it shall come to pass in that time that the false prophets will be ashamed, each man because of his prophecy, in his prophesying, and they will no longer prophesy falsehood in order to teach lies.”
5 But he shall say, ‘I am no prophet; I am a husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’ — but he shall say, ‘I am no prophet, I am an husbandman,’ vehemently disclaiming any connection with the prophetic profession; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth, rather, “a man has purchased me from my youth.”
— the Targum shows how these false prophets would be humbled, says
“And he will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I am a man who works the land, for a man has hired me from my youth.’”
6 And one shall say unto him, ‘What are these wounds in thine hands?’ Then he shall answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
— and one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? the scars which he bore as a result of his wounding himself in the service of idols, 1 Kings 18:28. Then he shall answer, in trying to evade the issue and to place the blame elsewhere;
— those with which he was wounded in the house of his friends, possibly when lie was chastised in his capacity as slaves; and may be taken as a warning in our days when men are turning to deceivers for counsel and guidance.
“And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds that have come upon you?’ and he will answer, ‘These are from the deeds of my own hands, for it was fitting that I was struck because of my sins before the Merciful One.’”
7 “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow,” saith the Lord of hosts. “Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; and I will turn Mine hand upon the little ones.
— awake, O Sword, against my Shepherd, concerning his Son, whom he calls “my Shepherd” the same one who addressed the people in Zechariah 11:12 (thirty pieces of silver),;
— and against the Man that is My Fellow, him who is also God, together with the Father, for the Messiah is the Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father and by him begotten in the great scheme of things, who here summons the Sword for the Messiah’s Sacrifice, to carry out the infliction of suffering by which the redemption of mankind is to be carried out;
— smite the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered, to smite the Messiah even unto death; a word which Jesus applied to himself on the evening before his death, Matthew 26:31; and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones, literally, “I will bring back my hand upon the little ones” for he intended to redeem the wretched, the poor and lowly, for of these were to make up his Elect.
“A sword is revealed against the king of Babylon and against the rulers who are his companions and resemble him, says the Lord of Hosts. ‘Slay the king of Babylon, and his rulers will be scattered, and I will turn the blow of My might upon the ones who follow after him.’”
8 And it shall come to pass that in all the land,” saith the Lord, “two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein.
— and it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two thirds therein, the great majority of the people, shall be cut off and die, being offended in him and therefore rejected from his herd; but the third, only a small part, shall be left therein;
— “in all the land” Q, is this all Israel or all the earth? the context seems to indicate the later as this chapter and the next is concerning God dealing with all the nations;
— Just a thought, as the earth has about 8 billion people, this would be something like 4 to 5 billion people dead! Could a soon new and vibrant Covid-2X (or a hybrid variant) do this job of killing thousands falling by the wayside?
— as in Psalms 91 which prophesied what a Godsend pandemic could do?
Nor of the pestilence that walk in darkness, nor of the destruction that lay waste at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Psalms 91:6-7
“And it shall be, in all the land — says the Lord — two portions in it shall be destroyed, they shall perish, and the third shall remain in it.”
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried. They shall call on My name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is My people’; and they shall say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
— and God will bring the third part through the fire, the test of affliction and persecution as it soon came to the first congregation, and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried, Cf 1 Peter 1:6-7;
— they shall call on my name, and I will hear them, graciously giving them the attention which assured them of his certain assistance; God will say, ‘It is my people, and they shall say, Yehovah is my God.’ This has ever been the relationship obtaining between the God of the covenant and His Elect on earth, and this intimate communion is one of the miracles of the Chosen till the end of time. Cf John 14:23;
— they shall call on my name; my name is Yehovah (YHVH); God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)
“And I will bring the third part into the trial, into the furnace of fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will test them as gold is tested. He will call upon My name, and I will answer him. I will say, ‘He is My people,’ and he will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
“The Lord’s Day” is actually “the Day of Judgement” (Encyclopedia Biblica, “Lord’s Day”)
Zechariah 14
1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. — behold, the day of the Lord cometh, the Day of Judgement or the Lord’s Day; there is a parallel in Revelation “the Lord’s Day” of Revelation 1:10;
— and thy spoil that gained by the enemies in overcoming Jerusalem, that shall be divided in the midst of thee, the enemies then being at leisure and secure in the conquered city;
— further on “the Lord’s Day” is actually “the day of Judgement” (Encyclopedia Biblica, article “Lord’s Day”); in later years, when the Catholic Church were getting so powerful this was reinterpreted to mean the day of Christ’s resurrection, Sunday; hence today, “the Lord’s Day” has presumptuously being transformed into a day of worship on Sundays;
“Behold, the day that is destined to come from before the Lord, when the House of Israel will divide the possessions of the nations in the midst of Jerusalem.”
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished. And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
— on the Day of Judgement, God will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, the enemies being recruited from all countries of the world; and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished, a picture of an apparent complete overthrow of the Judah such as she experienced before the Chaldean captivity;
— and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, yielding to the power inspired by a Destroyer, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city, some at least would remain faithful to the true God despite the ravaging of the enemies;
“And I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women violated, and half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.”
3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle. — then the Lord shall go forth and battle against those nations as he fought like “at the Red Sea” which the Targum adds;
— while other observers point to the many occasions when he went forth to fight with them and for them as King David and many others did;
“And the Lord will be revealed, and He will wage battle against those nations, just as on the day when He fought at the Sea of Reeds.”
4 And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south.
— and on that day, God’s feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, this location being considered the center of the earth and the throne of the Lord as he makes ready for judgement, which is before Jerusalem on the east;
— and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, an earthquake having this effect as the earth trembled under the footsteps of the Almighty;
— and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south, thus opening a road from Jerusalem straight toward the east.
“And the Lord will be revealed in His might at that time upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will split from its middle toward the east and toward the west, forming a very great valley, and one half of the mountain will move northward and its other half southward.”
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal. Yea, ye shall flee as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah; and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with Thee.
— and ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains for safe hiding-places; see, Isaiah 2:19; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal, a small town east of Mount Olivet;
— yea, ye ‘shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; and the Lord, my God, shall come; his advent being looked for by his elect ‘with joyful expectation, and all the saints, the holy angels, with thee;
“And the valley of the mountains shall be closed in, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azal, and you shall flee as you fled from before the earthquake that occurred in the days of Uzziah, king of the house of Judah. And the Lord my God will be revealed, and all His holy ones with Him.”
6 And it shall come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark. — on that day there shall be no light nor dark, cold nor frost, literally, “the glorious things will withdraw themselves,” evidently said of the lights of heaven, the sun, moon and stars;
“And it shall be at that time that there will not be ordinary light, but a dimness with cold and frost.”
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord — neither day nor night; but it shall come to pass that at evening (‘e·reḇ) time it shall be light.
— and it will be a day unlike any other, for it will be one continuous day, known only to the Lord, and there will be no more day nor night for there will be light even during the evening; that is, from 6 pm to midnight.
“And it shall be one day, known before the Lord—neither like the light of day nor like the coming of night—and at the time of evening there shall be light.”
8 And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the hinder sea; in summer and in winter shall it be.
— in both summer and winter, life-giving streams will flow from Jerusalem, half of them to the Dead Sea (but the Targum differs, saying it is the Persian Sea) in the east and half to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.
“And it shall be at that time that living waters will flow out from Jerusalem—half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea—and they shall flow continuously, in summer and in winter.”
9 And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one.
— and the Lord will be the King of kings over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped; the Lord to be glorified wherever his Word is proclaimed.
“And the kingship of the Lord will be revealed over all the inhabitants of the earth. At that time they will serve before the Lord with one accord, for His name is established in the world, and there is no other besides Him.”
10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin’s Gate unto the place of the First Gate unto the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananeel unto the king’s wine presses.
— the land will stretch out spaciously around Jerusalem—from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the south, with Jerusalem towering at the center and the commanding city gates—Gate of Benjamin to First Gate to Corner Gate to Hananel Tower to the Royal Winery—ringing the city full of people;
“All the land will become like a plain, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem will be elevated and inhabited in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Pikus to the king’s winepresses.”
11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
— and men shall dwell in Jerusalem and there shall be no more danger nor any destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited; never again will Jerusalem be destroyed; but will be a safe city;
“They shall dwell in it, and there shall no longer be killing, and Jerusalem shall dwell in security.”
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
— and when the vials are poured out there shall be more plagues, whereby the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, those who oppose the Kingdom and its work;
— their flesh shall rot away while they stand upon their feet, so that they would rot away in a living death, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth, all these punishments making them unfit for further attacks upon the city of God;
13 And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.
— and on that day there will be a great tumult, a confusion and panic; there will be a revolution from the Lord; and everyone shall lay hold of his neighbor, and every hand fighting against another. Mass hysteria when that happens. Panic! fellow citizens became soldiers fighting and killing each other—total terror!
“At that time there will be a great panic of killing from before the Lord among them, and each man will seize the hand of his fellow, and his hand will be raised against the hand of his fellow.”
14 And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together: gold and silver and apparel in great abundance.
— and Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem, its citizens taking part in the warfare against the enemies threatening their lives; and the wealth of all the nations round about shall be gathered together, the treasures of the enemy, their most precious possessions, gold and silver and apparel, in great abundance.
— other translations say, even Judah shall fight against Jerusalem; this could only be possible if (a) there is a civil war; or (b) Jerusalem is composed of descending heavenly saints, of whom the Jews of Judea couldn’t even recognize the returning Messiah with his multitudes of Revelation 19; so they fight each other;
“And even the house of Judah will bring the nations into subjugation when they are compelled to wage battle in Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the nations round about—gold, silver, and abundant garments—will be gathered together.”
15 And so shall be the plague on the horse, on the mule, on the camel and on the ass, and on all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.
— and so shall be the plagues of the horse, the mule, the camel, the ass and all the livestock and beasts that shall be in their camps, with such plague the defeat of the enemy would be complete in every way;
“And so the plague will strike the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and every animal that is in their camps—this same plague.”
16 And it shall come to pass that every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— and everyone that survives of all the wars, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King of kings, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, to join with the Kingdom in its worship of the one true God.
“And it shall be that all who remain from all the nations that gathered and came against Jerusalem shall go up year by year to worship before the King of the world, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.”
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
— and it shall be that whoever refuses to go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain and all the other physical and spiritual blessings of the Lord being withheld from them;
“And it shall be that any of the families of the nations who do not go up to Jerusalem to worship before the King of the world, the Lord of Hosts—upon them there will be no rain.”
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, upon whom there is no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— and if the family of Egypt, or their representative still refuses to go up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there could be more than just no rain, but could plague or diseases, like those of the Exodus from Egypt, whereby the Lord will smite the nations that refuse to take part in its worship;
“And if the kingdom of Egypt does not go up and does not come, the Nile will not rise for them; instead, upon them will come the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.”
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
— this shall be the punishment of Egypt all nations that refuse to come and keep the Feast of Tabernacles; in opposing his Kingdom and refusing to accept his Word, entrench themselves behind a wall of their own foolishness and shut themselves out from the highest physical and spiritual blessings, but to keep the Feast of Tabernacles;
— and not Easter, which is a form of worshipping Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon;
— nor Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th which they christianised as Christmas); Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the God of heaven; and men shall worship these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place today, Protestants or Catholics alike;
“This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the festival of Sukkot.”
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses: “Holiness Unto The Lord.” And the pots in the Lord’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar;
— on that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, or “upon the trappings of the horses” as the Targum renders it; and this intends either the horses slain in war, whose bells or trappings should be devoted and applied to holy uses; or the horses that carried the people up to Jerusalem to worship there, or horses in common;
— holiness unto the Lord; and the “pots” in which they cooked the sacrifices shall be like “the bowls before the altar” which held the blood of the sacrifices to be sprinkled at the altar; yea, all festivals in Leviticus 23 will be reinstated as prophesied in Ezekiel 46;
— every pot that were used to remove the ashes, they too will be like gold and of silver, like the sprinkling basins that are before the altar; either like them for number; they shall be many because of the numerous nations coming to offer sacrifices like the Jews did, like them as the Targum paraphrases it, shall be many;
— Rashi: there will be upon the bells of the horses: On the bells that are hung on the horse for beauty between its eyes (Pesachim 50a). Those, too, will be consecrated to make service vessels: sprinkling basins for the blood and pots to cook the flesh of the many sacrifices;
“In that time, even the bells of the horses will bear the inscription ‘Holy before the Lord,’ and the cooking pots in the Temple will be as holy and numerous as the sacrificial bowls before the altar.”
21 yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all those who sacrifice shall come and take of them and boil therein. And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.
— yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, all the ceremonies of the Law for which the foremost is the Passover, which would still be kept as a memorial, not just by Jews but by all nations;
— and all they that sacrifice shall come and participate in the Jerusalem Temple, preparing for the sacrificial feasts demands extra utensils, hence pots would be used as bowl to collect blood for the altar and both would be deemed holy;
— and on that day there shall be no more differentiation of being Canaanite nor Jews in the house of the Lord of hosts, no godless people being permitted as members of the Kingdom of God, but are all Godly;
— the nearer the Kingdom approaches its perfection, the clearer is shown there is no cleavage between those who are in truth the servants of the Lord and those not, because all will bear the name of his people after the day of redemption; and those who were against the Lord Almighty would have collapsed long before the Last Day but during the Day of Judgement. Selah!
“In that time, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy before the Lord of Hosts. All who offer sacrifices will come, take from them, and cook in them. And there will no longer be any merchant in the House of the Lord of Hosts in that time.”
~~~
More on God’s name, Yehovah.
God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).
It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter ‘J’ that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe, including our English language. Even in 1611 when the first edition English Bible, the King James was published, the prophet Jeremiah was known as Ieremiah. Similarly, the name Jehovah is a very late comer.
But the Orthodox Jews have gone overboard, so holy is his name, they believe, they refrain from even calling his name, referring to him as Hashem, that is, “The Name,” which isn’t his name; just pointing, saying somewhat ‘you know what name I mean.’ His name is Yehovah, and is also not Yahweh, which is the Samaritan counterfeit version.
It is the same as the name Jesus we used today; if his name was used in his time two thousand years ago, he would have been known as Yeshua instead of Jesus. But never mind, as had often been the case, the essence is more important than the form.
His name Yehovah, is specifically stated, and should be used. Titles are okay, but sometimes He asked us pointedly to call on His name. The following verses translated as the LORD erred in presenting His name:
I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32
“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1
When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.
Emboldened by the ease of capturing President Maduro and his wife, the United States would be considering a “second wave” targeting the Mexican president, the Colombian president and perhaps even Panama, Greenland and Canada to bring them into the American empire.
“We need Greenland for a national security situation,” Trump said
But Greenland stands out; why Greenland?
Why does Trump want Greenland so badly, and what could it mean for Europe?
“And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare” Ezekiel 17:20
The US president’s latest remarks about a possible annexation of Greenland have drawn condemnation from Denmark and Europe more widely.
After the US raid on Venezuela that resulted in the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro, Trump repeated his intentions to annex Greenland for the US, as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen issued her strongest rebuke to date, saying his calls to claim the island must stop.
Greenland is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark, which is a member of NATO and the European Union. Since returning to power at the start of 2025, Trump has several times called for its annexation, and following the ouster of Maduro he has returned to the idea in public.
“We need Greenland for a national security situation,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday. “It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
“You know what Denmark did for security lately? They added one more dog sled.”
A day earlier, speaking to The Atlantic, Trump said: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence.”
In response, the Danish prime minister said America threats must stop immediately.
“It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing to take over Greenland. The US has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom,” Frederiksen said in a statement on Sunday.
The world’s biggest island, it is geographically speaking part of North America.
Why does Trump want Greenland?
Just before Christmas, Trump appointed a special envoy, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, to deal with the issue of Greenland. Landry said in a post on social media that he is honoured to serve in a “volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US.”
Trump regularly cites national security interests as a reason for his intentions toward Greenland, which is strategically located in the Arctic Ocean in the midst of major shipping routes. The world’s biggest island, it is geographically speaking part of North America.
As global warming progresses, more shipping routes through the Arctic will open up, making Greenland even more important.
The US has had a defence agreement with Greenland since 1951, and has around 150 personnel stationed there at the Pituffik Space Base, which focuses on missile detection and space surveillance.
According to Ian Lesser, a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US, Washington already has the security foothold it needs in Greenland, and the Trump administration’s intentions almost certainly pertain more to natural resources.
“The president puts a lot of emphasis on resources, mineral resources, energy resources, and commercial opportunities,” Lesser told Euronews. “Even if these resources are not easy to extract profitably, it wouldn’t surprise me that there would now be a lot of concern.”
How has Europe reacted?
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuffed Trump’s latest comments in a televised statement.
“It makes absolutely no sense to speak of any necessity for the United States to take over Greenland,” she said. “The United States has no legal basis to annex one of the three countries of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
The Monroe Doctrine would include Greenland in its sphere
The prime minister of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said linking the issue of Greenland to the military intervention in Venezuela was disrespectful, while French Foreign Ministry Spokesman Pascal Confavreux said France stands in solidarity with Denmark.
“Greenland belongs to Greenland’s people and to Denmark’s people. It is up to them to decide what they wish to do. Borders cannot be changed by force,” Confavreux told French national broadcaster TF1.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, meanwhile, said his country stands behind Denmark.
“Only Denmark and Greenland have the right to decide about their territories,” Kristersson said.
The EU denounced the US’s proposals to take over Greenland several times last year.
Lesser said that while a forceful annexation of Greenland is unlikely, it cannot be definitively ruled out.
“I don’t think it was ever likely that the United States would use force in Greenland, but obviously, looking at the experience in Venezuela, many will understandably draw the conclusion that the president in some sense needs to be taken at his word,” he said.
He added that the pressure might lead to concessions from Denmark to allow the US more access to the territory.
“It may not take the form of a kind of military intervention, but there could be all kinds of commercial, diplomatic economic pressure aimed at getting the United States a good deal in Greenland.
Melting and Mining in Greenland
What can Europeans do now?
While the Danish government is in crisis mode and insists that the territory is not for sale, Lesser says Denmark and Europe have some cards to play as well.
“I do think there are a lot of things on the table because the US administration does seem to put a primacy on economic and commercial issues. I think there is the possibility of doing a package deal across the Atlantic in which many things are in play,” Lesser said.
The EU has two disadvantages in any attempted trade-off: one, the goals of the US president are not completely clear, and two, it moves significantly slower than the Trump administration.
“It’s not that the European Union or NATO is incapable of responding to these challenges, but the pace on this side of the Atlantic is a lot slower than it is in Washington,” Lesser said.
Greenland; it is geographically speaking part of North America
Could the Greenland row damage NATO?
In her overnight reaction to Trump’s latest comments, Frederiksen recalled that as a NATO member, Denmark is covered by the Alliance’s collective security guarantee.
“I therefore strongly urge the United States to cease its threats against a historically close ally, and against another country and another people who have stated very clearly that they are not for sale,” she said.
Tensions and hostilities are not unprecedented among NATO allies: Greece and Turkey, for instance, have had very tense exchanges in the past. But this time, the members in conflict could include the guarantor of European security and one of the nations it is ostensibly obliged to help protect.
“It’s obviously a very basic level corrosive of cohesion within the alliance,” Lesser said. “There is an assumption that allies simply don’t behave in this way.”
He added that threats are extremely disruptive of a transatlantic security relationship that’s already in jeopardy.
“Anything that would go beyond the kind of rhetoric we’ve already seen over Greenland would cause a real crisis inside the Alliance.”
And below is a Prophecy concerning the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
Chapter 11 contains a prophecy of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and which took place just before our Lord’s return to glory and its redemption.
Under the symbol a shepherd with two staves (a) Pleasantness, like “Josiah, the anointed” and (b) Destroyers, like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” both are the Lord’s staves to deal with his rebellious people.
Zechariah 11
1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. — Open thy doors, O Lebanon, the region on the northernmost border of the Holy Land that the fire may devour thy cedars;
— instead of describing the destruction of the land outright, the prophet calls upon Lebanon for judgement, its border to open its doors; its people are found wanting, for which is the consuming fire;
— the Targum renders: “Open your gates, O nations; and the fire of divine judgment shall consume your fortresses.”
2 Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are despoiled; howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down.
— howl, fir-tree; the fir-tree seems to denote the lower people, the uninitiated; who are bid to howl because even their superiors, signified by the cedar, could not withstand the storm;
— for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled; even the cedars (the highest in the state) are not spared, by which are designed the princes, nobles and magistrates of the land: so the Targum interprets them of kings and princes;
— howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; governors of provinces and men of power and authority, for the forest of the vintage is come down; or rather “the fortified forest” could also mean the city of Jerusalem which was a fortified place and like a forest full of trees but now cut down and destroyed;
— see a parallel Scripture in Isaiah 10:16, “Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among His fat ones leanness; and under His glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.”
“Nations, your defenses will fall open, and the fire of divine judgment will destroy the very strength you rely on.”
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is despoiled.
— there is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, their shepherds; their religious and civil rulers; shepherds are governors, magistrates, and civil officers, together with priests and prophets, who are over the people as shepherds over the flocks;
— their glory, the fine pasture on which they depended is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions for the pride of Jordan, young lions; their princes, so described on account of their cruel rapacity; the thickets along the river which offered excellent opportunities for dens is spoiled;
— the description is short and bold but comprehensive enough to indicate that the Lord is speaking of another desolation of the Holy Land by which everything that was great and mighty in the country would be overthrown and the Holy Land once more become a wilderness;
“The sound of the kings’ outcry—because their districts have been plundered. The sound of their roaring is like young lions, when the thickets of the Jordan have dried up over them.”
4 Thus saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter, — thus saith the Lord of Zechariah to their chief priests, princes, and rulers, with regard to the congregation of Israel, ‘Feed the flock for the slaughter,’
— that is, give the flock the reasons why they would soon be suffering with captivity, oppression or death at a latter time, so that mentally they are well prepared for a coming slaughter; why they have to go through suffering with captivity,
5 whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their own shepherds pity them not.
— whose possessors, or captors, slay them and hold themselves not guilty, the buyers and masters of the covenant people dealing with them as they pleased, without incurring blame; and because, in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 43:10), God describes the one with his sword, Nebuchadnezzar, as “the king of Babylon, My servant,” three times actually;
— and they that sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich,’ the expression fitly describing the self-satisfaction felt by the hard-hearted masters in enriching themselves at the expense of the flock; and their own shepherds pity them not;
“Those who buy them kill them and say, ‘We are not guilty.’ Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich.’ And their shepherds show them no compassion.”
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” saith the Lord. “But lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”
— for God will have no more pity upon the inhabitants of the land, no longer spare them after a last effort to save them; but, lo, God will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, so that internal strife and dissension would ruin the country;
— and into the hand of his king as God’s servants, the foreign emperor or governor; and they shall smite the land, the house of Judah for 40 years and the house of Israel for 190 years (Ezekiel 4) oppressing it in various ways; and out of their hand, out of the power of such oppressors, God will not deliver them;
“For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. Behold, I am delivering each person into the hand of his fellow and into the hand of his king. They will ravage the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”
7 And I will feed the flock for slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
— and God will feed the flock of the slaughter, rather, “I fed the flock,” for the prophet here describes how he undertook the commission which the Lord gave him, even you, O poor of the flock, those in his charge being in a very sad condition, lacking in spiritual knowledge;
— and God took unto for himself two staves, or rods (Psalms 23:4), such as shepherds used in their work; the one I called Pleasantness (H5278 – nōʿam נֹעַם kindness, pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty, favour), or “loveliness, favor” or delight, like “Josiah, the anointed” such as the Lord intended to show His people through the work of his servants, the prophets: Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Micah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Amos, etc;
— and the other God called Destroyers, (H2254 – ḥāḇal חָבַל; to destroy, spoil, deal corruptly, offend, to pervert) like the second personage in the Garden of Eden; or like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” or like wolves and foxes, allowing them to roam around as often the Lord’s people are stiffed-necked and needed a longer way (like taking an extra 40 years to reach the Promised Land);
— and harder (like spending 70 years in captivity in Babylon) to learn before they genuinely wanted to be his people and to feel the blessings over the oppression by all their enemies; and God fed the flock, performing his work as a true shepherd according to the intend of the first staff.
— Rashi: one I called Pleasantness. Jeroboam promised to lead them gently [with Pleasantness].
and one I called Destroyers: Rehoboam told his kingdom that his father hath chastised you with whips, but he would flog them with scorpions (I Kings 12:11). [Zechariah] calls their rulers staffs because it is customary to lead flocks with staffs;
— the Targum aligns with Rashi’s, both looking from man’s point of view, says
“I appointed leaders over the people, but they ruled over them like owners over property. They impoverished and scattered My people, and they divided before Me into two factions. The house of Israel separated from the house of Judah, and they rejected the kingship of the house of David, in whom My will had been that they should be leaders over My people.”
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me. — three shepherds also God cut off in one month; my soul loathed them; hated their treachery; these are wicked shepherds and the scribes of the nation being probably meant;
— who were removed from power in a very short time; for God loathed them, since he, the type of the one Good Shepherd and Ruler of his Kingdom, became impatient with their perverse impenitence, and their soul also abhorred God, the sheep foolishly refusing to follow the kind leadership of their shepherd;
— Zechariah 11:8 is one of the most intriguing verse in the Scriptures. Who are these three shepherds? Could one series of these three be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh? (JR died May 28, 2023; ”Pentecost,” Sunday) All three have accused Ezra, a man of God, of forging the Scriptures, especially Deuteronomy 16. Forging God’s Word are serious charges, whose penalty is death (Revelation 22:18-19).
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18-19.
But on the other hand, if Ezra isn’t guilty of forging, then these three accusers are wolves in shepherd clothings that are also destroyers at the beginning of verse eight above;
“And I removed the three leaders in one month, and My word turned away from them, because their souls were disgusted with My service.”
9 Then said I, “I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die, and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.”
— because of the continual sins of Israel and Judah, said the Lord, ‘I will not feed you,’ declaring that he would no longer be their shepherd; that if the sheep die, let them die, he would let them rush to their own ruin since they refused to be guided by the good staff;
— and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, to be destroyed, let it be destroyed by the power of their oppressors; and let the rest eat everyone the flesh of another, that is, in a typical civil war, such as preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem; and as now, more and more intense talks of an internal civil strife looming over the United States;
“And I said: I will no longer appoint a leader over you. Those who are dying shall die, those who are being destroyed shall be destroyed, and those who remain will each plunder the property of his neighbor.”
10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
— and God took his staff, even Beauty, one of a gentle approach, one favoured, one of Pleasantness, and cut it asunder, to indicate the withdrawal of God’s favor from His people, ‘that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.’
— the Targum is consistent that “Beauty,” one of a gentle approach, is the northern house of Israel:
“And I brought Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, against the king of Israel, and I exiled him, because they rejected the covenant I had made with them— that they should not worship idols. Therefore they were exiled among the nations.”
11 And it was broken on that day, and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord. — and it was broken in that day, the covenant being annulled or broken by Israel’s disobedience;
— and so the poor of the flock, sheep that were not fed, that waited upon the Lord, the lowly among the people, but knew that it was the word of the Lord. It was from among the poor and lowly, the uninitiated, that the Lord, the righteous among them who kept his statute understood; even in those latter days, they’ll understand;
“And because they rejected the covenant, they were exiled at that time. And the humble ones, the poor of the people who did My will, will understand that this is the word of the Lord.”
12 And I said unto them, “If ye think it be good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.” So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. — and God said unto them, to those destroyers of Israel, those not recognizing the things of peace, ‘If ye think it be good, if ye think good, give me my price;’
— give me my price; and if not, forbear, see Ezekiel 2:5, “And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” So they weighed the value of a slave that had been killed, Exodus 21:32, the ordinary price of a female slave, Hosea 3:2. Cf Matthew 26:15
“And I said to them: If it seems good in your eyes, do My will; but if not, refrain— and let a few men carry out My will.”
13 And the Lord said unto me, “Cast it unto the potter” — a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord;
— and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Cast it unto the potter, thereby rejecting the insult which they offered. A goodly price that Zechariah was prized at of them! this being said in impressive irony;
— and Zechariah took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord; and this receives a meaning through its fulfillment, for the thirty pieces of silver which the rulers of the Jews weighed to Judas for his betrayal of the Lord were by him cast into the Temple, the money later being used for the purchase of a potter’s field. Cf Matthew 27:1-10 and Jeremiah 32:6-15
“And the Lord said to me: Write a record of their deeds on a weak document, and throw it into the Temple, and cast it beneath the hand of the treasurer, because My fear was cheap in their eyes. So I wrote the record of their deeds on a weak document and cast it into the Temple of the Lord, beneath the hand of the great treasurer.”
14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. — then God cut asunder his other staff, even Bands, the Destroyer, that God might break the gentle approach he used to shepherd the children of Israel,
— so that, by the punishment of God, which, in the latter days, contributed much toward the numerous tribulations of each nation; the staff called Beauty, then later the Bands, the one Shepherd using both a pationate Shepherd as well as a Destroyer that come with the Lord’s judgement for destruction and corrections;
“And I brought Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, against Zedekiah, the king of the tribe of the house of Judah, and I exiled him, because they too—those of the house of Judah—rejected the covenant, just as their brothers, the house of Israel, had done.”
15 And the Lord said unto me, “Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. — and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd, of a wicked Destroyer, who bears the insignia of a true shepherd, wolves in sheep skin, but cares nothing for the sheep;
— the punishment of rejecting the Good Shepherd was to be not only the loss of him, but the substitution of an evil shepherd in his place; but who is he? a man like the Pope, or an anti-Christ?
16 For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces.
— for, lo, God will raise up a shepherd in the land, in the singular number, one pretending to function like that of a true shepherd, which shall not visit those that be cut off, paying no attention to those who perish;
— neither shall seek the young one, those that have gone astray, nor heal that that is broken, suffering with broken limbs, nor feed those that could stand still, those who are still strong, but in need of food; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces, in order to get even the last vestige of meat from the bones.
“For behold, I am raising up a leader in the land who will not seek the straying, will not look for those who have wandered, will not heal the broken, will not sustain those who stand, but will plunder the wealth of the rich and consume what remains of them.”
17 “Woe to the sham shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”
— woe to the idol shepherd, or of no value, or the Destroyer, who calls himself the shepherd, ruler, or teacher of the people, but is in reality nothing less; those worthless shepherding that leaveth the flock, neglecting his chief duty toward its members;
— the Sword shall be upon the arm of the wicked shepherd, and upon his right eye, so that he’s blind; his arm shall be clean dried up; his secular power shall be taken away from him; and his right eye shall be utterly darkened, so he couldn’t see;
“Woe to the foolish leader to whom the people were entrusted for guidance— he is like a butcher with his knife in his hand, his eyes fixed on the fat ones to cut them down.
Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him:
— this is the Lord’s oracle about Israel; it is a prophetic revelation from the Lord—who spread out from the heavens;
— and layeth the foundation of the earth, which if it were not upheld by his power would wander from its orbit and fall into ruins; and formeth the spirit of man within him, controlling the thoughts and purposes of men so as to accomplish his own plans through them.
2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
— behold, God will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling, a vessel filled with the intoxicating beverage of his wrath, unto all the people round about, the neighboring nations, reeling and falling in hopeless weakness and misery;
— when the nations around shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem, literally, “and also upon Judah shall it be in the siege of Jerusalem,” the entire country and its capital being involved in the severe trial which would come from among its neighbors;
“Behold, I am making Jerusalem a bowl filled with intoxicating drink for all the nations round about, and even the house of Judah will be caught up among the nations when they lay siege to Jerusalem.”
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All who burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
— on that day God will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift; all who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather to fight against Jerusalem; all the powers of evil being united in an effort to overthrow the city of the Lord.
“In that time, I will make Jerusalem a heavy, burdensome stone for all the nations. All who try to lift it will be crushed and plundered, and all the nations of the earth will gather against it.”
4 In that day,” saith the Lord, “I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness. And I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness;
— on that day, God will smite every horse with panic and every rider with madness, all the warlike forces finding themselves at a loss to effect their evil purposes;
— and God will keep his watch upon the house of Judah with his protecting care and will smite every horse of the nations with blindness so that the hostile forces would not be able to find their way;
— the Targum paraphrases it, “and upon those of the house of Judah, I will reveal my power to do them good, but all the horses of the nations I will strike with blindness.”
5 and the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’
— and the leaders and princes of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall have God’s strength, a reliable source of confidence, in the Lord of hosts, our God, because the Lord has chosen this city, his Kingdom, and by virtue of this choice is bound to redeem his people;
“And the nobles of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘There is deliverance for the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the word of the Lord of Hosts, their God.’”
6 “In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
— on that day will God make the leaders and princes of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, so that they would consume their enemies like a basin of fire devouring wood; the Targum renders it, “as a garment of fire among wood;”
— and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, burning up the dry straw; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, so that none of the adversaries can hold out against them; and Judah shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem, so that the renewed people could fitly become the nucleus of the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem;
“In that time, I will make the nobles of Judah like a garment of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume from the south and from the north all the possessions of the nations round about, and Jerusalem will again dwell in her place and Jerusalem will prosper.”
7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
— the Lord also shall save the dwellings of the country outside of the capital of Judah first, with its stone palaces, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah, the house of David being the royal family;
“And the Lord will save the tents of the house of Judah first, so that the exaltation of the house of David and the exaltation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not become greater than that of the house of Judah.”
8 “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
— as with a shield against their enemies on that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by a special strengthening against the foe; and he that is feeble among them, literally, “the stumbler,” one who can hardly hold himself up, being very weak;
— on that day shall be as David, to the Jew the highest type of strength and courage; and the house of David shall be as God, like a supernatural being, as the Angel of the Lord before them, like the Son of God in his Old Testament form, whose power lived in all his believers;
“In that time, the Lord will have mercy on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is weak among them in that time will be like David, and the house of David will be like mighty ones, succeeding through the angel of the Lord before them.”
9 And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. — on that day and using the second staff, God will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem;
— even while Jerusalem was exalted to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in its past experience, God will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
“And it will be in that time that I will seek to destroy all the nations that gather and come against Jerusalem.”
10 And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.
— and God will pour upon the house of David, the entire royal family, the royal priesthood of the Kingdom of God, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the members of his congregation in general, the spirit of grace and of supplications, him who works in the heart of man the certainty of the divine grace and urges him to seek forgiveness of sins by fervent prayers and fastings;
— and the house of Judah shall look upon me whom they have pierced (H1856 – dāqar דָּקַר to pierce, piercing through), as they nailed their Messiah to the cross, John 19:34; Revelation 1:7, or by piercing His side with a spear; and they shall mourn for him as one mourn for his only son, acknowledging their transgression in killing the Prince of Life, Acts 3:15, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn, almost the greatest grief and sorrow known to the Jews;
— Rashi: as one mourns over an only son: As a man mourns over his only son. And our Sages expounded this in tractate Sukkah (52a) as referring to the Messiah, son of Joseph, who was slain;
— Rashi rightly quoted the Targum Sukkah (52a) about the Messiah to come from one Yeshua, a son of Joseph, of the house of David, yet they are blindsided to him as the Son of God and as the fulfilment of the Messiah’s first coming; (reference to this “piercing” disappeared in the Masoretic Text, an example of the lying pen of the scribes: Jeremiah 8:8; or perhaps the lying tongues of their Sages);
“And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and compassion, and they will seek mercy from before Me because they have been shaken, and they will mourn over him as one mourns over an only child, and they will grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
11 “In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo.
— on that day, when the greatness of their crime in putting their own Messiah to death, would be brought home to some of the people, shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as is ever the case when men realize that their sins were the cause of Christ’s death;
— as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, when the men of Judah mourned so bitterly over the death of their King Josiah, who was mortally wounded near that place in the Plain of Esdraelon, II Chronicles 35:22 ff. in the Valley of Megiddon.
“In that time, the mourning in Jerusalem will be great—like the mourning for Ahab son of Omri, whom Hadadrimmon son of Tabrimmon killed, and like the mourning for Josiah son of Amon, whom Pharaoh the Lame killed in the Valley of Megiddo.”
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
— and the land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves;
“And the inhabitants of the land will mourn, family by family: their men separately and their women separately; the family of the house of David separately—its men separately and its women separately; the family of the house of Nathan separately—its men separately and its women separately.”
13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; — the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves;
“The family of the house of Levi separately—its men separately and its women separately; the family of the house of Shimei separately—its men separately and its women separately.”
14 all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. — all the families that remain, that is, the whole nation shall be born; every family apart and their wives separately. Nor would this sorrow of true repentance be in vain. Zechariah 13:1
— on that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the entire nation, as representative of the Kingdom of God in the Millennium, in whose members the blood of the Messiah, shed for the sins of the world, has prepared a water which thoroughly cleanses sinners from their uncleanness. Cf 1 John 1:7. It is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the spirits of God which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah, Titus 3:5-6.
Chapter 11 contains a prophecy of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and which took place just before our Lord’s return to glory and its redemption.
Under the symbol a shepherd with two staves (a) Pleasantness, like “Josiah, the anointed” and (b) Destroyers, like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” both are the Lord’s staves to deal with his People.
Zechariah 11
1 Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. — Open thy doors, O Lebanon, the region on the northernmost border of the Holy Land that the fire may devour thy cedars;
— instead of describing the destruction of the land outright, the prophet calls upon Lebanon for judgement, its border to open its doors; its people are found wanting, for which is the consuming fire;
— Jonathan renders: “Open your gates, O nations; and the fire of divine judgment shall consume your fortresses.”
2 Howl, fir tree, for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are despoiled; howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, for the forest of the vintage is come down.
— howl, fir-tree; the fir-tree seems to denote the lower people, the uninitiated; who are bid to howl because even their superiors, signified by the cedar, could not withstand the storm;
— for the cedar is fallen, because the mighty are spoiled; even the cedars (the highest in the state) are not spared, by which are designed the princes, nobles and magistrates of the land: so the Targum interprets them of kings and princes;
— howl, O ye oaks of Bashan; governors of provinces and men of power and authority, for the forest of the vintage is come down; or rather “the fortified forest” could also mean the city of Jerusalem which was a fortified place and like a forest full of trees but now cut down and destroyed;
— see a parallel Scripture in Isaiah 10:16, “Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among His fat ones leanness; and under His glory He shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.”
“Nations, your defenses will fall open, and the fire of divine judgment will destroy the very strength you rely on.”
3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, for their glory is despoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions, for the pride of Jordan is despoiled.
— there is a voice of the howling of the shepherds, their shepherds; their religious and civil rulers; shepherds are governors, magistrates, and civil officers, together with priests and prophets, who are over the people as shepherds over the flocks;
— their glory, the fine pasture on which they depended is spoiled; a voice of the roaring of young lions for the pride of Jordan, young lions; their princes, so described on account of their cruel rapacity; the thickets along the river which offered excellent opportunities for dens is spoiled;
— the description is short and bold but comprehensive enough to indicate that the Lord is speaking of another desolation of the Holy Land by which everything that was great and mighty in the country would be overthrown and the Holy Land once more become a wilderness;
“The sound of the kings’ outcry—because their districts have been plundered. The sound of their roaring is like young lions, when the thickets of the Jordan have dried up over them.”
4 Thus saith the Lord my God: “Feed the flock for the slaughter, — thus saith the Lord of Zechariah to their chief priests, princes, and rulers, with regard to the congregation of Israel, ‘Feed the flock for the slaughter,’
— that is, give the flock the reasons why they would soon be suffering with captivity, oppression or death at a latter time, so that mentally they are well prepared for a coming slaughter; why they have to go through suffering with captivity,
5 whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty; and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich’; and their own shepherds pity them not.
— whose possessors, or captors, slay them and hold themselves not guilty, the buyers and masters of the covenant people dealing with them as they pleased, without incurring blame; and because, in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 43:10), God describes the one with his sword, Nebuchadnezzar, as “the king of Babylon, My servant,” three times actually;
— and they that sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich,’ the expression fitly describing the self-satisfaction felt by the hard-hearted masters in enriching themselves at the expense of the flock; and their own shepherds pity them not;
“Those who buy them kill them and say, ‘We are not guilty.’ Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I have become rich.’ And their shepherds show them no compassion.”
6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” saith the Lord. “But lo, I will deliver the men every one into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king; and they shall smite the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.”
— for God will have no more pity upon the inhabitants of the land, no longer spare them after a last effort to save them; but, lo, God will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, so that internal strife and dissension would ruin the country;
— and into the hand of his king as God’s servants, the foreign emperor or governor; and they shall smite the land, the house of Judah for 40 years and the house of Israel for 190 years (Ezekiel 4) oppressing it in various ways; and out of their hand, out of the power of such oppressors, God will not deliver them;
“For I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land, says the Lord. Behold, I am delivering each person into the hand of his fellow and into the hand of his king. They will ravage the land, and I will not rescue it from their hand.”
7 And I will feed the flock for slaughter, even you, O poor of the flock. And I took unto me two staves: the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
— and God will feed the flock of the slaughter, rather, “I fed the flock,” for the prophet here describes how he undertook the commission which the Lord gave him, even you, O poor of the flock, those in his charge being in a very sad condition, lacking in spiritual knowledge;
— and God took unto for himself two staves, or rods (Psalms 23:4), such as shepherds used in their work; the one I called Pleasantness (H5278 – nōʿam נֹעַם kindness, pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty, favour), or “loveliness, favor” or delight, like “Josiah, the anointed” such as the Lord intended to show His people through the work of his servants, the prophets: Isaiah, Hosea, Jeremiah, Micah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Amos, etc;
— and the other God called Destroyers, (H2254 – ḥāḇal חָבַל; to destroy, spoil, deal corruptly, offend, to pervert) like the second personage in the Garden of Eden; or like “Nebuchadnezzar, my servant” or like wolves and foxes, allowing them to roam around as often the Lord’s people are stiffed-necked and needed a longer way (like taking an extra 40 years to reach the Promised Land);
— and harder (like spending 70 years in captivity in Babylon) to learn before they genuinely wanted to be his people and to feel the blessings over the oppression by all their enemies; and God fed the flock, performing his work as a true shepherd according to the intend of the first staff.
— Rashi: one I called Pleasantness. Jeroboam promised to lead them gently [with Pleasantness].
and one I called Destroyers: Rehoboam told his kingdom that his father hath chastised you with whips, but he would flog them with scorpions (I Kings 12:11). [Zechariah] calls their rulers staffs because it is customary to lead flocks with staffs;
— the Targum aligns with Rashi’s, both looking from man’s point of view, says
“I appointed leaders over the people, but they ruled over them like owners over property. They impoverished and scattered My people, and they divided before Me into two factions. The house of Israel separated from the house of Judah, and they rejected the kingship of the house of David, in whom My will had been that they should be leaders over My people.”
8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one month; and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me. — three shepherds also God cut off in one month; my soul loathed them; hated their treachery; these are wicked shepherds and the scribes of the nation being probably meant;
— who were removed from power in a very short time; for God loathed them, since he, the type of the one Good Shepherd and Ruler of his Kingdom, became impatient with their perverse impenitence, and their soul also abhorred God, the sheep foolishly refusing to follow the kind leadership of their shepherd;
— Zechariah 11:8 is one of the most intriguing verse in the Scriptures. Who are these three shepherds? Could one series of these three be Fred Coulter, Frank Nelte and John Ritenbaugh? (JR died May 28, 2023; ”Pentecost,” Sunday) All three have accused Ezra, a man of God, of forging the Scriptures, especially Deuteronomy 16. Forging God’s Word are serious charges, whose penalty is death (Revelation 22:18-19).
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book: If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book.
“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book,” Revelation 22:18-19.
But on the other hand, if Ezra isn’t guilty of forging, then these three accusers are wolves in shepherd clothings that are also destroyers at the beginning of verse eight above;
“And I removed the three leaders in one month, and My word turned away from them, because their souls were disgusted with My service.”
9 Then said I, “I will not feed you: that which dieth, let it die, and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another.”
— because of the continual sins of Israel and Judah, said the Lord, ‘I will not feed you,’ declaring that he would no longer be their shepherd; that if the sheep die, let them die, he would let them rush to their own ruin since they refused to be guided by the good staff;
— and that that is to be cut off, let it be cut off, to be destroyed, let it be destroyed by the power of their oppressors; and let the rest eat everyone the flesh of another, that is, in a typical civil war, such as preceded the final destruction of Jerusalem; and as now, more and more intense talks of an internal civil strife looming over the United States;
“And I said: I will no longer appoint a leader over you. Those who are dying shall die, those who are being destroyed shall be destroyed, and those who remain will each plunder the property of his neighbor.”
10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.
— and God took his staff, even Beauty, one of a gentle approach, one favoured, one of Pleasantness, and cut it asunder, to indicate the withdrawal of God’s favor from His people, ‘that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people.’
— the Targum is consistent that “Beauty,” one of a gentle approach, is the northern house of Israel:
“And I brought Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, against the king of Israel, and I exiled him, because they rejected the covenant I had made with them— that they should not worship idols. Therefore they were exiled among the nations.”
11 And it was broken on that day, and so the poor of the flock who waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord. — and it was broken in that day, the covenant being annulled or broken by Israel’s disobedience;
— and so the poor of the flock, sheep that were not fed, that waited upon the Lord, the lowly among the people, but knew that it was the word of the Lord. It was from among the poor and lowly, the uninitiated, that the Lord, the righteous among them who kept his statute understood; even in those latter days, they’ll understand;
“And because they rejected the covenant, they were exiled at that time. And the humble ones, the poor of the people who did My will, will understand that this is the word of the Lord.”
12 And I said unto them, “If ye think it be good, give me my price; and if not, forbear.” So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver. — and God said unto them, to those destroyers of Israel, those not recognizing the things of peace, ‘If ye think it be good, if ye think good, give me my price;’
— give me my price; and if not, forbear, see Ezekiel 2:5, “And they, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.” So they weighed the value of a slave that had been killed, Exodus 21:32, the ordinary price of a female slave, Hosea 3:2. Cf Matthew 26:15
“And I said to them: If it seems good in your eyes, do My will; but if not, refrain— and let a few men carry out My will.”
13 And the Lord said unto me, “Cast it unto the potter” — a goodly price that I was prized at by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord;
— and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Cast it unto the potter, thereby rejecting the insult which they offered. A goodly price that Zechariah was prized at of them! this being said in impressive irony;
— and Zechariah took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord; and this receives a meaning through its fulfillment, for the thirty pieces of silver which the rulers of the Jews weighed to Judas for his betrayal of the Lord were by him cast into the Temple, the money later being used for the purchase of a potter’s field. Cf Matthew 27:1-10 and Jeremiah 32:6-15
“And the Lord said to me: Write a record of their deeds on a weak document, and throw it into the Temple, and cast it beneath the hand of the treasurer, because My fear was cheap in their eyes. So I wrote the record of their deeds on a weak document and cast it into the Temple of the Lord, beneath the hand of the great treasurer.”
14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. — then God cut asunder his other staff, even Bands, the Destroyer, that God might break the gentle approach he used to shepherd the children of Israel,
— so that, by the punishment of God, which, in the latter days, contributed much toward the numerous tribulations of each nation; the staff called Beauty, then later the Bands, the one Shepherd using both a pationate Shepherd as well as a Destroyer that come with the Lord’s judgement for destruction and corrections;
“And I brought Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, against Zedekiah, the king of the tribe of the house of Judah, and I exiled him, because they too—those of the house of Judah—rejected the covenant, just as their brothers, the house of Israel, had done.”
15 And the Lord said unto me, “Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd. — and the Lord said unto Zechariah, Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd, of a wicked Destroyer, who bears the insignia of a true shepherd, wolves in sheep skin, but cares nothing for the sheep;
— the punishment of rejecting the Good Shepherd was to be not only the loss of him, but the substitution of an evil shepherd in his place; but who is he? a man like the Pope, or an anti-Christ?
16 For lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who shall not visit those that are cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which standeth still; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces.
— for, lo, God will raise up a shepherd in the land, in the singular number, one pretending to function like that of a true shepherd, which shall not visit those that be cut off, paying no attention to those who perish;
— neither shall seek the young one, those that have gone astray, nor heal that that is broken, suffering with broken limbs, nor feed those that could stand still, those who are still strong, but in need of food; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat and tear their claws in pieces, in order to get even the last vestige of meat from the bones.
“For behold, I am raising up a leader in the land who will not seek the straying, will not look for those who have wandered, will not heal the broken, will not sustain those who stand, but will plunder the wealth of the rich and consume what remains of them.”
17 “Woe to the sham shepherd that leaveth the flock! The sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye; his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.”
— woe to the idol shepherd, or of no value, or the Destroyer, who calls himself the shepherd, ruler, or teacher of the people, but is in reality nothing less; those worthless shepherding that leaveth the flock, neglecting his chief duty toward its members;
— the Sword shall be upon the arm of the wicked shepherd, and upon his right eye, so that he’s blind; his arm shall be clean dried up; his secular power shall be taken away from him; and his right eye shall be utterly darkened, so he couldn’t see;
“Woe to the foolish leader to whom the people were entrusted for guidance— he is like a butcher with his knife in his hand, his eyes fixed on the fat ones to cut them down.
Zechariah 12
1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord who stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him:
— this is the Lord’s oracle about Israel; it is a prophetic revelation from the Lord—who spread out from the heavens;
— and layeth the foundation of the earth, which if it were not upheld by his power would wander from its orbit and fall into ruins; and formeth the spirit of man within him, controlling the thoughts and purposes of men so as to accomplish his own plans through them.
2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.
— behold, God will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling, a vessel filled with the intoxicating beverage of his wrath, unto all the people round about, the neighboring nations, reeling and falling in hopeless weakness and misery;
— when the nations around shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem, literally, “and also upon Judah shall it be in the siege of Jerusalem,” the entire country and its capital being involved in the severe trial which would come from among its neighbors;
“Behold, I am making Jerusalem a bowl filled with intoxicating drink for all the nations round about, and even the house of Judah will be caught up among the nations when they lay siege to Jerusalem.”
3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people. All who burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
— on that day God will make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the nations to lift; all who try to lift it will be severely injured. All the nations in the world will gather to fight against Jerusalem; all the powers of evil being united in an effort to overthrow the city of the Lord.
“In that time, I will make Jerusalem a heavy, burdensome stone for all the nations. All who try to lift it will be crushed and plundered, and all the nations of the earth will gather against it.”
4 In that day,” saith the Lord, “I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness. And I will open Mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness;
— on that day, God will smite every horse with panic and every rider with madness, all the warlike forces finding themselves at a loss to effect their evil purposes;
— and God will keep his watch upon the house of Judah with his protecting care and will smite every horse of the nations with blindness so that the hostile forces would not be able to find their way;
— the Targum paraphrases it, “and upon those of the house of Judah, I will reveal my power to do them good, but all the horses of the nations I will strike with blindness.”
5 and the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.’
— and the leaders and princes of Judah shall say in their heart, the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall have God’s strength, a reliable source of confidence, in the Lord of hosts, our God, because the Lord has chosen this city, his Kingdom, and by virtue of this choice is bound to redeem his people;
“And the nobles of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘There is deliverance for the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the word of the Lord of Hosts, their God.’”
6 “In that day will I make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
— on that day will God make the leaders and princes of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, so that they would consume their enemies like a basin of fire devouring wood; the Targum renders it, “as a garment of fire among wood;”
— and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, burning up the dry straw; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left, so that none of the adversaries can hold out against them; and Judah shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem, so that the renewed people could fitly become the nucleus of the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem;
“In that time, I will make the nobles of Judah like a garment of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume from the south and from the north all the possessions of the nations round about, and Jerusalem will again dwell in her place and Jerusalem will prosper.”
7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
— the Lord also shall save the dwellings of the country outside of the capital of Judah first, with its stone palaces, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah, the house of David being the royal family;
“And the Lord will save the tents of the house of Judah first, so that the exaltation of the house of David and the exaltation of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not become greater than that of the house of Judah.”
8 “In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David, and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.
— as with a shield against their enemies on that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, by a special strengthening against the foe; and he that is feeble among them, literally, “the stumbler,” one who can hardly hold himself up, being very weak;
— on that day shall be as David, to the Jew the highest type of strength and courage; and the house of David shall be as God, like a supernatural being, as the Angel of the Lord before them, like the Son of God in his Old Testament form, whose power lived in all his believers;
“In that time, the Lord will have mercy on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is weak among them in that time will be like David, and the house of David will be like mighty ones, succeeding through the angel of the Lord before them.”
9 And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. — on that day and using the second staff, God will seek to destroy all the nations who attack Jerusalem;
— even while Jerusalem was exalted to a degree of strength and glory far transcending anything in its past experience, God will destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
“And it will be in that time that I will seek to destroy all the nations that gather and come against Jerusalem.”
10 And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn.
— and God will pour upon the house of David, the entire royal family, the royal priesthood of the Kingdom of God, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the members of his congregation in general, the spirit of grace and of supplications, him who works in the heart of man the certainty of the divine grace and urges him to seek forgiveness of sins by fervent prayers and fastings;
— and the house of Judah shall look upon me whom they have pierced (H1856 – dāqar דָּקַר to pierce, piercing through), as they nailed their Messiah to the cross, John 19:34; Revelation 1:7, or by piercing His side with a spear; and they shall mourn for him as one mourn for his only son, acknowledging their transgression in killing the Prince of Life, Acts 3:15, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn, almost the greatest grief and sorrow known to the Jews;
— Rashi: as one mourns over an only son: As a man mourns over his only son. And our Sages expounded this in tractate Sukkah (52a) as referring to the Messiah, son of Joseph, who was slain;
— Rashi rightly quoted the Targum Sukkah (52a) about the Messiah to come from one Yeshua, a son of Joseph, of the house of David, yet they are blindsided to him as the Son of God and as the fulfilment of the Messiah’s first coming; (reference to this “piercing” disappeared in the Masoretic Text, an example of the lying pen of the scribes: Jeremiah 8:8; or perhaps the lying tongues of their Sages);
“And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of kindness and compassion, and they will seek mercy from before Me because they have been shaken, and they will mourn over him as one mourns over an only child, and they will grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
11 “In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo.
— on that day, when the greatness of their crime in putting their own Messiah to death, would be brought home to some of the people, shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as is ever the case when men realize that their sins were the cause of Christ’s death;
— as the mourning of Hadadrimmon, when the men of Judah mourned so bitterly over the death of their King Josiah, who was mortally wounded near that place in the Plain of Esdraelon, II Chronicles 35:22 ff. in the Valley of Megiddon.
“In that time, the mourning in Jerusalem will be great—like the mourning for Ahab son of Omri, whom Hadadrimmon son of Tabrimmon killed, and like the mourning for Josiah son of Amon, whom Pharaoh the Lame killed in the Valley of Megiddo.”
12 And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
— and the land shall mourn, each family by itself: the family of David by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Nathan by itself, and the wives by themselves;
“And the inhabitants of the land will mourn, family by family: their men separately and their women separately; the family of the house of David separately—its men separately and its women separately; the family of the house of Nathan separately—its men separately and its women separately.”
13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; — the family of Levi by itself, and the wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and the wives by themselves;
“The family of the house of Levi separately—its men separately and its women separately; the family of the house of Shimei separately—its men separately and its women separately.”
14 all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. — all the families that remain, that is, the whole nation shall be born; every family apart and their wives separately. Nor would this sorrow of true repentance be in vain. Zechariah 13:1
— on that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the entire nation, as representative of the Kingdom of God in the Millennium, in whose members the blood of the Messiah, shed for the sins of the world, has prepared a water which thoroughly cleanses sinners from their uncleanness. Cf 1 John 1:7. It is the washing of regeneration and renewing of the spirits of God which is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, or Yeshua the Messiah, Titus 3:5-6.
Enboldened by how easy in capturing President Maduro and his wife, the United States would be thinking about a “second wave” – the Mexican president, the Colombian president, and even perhaps Panama, Canada and Greenland would come into the American fold.
President Donald Trump has hinted that the surprise abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro may not be his last operation in Latin America.
Trump, 79, suggested on Fox & Friends Saturday that action could be taken against Mexico, an ally of the US, which he said is run by drug cartels—a similar allegation he made against Maduro and Venezuela.
When asked about Mexico by Fox’s Griff Jenkins, Trump responded that the cartels have more power than its democratically elected left-wing president, Claudia Sheinbaum, whom Trump clashed with early in MAGA 2.0 over immigration and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.
Trump said that Sheinbaum, 63, has rejected offers of American military aid to take action against the cartels, claiming she has told him, “No, no, no, Mr. President. No, no, no, please.”
Trump then hinted that he might order action in Mexico anyway, claiming that drugs coming over the southern border are killing Americans by the hundreds of thousands.
“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” he said.
Trump said that he remains friendly with Sheinbaum and that strikes against Venezuela, which were carried out with Congressional approval, were not meant to send a message to her.
“She’s a good woman, but the cartels are running Mexico,” Trump continued. “She’s not running Mexico. The cartels are running Mexico. And we could be politically correct and be nice and say, Oh yes, she is. No, no. She’s very, you know, she’s very frightened of the cartels. They’re running Mexico. And I’ve asked her numerous times, would you like us to take out the cartels?”
Jenkins, 55, suggested earlier on the program that Sheinbaum may need to be concerned.
“Trump’s message is very clear that ‘the drug trafficking must stop.’ When I hear that, I think, what must Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, be thinking? What message does this operation potentially set up for her now?”
Jenkins noted that Sheinbaum immediately condemned Trump’s attack on Venezuela, citing the Charter of the United Nations
Trump watched a live stream of the operation from his Florida estate
“The Government of Mexico strongly condemns and rejects the military actions carried out unilaterally in recent hours by armed forces of the United States of America,” her government said in a statement.
“Based on its foreign policy principles and its pacifist vocation, Mexico makes an urgent call to respect international law, as well as the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, and to cease any act of aggression against the Venezuelan government and people.”
Jenkins asked Fox host Sean Hannity if he thinks the overnight attack in Venezuela has Sheinbaum worried.
“Do you think that she must be wondering what this all means for her?” Jenkins asked.
Hannity responded, “One hundred percent. I mean, the Mexican president, the Colombian president—I know you had the guest on who is running for Colombian president, and I think that all of those leaders have to be looking over their shoulder as far as what that means and where this goes.”
Trump revealed on the program that the US had a “second wave” ready to go early Saturday morning but did not proceed with it. With Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, already in custody, it is not clear what else American forces might have struck.
Trump noted on Fox that American forces were injured in the operation, but none were killed.
On Fox, Trump suggested that additional strikes would be carried out in Venezuela if things did not change with Maduro’s absence.
“What is the future look like for the Maduro loyalists who are still in Caracas, and I assume, have not yet fled or been removed?” asked Jenkins.
Trump responded, “Well, if they stay loyal, the future is really bad, really bad for them.”
And now consider this Prophecy
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
“And Esau kept hatred in his heart against Jakob his brother, on account of the order of blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, I will not do as Kain did, who slew Habel in the life (time) of his father, for which his father begat Sheth, but will wait till the time when the days of mourning for the death of my father come, and then will I kill Jakob my brother, and will be found the killer and the heir,” Genesis 27:42 Jonathan
And the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, summoning his people to the attack, and shall go with whirlwinds of the South, which were always the most violent of all — Q, Could this “whirlwinds of the South” be referring to a parable in Ezekiel 20:45-49 and 21:1-5?
The Lord God shall blow the trumpet to “all the tribes of Israel”
Zechariah 9
1 The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus, shall be the rest thereof, when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, shall be toward the Lord. — the location of Hadrach in the Masoretic Text is unknown,
— the land of Hadrach is a cryptic name; but the Targum interprets “the land of Hadrach” as “the southern land,” a geographic land where Esau once lived; and thus as well as the land of Damascus in the north shall be returned to the Lord;
“The oracle of the word of the Lord in the southern land, and Damascus shall be turned to be from the land of His Presence, for before the Lord the deeds of human beings are revealed, and He is revealed over all the tribes of Israel.”
— when the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel shall be drawn toward the Lord, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah being directed to the Lord and both will return to the land of Promise, taking over both the land of the Syrians with its capital Damascus in the north and Negev in the south.
2 And Hamath also shall border thereby; Tyre and Sidon, though it be very wise. — and Hamath also shall border thereby, another major northern city; the district bounding Syria on the north, “which borders thereon,”
— this, together with Damascus, representing Syria; Tyre and Sidon, the cities of Phenicia, though it be very wise, or “because their inhabitants were wise in their own conceit,” multiplying wealth and power and trusting in them.
3 And Tyre did build herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver as the dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets.
— and Tyre did build herself a stronghold, the city proper being on an island surrounded by a double sea-wall, which made it practically impregnable in those days, and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets for the commerce of Tyre had made her immensely wealthy.
Negev in the south, Damascus in the north, Tyre, Sidon, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod
4 Behold, the Lord will cast her out, and He will smite her power in the sea; and she shall be devoured with fire.
— behold, the Lord will seize her through the agency of some earthly conqueror; in this case Alexander and God will smite her power in the sea as represented by her army and her navy; and she shall be devoured with fire so that everything on which her inhabitants depended was consumed and exterminated.
5 Ashkelon shall see it and fear; Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful, and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed; and the king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
— Ashkelon shall see God’s judgement, they shall be “ashamed because of their iniquities” namely, the punishment descending upon them; and fear, Gaza also shall see God’s judgement and be very sorrowful, and be exceedingly troubled;
— and the king shall perish from Gaza, the ruler being removed entirely, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited, its citizens being killed or dragged into captivity.
6 And a bastard shall dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
— and a bastard or mongrel, one of blemished birth shall dwell in Ashdod and God will cut off the pride of the Philistines, four of whose city-states are mentioned here as representative of the entire country.
— Rashi: And the strangers shall dwell in Ashdod: And a strange people shall dwell in Ashdod. Those are the Israelites, who were strange[rs] in it;
“And the house of Israel shall dwell in Ashdod, for they had been in it as foreigners, and I will abolish the rule of the Philistines.”
7 And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; but he that remaineth, even he shall be for our God, and he shall be as a governor in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite.
— and the Lord will take away his blood out of his mouth; the Targum says, “I will destroy them that eat blood” or against those, [like Esau], who breathe out threats of slaughtering his elect or persecute the people of God;
— Rashi: And I will remove his blood from his mouth: From the mouth of Esau; this is their house of Bamia [one of Edom’s principal deities, where they would sprinkle the blood of their sacrifices. . . . some interpret this to mean the bloodshed, that the [Edomites] would shed the blood of Israel.
— and his abominations from between his teeth, striking him down while he is engaged in such criminal behavior; but he that remaineth, even he, shall be for our God; the Targum paraphrases it, “and the proselytes that remain among them, they also shall be added to the people of our God;”
— and he shall be as a governor in Judah, like the prince of one of the tribes, the Targum says, “they [the Gentiles mentioned above, especially the Jebusites] shall be as the princes of the house of Judah” and Ekron, a Jebusite, they would be amalgamated with the children of Judah; the Targum says, “and Ekron shall be filled with the house of Israel, as Jerusalem.”
“I will remove from them those who eat blood and abominations, and I will gather their strength. The converts who remain among them will be added—even they—to the people of our God. They shall become like the nobles of the house of Judah, and Ekron will be filled with the house of Israel, like Jerusalem.”
Remember that the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning exiles from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the verses quoted.
8 And I will encamp about Mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth; and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, for now have I seen with Mine eyes.
— and after being sanctified, the Lord will encamp about his house; the Targum says, “and I will cause my glorious Shekinah to dwell in the house of my sanctuary, and the strength of the arm of my power shall be as a wall of fire round about it,”
— and no oppressor shall pass through them any more, no enemy daring to disturb the Lord’s people, his holy Kingdom; for now have I seen with my eyes, he was exercising his providential control and the power of his mercy.
9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto thee! He is just and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.
— rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion! the members of the Lord’s people; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! with a shout of gladness. Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, the Messiah himself appearing in her midst;
— bearing the salvation which the Lord had planned, lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass; this passage is quoted by Matthew 21:4, and John 12:15, as having been fulfilled when the Lord entered Jerusalem on the tenth of Nisan before Passover;
10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off; and He shall speak peace unto the nations, and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
— and the Lord will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem; and the battle-bow shall be cut off; the Targum paraphrases it, “I will break the strength of those that make war, the armies of the people,” for the Lord does not build his kingdom with might of arms, but of peace;
— and he shall speak peace unto the nations; and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea and from the river, the Euphrates, even to the ends of the earth, that is, the Kingdom of God would be established throughout the earth; it would be a universal kingdom.
11 As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. — as for thee also so the Lord addresses the entire nation of his people which afterward in the ideal sense merged into his Kingdom by the blood of thy covenant on account of the blood of the covenant, Exodus 24:8,
— by which Israel was separated from the rest of the nations and accepted into the most intimate fellowship with the Lord, for he has sent forth thy prisoners out from the bondage of the Egyptians where there is no water, delivering them from the oppression of the world-power from all the hostile forces of the earth.
12 Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope; even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee, — turn you, or “return,” to the stronghold, the fortified city in opposition to the pit which had just been mentioned;
— ye prisoners of hope, that is, who in spite of afflictions, maintain hope in God; “that hope for redemption” as the Targum paraphrases it; even today do God declare that he will render double unto thee, namely, a double measure of glory instead of the tribulations endured;
“Return to a state of strength and security, you who have been bound but still hope for deliverance. Even now, God is sending you a message: He will indeed fulfill the redemption He promised you.”
13 when I have bent Judah for Me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.
— when the Lord has bent Judah as a bow in his hand, filled the bow with Ephraim, as the arrows in his hand, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, stirring them up for war,
— against thy sons, O Greece, for here was another world-power with its hostility against the people of the Lord, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man, so that the Lord’s people are able to wage the Lord’s wars;
“I, the Lord, have drawn Judah like a bow and filled Israel with strength like arrows. I will empower Zion’s children to overcome the nations, making them like a sword in the hand of a warrior.”
14 And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.
— and in the process of sanctifying the house of Jacob, the Lord shall be seen over them, appearing above them or at their head, as he who fights from heaven on their behalf, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning, bringing instantaneous destruction to his foes;
— and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, summoning his people to the attack, and shall go with whirlwinds of the South, which were always the most violent of all; which, on closer look, is the process of sanctifying the house of Jacob.
Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 46 “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland. 47 And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’” 49 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’” Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North, 5 that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’
The Scriptures above are shrouded in coded language or hidden in a parable, and so the Q is: how would such scenarios be played out?
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
15 The Lord of hosts shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with slingstones; and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine, and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar.
— the Lord of hosts shall be acting as their Shield against the weapons of the enemy; and they shall devour and subdue with sling-stones, treading down the enemy like pebbles of the brook, Cf Numbers 23:24;
— and they shall drink, consuming the blood of the enemies, and make a noise as through wine, noisy as though under the influence of wine; and they shall be filled like bowls, the vessels in which the priests caught the blood of the sacrifices, and as the corners of the altar;
“The Lord of Hosts will have compassion upon them, and they shall gain dominion over the nations. They will strike them down and destroy their remnant like one who hurls stones from a sling. They shall plunder their wealth and be filled with it like those who drink wine. Their souls shall be filled with delight, like a bowl filled with fine flour and oil, and they shall shine like the blood that sparkles on the wall of the altar.”
16 And the Lord their God shall save them in that day, as the flock of His people; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon His land.
— and the Lord, their God, shall save them in that day as the flock of his sheep, with the deliverance of the Messiah’s redemption; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land, Zion’s sons and daughters being like jewels of a crown which sparkles over the Lord’s land as he proudly marches through the territory belonging to him.
“The Lord their God will redeem them at that time, because they were scattered like a flock, His people. For He will choose them like the precious stones of the ephod, and bring them back to their land.”
17 For how great is their goodness, and how great is their beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
— for how great is their goodness, and how great is their beauty! Cf Psalms 45:3. Corn shall make the young men cheerful and new wine the maids, the reference being to the blessings of God as bestowed upon his people through the Word;
“For how good and how beautiful is the study of Torah among the leaders, and how fitting is just judgment established in the synagogue.”
Zechariah 10
Zechariah chapter 10 appears to describe God’s blessings after the house of Jacob has been sanctified, meaning they’ve gone through various trials to lead them to repentance. Without repentance, they remain unclean, and God turns His face from them—bringing no rain, no wine, and no blessings.
1 Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field. — after being sanctified, ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, that is, the latter rain in its due time,
— there was the former spring and the latter autumn rain, of which see Hosea 6:3. making their appeal to him in all confidence as they were in need of his blessings;
— so the Lord shall make bright clouds, create lightnings and give them showers of rain, in a refreshing thunder-shower to every one grass in the field, all the crops of the field.
2 For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain; therefore they went their way as a flock; they were troubled, because there were no shepherd.
— for the idols, to whom the children of Israel had formerly applied for help, have spoken vanity, their household oracles not being dependable, and the diviners have seen a lie, they have announced deceitful oracles;
— and have told false dreams, proclaiming their own inventions as revelations from above; they comfort in vain because their words are a hollow mockery; therefore they, the people who relied upon their words went their way as a flock, wandering astray, they were troubled because there were no shepherd, no reliable leader or guide;
“For the idol worshippers speak delusion, the diviners prophesy lies, and the false prophets speak falsehoods in their deceitful visions. They offer no true comfort. Therefore, the people were scattered like a flock without a shepherd, exiled because they had no king.”
3 “Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished the goats; for the Lord of hosts hath visited His flock, the house of Judah, and hath made them as His goodly horse in the battle. — my anger was kindled against the shepherds, the rulers of Israel to whom he had entrusted the leadership;
— for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock, the house of Judah, this indicates that the Jews, when converted, looking after them with tender care, and hath made them as his horse in the battle, like the glorious charger on which the general leads his troops to battle;
“My anger was upon the kings, and I stirred judgment against the rulers for their sins. But the Lord of Hosts has remembered His people, the house of Judah, and He will make them like strong warhorses in battle.”
4 Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the nail, out of him the battle bow, out of him every oppressor together. — out of him wasn’t established clearly, the shepherd or house of Judah, came forth the corner,
“From him [Judah] will come his king, from him his Messiah, from him the strength of his warfare, and from him all his leaders shall arise together.” Zechariah 10:4 Jonathan
— that is, “cornerstone” by which is meant a king or ruler, the corner-stone on which the entire building of the new Kingdom rests; out of him the nail; the Targum says, “out of him his Messiah” the pegs of the wall, from which the household utensils were suspended, types of the dependable men in a state;
— out of him the battle-bow, the means for carrying on the Lord’s wars; Christ makes war in righteousness; the armies of heaven follow him; out of him every oppressor together, every mighty ruler whom Judah would need in its wars against the enemies;
5 And they shall be as mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.
— and they, the Lord’s people, shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets, Cf Zechariah 9:15, in the battle; and they shall fight because the Lord is with them, always in the majority because of his help, and the riders on horses shall be confounded, cavalry being mentioned as the chief part of the enemy’s army;
“The warriors of the house of Israel shall trample the slain of the nations like clay in the streets during battle. They will engage in combat, for the Word of the Lord is their support, and they shall bring down the riders of their horses in defeat.”
6 “And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them back to place them, for I have mercy upon them. And they shall be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the Lord their God and will hear them.
— and after being sanctified, the Lord will strengthen the house of Judah, and he will save the house of Joseph, the southern and the northern kingdom together being typical of the Kingdom of God;
— and the Lord will bring them again to place them; and at ease; and the full house of Jacob should be returned from the state and condition and from each of the places they are in and be settled either in their own land, letting them dwell in safety;
— for the Lord has mercy upon them, and they shall be as though he had not cast them off, as in the time before the captivity; for he is the Lord, their God, and will hear them, they could be sure of his gracious attention to all their needs; the Targum says, “and I will accept their prayer.”
7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as through wine; yea, their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord.
— and they of Ephraim, the descendants of Joseph, the spiritual children of him who was given the right of the first-born in the house of Jacob, shall be like a mighty man, like a hero;
— and after being sanctified, their heart shall rejoice as through wine, with fierce exultation; yea, their children shall see it and be glad; their heart shall rejoice in the Lord, giving all honor to Him who granted them such a glorious victory; the Targum says, “their heart shall rejoice in the Word of the Lord.”
8 “I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them; and they shall increase as they have increased. — the Lord will hiss for them, or “whistle for them” as a signal for them to assemble and gather them,
— for the Lord has redeemed them, both by entering into a covenant with them and by promising them the Redeemer; and they shall increase as they have increased, that is, the growth of the people of God in the Millennium would be increased more than when Israel first came to the Promised Land.
9 And I will sow them among the people, and they shall remember Me in far countries; and they shall live with their children and turn again.
— and after being sanctified, the Lord will sow them among the people, as a token of their quick increase; and they shall remember me in their scattered countries around the globe, wherever the children of Israel could be found;
— and they shall live with their children, enjoying the blessing of the Lord in a permanent flow of blessings, and turn again, returning to the fellowship of the Lord in His Kingdom.
10 I will bring them back also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and a place shall not be found for them.
— the Lord will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria, the two world-powers being named as representative of two empires that have held the house of Israel in captivity as their enemies and oppressors;
— and the Lord will bring them into the land of Gilead, a land of green pastures, beside the still waters and Lebanon, a land of goodly mountain and hill of frankincense, and where cedars grew, there will be sufficient room for them to expand.
11 And He shall pass through the sea with affliction, and shall smite the waves in the sea, and all the deeps of the river shall dry up; and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away.
— and he shall pass through the sea with affliction, rather, “of distress,” in allusion to the affliction felt by the children of Israel when they passed through the Red Sea, and shall smite the waves in the sea, keeping them under control by His powerful word;
— and all the deeps of the river shall dry up, both the Nile (see also Isaiah 19:5 and Ezekiel 30:12), and the river Euphrates: Revelation 16:12 the drying up of which signifies the destruction of both the Egyptian and the Persian empires; and the Targum paraphrases it, “all the kings of the people shall be confounded.”
“Miracles and mighty acts will be performed for them, just as were done for your ancestors at the sea. They will behold the punishment of their enemies, as warriors were overwhelmed like the waves of the sea. All the kings of the nations will be terrified, and the power of Assyria will be broken, and the dominion of Egypt will come to an end.”
12 And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name,” saith the Lord.
— and in the process of being sanctified, the Lord will strengthen them in their faith, their covenant and commitment with him, and they shall walk up and down in his name, so that they would live under his protection and in accordance with his will;
NEW YORK — New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday appointed Ramzi Kassem, a prominent lawyer who has supported anti-Israel protest groups, as the city’s next chief counsel.
Kassem has provided legal guidance to anti-Zionist protesters, coached some of the leading activists in the city, and represented the Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil and a terrorist imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.
The Office of the Chief Counsel acts as City Hall’s in-house legal team, providing legal guidance to the mayor and other officials on compliance, ethics, legislation and policy. The chief counsel, seen as one of the leading advisory roles in City Hall, also oversees some city agencies.
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday appointed Ramzi Kassem, a prominent lawyer who has supported anti-Israel protest groups, as the city’s next chief counsel.
Kassem has provided legal guidance to anti-Zionist protesters, coached some of the leading activists in the city, and represented the Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil and a terrorist imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.
“My fellow new Yorkers, today begins a new era,” Mamdani said
The Office of the Chief Counsel acts as City Hall’s in-house legal team, providing legal guidance to the mayor and other officials on compliance, ethics, legislation and policy. The chief counsel, seen as one of the leading advisory roles in City Hall, also oversees some city agencies.
“I grew up in war-torn countries in the Middle East, authoritarian regimes, and New York City was really my first stable and permanent home, and this is an opportunity for me to repay that debt,” Kassem said at a Tuesday event where Mamdani announced his appointment. Kassem was born in Lebanon and lived in several Middle Eastern countries before moving to the US for college and acquiring citizenship.
Kassem is a professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law and the founder of Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility (CLEAR), a legal nonprofit at the law school.
CLEAR aims to represent and advise clients against “government policies and practices deployed under the guise of ‘national security’ and ‘counterterrorism,’” its website says. The group’s services include advice for handling questioning by the NYPD.
The nonprofit provides free legal advice to some of the city’s most hardline anti-Zionist activists, such as Within Our Lifetime, a group that routinely calls for Israel’s destruction and has held disruptive protests against targets including cancer patients, libraries, and museums.
“No matter what situation you find yourself in, do not answer questions from the police,” Kassem told the activists at a legal rights briefing ahead of protests marking the first anniversary of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, according to footage recorded by researcher Stu Smith.
CUNY Law has been a hotbed of anti-Israel activism. Two of Within Our Lifetime’s leaders, Nerdeen Kiswani and Fatima Mohammed, are graduates of the law school and CLEAR alumni. The two activists gave inflammatory anti-Israel graduation speeches at the law school’s graduation ceremonies in 2022 and 2023. Mohammed’s 2023 speech set off a national uproar.
Kiswani is critical of Mamdani but applauded his appointment of Kassem.
Within Our Lifetime and the Columbia University anti-Zionist protest coalition, which is not recognized by the university, have worked together and have both instructed followers to contact CLEAR for legal assistance.
Announcing the appointment, Mamdani said CLEAR “has been on the front lines of providing legal defense for students detained by ICE and supporting many more at risk.”
Kassem represented Columbia’s Khalil in his battle against deportation after his arrest by the Trump administration, as well as another student activist, Yunseo Chung, who sued the Trump administration earlier this year against her deportation.
In 2018, Kassem was a volunteer lawyer for Ahmed Muhammed Haza al-Darbi, who was detained at Guantanamo Bay after pleading guilty to terrorism in a 2002 al-Qaeda attack on an oil tanker near Yemen.
Kassem is an alum of Columbia who wrote articles for the campus newspaper in the late 1990s and early 2000s that attacked Zionism, protested an “Israeli wrap” at a campus dining hall, and opposed the two-state solution.
From 2022 to 2024, Kassem served as a senior policy adviser at the Biden White House.
On Tuesday, CUNY Law responded to a Times of Israel Freedom of Information Law request filed two years ago. The request sought emails on CUNY Law leadership’s handling of the anti-Israel commencement speeches and the college’s response to the October 7 attack on Israel. In the documents provided by the law school, including dozens of emails sent to Kassem, the contents of the administrators’ emails are almost entirely redacted.
Mamdani takes office to begin a new era, which will speed up the Second Exodus
Mamdani’s appointees are a mix of veteran political operatives, centrist public servants such as NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, and members of the far left like Kassem.
Mamdani is expected to announce Kamar Samuels as the chancellor of the city’s public school system, a key position. Samuels is a veteran educator who serves as the superintendent of Manhattan’s District 3 on the Upper West Side.
Moshe Spern, a Jewish educator and activist with the United Jewish Teachers advocacy group, backed Samuels as chancellor.
“He’s a good guy, he’s been a good superintendent, he’s done a lot of good things. I’m going to be positive on this one. There’s a lot of room to be negative on everything else,” Spern said.
Spern added that, around two years ago, he sat in on a Zoom call Samuels hosted that was focused on Jewish issues.
“It wasn’t super pro-Israel, but it wasn’t anything negative or bad. It was pretty solid,” Spern said.
“I’ll reserve the right to criticize him when they do something wrong, but for the time being, I think this is a good appointment,” he said.
Mamdani has focused his policy proposals on affordability in housing, transportation and child care. He has been less vocal about his plans for the school system.
Mamdani has said he supports Hidden Voices, a curriculum program on minority groups, including Jews, as a way to combat antisemitism.
He has also opposed cutting funding to yeshivas that are out of compliance with state education standards, a priority for some Hasidic groups.
Mamdani takes office with the start of the new year, it will certainly help to speed up the Second Exodus.
Surprisingly, there are unspoken Will of God existing today! Like parents, God have their secret wishes for their children, as God sometimes has human characteristics.
But how do we know God’s unspoken Will if they were unspoken? To be unspoken would also mean unwritten, so what are they? Do they really exist?
The 9th of Av: destruction of First and Second Temple, God’s dwelling place on earth!
Zechariah 7
1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of King Darius that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu,
— in the fourth year of King Darius, in the year 518 BC the word of the Lord, by special inspiration, came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, in Chisleu, the ninth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year;
— the year 518 BC is two years after the foundation of the Temple was laid, Haggai 2:10 and nearly two years before it was finished, Ezra 6:15 when the work was going forward, and there was a great deal of reason to believe it would be completed;
2 when they had sent Sherezer and Regemmelech and their men unto the house of God to pray before the Lord,
— when they send righteous Jews with Chaldean names Sherezer and Regemmelech and other men to pray before the Lord, they prayed in their half completed Temple, that is, by the returning exiles of Judea, these are first ones evidently having been born in exile and still bearing their strange names, to entreat Yehovah, literally, “to conciliate by caresses,”
3 and to speak unto the priests who were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep (mourn and fast) in the fifth month, separating myself as I have done these so many years?”
— and to speak unto the priests who ministered the Temple as the Targum explains it, who offered sacrifices and who were still to be consulted in matters of religion, Malachi 2:7;
— and to the prophets, also servants of the true God in the more specific sense, saying, Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, the month Ab: II Kings 25:8, the Temple was burnt by the Chaldeans; and according to Jeremiah 3:12, it was on the tenth of this month which day was kept by the Jews as a day of fasting and humiliation in commemoration of it;
— as I have done these so many years? for this fast had become a custom since the Babylonian captivity; and now that the Jews were once more living in Palestine, this question was asked because of its importance for all the Jews, both at home and abroad.
4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,
5 “Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?
— speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests; his message concerning them all, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, the latter observation being in memory of the murder of Gedaliah, Cf Jeremiah 41;
— fifth month: 9th of Av, the destruction of the Temple, God’s dwelling place on earth; Exodus 25:8; God does want to be just the God who exists in the heavens, he is the God who wants to come down to dwell among men, in his Sanctuary; he wants to be with us but his dwelling place was destroyed;
— seventh month: 3rd of Tishri; when Gedaliah was assassinated; although Gedaliah was appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, this Babylon king was just an instrument in God’s hand; Jerusalem being his holy city and Judae being his holy land; allowing a Jewish Governor to rule over the land despite the majority of the people going into captivity;
— even those seventy years, during the entire captivity, did ye fast at all unto me, even to me? Had it really been done in God’s honor, for the purpose of serving him: Feeling the same pain as he has? Sympathy with him for not having a home with us on earth? Or an feeling that his holy land was in ruin and under the control of the heathens? (for more on this, see the Unspoken Will of God)
6 And when ye ate and when ye drank, did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? — did not ye eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? asked the Lord;
— is it merely for your own refreshment and pleasure, and not for the glory of God; though that ought to be the principal end in eating and drinking, 1 Corinthians 10:31.
7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?’”
— should ye not hear the words who hath cried by Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah and others; suggesting that it would have been much better for them to have regarded the exhortations and instructions which the Lord sent them by his earlier prophets, which would have prevented their captivity; and so would have had no occasion of fasting and mourning;
— when men inhabited the south when Jerusalem and the cities about it were full of people and enjoyed all the blessings of life in great plenty; and similarily with the plain, the land of Judea.
8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, — and the word of the Lord saying; giving him orders to repeat what the former prophets had said;
9 “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, ‘Execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother.
— thus speaketh the Lord of hosts in addressing the children of Judah in former days, before the exile, saying, Execute true judgement, literally, “judge the judgement of truth,” execute true judgement and check that the rich and mighty won’t escape judgement:
— see the on-going of today’s stories of Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Virginia Giuffre, Ghislaine Maxwell, Bill Clinton, former UK royal Prince Andrew; and those hovering around in Epstein’s private airplane; how are they going to face judgement from God?
— and show mercy and compassions every man his brother, those in poverty, the homeless, those in want of food, raiment or in whatsoever distress, whether of body or mind; so that kindness, mercy and compassion should be practiced at all times, Isaiah 58:6-7; Jeremiah 7:28.
‘Execute true judgement, and show mercy and compassions every man to his brother.’
10 And oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.’ — and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless, the orphans, the stranger nor the poor, these four classes ever being in the care of the Lord, Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 5:28;
— and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart; thoughts of evil are sinful, and forbidden by the law of God, as well as actions, which agrees with our Lord’s sense of the law,
11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.
— but they refused to hearken, being consistently rebellious, and pulled away the shoulder, like an ox who refuses to accept the yoke on his neck, and stopped their ears, Cf Isaiah 6:10, that they should not hear, like a backsliding heifer or a deaf adder.
12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.
— yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, like the hardest stone, impervious to every impression from without;
— lest they should hear the Law, the books of Moses, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit, inspired by his spirit, by the former prophets, who were the instruments of God in making known his will; therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts as shown in the captivity of Judah.
13 “Therefore it has come to pass that as He cried and they would not hear, so they cried and I would not hear,” saith the Lord of hosts.
— therefore it is come to pass, the Lord by the former prophets called them to repentance and obedience: that as God cried, in the exhortations of his prophets, and they would not hear, so when they called and cried when in trouble, now it was God’s turn not to hear, saith the Lord of hosts;
“And it shall be: just as the prophets prophesied to them and they did not accept, so they will cry out before Me, and I will not accept [them], says the Lord of Hosts.”
14 “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned; for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”
— so I scattered them with a whirlwind, denoting the fierceness of his wrath, and the strength of his fury, among all the nations whom they knew not, strange to them in language, customs and religion;
— thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned, all of Judea practically being a wilderness; especially after the Jews were carried captive into Babylon; for the rest, after the death of Gedaliah, fled into Egypt: for they laid the pleasant land desolate,
— the children of Judah themselves being to blame for the desolation which came upon the land, a land flowing with milk and honey; but later they received the just punishment of their sins, their land became desolate: they have but themselves to blame for their afflictions, though their pride would attempt to deny it;
— “scattered them . . . among all the nations” Judah was scattered only to Babylon, but this captivity together with Israel, is going to be like a whirlwind among all the nations “whom they knew not,” hence this is prophetic for the endtime, in our time;
— the Targum affirms it was to many nations that they would be scattered to, says
“And I scattered them among the nations who did not know them, and the land was desolate after them—because of their deeds—and it became desolate, for they had made the desirable land a desolation.”
“But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not”
Zechariah 8
1 Again the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying, — the phrase, “to me” is not in the Hebrew text; but is implied there as the Masora observes; and undoubtedly it is to be understood; as it is by the Targum, “with me.”
2 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I was jealous for her with great fury.’
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy “for Jerusalem and for Zion” as in Zechariah 1:14; I am jealous in a most vehement affection toward Jerusalem as in Zion.
Flashing Forward
3 “Thus saith the Lord: ‘I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.’
— thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion or as the Targum renders it, “I will return to Zion” once more occupying the dwelling-place of his honor in the midst of his people, which he had forsaken because of the wickedness of the idolatrous nation;
— and Jerusalem shall be called a City of Truth, where the Lord’s truth is, the truth of his eternal Word, would once more be found; where his Temple stood, the holy mountain because it is the center of the true worship of God;
— the mountain of the Lord of hosts; which will be established upon the top of the mountains, Isaiah 2:2; and where the Lord will be seen and exalted in his glory, even the Lamb, with the hundred and forty four thousand with him.
4 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand because of great age.
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, since they would not be torn away in the fullness of their strength by war and pestilence, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age, literally, “because of the multitude of his days.”
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Again old men and old women shall sit in the streets of Jerusalem, and each man—his staff in his hand—because of the multitude of his days.”
5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.’ — without any fear of any enemy, the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof;
— it is a beautiful picture representing the extremes of life dwelling in all security and happiness in the midst of the Holy City, the blessings of the Messianic Age;
“And the streets of the city of Jerusalem will be filled with boys and girls, rejoicing in its open spaces.”
6 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, should it also be marvelous in Mine eyes?’ saith the Lord of hosts.
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, If it be marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days, in the eyes of those who had returned from captivity, should it also be marvelous in the eyes of the Lord.
7 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Behold, I will save My people from the east country and from the west country;
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will save my people from the East country, from the rising of the sun, and from the West country, from the setting of the sun, so that Yehovah would rescue his people from all lands, as far as the sun shines;
After the Babylonian captivity, the Return was only from the East, but this includes the West, thus the Return must be prophetic for the endtime;
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold, I will redeem My people from the land of the sunrise and from the land of the sunset.”
8 and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.’
— and I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness. This is truly the glory of the Millennium when as John writes, we saw his glory, the glory as of the begotten Son and the Father.
9 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Let your hands be strong, ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, who were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built.
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, Let your hands be strong, full of good courage for doing the work of the Lord ye that hear in these days these words by the mouth of the prophets, namely, Haggai and Zechariah;
— which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the Temple might be built. These prophets had begun their activity at the time when the foundation of the second Temple had already been built, hence this could be referenced the Ezekiel Temple among the returning exiles;
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Let your hands be strong—you who hear these words from the prophets, who spoke on the day when the foundation was laid for the House of the Lord of Hosts, the Temple, to be rebuilt.”
10 For before these days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, neither was there any peace for him that went out or came in because of the affliction; for I set all men, every one, against his neighbor.
— for before these days there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast, for the yield of the land at that time was so small as hardly to be called fair wages, Haggai 1:6-11;
— neither was there any peace because of the affliction, there was so much envy and hostility among the people themselves on account of jealousy stirred up by the Samaritans, that the ordinary life were continually being interfered with; for I set all men every one against his neighbors, as the account of Nehemiah shows.
11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former days,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — but now, since their relationship was restored,
— the Lord will not be to the small congregation which had returned from Babylon as in the former days, saith the Lord of hosts, being ready once more to gladden them with the rich blessings of His goodness and mercy.
12 ‘For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
— for the seed shall be prosperous, or “there shall be a seed of peace” the vine shall give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, all crops showing great productivity;
— and the heavens shall give their dew, affording the necessary moisture to secure growth; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things, these being evidences of His goodness.
13 And it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the heathen, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you, and ye shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.’ — note; not just the house of Judah, but the house of Israel is included here;
— and it shall come to pass that as ye were a curse among the nations, 0 house of Judah and house of Israel, Jeremiah 42:18, so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing, an example of God’s blessings of mercy. Fear not, but let your hands be strong;
“And it shall be: just as you were a curse among the nations, O House of Judah and House of Israel, so will I save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear—let your hands be strong.”
14 “For thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked Me to wrath,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I repented not,
— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath, Jeremiah 31:28, and he could not, in point of fact, without denying his own holiness, fail to execute his judgement,
15 so again have I thought in these days to do well unto Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not.
— so now that the covenant relation was once more established with Jerusalem and the house of Judah. Fear ye not, since God is gracious and forgiving, therefore the men of Judah have no reason to fear as long as they put their trust in him.
16 These are the things that ye shall do: Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor; execute the judgement of truth and peace in your gates;
— these are the things that ye shall do, between them and the God of the covenant, Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbor. In your gates so that all their dealings, particularly those pertaining to their courts of law, would be in agreement with God’s laws and principles,
17 and let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbor; and love no false oath. For all these are things that I hate,’ saith the Lord.”
— and let none of you imagine evil In your hearts against his neighbor, deliberately planning harm and love no false oath, for perjury makes the administration of justice impossible;
— for all these are things that the Lord hates, spoken with great solemnity and it holds true for all time. God hates and despises wickedness in every form and he wants those who are his children to wage continual warfare against every transgression of his Laws and Judgements.
18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me, saying,
19 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love the truth and peace.’
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth, special days of fasting and affliction which the Jews had observed during their captivity in memory of certain dark days in the history of their nation, Cf Zechariah 7:3;
— shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts, of highest happiness, but why? They are not commanded fasts? Yet why would they burst out with joy and gladness?
(1) the fast of the fourth month: 17th of Tammuz; Jeremiah 52:6-30 the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem before its fall in 587 BC and in 70 AD (July 2, 2026)
(2) the fast of the fifth month: 9th of Av; II Kings 25:2-10 the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC; the Second Temple in 70 AD on the same dates (July 23, 2026)
(3) the fast of the seventh month: 3rd of Tishri; Jeremiah 41 when Gedaliah was assassinated in 582/1 BC (September 14, 2026)
(4) the fast of the tenth month: 10th of Teveth; II Kings 25:1 the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BC (December 20, 2026)
— those who keep those fasts above will burst out with “joy and gladness and cheerful feasts!”
— as to a hint of why these fasts are instituted, the Lord of Hosts asks,
“Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?” Zechariah 7:5
For more on understanding such joy and blessings, and those who love the truth and peaces, see the Unspoken Will of God
20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘It shall yet come to pass that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities.
— it is a prophetic announcement that many nations and city‑dwellers will once again journey toward Jerusalem; encouraging one another to go seek God.
21 And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also.”
— and the inhabitants of one city shall go to another in mutually encouraging and admonishing one another, saying, Let us go speedily, literally, “Going let us go, with speed and earnestness,”
— all nations to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts in an invitation and exhortation to worship the one true God; I will go also, the vivid form of speech showing the alacrity with which men would respond;
“And the inhabitants of one city will go to another, saying: ‘Let us go and supplicate before the Lord, and seek instruction from before the Lord of Hosts.’ One will say to another: ‘I too will go.’”
22 Yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.’
— yea, many people and strong nations, the foremost countries of the world shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem to become members of his holy congregation and to pray before the Lord, to worship Yehovah;
“And many peoples and mighty kings will come to seek instruction from before the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord.”
23 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘In those days it shall come to pass that ten men out of all the languages of the nations shall take hold, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, “We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, In those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, that is, men of all different nations, speaking so numerous tongues, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, in great eagerness;
— saying, We will go with you, casting their lot with the people of the Lord in every way, for we have heard that God is with you. The glorious conversion of all nations in the age of the Millennium is here clearly foretold, and in a most graphic manner.
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men from all the languages of the nations will take hold of the corner of a Jewish man’s garment, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that the word of the Lord is with you.’”
Here are some of the most striking examples of biblical proverbs and idioms that “break” when translated word-for-word.
“A Long Nose” (Exodus 34:6 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth) Literal Hebrew: Erech apayim (אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם)
English Meaning: “Slow to anger” or “Patient.”
Why it’s lost: In Hebrew thought, when you get angry, your nostrils flare and get hot. A person who is patient has a “long nose,” meaning it takes a long time for the heat of anger to travel the distance and finally “break out.” If translated literally, God would simply be described as having a very long nose.
“Covering the Feet” (1 Samuel 24:3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself, and David and his men remained in the recesses of the cave.) Literal Hebrew: Le’hasech et raglav (לְהָסֵךְ אֶת רַגְלָיו)
English Meaning: Using the bathroom.
Why it’s lost: This is a polite euphemism. In the ancient world, when a man wearing a long robe squatted to relieve himself, the robe would “cover his feet.” If you read a literal translation of King Saul going into a cave to “cover his feet,” it sounds like he’s taking a nap or putting on socks.
“A Gold Ring in a Swine’s Snout” (Proverbs 11:22 As is a jewel of gold in a swine’s snout, so also is a fair woman who is without discretion.) Literal Hebrew: Nezem zahav be’af chazir (נֶזֶם זָהָב בְּאַף חֲזִיר)
English Meaning: Beauty without character is useless/incongruous.
Why it’s lost: While we understand the metaphor of “pearls before swine,” this specific image refers to a nose ring—a piece of high-fashion jewelry in ancient Israel. The proverb is mocking the idea of putting something expensive and refined (beauty) on something inherently messy and “unclean” (a lack of discretion).
“Uncircumcised Ears” (Jeremiah 6:10 To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised and they cannot hearken; behold, the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.) Literal Hebrew: Arela oznam (עֲרֵלָה אָזְנָם)
English Meaning: Stubborn or incapable of listening.
Why it’s lost: To the biblical mind, “uncircumcised” meant something was “closed” or “clogged” and therefore couldn’t fulfill its purpose. Literal translations sound like a bizarre medical deformity, but the meaning is simply that the people have closed their minds to the truth.
“Cleanliness of Teeth” (Amos 4:6 “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord.) Literal Hebrew: Nikyon shinayim (נִקְיון שִׁנַּיִם)
English Meaning: Famine or starvation.
Why it’s lost: In modern English, “clean teeth” sounds like a compliment from a dentist. In the Bible, it’s a curse: your teeth are clean because you have absolutely no food to eat.
Zechariah Chapter 5 concerns two visions regarding the cleansing of God’s people; and the message conveyed is cryptic. The first is of a flying scroll, which signifies the curse of God; the other is the vision of an ephah, and a woman sitting in it, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, which signified wickedness. What do all these symbols mean?
Without the vowels, the consonents for these three words are the same
Second; on reading the passage with its literal meanings, the chapter doesn’t make much sense, but by stretching the meanings slightly, as the flying scroll signifies the curse of God, a warning is being conveyed; perhaps the woman signifies on fire; our modern missiles; the chapter makes more sense: that is, those missiles are loaded with an ephah: or nuclear weapons; and all about our modern warfare with the potential of nuclear bombs devastating the whole world, a coded and hidden warning of a world reaping a curse from God from its own wickedness. Such a new look unveils a new perspective.
1 Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, a flying scroll. — after a time interval, Zechariah turned and lifted up his eyes and looked: behold a flying scroll, a book-scroll or parchment of great size or consisting of many large leaves fastened together;
— a flying scroll is a divine indictment, a judgment swift and inescapable; a parallel scene of a book-scroll of what Ezekiel saw, in Ezekiel 2, “and in it was written lamentations and mourning and woe.”
And I saw, and behold, a hand stretched out to me, and behold, in it was a scroll of a book. And he spread it out before me, and it was inscribed before and behind, and there was written upon it lamentations and murmuring and woe. Ezekiel 2:9-10
2 And he said unto me, “What seest thou?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll. The length thereof is twenty cubits and the breadth thereof ten cubits.”
— and the angel said unto Zechariah, What seest thou? And Zechariah answered, I see a flying scroll, a parchment loose or unrolled moving through the air; the length thereof is twenty cubits and the breadth thereof ten cubits, the dimensions approximately ten yards by five yards.
A flying scroll, one side for one who steals, the other side for one who swears
3 Then said he unto me, “This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth; for every one who stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it, and every one who sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
— without waiting for a question on the part of the prophet, the angel then said unto Zechariah, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth, as written on the scroll;
— the two sins of theft and false swearing; for whosoever that steal shall be cut off as on this side according to it, and anyone who swears, especially modern politicians, White House officials that had taken a false oath to tell the truth shall be cut off as on that side according to it, that is, the sinners who refuse to repent, who persist in their wickedness, must be cut off and removed;
— the one being against the second, as two categories of curses; show that the curses of the law reaches all sorts of sins and sinners; pretty much similar to what Ezekiel saw: “of written lamentations and mourning and woe.” The message of Ezekiel is primarily a warning to the house of Israel (mentions 169 times); to Ephraim, the chief tribe.
“And he said to me: This is the curse that is destined to go out over the face of all the land, for everyone who steals and everyone who denies (or lies) is punished, and everyone who swears falsely in My Name is punished.”
4 ‘I will bring it forth,’ saith the Lord of hosts,‘ and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by My name. And it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it, with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.’”
— the Lord will bring forth the curse and the judgement with it, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name, these two classes of sinners being named as representatives of all unrepentant transgressors;
— and it shall remain in the midst of his householf, lodging in that family, dwelling there permanently, and shall consume that family with the timber thereof and the stones thereof, not leaving a vestige of it. These words are properly expressive of the curse and of the punishment of God upon these form of deliberate transgression; which would be like a consuming fire upon anyone and everyone who steal and swear falsely;
— Rashi: I have brought it forth: to walk to and fro in the land and to wreak vengeance upon the thieves and the swearers of falsehoods from now on; and it shall come into the house of the thief, etc;
— and a saying goes: “a man that swears much shall be full of iniquity, and the plague shall not depart from his house,” and “if a man swears in vain, he shall not be innocent or justified, for his house shall be full of calamities.”
5 Then the angel who talked with me went forth and said unto me, “Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth.”
— then the angel that talked with Zechariah, and said unto Zechariah, ‘Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth,’ appearing before his eyes, something that Zechariah should observe very closely.
6 And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is an ephah that goeth forth.” He said moreover, “This is their resemblance through all the earth.”
— ‘This is an ephah (אֵיפָה H374 ‘êp̄â) that goeth forth,’ the ephah being a dry measure corresponding roughly to our peck; the object in the vision was evidently a receptacle having the shape of an ephah, and the ephah was chosen because it was often called the measure of unrighteousness and of deceits;
— the angel said, ‘This is their resemblance through all the earth,’ literally, ‘this their eye in all the land,” that is, this is the object of their gaze, all eyes are centered upon it.
7 And behold, there was lifted up a weighty piece of lead, and this is a woman who sitteth in the midst of the ephah. — first appearance of a woman(אִשָּׁה H802‘iššâ), perhaps a church, one of wickedness, the Roman Church? Or a fire, the afterburner of a missile? the missile being covered by a layer of lead; אשח
— and behold there was lifted up a talent of lead, a great round piece, weighing about a hundred pounds; and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah, the female personification of wickedness held within the ephah by the great weight; אִשׁת
אִשׁת ( ) By Fire (אִשֶּׁה H801‘iššê), Woman (אִשָּׁה H802 ‘iššâ)
The afterburner of a Russian Naval Hypersonic Missile
— is God trying to convey to the people of the endtime, that there would be nuclear weapons carried by missiles caused by cheatings and false swearings that result in “great wickedness?” to affect “over the face of the whole earth,” (v3) which a global radiation would do.
8 And he said, “This is wickedness.” And he cast it into the midst of the ephah, and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
— and the angel said, ‘This is wickedness,’ Israel being imbued with false doctrines, and godlessness personified. And the angel cast it into the midst of the ephah, thus preventing her escape; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof, this acting as a cover keeping her shut up within the measure.
9 Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings (for they had wings like the wings of a stork), and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
— fascinated by a further wonderful thing that happened, then lifted Zechariah up his eyes and behold, there came out two women (אִשָּׁה H802 ‘iššâ), and the wind was in their wings, aiding them in their movement forward as they carried the ephah;
— two women appear; perhaps two entities: church and state? Or two missiles?
— for they had wings (missiles) like the wings of a bird; the stork, an\d unclean bird, actually could traverses a longer distance than from Judea to Shinar; and they lifted up the ephah (with nuclear payload) between the earth and the heaven, carrying missiles or drones flying along quickly, all over the world, between the earth and the first heaven.
10 Then said I to the angel who talked with me, “Whither do these bear the ephah?” — then asked Zechariah the angel who talked with him, “Where do these bear the ephah?”
— the agents to carry away the “woman” are, or ephah, woman imprisoned, wickedness and lead too, on the wings of those two women in motion.
11 And he said unto me, “To build it a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.” — and the angel said unto Zechariah, ‘To build an house in the land of Shinar,’ in the land of Babylonia, typical from olden times as the land of rebellion against the Lord;
— that is, in the province of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel, or Babylon, was in the land of Shinar; Genesis 11:1-9; and it shall be established and set there upon her own base; representative of the ungodly world, a mystery of iniquity, Revelation 17:5; wickedness was to have its place; a place of wickedness;
— today, from a spiritual point of view, Washington DC and New York city could be considered the greatest and most perverted cities in the world, politically (one side of the scroll a warning for those who swears falsely under oath before the Bible upon taking office) and economically (the other side of the scroll meant for those who steals through Wall Street tradings: insider tradings, share manipulations and more);
— and perhaps this reference to Babylon could be meant for these end-time godless cities; that is, either one, or both, of these modern Babylonian metropolises could be destined to be blown up by a nuclear conflagration; verse 3 above indicate both cities destroyed;
— and second, the United States is so far the only country that has used two nuclear weapons against another, perhaps this verse “as you have done, it shall be done to you;” of a prophetic boomerang effect could shed some light that could flared up not just the United States but would even engulf the whole world:
“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head” Obadiah 1:15
— and then appear the four chariots of horses in the next chapter!
Zechariah 6
~~~
Four chariots came out from between two mountains: Red, Black, White, Grey
1 And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of brass.
— Zechariah lifted up his eyes and looked, there came four chariots out from between two mountains in the mountainous country near Jerusalem, very likely between Mount Zion and the Mount of Olives; and the mountains were mountains of brass, firm and immovable.
2 In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses, — in the first chariot, harnessed to it were red horses; and we would assigned them as signifying war and bloodshed; but the angel never elaborate further what the red horses are;
— Gill says: by these “red horses” must be designed the Babylonians and Chaldeans, so called because their soldiers were clothed in red, and their chariots were like flaming torches;
— red horses may signify bloody times, and for the endtime, a fiery execution of wrath, Revelation 6:4; and in Isaiah 63: “Who is this that cometh from Edom?”
1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments (with his garments stained crimson in other translations) from Bozrah, this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
2 Why art thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?
3 “I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the people there was none with Me. For I will tread them in Mine anger and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment.
4 For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come. Isaiah 63:1-4
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
— and in the second chariot black horses, the color of misfortune, of mourning, and of death;
3 and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses. — and in the third chariot white horses, implying Death and Hades; and in the fourth chariot grizzled and bay horses Cf Revelation 6:8;
— a black horses symbolizes famine and carries the scales; and the third white horses ride along with Death, accompanied by Hades;
— a chariot grizzled and bay horses? pestilences, like Covid-19 epidemics of coronal virus which we’re experiencing today; famines, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth;
— compare with Matthew 24:
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. Matthew 24:6-7
4 Then I answered and said unto the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” — then Zechariah answered and said unto the angel, What are these?
— my lord (‘āḏôn not Yehovah יְהֹוָה) so the angel appeared as an ordinary angel to Zechariah.
5 And the angel answered and said unto me, “These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
— and the angel answered Zechariah, ‘These are the four spirits of the heavens,’ the four winds as the instruments of the Lord’s will, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth. Cf Psalms 104:4; Psalms 148:8. The agency of the winds in the work of destructive judgement is mentioned also elsewhere in the Bible Cf Revelation 7:1
“And the angel answered and said to me, These are four kingdoms which are like the four winds of heaven revealed / going forth from before the Master of all the earth.”
6 The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country, and the white go forth after them, and the grizzled go forth toward the south country.
— the black chariot horses (mourning, and of death) which are therein, that is, the chariot drawn by these horses, go into the North country, where the great world-powers, Assyria and Babylon; now represented by the lost-10 tribes at the endtime, were situated;
— and the white chariot horses (Death and Hades) go forth after the North, too, victory following death and destruction; but the grizzled go toward the South country, where Idumea, Edom and Egypt were situated;
— a chariot grizzled horses? pestilences, like Covid-19 epidemics of coronal virus; famines with hunger and death?
7 And the bay went forth and sought to go, that they might walk to and fro through the earth.” And he said, “Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth.” So they walked to and fro through the earth.
— and from the South the bay spread forth and sought to go that they might walk to and fro throughout the earth, visiting all the countries of the world with terrible wars and bloodshed, with death and destruction; and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth, carrying out the Lord’s command upon the various nations;
— thus, in summary: each set of horses is dispatched to a region (north, south), but the dappled or bay horses have a broader mandate: to traverse the earth generally, not tied to a single direction.
8 Then cried he unto me, and spoke unto me, saying, “Behold, these who go toward the north country have quieted my spirit in the north country.”
— then cried the angel in great excitement to Zechariah and spoke unto him, Behold, these that go toward the North, and after executing God’s judgement on them, have quieted my Spirit in the North and was satisfied with the extent of the punishment inflicted upon them.
9 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
10 “Take from them of the captivity — even from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon — and come thou the same day and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah.
— take the exiles living in Babylon, who had come up to Jerusalem at that time, from Heldai, Tobijah, and of Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon, as a committee of the Jews residing at Babylon.
11 Then take silver and gold and make crowns, and set them upon the head of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest,
— then take silver and gold, and make crowns, a double crown or one of several bands, and set them upon the head of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, as a type of the combined priesthood and kingdom which shall be conferred upon the Messiah;
12 and speak unto him, saying, ‘Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, “Behold the Man whose name is The Branch! And He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord.
— and speak unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold, the man whose name is The BRANCH, and he shall grow up out of his place, Jeremiah 33:15, as a root out of a dry ground, Isaiah 53:2, and he shall build the Temple of the Lord, the real Sanctuary, the Kingdom of the New World;
— the Targum paraphrases the words, “behold the man Messiah is his name;” the Jews interprets this passage of a divine Person; who could only be the Son of God by whom no other than the Messiah could have meant.
13 Even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne. And He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.”’
— even the Branch shall build the Temple of the Lord, accomplishing his great work in spite of the lowliness of his earthly origin; and he shall bear the glory, being adorned with kingly glory and honor, and shall sit and rule upon his throne as the true King of kings;
— and he shall be a Priest upon his throne, uniting in his person the offices of King and of Priest; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both, the two offices being united in one person. Psalms 110.
14 “And the crowns shall be for Helem and for Tobijah and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, for a memorial in the temple of the Lord.
— and the crowns shall be for a memorial in the Temple of the Lord so that future generations would be reminded of the example of others before them.
15 And those who are far off shall come and build the temple of the Lord, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent Me unto you. And this shall come to pass if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God.”
— and they that are far off, like the men from Babylon, who had in this case brought their offerings, shall come and build the Temple of the Lord, representatives of various nations joining in the upbuilding of the Lord’s great spiritual Temple, his holy Kingdom,
— and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent him unto Zechariah, as the Messiah himself says, John 3:16. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey the voice of the Lord, your God, this being added by way of admonition lest anyone deliberately lose the blessings which are offered in and by the coming of the Messiah. Thus the establishment and growth of the Kingdom of God.
For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
The president of Iran has declared his country is at “total war” with the US, Israel and Europe in the latest ratcheting up of tensions. Speaking to Iranian state media, Masoud Pezeshkian claimed the Western powers want to bring Iran “to its knees.”
He also used the interview to talk up Iran’s military might, claiming it is stronger today than it was in June when Israel launched its first strikes as part of the 12-day war.
Mr Pezeshkian said: “In my opinion, we are at total war with the United States, Israel and Europe. They want to bring our country to its knees.”
He went on to compare the current situation to Iran’s conflict with Iraq in the 1980s.
“During the war with Iraq, the situation was clear: they fired missiles, and we knew exactly where we were responding. But now, we are being surrounded from every angle,” the Iranian president said.
Both Israel and America said they took action because Iran was close to producing a nuclear weapon; a claim Tehran has strongly denied.
Around 1,100 were killed in Iran during the fighting, including nuclear scientists and senior military leaders.
However, Mr Pezeshkian looked to talk down the impact of the war on Iran.
He claimed the fighting had strengthened internal unity rather than weakening it and Iran’s military was now better equipped, reports The Times of Israel.
Mr Pezeshkian said: “Our beloved military forces are doing their jobs with strength and now, in terms of equipment and manpower, despite all the problems we have, they are stronger than when they [Israel] attacked. So if they want to attack, they will naturally face a more decisive response.”
The interview was released days before a planned meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump in Florida on Monday.
The vision of Zechariah is in the form of a judicial process: Joshua is the person accused, and is described standing before the Angel of the Lord; and by the filthy garments he had on, which were the ground of the charge against him. The accuser is Satan who stood at his right hand; and his Judge is the Angel of the Lord, before whom he was the Branch.
Also, the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven eyes of the Lord sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; only a Divine Being could have seven eyes of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth,” thus testifying that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Son of God, the Messiah.
Zechariah 3
1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. — the high priest Joshua is to be considered typically representing the Judean community after the exile;
— and which was very low and mean, under the second Temple; which the high priest, were representatives of; and now, standing before the Angel of the Lord pictured as the Judge in a court of law, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him;
— to accuse him: to accuse him because Joshua’s sons were married to heathen women, as it is written in Ezra 10:18, “And it was found of the sons of the priests who had taken foreign wives, of the sons of Joshua the son of Jozadak …”
2 And the Lord said unto Satan, “The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”
— and the Lord, (יְהֹוָה Yehovah), for he is also the Angel of the Lord, the Son, said unto Satan, The Lord (יְהֹוָה) rebuke thee, O Satan, the adversary and accuser being condemned instead of him whom he wanted to condemn,
— even the Lord (יְהֹוָה the Father) that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee; he has accepted the believers as his people and will not permit Satan with his choice.
— is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? A brand is a burnt, burning, or smoldering piece of wood. His people had been at the very brink of destruction, but the Lord had interfered before it was too late; therefore Joshua also, standing before the Lord as the representative of the sinful people, is shielded from condemnation.
3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the Angel. — “Joshua the High Priest” he was wearing filthy garments:
— this is also explained according to the Targum: he had sons who had married women who were unfit to marry into the priesthood, and Joshua was accused because he did not interfere with his sons’ marriages;
Ordinary priests may NOT marry:
a divorced woman
a zonah (a woman who had prohibited sexual relations)
a ḥalalah (a woman born from an invalid priestly union)
These categories are not moral judgments — they are legal statuses that determine whether a woman may enter the priestly family.
The High Priest has even stricter rules: He may marry only a virgin, and may not marry:
a widow
a divorcee
a previously sexually active woman
any woman with a disqualifying status
— but in Zechariah 3, the issue is not Joshua’s own marriage; it is his sons’ marriages, which affect the purity of the entire priestly household.
4 And He answered and spoke unto those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And unto him He said, “Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.”
— and he, the presiding Angel of God, the Son answered and spoke unto those that stood before him, some of his ministering angels; or as the Targum paraphrases it, “and he said to them who ministered before him;”
“And he answered and said to those who minister before him, saying; and they said to him, ‘Remove the women who are not fit for the priesthood from his house.’ And he said to him, ‘See, I have removed your sin from you, and I will clothe you in pure garments.’”
— saying, Take away the filthy garments from him, their wives removed, not authorised to be married to the priest hood; and unto him He said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, that is, by an act of complete forgiveness, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
The Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the verses quoted;
5 And I said, “Let them set a clean miter upon his head.” So they set a clean miter upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by.
— and Zechariah said, the prophet here suddenly interposing in his eagerness to have, the work of cleansing completed, Let them set a fair miter upon his head, that the priesthood be restored, that once more borne on the turban of the high priest;
“And I said, ‘Set a pure turban on his head,’ and they set a pure turban on his head, and they brought to him a woman who is fit for the priesthood, and the angel of the Lord stood by.”
6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying,
7 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘If thou wilt walk in My ways, and if thou wilt keep My ordinance, then thou shalt also judge My house, and shalt also keep My courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these who stand by.
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, as a true witness of God, and if thou wilt keep my charge, performing every part of the law with due faithfulness,
— then thou shalt also judge my house (the Father’s house), have charge of the Lord’s Temple, and shalt also keep my courts, in observing every provision of all the Law concerning worship, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by;
“Thus says the Lord of Hosts: If you will walk in the ways that are right before Me, and if you will keep the charge of My word, then you also shall judge those who minister in My Temple, and you shall guard My courtyard, and I will bring you among those who stand here, and I will give you attendants who walk among these ministering angels.”
8 Hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows who sit before thee; for they are men wondered at. For behold, I will bring forth My Servant the Branch.
— hear now, O Joshua the high priest, thou and thy fellows that sit before thee, his fellow-priests; for they are men wondered at, literally, “men of wonder are they,” that is, men about whom one might marvel;
— for, behold, I the Father, will bring forth my Servant, the branch, the Son, Cf Jeremiah 23:5-6; Isaiah 11:1. This Branch, of whom the priests of the Old Testament were but types, is the Servant of God in a most singular sense, who was to carry out the will of God concerning the redemption of the world. Cf Isaiah 53;
— the Targum identifies the Branch as the Messiah, says
“Now hear, Joshua the High Priest, you and your companions who sit before you—they are worthy men for whom miracles will be performed—for behold, I am bringing My servant, the Messiah, and he shall be revealed.”
9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua: upon one stone shall be seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave the engraving thereof,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
— for behold the stone that the Father have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes, also seven spirits, the number of perfection, would be directed upon him, the loving care of Yehovah being indicated, as he observes his people, the believers in him;
— the seven eyes parallel the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars of Revelation 5:
“And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and the four living beings, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.” Revelation 5:6
10 In that day,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig tree.’” — in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbor under the vine and under the fig-tree,
— inviting him in Godly fellowship, doing Godly-work in calling others to enjoy the blessings of the kingdom of God. We thus have the entire plan of God in his seven thousand years plan outline in this one vision, a Godly message which might well be heeded by all men in our days.
Zechariah 4
1 And the angel who talked with me came again and waked me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep, — and the Angel that talked with me (identified earlier as the Son in chapter 1);
— he who intercedes between the Father and man in making known the message concerning the future, came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep; the Angel had evidently left Zechariah for a short while and now returned for the purpose of interceding further visions.
2 and said unto me, “What seest thou?” And I said, “I have looked and behold, a candlestick all of gold with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps which are upon the top thereof;
— and said unto Zechariah, What seest thou? thus calling the prophet’s attention to a new vision, whereas in the other instances Zechariah had asked for information. And Zechariah said, he have looked, he was even then observing very closely;
— and behold a candlestick, a menorah, all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, a round vessel, or reservoir, for oil, and his seven lamps thereon and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof, the candlestick in general being formed after that in the Tabernacle, Exodus 25:31-37;
3 and two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.” — and two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left, this being a new feature, indicating the source of the oil for the lamps.
4 So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, “What are these, my lord?” — so Zechariah answered, and spoke to the angel that talked with him, saying,
— What are these, my lord (‘āḏôn)? Zechariah could not quite grasp the significance of it all, as if he thought as one who has just wakened out of his sleep, not realizing he was speaking to the Son, but just an angel;
— second, a further possibility is that the emphasis of the Son is to be shifted away from that of an interceder to that of Zerubbabel, the governor, the builder and the finisher for the building of the Temple of God.
5 Then the angel who talked with me answered and said unto me, “Knowest thou not what these be?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
— the angel that was surprised that a man of Judah, a Zechariah of priestly descent, should not find some meaning in the vision of such a candlestick. But Zechariah said, No, my lord (‘āḏôn not Yehovah יְהֹוָה so he appeared as an ordinary angel to Zechariah).
6 Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, “This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts.
— then the angel answered Zechariah, saying, This is the word of the Lord (יְהֹוָה) unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, that is, the force of armies, nor by power, namely, that of any earthly agency, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts;
— the candlestick of the Tabernacle was a type of the congregation of Israel, which was supposed to be a light shining in the darkness of the world. Its oil was a type of the holy spirits, and the high priests of the Covenant received the strength for the performance of the duties of their office from the Spirit symbolized in the light of the great candlestick;
— moreover, Zerubbabel, the governor of the people, was to be informed that the great work which he was to perform could be carried on only through the spirit of the Lord.
The Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is prophetically refered to the Anointed (Messiah)
7 Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’” — this phase “0 great mountain” only used once in the Bible;
— who art thou, 0 great mountain? the building of the Temple being thus represented. Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, he would easily overcome all the difficulties connected with the completion of this momentous work;
— and the angel shall bring forth the headstone thereof, the uppermost stone of its walls, the headstone in the building up of his church, fulfilled only by the Messiah;
— with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it! that is, May God grant grace to this stone and to the building which it represents, so that it may stand forever!
The Targum indeed paraphrases the ending words thus,
“What are you, foolish kingdom, before Zerubbabel? Behold, you will become as a plain, and he shall reveal his Anointed [or the Messiah], whose name is said from eternity, and he shall rule over all kingdoms;” Zechariah 4:7 Jonathan
— thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Messiah, the Son whose name is said from eternity. A man like Cyrus or Josiah may be anointed, but neither of their names could have come from eternity, nor could any of these men rule all nations, except the Son of God. (Ezra, the one who inspires the translationof the Sacred Text into the Targum, also knows about Zerubbabel being the Messiah!).
8 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.
“The hands of Zerubbabel began to build this house and his hands shall complete it, and you shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to prophesy to you.”
— thus together with Zechariah 4:7Targum it testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent from God, the Father; hence Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah;
— the hands of Zerubbabel, the Messiah, have laid the foundation of this house during his first coming, his hands shall also finish it, whence it follows that the entire situation has a deeper significance than that of a mere earthly Temple, namely, that the Lord, in the Word that was made flesh, was coming to complete the Temple of the Kingdom of God;
Remember, laying side by side along with the Masoretic Text, the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and Persia, these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Hebrew Text quoted.
10 For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.”
— for who hath despised the day of small things? It seemed indeed that the days in which the original church was then of insignificant things, only 12 disciples living in deepest poverty and contempt; yet those days were the forerunners of the most momentous period in the history of the world;
— for they, the people concerned, shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, as the chief builder of the spiritual Temple, with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth, Cf Zechariah 3:9;
— but if the eyes of God’s majesty rest upon this building with such evident joy and satisfaction, it surely must be a Temple of the greatest importance; “the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven” and these seven are “the seven eyes of the Lord” which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; Revelations 5:6;
“For who is he who despises this day of smallness? Behold, he shall yet return and rejoice when he sees the plumb‑stone in the hand of Zerubbabel — these seven tiers — before the Lord, who sees the deeds of human beings throughout all the earth.”
— only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord “which run to and fro through the whole earth,” thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is a Devine Being, the Son of God, the Messiah.
11 Then answered I and said unto him, “What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof?”
— then Zechariah asked the angel, What are these two olive-trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? The candlestick was in the center with its arms extended on either side.
12 And I answered again and said unto him, “What be these two olive branches, which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves?”
— Septuagint, and Zechariah asked again, What be these two olive-branches, literally, “ears,” because they were bunched to resemble ears of grain, which through the two golden pipes, so that the oil was fed directly from the trees into the pipes connecting with the reservoir of the candlestick.
13 And he answered me and said, “Knowest thou not what these be?” And I said, “No, my lord.”
14 Then said he, “These are the two anointed ones, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”
— then said the angel, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the Lord of the whole earth as his servants; these are probably the two witnesses of Revelation 11:
3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the God of the earth. Revelation 11:3-4
— anointed by God for the performance of witnessing to the whole world for the work of perfecting the Kingdom of God;
— the meaning for our day is clear; the saints with the spirits of God are the Lord’s candlesticks, Matthew 5:14, and therefore has a great and important duty to fulfil in this world. This duty may not be performed by the power and might of mere men, but solely through the spirits of the Lord to his two specially anointed.
China now leads the world in nearly 90% of the “critical technologies” that can significantly boost or endanger national interests, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s latest Critical Technology Tracker report.
In ASPI’s five-year window covering 2020–24, China ranked first in 66 of 74 technologies, including national-power staples such as nuclear energy, synthetic biology and small satellites. The United States led in the remaining eight areas, including quantum computing and geoengineering, the report shows.
Published on December 1, ASPI’s report also highlights concentrated risk in several newly added fields where China holds a clear lead, including cloud and edge computing, computer vision (an artificial intelligence field that enables computers to see, interpret and understand images and video), generative AI and grid integration technologies, some of which are rated as carrying a high “technology monopoly risk.”
On the same day, the ASPI published another report titled “How China’s new AI systems are reshaping human rights,” accusing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of using large language models (LLMs) and other AI systems to automate censorship, enhance surveillance and pre-emptively suppress dissent.
“China’s extensive AI-powered visual surveillance systems are already well documented,” said the report. “Those practices directly implicate the right to freedom of expression and the right to seek, receive and impart information, including access to accurate contextual information rather than only the absence of prohibited content.”
“Chinese models such as Baidu’s Ernie Bot, Alibaba’s Qwen, Zhipu AI’s GLM and DeepSeek’s VL2 are capable of analysing both text and images. When tested on photographs of events such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, the Hong Kong 2019 protests and rallies supporting Uyghurs and Tibetans, those models frequently refused to respond, omitted sensitive details or restated official narratives.”
The report said such patterns reflect state regulations requiring AI systems to conform to “core socialist values” and to avoid outputs that “harm the national image.” The study said that the CCP expanded advanced AI use most rapidly between 2023 and 2025 in four areas:
AI-driven censorship of politically sensitive images
Integration of AI into policing and the criminal justice system
Industrial-scale control and management of online information
Overseas deployment of AI-enabled platforms by Chinese companies
Taken together, the report said these trends show AI being embedded across domains to strengthen Beijing’s ability to shape information, behavior and economic outcomes at home and abroad.
The release of ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker and its analysis of China’s AI development was soon followed by the Australian government’s December 2 announcement of its National AI Plan, which emphasised security, risk management and resilience as AI capabilities advance.
“The Department of Home Affairs, the National Intelligence Community and law enforcement agencies will continue efforts to mitigate the most serious risks posed by AI proactively,” the National AI Plan said.
“Australia welcomes global investment to support local capability to build resilience in our AI, data infrastructure and energy sectors, while some investments may be subject to Australia’s foreign investment framework to ensure they are not contrary to the national interest and national security,” it added.
Anti-China narratives
It is not the first time ASPI has highlighted China’s rapid technological rise.
In 2023, the institute said China led 37 of 44 key technologies, including hypersonic missiles, AI, drones and electric batteries. It also ranked China first in defense- and space-related research and said the country was strong in areas such as advanced materials, 5G and 6G, clean energy technologies and synthetic biology.
Last year’s tracker showed China leading in 57 of 64 technologies during 2019–2023, compared with just three during 2003–2007. The ASPI said there was a high risk of Beijing securing a monopoly on defense-related tech, including drones, satellites and collaborative robots, which can work alongside humans.
In recent years, Chinese media and commentators have repeatedly accused ASPI of deliberately promoting a “China threat” narrative, saying the Critical Technology Tracker was designed to cast China in a hostile light.
“ASPI is a notorious anti-China think tank that has long been keen on promoting anti-China narratives,” Zhang Jingjuan, a columnist at Guancha.cn, says in an article. “By hyping China’s lead across most advanced technologies, it is pushing the US, the United Kingdom and Australia to deepen security cooperation with Japan and South Korea to counter so-called technology monopoly risks.”
She says ASPI’s report focuses on technologies with military applications, claiming China ranks first in areas such as radar, satellite navigation and drones, and uses these claims to justify more substantial security alignment under frameworks such as AUKUS.
“What Australia is doing toward China is a manufactured scare campaign, and it is ASPI that has orchestrated it. Through a series of reports, ASPI insists on portraying China as a threat in military, technological and cyber domains, misleading the government into increasing defense spending and adjusting its China policy,” says a Zhejiang-based commentator writing under the pen name “Copper Pea.”
“Public information shows that about 57% of ASPI’s funding comes from defense contractors such as the United States’ Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and the UK’s BAE Systems,” he says.
“These companies are not charities. They fund ASPI so that its reports and policy advice align with their interests. In simple terms, ASPI functions more like a mouthpiece for weapon sellers and government agendas than a neutral research institution.”
He said Australia faces a dilemma, with economic dependence on China alongside security reliance on the US, but portraying China as a threat is unfair.
Japan-Australia defense cooperation
ASPI’s warning about China’s growing AI strength landed at a sensitive strategic moment, coming days before Washington released its National Strategy Report on December 4. That document called on the Quad (the United States, Japan, India and Australia) to deepen coordination to counter what it described as mounting threats from China.
On December 8, ASPI published a separate report titled “Japan-Australia defense cooperation in the Pacific: the case for a partial division of labour,” calling for closer coordination between Canberra and Tokyo to protect key sea lines of communication linking the two countries.
The report said Australia and Japan should split responsibilities in the Pacific during a conflict to protect shared sea routes, arguing this would deter China as the US focuses on fighting Beijing. It said Japan would prioritize Micronesia, Australia would focus on Polynesia and the two would share responsibilities in Melanesia, including Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
“ASPI’s latest report urges Japan and Australia to charge to the front lines for US interests by turning Pacific island countries into a battleground for competition over so-called strategic supply chains,” says a Jiangsu-based columnist. “This is yet another clear display of ASPI’s role as an anti-China vanguard.”
“Japan and Australia’s response was less about genuine strategic coordination than political theater designed to amplify a China threat, interfere in Pacific island countries’ normal cooperation with China, and ultimately serve US strategic priorities rather than their own,” he says, adding that Japan and Australia’s eventual fate is likely to be nothing more than “cannon fodder.”
And here is a prophecy for the endtime children of Israel:
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee. Deuteronomy 28:43-45
Attributed to the prophet Zechariah, the Book of Zechariah is included in the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible. Zechariah is specific about dating his writing (520–518 BC); after Ezekiel and Jeremiah who wrote before the fall of Jerusalem ande continuing to prophesy in the early exile period.
Freedom eventually did come to many Jews when Cyrus the Great conquered the Babylonians in 539 BC; and a year later, the famous Edict of Cyrus was released, and the first return took place under Sheshbazzar. After the death of Cyrus in 530 BC, Darius consolidated power and took office in 522 BC; and Zechariah’s prophetic career began during Darius’ reign where he wrote the book that bears his name.
Zechariah 1
1 In the eighth month in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying, — in the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, that is, in the year 520 BC;
— in the second year of Darius I: king of Persia; not Darius, son of Ahasuerus, the Mede, who conquered the Babylonian empire in 539 BC at 62 of age; but this is Darius the son of Hystaspes:
— came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah; that is, “the word of prophecy from before the Lord” as the Targum paraphrases it; which came to him, either in a dream or in a vision;
2 “The Lord hath been sorely displeased with your fathers. — displeased or wrathful with your fathers before the Lord as the Targum says, who lived before and during the destruction of the city of Jerusalem and which was manifest by their captivity;
— all of which were occasioned by their sins, which they provoked the Lord to anger; and this is mentioned as a caution to their children that they may not follow their example and incur similar wraths and displeasure.
The Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us from the verses quoted.
3 Therefore say thou unto them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye unto Me,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and I will turn unto you,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — thus “saith the Lord of hosts” repeated three times for emphasis;
— therefore say thou unto them, Turn ye unto Me, return to My worship/service, saith the Lord, a most impressive call to the children of the former trespassers to repent. and I will turn unto you.
4 Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings.’ But they did not hear, nor hearken unto Me, saith the Lord.
— be ye not as your fathers, those before the exile, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Turn ye now from your evil ways and from your evil doings;
5 Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever? — your fathers and the prophets, where are they? do they live forever? The former members of Israel and Judah had perished, as God had said;
— and if the people should say that the prophets also were dead, the Lord would remind them of the fact that His words, as spoken through these prophets are not dead, but would be fulfilled.
6 But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they returned and said, ‘As the Lord of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us.’”
— but my words and my statutes which I commanded my prophets, that they should proclaim them, threatening of punishment in case of disobedience, did they not take hold of your fathers?
— the prophesied punishments having overtaken them like swift messengers. And they, the fathers before the exile, returned and said, in acknowledging their afflictions as the result of their wickedness,
“But the words and decrees that I commanded through My servants the prophets surely overtook your fathers, and they turned and said: ‘Just as the Lord of Hosts planned to do to us according to our ways and deeds, so He has done with us.’”
7 Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo the prophet, saying:
— upon the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, five months after the building of the Temple had been resumed, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying,
8 I saw by night, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom; and behind him were there red horses, speckled, and white.
— Zechariah saw by night in a night vision, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, the color of war and bloodshed; and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in the bottom, most likely by the “myrtle trees” may mean the Israelites;
— or by a valley in the neighborhood of Jerusalem; and behind him were red horses, speckled, or patches of bay and ohers, the color of fire and flames and burning, and white, in this connection the color of victory;
— after released from captivity, the Jews were now in a very low estate, like a grove of myrtle trees in a bottom, so a man riding upon a red horse is still on top of the Jews; but who is he?
“I saw in the night: behold, a man riding on a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees in Babylon, and behind him were red, spotted, and white horses.”
— the Targum interpretes the myrtle trees as located “in Babylon;” by specifying Babylon, this ties the vision directly to the exilic setting. The man on the red horse is later explained (vv 9–11) as a divine messenger, with the horses symbolizing God’s agents who patrol the earth.
9 Then said I, “O my lord, what are these?” And the angel that talked with me said unto me, “I will show thee what these be.”
— then Zechariah asked, O my lord (H113 ‘āḏôn), what are these? And the angel that talked with him said unto him, ‘I will show thee what these be,’ for the Lord wanted Zechariah to know the meaning of the vision in order that he might reveal it to others;
— my lord (H113 ‘āḏôn); this angel “that talked with me” a messenger for God; could he be revealed as the Son of God if verses 19 and 20 below be linked together? It should be linked together because v19 is a question and v20 is a continuation of the the angel’s answer by showing him four carpenters, who is revealed as the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה)!
10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, “These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro throughout the earth.”
— and the man that stood among the myrtle trees, the first angel answered and said, ‘These are they whom the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה) hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth,’ to find out how matters stood everywhere.
11 And they answered the angel of the Lord who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, “We have walked to and fro throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest.”
— and they, the host of angels answered the angel that stood among the myrtle trees (probably Michael the archangel, since he is the chief of the angels), and said, ‘We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still and is at rest,’
— the great commotion among the nations, of which the prophet Haggai had spoken, 2:7-8, had not yet begun, that is, the time for the Messiah to appear in the flesh had not yet come, a statement which naturally had a most depressing effect upon the Jews. But the Lord has a word of comfort ready for them.
7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory,’ saith the Lord of hosts.
8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ saith the Lord of hosts.
12 Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?”
— as the seventy years of the exile seemed extended, as though the affliction of the captivity would never end; then the angel (mal’āḵ; probably Michael) of the Lord asked the second person of the Godhead, the Son, who is One who talked with the prophet Zechariah;
— “O Lord of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah?” the archangel Michael asked the Son (also call the Lord) who normally intercedes between Jerusalem/Judah and the Father; He, the Son, identified later as the Messiah, was already doing the job of a High Priest, interceding between the Father and man.
13 And the Lord answered the angel who talked with me, with good words and comforting words. — and the Lord the Father answered the Son that talked with Zechariah with good and comfortable words, words of prophecy and foresight, which was to pass immediately on to the congregation of Israel.
14 So the angel who communed with me said unto me, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
— so the Angel (mal’āḵ; probablythe Son) that communed with Zechariah, He who had first been given an understanding of the Father’s intentions as expressed in the vision, said unto Zechariah, “Cry thou, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ‘I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.’
“And the angel who was speaking with me said to me: ‘Prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord of Hosts— I am restoring Jerusalem, and for Zion I have great zeal.’”
15 And I am very sorely displeased with the heathen [nations] who are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.’
— and the Lord the Father was very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease, believing that they had been permanently victorious over the Jews; for the Father was but a little displeased, as his punishment went out upon his people for seventy years;
“I am exceedingly angry at the nations who dwell at ease, for when I was only a little angry with My people, they helped to make the disaster worse.”
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord: ‘I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem.’
— thus the Father saith, ‘I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies,’ for he had withheld them from his people for a time in order to punish them, but now he was once more ready to accept his repentant children;
— ‘my house shall be built in it,’ namely, the Temple, the Father’s house as the seat of the Lord’s merciful presence in the midst of his congregation, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem, in this case the builder’s line signifying the rebuilding of the city.
— throughout the Scriptures the Son has never lay claim that the Temple is his house; it is “My Father’s house” John 2:16.
17 Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘My cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.’”
— cry yet, saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad, overflowing with abundant growth as a stream overflows its banks; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion,’ and shall yet choose Jerusalem.
18 Then I lifted up mine eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. — then, after the first vision had fully come to an end, Zechariah lifted his eyes and saw, in a second distinct vision, four horns, the common Scriptural symbol of strength.
19 And I said unto the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
— and Zechariah said unto the Son (maybe Michael or one of the lesser angels; but the next verse indentifies him as the Son) that talked with him, What be these? And the Son answered Zechariah, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Jerusalem and Israel;
— the four horns represent the imperial powers that scattered not just Judah, but specially mentions Israel, setting the stage for the vision of their eventual downfall; these are the nations that scattered the twelve tribes!
20 And the Lord (יְהוָה) showed me four carpenters. — and the Lord (H3068 יְהוָה; finally this ‘Angel’ is no ordinary angel but revealed himself as יְהוָה YHVH, the Son (he is the second Yehovah);
— the Son of God also carries the name יְהוָה Yehovah; he showed Zechariah four carpenters, rather, four craftsmen in iron, four smiths; or four craftsmen;
— the Son of God also moves around the heavens carrying messages for God the Father;
Exodus 23:20-21 “Behold, I (the Father) send an Angel (the Son) before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of Him (the Son) and obey His voice; do not provoke Him (the Son, Yeshua), for He will not pardon your transgressions; for My name יְהוָה is in Him (hence Yehovah’s name, יְהוָה, is also in the Son;
Targum Exodus 23:20 Behold, I will send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee in to the place of My habitation which I have prepared. 21 Be circumspect before Him, and obey His word, and be not rebellious against His words; for He will not forgive your sins, because His word is in My Name.
22 For if thou wilt indeed hearken to His Word, and do all that I speak by Him, I will be the enemy of thy enemy, and will trouble them who trouble thee. Exodus 23:20-22 Jonathan
— even the Targum has the ‘Angel’ and ‘Him’ capitalized; recognizing that that this is no ordinary angel, but could only be the Son of God, who later came to earth as Yeshua (or more commonly known as Jesus, is also Yehovah “for My name (that is, יְהוָה), is in Him.”
21 Then said I, “What come these to do?” And he spoke, saying, “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head; but these [the four craftsmen] have come to frighten them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles who lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.”
— then said Zechariah, ‘What come these to do? What was the object in introducing them into the picture?’ And He (the Son, יְהוָה) spoke, saying, ‘These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head,’ being altogether discouraged; but these are come to fray them, to terrify the great powers of evil;
— the “four horns” = these are, first the Babylonians; second, the Medes and Persians; third, the Greeks; and the fourth, the Romans. Others, perhaps the Turks and Muslims; and perhaps the Russians and Chinese, or even the Latinos? or the number four may just point to Judah’s enemies coming from the four directions of the earth;
— the four craftsmen (perhaps these may be the Russians and Chinese, and the Spanish/Latinos?) to cast out the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah and Israel to scatter them. It has always been a nature of the Lord to use one nation; as an instruments, to punish another.
Zechariah 2
1 I lifted up mine eyes again and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. — Zechariah lifted up his eyes and saw a man with a measuring-line; or cord is used by builders and surveyors, signals construction, planning, and restoration.
2 Then said I, “Whither goest thou?” And he said unto me, “To measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof.”
— then Zechariah addressed the angel, Whither goest thou? And he replied, To measure Jerusalem, the city of God, to see what is the breadth thereof, and what is the length thereof, to get the dimensions of the city even then in existence.
3 And behold, the angel who talked with me went forth; and another angel went out to meet him — and, behold, the angel that talked with Zechariah went forth, he was removed from the scene;
— and another angel went out to meet Zechariah, the second angel in this chapter; thus meeting him who acted as interpreter,
— this Angel that talked with Zechariah was identified in this Study as the Son in the previous chapter, but the question is, is He the same as the man with a measuring line in his hand? (verse 1 above)
4 and said unto him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle therein.
— and said unto him, Run, speak to this young man, namely, Zechariah, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein, a wonderful revived city with an enlarged dimensions, the new Jerusalem with the Ezekiel’s Temple built within.
5 For I,’ saith the Lord, ‘will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.’”
— thus saith the Lord (יְהוָה), for I will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire round about, so that the city of God would be secure under the sheltering wings of his power;
— and יְהוָה will be the glory in the midst of Jerusalem, so that his blessings would rest upon the Holy City and his name be praised within her. So much being established, Zechariah is given a summary of what he should proclaim to his people of the Lord;
“And My word shall be for her, says the Lord; like a wall of fire surrounding her all around and in glory I will cause My Shekhinah to dwell within her.”
6 “Ho! Ho! Come forth, and flee from the land of the north,” saith the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven,” saith the Lord.
— ho, ho, come forth; the Targum paraphrases it, “proclaim to the dispersed:” so the Lord יְהוָה addresses his people through his servant the prophet Zechariah to flee from the land of the North, out of “Babylon” as typical of all powers of evil banded together against his people Israel;
— for I the Lord; have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, namely, in his latter-day people Israel which extends to the most remote ends of the world;
— these are spread by the “four horns” in the previous chapter = first the Babylonians; second the Persians; third the Greeks and the fourth the Romans? Perhaps others, like the Turks and Muslims; or perhaps the Russians and Chinese, or even the Latinos?
“For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven,” saith the Lord: two Parallel passages extracted from Ezekiel 6:3 and 36:4 worth a closer examination here:
— “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is concerning the desolations of the United States, United Kingdom and France;
— “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;
— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene;
— ye shall shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains; these could be their colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (US); Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands (UK); Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte, Réunion (France).
7 “Deliver thyself, O Zion, ye that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.”
— deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, or “Ho, Zion, save thyself!” the separation between the children of God and the children of the world being absolute, even if not local. Cf II Corinthians 6:17.
8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts: “After the glory hath He sent me unto the nations which despoiled you, for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of His eye. — the “me “could be the Son;
— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, ‘After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you,’ the angel of the Lord (could be the Son in this instant) being sent to the nations to get back the glory which they, by their hostile treatment of his people, had taken from him;
— for he that toucheth me toucheth the apple of his eye, so dear are the believers, the members of his elect, in the eyes of the Lord. Every adversary who dares to touch the kingdom of God and its members thereby becomes guilty of a wicked act, which grieves the Lord most deeply and he will punish them;
“For thus says the Lord of Hosts, after the glory that I have spoken to bring upon you, He has sent me against the nations who plundered you. For whoever harms you is like one who strikes his hand against the pupil of His eye.”
9 For behold, I will shake Mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants. And ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me.
— for thus saith the Lord of hosts: behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, swinging it back and forth over them in order to deliver a heavy blow, and they shall be a spoil to their servants, so that the latter become the lords of their former masters;
— and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me, yes the Son again, the Anointed, given great power and authority that through him the great Sovereign of the heavens could be carrying out his punishment upon the enemies of his saints. For this reason the people of the Lord are exhorted to sing praises to the Son; the returning Messiah.
10 “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee,” saith the Lord. — sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, or the “congregation of Zion” as the Targum paraphrases it;
— the people of Yehovah; for, lo, I come, the Messiah himself addressing those who were longing for his coming, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. This was so wonderfully fulfilled when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
11 “And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people; and I will dwell in the midst of thee. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee.
— and many nations, representatives of the various races and countries of the world, shall be joined to the Lord in that day, to be added to his elect;
— and shall be my people; and My Shekhinah will dwell in the midst of thee, in the city of God, as the Targum says,
“Many nations will join themselves to the people of the Lord in that time and they shall be a people before Me and I will cause My Shekhinah to dwell within you and you will know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to prophesy concerning you.”
12 And the Lord shall inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land, and shall choose Jerusalem again.” — and the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, so that He would possess His people, and shall choose Jerusalem again, as the place of his dwelling and of his blessing.
13 Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord, for He is raised up out of His holy habitation. — be silent, O all flesh, in a spirit of awe and reverence, before the Lord;
— for he is raised up out of his holy habitation, he is preparing to rise from his throne in heaven to visit the enemies with his righteous punishment and to lead his children to glory.
China’s testing of giant un-crewed underwater drones signals a quiet but consequential shift in maritime warfare, one that could threaten undersea cables, sensor networks and even the strategic balance across the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
This month, Naval News reported that China is testing two new models of extra‑extra‑large uncrewed underwater vehicles (XXLUUVs) in the South China Sea, systems that analysts say could give it the ability to threaten ports on the US West Coast in the event of conflict. The drones, comparable in size to conventional submarines, are believed to be diesel‑electric and capable of carrying torpedoes, sea mines, and smaller underwater vehicles.
The platforms, assessed to have operational ranges of roughly 18,520 kilometers, are being developed in secrecy at an obscure Chinese naval facility, according to open‑source analysis. Their design incorporates large battery banks and diesel generators, enabling extended submerged transit and potentially allowing them to slip through anti‑submarine defenses across the Pacific.
China’s shipyards have previously showcased experimental vessels. Still, analysts say the scale of production, the concealment of testing, and the existence of two competing XXLUUV designs indicate a competitive procurement program rather than research trials.
The drones could be used for minelaying or interdiction missions in tightly defined zones. Still, their long range suggests a strategic purpose: enabling China to project pressure far beyond East Asia, including potential blockades of US West Coast ports or the Panama Canal. Analysts say the systems may complement China’s emerging crewed submarines as PLAN seeks to expand its reach in the Pacific.
Aside from carrying mines, torpedoes or smaller underwater vehicles, China could use its XXLUUVs to attack critical undersea cables as part of a Taiwan blockade or to paralyze the US military.
Taiwan is highly susceptible to such an attack, as Jaime Ocon and Jonathan Wahlberg point out in a June 2025 article for the Global Taiwan Institute (GTI), which states that the self-governing island depends on only 24 undersea cables for internet access. Ocon and Wahlberg note that severing these cables could throw everything from banking to emergency services into disarray.
Severing Taiwan’s undersea cables could form part of an all-domain blockade by China, starving the the island of energy, food supplies, information, and depriving it of critical services, to force capitulation without firing a shot.
Beyond Taiwan, Andrew Rowlander, in a May 2025 article for the Small Wars Journal (SWJ), points out the vulnerability of the Trans-Pacific Cable (TPC) – a series of underwater cable networks linking Japan Guam, and Hawaii, with the vastness of the Pacific useful for hiding sabotage operations. A sabotage attack against the TPC could devastate the economies of Japan, Guam, and Hawaii, and significantly degrade US military command and control in the Pacific.
The modular nature of XXLUUVs could mean they could be equipped for cutting thick, armored undersea cables. In March 2025, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that China had developed a tool for cutting such cables, which, when deployed from a submersible, could operate at a depth of 4,000 meters. SCMP notes that the tool, mounted on a robotic arm, uses a diamond-coated grinding wheel spinning at 1,600 rounds per minute to shatter steel while minimizing marine sediment disturbance.
Beyond attacking undersea cables, China’s XXLUUVs could be used to attack US undersea sensor infrastructure in preparation for a naval breakout beyond the First Island Chain.
Notably, the US operates the “Fish Hook” underwater sensor network spanning Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and the Java Sea.
It is designed to detect Chinese submarines trying to break out from the First Island Chain.
China’s XXLUUVs may be used to neutralize those sensors by planting explosive charges on them or severing their cables before attempting a naval breakout into the open Pacific. A breakout by surface and submarine forces may be necessary to blockade Taiwan, interdict intervening US and allied forces, and enable open-ocean deterrent patrols by its Type 094 nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) – freeing its undersea nuclear deterrent from the constraints of a bastion strategy confined to the South China Sea.
These XXLUUVs could also extend China’s reach beyond the Pacific – specifically, into the Indian Ocean. To illustrate, Janes in March 2020 reported that China has deployed unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) in the Indian Ocean, specifically 12 Sea Wing underwater gliders that completed a hydrographic mission spanning 550 days and 12,000 kilometers.
A more capable XXLUUV could enable longer mission durations, cover greater distances, and support more types of missions. Such missions may gather crucial data for future Chinese submarine operations in the region. If the Malacca Strait—where all of China’s key sea lines of communication (SLOCs) converge and through which two-thirds of its trade and 83% of its oil imports pass—gets blockaded in a Taiwan or South China Sea contingency, China might need to find alternative routes through the Indian Ocean.
China’s Type 094-Class Nuclear Missile Submarine
Specifically, this could involve utilizing the China-funded deepwater port at Kyaukpyu in Myanmar to bypass the Malacca Strait. However, China securing its Indian Ocean SLOCs and Kyaukpyu might put it up against India. In turn, India might be concerned about strategic encirclement from China and its partners, Myanmar, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Indian Navy Rear Admiral Monty Khanna states in an August 2024 Proceedings article that the spread of Chinese-made submarines and their support infrastructure in the Indian Ocean by regional countries such as Myanmar, Pakista, and Bangladesh could eventually enable China’s submarines to conduct missions in the Indian Ocean.
Besides neutralizing undersea cables and sensors and expanding China’s reach into the Indian Ocean, its XXLUUVs could theoretically serve as an alternative nuclear delivery system designed to bypass US missile defenses by approaching targets from underwater, echoing the logic behind Russia’s nuclear-powered Poseidon system.
Yet this concept offers limited strategic value. While an undersea route circumvents missile defenses, such systems are far slower than ballistic missiles. They are restricted mainly to coastal targets, and poorly suited to time-sensitive escalation control.
China already possesses faster, more flexible nuclear options—such as the DF-41 ICBM, which can reportedly reach the US mainland in roughly 30 minutes. In contrast, a large XXLUUV launched from Chinese waters could take days or even weeks to arrive, potentially detonating long after an initial nuclear exchange had concluded.
This limitation can relegate nuclear-armed underwater drones to a deep second or third-strike “insurance” role rather than a usable deterrent or escalation tool, offering revenge rather than leverage in a high-end conflict.
“The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle” Psalm 78:9
Haggai, was among the last of the prophets, together with Zechariah and Malachi; but Haggai’s prophecy about Zerubbabel the governor of Judah and Joshua the high priest set the intriguing scenes of a prophetic endtime; especially their call to rebuild the Temple.
The hand of Zerubbabel with those seven eyes of the Lord which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth to and fro into all the earth.
That is, only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord, which are all holy, “which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Thus the Scriptures testify that Zerubbabel has God’s spirits, or holy spirits; or Holy Spirits, seven of them, ore seven eyes, all from the Father. Selah!
Haggai 1
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
— in the second year of Darius, king of Persia, the year 520 BC in the first day of the sixth month, a feast of the new moon, the month Elul, that is, of the Jewish Sacred year, came the word of the Lord to Haggai, the prophet unto Zerubbabel the governor, and to Joshua the high priest, Cf Ezra 3:2, saying,
— today, we have repudiated God’s way of numbering months that he has given us but adopted a system to honor the host of heaven with a pagan-named week and a paganised monthly calendar; hence we have Covid and yet not realizing what is happening (more at the end);
“Seek the fear of the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s anger.”
2 “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying: This people say, ‘The time has not come, the time that the Lord’S house should be built.’”
— thus said the Lord, saying, This people say, ‘The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built,’ it was not a time fit and convenient to carry on such a building effort; that being showing their ingratitude and the lame excuse with which the people tried to cover their indifference for they had allowed themselves to drift along.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 “Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceilinged houses, and this house lie waste?” — Is It time for you, O ye, to dwell in your panelled houses, for yourselves to dwell in the most expensive manner, showing that they lived not only in comfort, but in luxury,
— and this house of God to lie in waste? since it had never gotten beyond the foundations, only the altar of burnt offerings standing on the top of Moriah;
“Is it fitting for you that you dwell in houses, paneled with cedar boards, while this Temple lies in ruins?”
5 Now therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! — thus saith the Lord, Consider your ingratitudes, and reflect seriously on your priorities;
— “Set your hearts upon your ways,” contemplating the consequences of your bad behavior and upon the manner in which the Lord would have make judgement on your self-indulgence.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe yourselves, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”
— you have sown much, but bring in little, the harvest being small in spite of all their efforts; ye eat, but ye have not enough, they were not really satisfied in spite of their abundance; ye drink but ye are still thirsty;
—ye clothe yourselves; but there is no warm; and he that earn wages earn wages to put it Into a bag with holes, that is, they found themselves unable to buy much; all these indicate that there could be no real prosperity without the blessing of the Lord.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! — thus saith the Lord, Consider your ways, think them over very carefully, for the matter is urgent;
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” saith the Lord.
— Go up to the mountain, to the great forests of Lebanon, to cut down cedars, and bring them from thence for the building of the temple; and bring wood, timber for building;
— and build the house; and the Lord of hosts will take pleasure in, glad to regard it as the house where he might be worshiped, and the Lord will be glorified, receiving the honor which was due to him, causing his Shekinah to dwell in the Temple with glory as the Targum says.
9 “Ye looked for much, and lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I blew upon it. Why?” saith the Lord of hosts. “Because of Mine house that is laid waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
— Ye looked for much, expecting still greater crops and a corresponding prosperity, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, believing that at least the little which they had gotten was safe, the Lord did blow upon it, thus dissipating and scattering it; as the Targum interprets it, “behold, I sent a curse upon it:”
“You looked for much, but behold it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of Hosts. Because My Temple lies in ruins, while each of you runs to his own house.”
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. — therefore the heaven withhold its dew over the earth, the moisture necessary to insure a full crop with a good harvest.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labor of the hands.”
— and the Lord of hosts called for a drought upon the land, upon the cultivated fields and upon the mountains, with their rich meadows and upon the corn, the grain products;
— and upon the new wine and upon the oil, all the chief products of the country; and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattle and upon all the labor of the hands, his blessing being withheld from all animate and inanimate beings. This earnest rebuke was heeded by the people;
“And I called for a drought upon the land, upon the mountains, upon the grain, upon the wine, upon the oil, upon all that the ground produces, upon man, upon beast, and upon all the labor of hands.”
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared before the Lord.
— then Zerubbabel the governor, and Joshua the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, all the rest of the returned exiles;
— obeyed the voice of the Lord and the words of Haggai as the Lord had sent him, considering them as coming from the Lord himself and the people did fear the Lord with reverence and awe;
“And Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, and all the remnant of the people, listened to the voice of the Lord their God and to the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared before the Lord.”
13 Then spoke Haggai, the Lord’S messenger, in the Lord’S message unto the people, saying, “I am with you, saith the Lord.”
— as the people showed such obvious signs of repentance, Haggai spoke unto the people, saying, the Lord is with you, he has accepted your repentance as genuine and acted accordingly.
14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and began work on the house of the Lord of hosts their God,
— and the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest and all the remnant of the people and they came and worked; they took steps to continue the building operations in the house of the Lord;
“And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did the work in the Temple of the Lord of Hosts, their God.”
15 on the four and twentieth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king. — in the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, twenty-three days after the first message of Haggai;
— in the second year of Darius, the king, the people were filled with the spirit of repentance and of the fear of the Lord and they took up the work which the Lord has entrusted them, marking the shift from neglect and indifference to obedience and restoration.
~~~
More about today’s Repudiation of God’s Sacred Calendar and Adopting a Paganised calendar:
— Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;
— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;
— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;
Could we think we can get away from His wrath and judgement by repudiating His Word and His Calendar; adopping paganisation and get away with impunity?
Haggai 2
1 In the seventh month, on the one and twentieth day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, — toward the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles;
— after a short time after the construction of the Temple had resumed in the seventh month, month Tisri, in the twenty-first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by the word of prophecy to Haggai, as the Targum says;
2 “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the residue of the people, saying:
3 ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in her first glory? And how do ye see it now? Is this not in your eyes by comparison with it as nothing?
— Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory? the Temple of Solomon with its almost unequaled rich ornamentation. And how do ye see it now? What impression did this second Temple make upon them as they observed it?
— it appears by this question of the prophet, that some of the Jews there present had seen the former Temple when young, before they were carried to Babylon, and could remember what a magnificent building it was. Is it not in your eyes as nothing? that is, in comparison of the former; as seen from Ezra 3:12;
4 Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel,’ saith the Lord; ‘and be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land,’ saith the Lord, ‘and work, for I am with you,’ saith the Lord of hosts.
— and now, be strong, O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord of hosts, filled with reassuring comfort; and be strong, O Joshua, the high priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith the Lord, all filled with the same reassurance and work to complete the erection of the Temple; for the Lord be with you;
5 ‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you. Fear ye not.’
— according to the word that the Lord of hosts covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, when Israel was formally accepted as Yehovah’s people in the great assembly at Mount Sinai, so the Lord remaineth among you, to strengthen them for the successful conclusion of their work. Do not fear!
6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea and the dry land.
— for thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once more, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land;”
— as in Joel 3:16, “the earth will shake” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.
7 And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory,’ saith the Lord of hosts.
— and the Lord of hosts will shake all nations, that is, every nation will be having a Mount Sinai experience as the Israelite had, all of them being drawn into this agitation, and the Desire of all nations, the long-expected Messiah shall come; and the Lord will fill this house, now so lowly and unpretentious, with glory.
8 ‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ saith the Lord of hosts. — the silver and the gold all belong to the Lord of hosts, for which reason it would be a small matter for Him to fill any mere earthly house with ornamentation and treasures beyond the dreams of avarice.
9 ‘The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former,’ saith the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place will I give peace,’ saith the Lord of hosts.”
— the glory of this latter house, of the Millenium shall be greater than of that of Solomon’s, saith the Lord of hosts; and in this place will he give peace, namely, the peace of the redemption gained by the promised Messiah.
10 In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
— in the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, the month Chisleu, a little more than two months later, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the Lord by Haggai, saying,
11 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,
12 ‘If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt toucheth bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy?’” And the priests answered and said, “No.”
— if one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, namely, the meat of sacrifices which had been offered, and with his skirt do touch bread or pottage, any of the holy food that was sodden, or wine or oil or any meat, such as was used in offering sacrifices or in connection with sacrificial meals, shall it be holy?
— and the priests answered and said, No. This was in agreement with the Law, Leviticus 6:20-27; for though the garment itself was sanctified by such consecrated food, it could impart no holiness to one who, by neglecting the will of the Lord, had become unholy.
13 Then said Haggai, “If one who is unclean from a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean?” And the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.”
— then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body, by touching a corpse, touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean, again in perfect agreement with the Law and Ordinances established since the days of Moses, Leviticus 22:4; Numbers 5:2, 9:10.
14 Then answered Haggai and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ saith the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclean.
“Then Haggai answered and said: So is this people, and so is this nation before Me, says the Lord; and so is every work of their hands, and whatever they offer there—it is defiled.”
— Rashi: So is this people: Just as you err in this, so do you err in many halachot (‘Jewish’ Laws and Ordinances established since the days of Moses);
— and that which they offer there is unclean: because the children of Israel were in disgrace because of their neglect to finish the house of the Lord, and though their land was holy land, consecrated to the Lord;
— yet its fruits found no favor in his eyes and could not serve to make the people clean by a mere outward service, as long as their hearts were not in the right relation to him, so that they were constrained to give him the worship which lie desired.
15 And now, I pray you, consider from this day and upward, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord:
— and now, I pray you, pay close attention, reflect, consider from this day and upward, by applying their hearts to this problem, from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the Temple of the Lord, before its reconstruction was resumed.
16 Since those days were, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were but ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, there were but twenty.
— since before those days where they set their heart before God, when one came to an heap of twenty measures, a stack of sheaves which promised a yield of twenty bushels or pecks, there were but ten;
— and when one came to the press-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press, thinking that the harvest should have brought that much, there were only twenty.
17 I smote you with blight and with mildew and with hail in all the labors of your hands; yet ye turned not to Me,’ saith the Lord.
— the Lord smote you with blasting, with blight of the fruits and grains, and with mildew, from excessive moisture, and with hail in all the labors of your hands, yet ye turned not to the Lord.
18 ‘Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’S temple was laid, consider it:
— consider now from this day onward, applying their hearts to the consideration of that which pertained to their best interests, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s Temple was laid.
19 Is the seed yet in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree hath not brought forth. From this day will I bless you.’”
— Is the seed still in the barn? Yea, as yet the vine and the fig-tree and the pomegranate and the olive-tree hath not brought forth, the results of their former lack of zeal were still in evidence; from this day will the Lord bless you;
— times would now change, since they were showing evidence of the change which had come over their hearts. If men turn to the Lord in true repentance, he has turned from scarcity to blessing, tied to the act of rebuilding the Temple.
20 And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four and twentieth day of the month, saying, — and in the twenty-fourth day of the month, this being a second oracle on the same day, saying,
21 “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: ‘I will shake the heavens and the earth.
— speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, in a message of encouragement which was nevertheless intended for the entire assembly of returned exiles, the Lord will shake the heavens and the earth, setting their machinery in motion in the interest of his plans for his people;
— as in Joel 3:16, and Haggai 2:6 above, “and I will shake the heavens and the earth” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.
22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them, and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
— and the Lord of hosts will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, all the world-powers opposed to his reign and he will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen, all the forces of evil that are opposed to the Kingdom of God;
— and the Lord will overthrow the chariots, the leaders of the hostile forces; and the horses and their riders shall be overthrown and destroyed, everyone by the sword of his brother; the fact that the enemies are often not at peace among themselves, but turn their weapons against one another;
“I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations; I will overturn chariots and their riders, and horses and their riders shall fall, each by the sword of his brother.”
23 In that day,’ saith the Lord of hosts, ‘will I take thee, O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ saith the Lord, ‘and will make thee as a signet; for I have chosen thee,’ saith the Lord of hosts.”
— on that day, the Lord God will take thee, O Zerubbabel, my servant, and will make thee as a signet, a very precious possession in the eyes of its Oriental possessor; for the Lord have chosen thee;
— the fulfilment of this prophecy is found in the Messiah, the son of David for he established the Kingdom of His father David in a most unique manner, as a spiritual rule and reign, which is to last throughout eternity. Cf Luke 1:32-33. The Targum says of Zerubbabel: “for in thee I am well pleased;”
“On that day, says the Lord of Hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant, says the Lord, and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you, says the Lord of Hosts.”
~~~~~ More on Zerubbabel ~~~~~
~~~ the Anointed with a Special Signet ~~~
More on Zerubbabel, from Zechariah 4; establishing Zerubbabel as the Messiah
7 Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain; and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’”
— who art thou, 0 great mountain? the building of the Temple being thus represented. Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, he would easily overcome all the difficulties connected with the completion of this momentous work;
— and the angel shall bring forth the headstone thereof, the uppermost stone of its walls, the headstone in the building up of his church, fulfilled only by the Messiah;
— with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it! that is, May God grant grace to this stone and to the building which it represents, so that it may stand forever!
The Targum indeed paraphrases the ending words thus,
“What are you, foolish kingdom, before Zerubbabel? Behold, you will become as a plain, and he shall reveal his Anointed [or the Messiah], whose name is said from eternity, and he shall rule over all kingdoms;” Zechariah 4:7 Jonathan
— thus the Targum testifies that Zerubbabel is prophetically the Messiah, the Son whose name is said from eternity. A man like Cyrus or Josiah may be anointed, but neither of their names could have come from eternity, nor could any of these men rule all nations, except the Son of God. (Ezra, the one who inspires the translationof the Sacred Text into the Targum, also knows about Zerubbabel being the Messiah!).
8 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.
“The hands of Zerubbabel began to build this house and his hands shall complete it, and you shall know that the Lord of Hosts has sent me to prophesy to you.”
— thus together with Zechariah 4:7Targum it testifies that Zerubbabel is one sent from God, the Father; hence Zerubbabel is the Son of God, the Messiah;
— the hands of Zerubbabel, the Messiah, have laid the foundation of this house during his first coming, his hands shall also finish it, whence it follows that the entire situation has a deeper significance than that of a mere earthly Temple, namely, that the Lord, in the Word that was made flesh, was coming to complete the Temple of the Kingdom of God;
Remember, laying side by side along with the Masoretic Text, the Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and Persia, these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Hebrew Text quoted.
10 For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Zechariah 4:10 — “the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven” and these seven are “the seven eyes of the Lord” which are also the seven spirits of God, sent forth “to and fro” into all the earth; Revelations 5:6;
— only a Divine Being could have seven eyes or seven spirits of the Lord, which are all holy, “which run to and fro through the whole earth.” Thus the Scriptures testify that Zerubbabel has God’s spirits, or holy spirits; or Holy Spirits, all from the Father. Selah!
SINGAPORE Dec 17 – In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence, smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned.
Completed in early 2025 and now undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines or EUVs, according to two people with knowledge of the project.
EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold War. They use beams of extreme ultraviolet light to etch circuits thousands of times thinner than a human hair onto silicon wafers, currently a capability monopolized by the West. The smaller the circuits, the more powerful the chips.
China’s machine is operational and successfully generating extreme ultraviolet light, but has not yet produced working chips, the people said.
In April, ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet said that China would need “many, many years” to develop such technology. But the existence of this prototype, reported by Reuters for the first time, suggests China may be years closer to achieving semiconductor independence than analysts anticipated.
Nevertheless, China still faces major technical challenges, particularly in replicating the precision optical systems that Western suppliers produce.
The availability of parts from older ASML machines on secondary markets has allowed China to build a domestic prototype, with the government setting a goal of producing working chips on the prototype by 2028, according to the two people.
But those close to the project say a more realistic target is 2030, which is still years earlier than the decade that analysts believed it would take China to match the West on chips.
The breakthrough marks the culmination of a six-year government initiative to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency, one of President Xi Jinping’s highest priorities. While China’s semiconductor goals have been public, the Shenzhen EUV project has been conducted in secret, according to the people.
The project falls under the country’s semiconductor strategy, which state media has identified as being run by Xi Jinping confidant Ding Xuexiang, who heads the Communist Party’s Central Science and Technology Commission.
Chinese electronics giant Huawei plays a key role coordinating a web of companies and state research institutes across the country involving thousands of engineers, according to the two people and a third source.
The people described it as China’s version of the Manhattan Project, the US wartime effort to develop the atomic bomb.
“The aim is for China to eventually be able to make advanced chips on machines that are entirely China-made,” one of the people said. “China wants the United States 100% kicked out of its supply chains.”
Huawei, the State Council of China, the Chinese Embassy in Washington, and China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comment.
Until now, only one company has mastered EUV technology: ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, Netherlands. Its machines, which cost around $250 million, are indispensable for manufacturing the most advanced chips designed by companies like Nvidia and AMD—and produced by chipmakers such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.
ASML built its first working prototype of EUV technology in 2001, and told Reuters it took nearly two decades and billions of euros in R&D spending before it produced its first commercially-available chips in 2019.
“It makes sense that companies would want to replicate our technology, but doing so is no small feat,” ASML told Reuters in a statement.
ASML’s EUV systems are currently available to U.S. allies including Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan.
Starting in 2018, the United States began pressuring the Netherlands to block ASML from selling EUV systems to China. The restrictions expanded in 2022, when the Biden administration imposed sweeping export controls designed to cut off China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology. No EUV system has ever been sold to a customer in China, ASML told Reuters.
The controls targeted not just EUV systems but also older deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography machines that produce less-advanced chips like Huawei’s, aiming to keep China at least a generation behind in chipmaking capabilities.
The US State Department said the Trump Administration has strengthened enforcement of export controls on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment and is working with partners “to close loopholes as technology advances.”
The Dutch Ministry of Defence said the Netherlands is developing policies requiring “knowledge institutions” to perform personnel screenings to prevent access to sensitive technology “by individuals that have ill intentions or who are at risk of being pressured.”
Export restrictions have slowed China’s progress toward semiconductor self-sufficiency for years, and constrained advanced chip production at Huawei, the two people and a third person said.
The sources spoke on condition they not be identified due to the confidentiality of the project.
CHINA’S MANHATTAN PROJECT
One veteran Chinese engineer from ASML recruited to the project was surprised to find that his generous signing bonus came with an identification card issued under a false name, according to one of the people, who was familiar with his recruitment.
Once inside, he recognized other former ASML colleagues who were also working under aliases and was instructed to use their fake names at work to maintain secrecy, the person said. Another person independently confirmed that recruits were given fake IDs to conceal their identities from other workers inside the secure facility.
The guidance was clear, the two people said: Classified under national security, no one outside the compound could know what they were building—or that they were there at all.
One team is led by Lin Nan, a former ASML engineer who is currently a professor at the School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering at Beihang University
The team includes recently retired, Chinese-born former ASML engineers and scientists—prime recruitment targets because they possess sensitive technical knowledge but face fewer professional constraints after leaving the company, the people said.
Two current ASML employees of Chinese nationality in the Netherlands told Reuters they have been approached by recruiters from Huawei since at least 2020.
European privacy laws limit ASML’s ability to track former employees. Though employees sign non-disclosure agreements, enforcing them across borders has proven difficult.
ASML won an $845 million judgment in 2019 against a former Chinese engineer accused of stealing trade secrets, but the defendant filed for bankruptcy and continues to operate in Beijing with Chinese government support, according to court documents.
ASML told Reuters that it “vigilantly guards” trade secrets and confidential information.
“While ASML cannot control or restrict where former employees work, all employees are bound by the confidentiality clauses in their contracts,” the company said, and it has “successfully pursued legal action in response to the theft of trade secrets.”
Reuters was unable to determine if any legal actions have been taken against former ASML employees involved in China’s lithography program.
The company said it safeguards EUV knowledge by ensuring only select employees can access the information even inside the company.
Dutch intelligence warned in an April report that China “used extensive espionage programmes in its attempts to obtain advanced technology and knowledge from Western countries,” including recruiting “Western scientists and employees of high-tech companies.”
The ASML veterans made the breakthrough in Shenzhen possible, the people said. Without their intimate knowledge of the technology, reverse-engineering the machines would have been nearly impossible.
Their recruitment was part of an aggressive drive China launched in 2019 for semiconductor experts working abroad, offering signing bonuses that started at 3 million to 5 million yuan ($420,000 to $700,000) and home-purchase subsidies, according to a Reuters review of government policy documents.
Recruits included Lin Nan, ASML’s former head of light source technology, whose team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Optics has filed eight patents on EUV light sources in 18 months, according to patent filings.
The Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics did not respond to requests for comment. Lin could not be reached for comment.
Two additional people familiar with China’s recruitment efforts said some naturalized citizens of other countries were given Chinese passports and allowed to maintain dual citizenship.
China officially prohibits dual citizenship and did not answer questions on issuing passports.
INSIDE CHINA’S EUV FAB
ASML’s most advanced EUV systems are roughly the size of a school bus, and weigh 180 tons. After failed attempts to replicate its size, the prototype inside the Shenzhen lab became many times larger to improve its power, according to the two people.
The Chinese prototype is crude compared to ASML’s machines but operational enough for testing, the people said.
China’s prototype lags behind ASML’s machines largely because researchers have struggled to obtain optical systems like those from Germany’s Carl Zeiss AG, one of ASML’s key suppliers, the two people said.
Zhao Yongpeng, professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, leads another team
The machines fire lasers at molten tin 50,000 times per second, generating plasma at 200,000 degrees Celsius. The light is focused using mirrors that take months to produce, according to Zeiss’ website.
China’s top research institutes have played key roles in developing homegrown alternatives, according to the two people.
The Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIOMP) achieved a breakthrough in integrating extreme-ultraviolet light into the prototype’s optical system, enabling it to become operational in early 2025, one of the people said, though the optics still require significant refinement.
In a March online recruitment call on its website, the institute said it was offering “uncapped” salaries to PhD lithography researchers and research grants worth up to 4 million yuan ($560,000) plus 1 million yuan ($140,000) in personal subsidies.
Jeff Koch, an analyst at research firm SemiAnalysis and a former ASML engineer, said China will have achieved “meaningful progress” if the “light source has enough power, is reliable, and doesn’t generate too much contamination.”
“No doubt this is technically feasible, it’s just a question of timeline,” he said. “China has the advantage that commercial EUV now exists, so they aren’t starting from zero.”
To get the required parts, China is salvaging components from older ASML machines and sourcing parts from ASML suppliers through secondhand markets, the two people said.
Networks of intermediary companies are sometimes used to mask the ultimate buyer, the people said.
Export-restricted components from Japan’s Nikon and Canon are being used for the prototype, one of the people and an additional source said.
Nikon declined to comment. Canon said it was not aware of such reports. The Japanese Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.
International banks regularly auction older semiconductor fabrication equipment, the sources said. Auctions in China sold older ASML lithography equipment as recently as October 2025, according to a review of listings on Alibaba Auction, an Alibaba-owned platform.
A team of around 100 recent university graduates is focused on reverse-engineering components from both EUV and DUV lithography machines, according to the people.
Each worker’s desk is filmed by an individual camera to document their efforts to disassemble and reassemble parts—work the people described as key to China’s lithography efforts.
Staffers who successfully reassemble a component receive bonuses, the people said.
HUAWEI SCIENTISTS SLEEP ON-SITE
While the EUV project is run by the Chinese government, Huawei is involved in every step of the supply chain from chip design and fabrication equipment to manufacturing and final integration into products like smartphones, according to four people familiar with Huawei’s operations.
CEO Ren Zhengfei briefs senior Chinese leaders on progress, according to one of the people.
The US placed Huawei on an entity list in 2019, banning American companies from doing business with them without a license.
Huawei has deployed employees to offices, fabrication plants, and research centers across the country for the effort. Employees assigned to semiconductor teams often sleep on-site and are barred from returning home during the work week, with phone access restricted for teams handling more sensitive tasks, according to the people.
Inside Huawei, few employees know the scope of this work. “The teams are kept isolated from each other to protect the confidentiality of the project,” one of the people said. “They don’t know what the other teams work on.”
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore, additional reporting by Alexandra Alper in Washington, editing by Ken Li and Michael Learmonth)
Zephaniah, the son of Cushi, who would be the most ancient of the prophets, and a contemporary of Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Amaziah and Uzziah, kings of Judah, about the year 625 BC when he is expressly said to prophesy in the days of Josiah.
Its theme is the great day of judgement, the Day of the Lord, or the Lord’s Day upon Judah and Jerusalem, as well as upon the entire world in graphic details. His name, which is compounded of Saphon, to hide, and Yah the Lord, signifies the secrets of the Lord.
Zephaniah 1
1 The word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah.
— the word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah, a grandson of Gedaliah, when the name of a prophet and his forefather’s name are mentioned; he is a prophet, the son of a prophet; or perhaps a prince, a person of some great family, or maybe one of royal blood;
— the son of Gedaliah, four representative members from his ancestry being given; in the days of Josiah, in whose days Zephaniah prophesied as though it is very probable that these progenitors of the prophet were men of note and character.
2 “I will utterly consume all things from off the face of the land,” saith the Lord. — the Lord of host will utterly consume all things off the land, sweeping them off the face of the earth in an utter devastation;
“I will sweep away, I will destroy everything from upon the face of the earth,” says the Lord.
3 “I will consume man and beast; I will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the stumbling blocks with the wicked; and I will cut off man from off the land,” saith the Lord.
— God will make his judgement to consume man and beast, even the creatures being affected by the universality of the decision; he will consume the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked,
— that is, whatever men have offended and transgressed with together with the objects of their idolatry; he will cut off man from off the land, certainly destroying them off the face of the earth, in a great fiery destruction;
“I will remove humankind and beasts; I will remove the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, because of the multitude of the stumbling blocks of the wicked. And I will destroy humanity from upon the face of the earth,” says the Lord.
4 “I will also stretch out Mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the name of the Chemarim with the priests,
— God will also stretch out his hand upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for the people of the land followed the inhabitants of the capital in their transgressions; and he will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place,
— for there were still such as adhered to their heretical worship, and the name of the Chemarim, the idol-priests, those engaged in the worship of Baal, with the priests, for these also had polluted themselves and were therefore destined for destruction;
— a parallel Scripture in Malachi 3:2 speaks of a “refiner’s fire” that shall purify the sons of Levi; hence within 700 years later, both the Boethusians, who hailed from Egyptian’s “idolatrous priests” and the Hellenised Sadducees, who played harlotry with the Greek gods of Zeus and goddess Athena, were consumed in the AD 70 inferno;
— the Boethusians and the Sadducees were members of two Jewish sects that, following the Samaritans, kept a heretic passover, and that flourished for a century or so before their destruction in the prophesied refiner’s purification of the Levites;
— the Essene/Qumran has their own 364 day solar calendar totally at odds with the calendrics of the Sanhedrin; they acted presumptuously by repudiating the Calendar that God has instituted through his Word;
5 and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and them that worship and that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Milcom,
— and them that worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, had a full view of the host of heaven, regarding the Sun, Moon and Stars as their gods; and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by their pagan deity, Malcham; they, too, were wiped out during the AD 70 inferno;
— Israel being warned the danger of worshiping the heavenly bodies (Deuteronomy 4:19) and prescribed the death penalty for the crime of worshiping the sun, or the moon, or any of the “host of heaven” (Deuteronomy 17:2-7);
— a parallel in Jeremiah 8:2 the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, led by the high priest, making up the “twenty five men” were not only worshipping the SUN: they were doing so in the very temple of God, with their backs turned upon the presence of God!
— today, many pretending Christians honor the host of heaven with a pagan-named week and a paganised monthly calendar; and more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be “cut off” or “shalt stone them with stones” to death (Deuteronomy 17:5) – ’till they die (more at the end);
6 and them that are turned back from the Lord, and those that have not sought the Lord nor inquired for Him.” — and them that are turned back from the Lord, their backs against the Temple of the Lord;
— and their faces toward the east, worshipping the Sun; and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him, both the openly wicked and the irreligious or else seeking advice from other gods: Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek or Roman;
“And those who turned back from following the worship of the Lord, and those who did not seek the fear of the Lord and did not inquire of Him.”
7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice; He hath bidden His guests.
— hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God! ready to submit to his judgement as outlined above; for the day of the Lord—the Lord’s Day; as in Revelation 1:10; not Sunday but the day of his Judgement—is at hand, when his punishment must strike the transgressors;
— for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, the Jewish nation itself, his people the Jews, who were to fall to his justice, to atone for the injury done to their sins, he hath bid his guests, namely, the world-powers, the Chaldeans, the Greeks, the Romans and their allies, all ready to devour Judah;
— directing specifically to the wicked, the Targum emphasizes be silent before a slaughter,
“Be silent, all the wicked, before the Lord God, for the day that is to come before the Lord is near. For the Lord has prepared a slaughter, He has sanctified His invited ones.”
8 “And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’S sacrifice, that I will punish the princes and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.
— and it shall came to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, when his punishment is put into effect, that the Lord of host will punish the princes, the mighty ones, the dignitaries of state, and the king’s children, all those belonging to the royal family;
“And it shall be, on the day of slaughter that is to come before the Lord, I will punish the nobles, and the sons of the king, and all those who exalt themselves to serve their lusts.”
9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, who fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit.
— in the same day also God will punish all those that leap over the threshold, namely, that of the temple of Dagon, the idol of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 5:5 which fill their masters’ houses with violence and deceit;
— this also sounds like a dramatic transformed deceitful Mike Pompeo CIA’s “We lie, we cheat, we stole” in bringing power, wealth, money and influence, unjustly acquired through “violence and deceit” into the houses of the Pentagon which they hope to get away with impunity, for the moment at least;
— or the deeds and mischiefs of Victoria Nuland that she had created in Ukraine!
10 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord, “that there shall be the noise of a cry from the Fish Gate, and a howling from the Second, and a great crashing from the hills.
— and it shall come to pass in that day, the Lord’s Day, saith the Lord, that there shall be the noise of a cry, of a woeful shout, from the fish-gate, that through which the road to Joppa passed;
— and an howling from the second, from the lower city, where the attack of the enemy would be launched, and a great crashing from the hills, those extending upward from the lower city. The Lord set out to punish, and his Judgement was thorough, as it always is in the case of such as refuse to heed his warning.
11 Howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, for all the merchant people are cut down; all they that bear silver are cut off.
— howl, ye inhabitants of Maktesh, meaning the mortar, a small section of Jerusalem, so called because it presented a depression or hollow; the Targum says differently, “howl, all ye that dwell in the valley of Kidron;”
— for all the merchant people are cut down, entirely destroyed; all they that bear silver, the traders laden with silver, who occupied that part of the lower city, are cut off by the sword of the enemy.
12 And it shall come to pass at that time that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their dregs, that say in their heart, ‘The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil.’
— and it shall come to pass at that time that the Lord of host will search Jerusalem with candles, investigating even the dark and hidden corners, so that not one of the wrong-doers is overlooked;
— that say in their heart, The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil, which is a flat denial of his providence; saying that he takes no notice of what is done by men on earth, whether good or bad; and neither rewards the one, nor punishes the other;
— so the Targum says, “it is not the good pleasure of God to do good to the righteous, or to do evil to the wicked;” that is, there is no need of worry, matters will go on as they always have been.
13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a desolation. They shall also build houses, but not inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof.”
— therefore their wealth will be plundered by the enemies, and their houses a desolation, in the overthrow of the city;
— they shall also build houses, but not inhabit them, the destruction taking place before they can move into them, and they shall plant vineyards, but not drink the wine thereof. Cf Amos 5:11; Micah 6:15.
14 The great day of the Lord is near; it is near and hasteneth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
— the great Day of the Lord, “the Lord’s Day” as in Revelation 1:10; not Sunday but the day of his Judgement is near; it is near and hasteth greatly, there will be no further delay, even the voice of the day of the Lord, or “Hark! the day of Yehovah”
— the mighty man shall cry there bitterly, their mighty men within the city of Jerusalem besieged, consumed in the AD 70 inferno; the Boethusian and Sadducaic elites of Jerusalem, crying in bitter lamentation, because he cannot save themselves.
15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of waste and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
— that day is a day of wrath and judgement, Cf Isaiah 19:18, a day of trouble and distress, of anguish and pressure, Job 15:24, a day of wasteness and desolation, of the greatest devastation, a day of darkness and gloominess, Joel 2:2, a day of clouds and thick darkness, Deuteronomy 4:11,
16 a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. — a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, in proclaiming God’s power upon a sinful people,
— in the war-signal of desolation and against the high towers, these signify their princes, governors, magistrates and great men, well-protected by the battlements of their forts.
17 “And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as dung.”
— and the Lord of host will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, not knowing which way to go, groping about in a futile effort to escape from existing evils;
— because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, in endless quantities, and their flesh as dung, or their carcasses, that is, their dead bodies shall lie unburied, and rot and putrefy and shall be cast upon fields like dung, to fatten them.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy, for He indeed shall make a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
— neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them; like the Medes when they took on Babylon, Isaiah 13:17 in the day of the Lord’s wrath, they would not be able to buy themselves off when His fury is once set in motion;
— but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy, his indignation for his honor; for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land, consuming them with a suddenness which they had not anticipated. Even so will the Day of Wrath come upon the whole world which, as a whole, is not prepared for the coming of the Lord’s Day of Judgement. Cf Matthew 24:44.
Zephaniah 2
1 Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired, — gather yourselves together, yea, gather together; O nation not desirable; unworthy of the favor of God;
— to call a solemn assembly, to gather the people, priests and elders together, to one place as for a penitential assembly with earnest self-examination, O nation not desired, literally, “that does not grow pale,” not desirable to God, which till now has felt no sense of shame,
— Rashi: O nation that has no desire: That has no desire to return to the Torah.
2 before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’S anger come upon you!
— before the decree bring forth, when, according to God’s plan, the day of judgement upon Judah would suddenly come, before the day pass quickly as when the wind carries the chaff along, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, as it surely would if they would not show the proper repentance;
— the Targum explains more fully, “before the decree of the house of judgement come out upon you, and ye be like chaff which the wind blows away, and like a shadow which passes from before the day,” like the Boethusian and Sadducaic elites during the AD 70 inferno.
3 Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who have wrought His judgement; seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’S anger.
— seek ye the Lord, seek righteousness, with ever greater truth and sincerity, seek meekness, with all humility, with a constant sense of their own unworthiness;
— it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger, so that the Lord would make use of mercy rather than in wrath and fierce anger and save them in the general overthrow. This exhortation is now supported by a reference to the doom of many nations;
“Seek the fear of the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s anger.”
Remember: the Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us in modern times from the Sacred Text.
4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. — for Gaza shall be overthrown and doomed, forsaken; and Ashkelon a desolation;
— they shall drive out Ashdod, the chief seat of the worship of Dagon, at the noon day, since she would be helpless even at midday, so that there would be no need of resorting to a night attack, and Ekron shall be rooted up; all four Philistine city-states mentioned here are desolate, expelled, uprooted and forsaken.
5 Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites! The word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines: “I will even destroy thee, that there shall be no inhabitant.”
— Woe unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, of the plains along the Mediterranean sea, the nation of the Cherethites, for a part of the Philistines, at least, traced their descent to the ancient people of Crete;
— the word of the Lord is against you, O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, the word Canaan here applied chiefly to the lowlands of Palestine to the west; the Lord of host will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant, the nation destined to be destroyed;
— Rashi: the nation of Cherethites: the people liable to destruction. Who are the inhabitants of the seacoast of Canaan, the land of the Philistines? The Philistines, who dwell on the coast of the western sea, in the west of Eretz lsrael, within its boundaries;
— note: this seacoast in Cherethites is destined for destruction; yet the same seacoast in the next verses are prophesied to be a place of refuge for shepherds and folds of flocks – that is, the remnant of the house of Judah, for the Lord their God shall visit them and return them from captivity!
6 And the seacoast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. — and the seacoast, then teeming with the life of rich commercial cities,
— shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds, dugouts and shanties, or places for pastures where they would carry on the work of their calling, and folds for flocks, the land reverting to the use of nomads;
— Rashi: breakfast nooks for shepherds: a temporary dwelling where the shepherds eat bread in the morning. כְּרֹת is an expression related to (II Kings 6:23) “He prepared for them a lavish feast.”
— this is a prophecy: Yavne, where it is a “dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks” on the Mediterranean coast, seems to fit this verse perfectly in a subtle way by God of referring to this seacoast!
— during the inferno in Jerusalem around AD 70, the Hillel branch of Pharisees, those of the House of Hillel, fled to Yavne. They were headed by a Pharisaic rabbi, Johanan ben Zakkai, the head of the Sanhedrin, he was smuggled out of besieged Jerusalem in a coffin;
— they escaped first to Yavne, and later to Tiberias; his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar, which was revealed by Hillel II in about AD 359 concerning the rules of the Sacred Calendar.
Yavne, near the Coast, shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah
7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon. In the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening; for the Lord their God shall visit them, and return them from captivity.
— and Yavnet shall be for refugees fleeing Jerusalem, those whom the Lord would lead hack to their own country; the Pharisees of the House of Hillel; they escaped and, later, his followers re-emerged as Rabbinic Jews, who established the Hillel Calendar; they shall feed thereupon; their God shall visit them, to make the nucleus of a renewed people, members of the Jewish nation that returned;
— Rashi: And it shall be a lot for the remnant of the house of Judah: And that border shall be a lot for the remnant. This חֶבֶל is an expression of a lot. In this manner, Jonathan rendered: And it shall be a lot for the remnant of the house of Judah;
— with them the Jews are also embedded with the Oral Law, the knowledge of where the Vowels are in the Scriptures (which were then written only in consonants and no spaces nor punctuations); and how and when to use them; Romans 3:1-4; see a Study here and here; or see The Word from Moses to King James; that’s why God provide a refuge for them; and bring them back from captivity!
8 “I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached My people, and magnified themselves against their border.
— the Lord of host have heard the reproach of Moab, Cf Jeremiah 48:27, and the revilings of the children of Amman, two people that descended from Lot, east of Jordan and of the Dead Sea, but later became the enemies of God’s people and made known their hostility in bitter blasphemies;
— whereby they have reproached God’s people, in mockery and scorn, they spoke reproachfully of the land of Israel, and magnified themselves against their border, acted violently against the boundary of the Lord’s people, constantly attempting to get into possession of some of Israel’s territory;
— Rashi: who taunted My people: When [the people of] Israel were being led into exile toward the land of the Chaldeans, and they were passing through Ammon and Moab, and they would see Israel weeping, sighing, and crying out, they would taunt them and say, “Why are you suffering? Aren’t you going to your father’s house? Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the river from earliest times.” (Josh. 24:2).
9 Therefore as I live,” saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah” even the breeding of nettles and salt pits, and a perpetual desolation. The residue of My people shall despoil them, and the remnant of My people shall possess them.”
— therefore as the God of Israel lives, the Supreme Ruler of the world, Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Amman as Gomorrah, being overwhelmed by the destruction which was the fate of their ancestor’s cities;
— even the breeding of nettles, a plant with pointed leave; a weed growing only in desolate places, and salt-pits, on the shore of the Dead Sea, and a perpetual desolation, a waste, barren and uncultivated; that is, the Jews, the remnant of them that returned from Babylon, shall take their place;
— Rashi: for Moab shall be like Sodom: You, too, shall return to your previous dwelling. Was not your father, Lot, from Sodom?
Moab will become like Sodom; the children of Ammon will be like Gomorrah. They will be reduced to desolation, places of salt pits and wasteland; a perpetual ruin, lasting “until eternity.” The remnant of God’s people will plunder them. The remaining tribes will inherit their land.
— the Septuagint adds, “Damascus shall be left as a heap of the threshing-floor, and desolate for ever.”
10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts.
— this shall they have for their (that of the Moabites and Ammonites) pride, in proper retaliation for the manner in which they had dealt with God’s people, because they spoke contemptibly of them, mocked and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of Hosts.
11 The Lord will be fearsome unto them; for He will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.
— the Lord will be terrible unto the Moabites and Ammonites; dealing with them in a manner which is hound to strike terror to their hearts; all the gods of the earth, all the idols in which men placed their trust: Dagon, Chemosh, Molech, Bel, Astarte, Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th);
— Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the God of heaven; and men that worshipped these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place, Protestants or Catholics alike, even all the isles of the heathen, that is, men from every nation of the earth; shall worship Him.
12 “Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by My sword.” — ye Ethiopians also, not just Ethiopians in Africa but all beyond Egypt, ye shall be slain by my Sword, an instrument in the hand of God for punishing all the nations of the earth.
13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wilderness.
— and the Lord of host will stretch out his hand against the North and destroy Assyria, powerful though it was at that time, and will make Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, Jonah 1:2, a desolation, although it was then surrounded by a network of irrigation canals, and dry like a wilderness.
14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it: their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds; for He shall uncover the cedar work.
— and flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, the former great city had been leveled to the ground and reverted back to a pasture-ground, all the beasts of the nations, beasts of all kinds in droves or great masses; the Targum says the herd; that is, all animals;
— both the cormorant, the pelicans, and the bittern, or hedge-hog, shall lodge in the upper lintels of it, on the capitals of pillars standing in the midst of the ruins; their voice shall sing in the windows, or “hark how tile singer sings in the window,” where he has built his nest; desolation, or dirt, shall be in the thresholds; for the Lord of hosts shall uncover the cedar work, all the beautiful cedar paneling of their palaces the Lord has torn away, and it has fallen into decay;
— Rashi: for the cedarwork has been destroyed: For he has uprooted its cedars, as in (Psalm. 137:7) “Raze it, raze it.” Jonathan rendered: And they demolished its roof. That is the roof of the house that is ceiled with cedar; even stone houses are ceiled with boards of wood.
15 This is the rejoicing city that dwelt without care, that said in her heart, “I am, and there is none besides me.” How she has become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! Every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand.
— this is the rejoicing city, where shouts of gaiety were heard without ceasing, that dwelt carelessly, in perfect security; that said in her heart, in proud self-confidence, I am, and there is none beside me.
— how is she become a desolation, a deserted place, a place for beasts to lie down in, a lair for the animals of the desert. Everyone that passeth by her will be astonished and will shake his heads, in scorn and derision, both astonished and gratified at the overthrow of the proud city, a consequence of the ending in which the Lord carried out his judgements upon his enemies.
Zephaniah 3
1 Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! — Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, meaning the city of Jerusalem,
— and its inhabitants; not just before the Babylonish captivity, but after their return, under the second temple, stubborn and full of uncleanness.
2 She obeyed not the voice; she received not correction; she trusted not in the Lord; she drew not near to her God. — she obeyed not the voice of his servants the prophets;
— she pays no attention to the Lord’s admonitions; she received no correction, instruction or discipline which would to be of benefit to her; she trusted not in the Lord, placing no confidence in his exhortations and promises; she drew not near to her God, she has become indifferent to Yehovah.
3 Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, they gnaw not the bones till the morrow.
— her princes within her are roaring lions, bent upon rapine and murder; her judges are evening wolves of civil magistrates in common; members of the Sanhedrin; their princes with their mouths like ravening and roaring lions driven forth by hunger in the evening;
— their greed being insatiable; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow, that is, they leave not the bones till the morning; they are so hungry that they eat up bones and all at once, their voracious appetite causing them to devour their victims instantly.
4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons; her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law.
— her false prophets are light and treacherous, dishonest, unscrupulous, boastful and faithless; her priests have polluted the Sanctuary, desecrating the Temple by their neglect of the prescribed sacrifices or by their blasphemous manner in offering them;
— they have done violence to the Law, simply setting aside the precepts of God whose guardians they were supposed to be; and despite God’s warnings, their cities persist in wickedness.
5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity: Every morning doth He bring His judgement to light, He faileth not. But the unjust knoweth no shame.
— the just Lord is in the midst thereof, he, the righteous One, having left nothing untried; he will not do iniquity, he commits no wrong; every morning doth he bring his judgement to light, giving evidence of the justice of all his dealings;
— he faileth not, no blame, therefore, rests on him. But the unjust knoweth no shame, the wicked people of Jerusalem are not influenced either by the example of God or by his threat of punishment.
6 “I have cut off the nations; their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is no inhabitant.
— the Lord have cut off the nations, also as an act of warning Israel; their towers are desolate, their walls and fortresses leveled to the ground; the Lord made their streets waste, the roads obliterated, that none passeth by their cities are destroyed, so that there is no inhabitant, all this being warnings to the people of Jerusalem and Judah.
7 I said, ‘Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive instruction’—so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them; but they rose early and corrupted all their doings.
— the Lord said, Surely thou wilt fear me, the kindness and tenderness of the warning being emphasized; thou wilt receive instruction, if only thou wouldst suffer thyself to be taught!
— so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever the Lord punished them, or “in accordance with all that the Lord had appointed them” that is, Yehovah still hoped to have mercy on them, so that he would not have to send the threatened punishment;
— but they rose early, zealous for their wicked works, and corrupted all their doings, they were eager to speed their perverted actions, their infamous deeds. Thus many a godless person refuses to heed the Lord’s call to repentance and deliberately plunges all the more deeply into transgressions of every kind.
8 “Therefore wait ye upon Me,” saith the Lord, “until the day that I rise up to the prey; for My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them Mine indignation, even all My fierce anger; for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of My jealousy.
— therefore wait ye upon the Lord, this merciful invitation being extended to all who will still listen to his words, until the day that the Lord rise up to the prey, when he pours out his wrath upon the nations;
— for his determination is to gather the nations, to carry out his punishment upon them, that the Lord may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them his indignation, even all his fierce anger, all the burning wrath which he has stored tip against them;
— for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of his jealousy, by the zeal on his Day of Judgement. That is the promise before the Millennium, the elimination of the enemies as a factor in interfering with the progress of the Lord’s Kingdom;
— as in Joel 3:16, “the earth will shake” or here “all the earth shall be devoured with the fire” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.
9 For then will I return to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord.
— for the Lord of host turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, Yehovah, in the true unity of a common faith to serve him with one consent, literally, “with one tongue,” all bearing together the pleasant yoke of our great God.
10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia My suppliants—even the daughter of My dispersed—shall bring Mine offering.
— from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, or beyond the rivers of India as the Targum says, from the remotest corners of the earth, the Lord’s suppliants, those who would worship Yehovah in spirit and in truth, gained for the Lord from the midst of all nations, shall bring their offerings, turning to him with true worship.
11 “In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against Me; for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of My holy mountain.
— in that day shalt thou, the restored Israel, the Kingdom of God, not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against him, there being no more occasion for such a feeling; for then the Lord of host will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride,
— the wicked and blasphemous whom the prophet had described at the beginning of the Chapter, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of his holy mountain, all boastfulness and pride being eliminated in favor of a meek and humble submission to Yehovah’s reign of mercy.
12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord.
— the Lord of host will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, one fully conscious of its absolute dependence upon the grace and mercy of God, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord, Yehovah, placing all their confidence in him alone.
13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies, neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth; for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.”
— the remnant of Israel, the nucleus of the Kingdom, which would become the stock of the Kingdom of God, shall not do iniquity, not willfully serve wickedness, nor speak lies, becoming guilty of deliberate falsehood,
— neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth, particularly so far as false doctrine is concerned; for they shall feed, of the rich pasture offered by the Good Shepherd, and lie down, in calm satisfaction, and none shall make them afraid. Cf Micah 7:14; Psalms 23.
14 Sing, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!
— Sing praise, O daughter of Zion; shout for joy, O Israel, namely, the spiritual Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem, for the communion of the elect is established in the Jerusalem which is above. Cf Galatians 4:26.
15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgments; He hath cast out thine enemy. The King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more.
— the Lord of host hath taken away thy judgements, the sentences of condemnation which had rightly been spoken upon her on account of her sins;
— he hath cast out thine enemy, sweeping away the world-power which personified all the hostile forces of the world; the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, namely, in the persons of God the Father and his Son, thou shalt not see evil any more, his blessings removing everything that might bring evil.
16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, “Fear thou not”; and to Zion, “Let not thine hands be slack.
— in that day, in the great Messianic Age, it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not, this being the fundamental note of the Kingdom of God, no more weird stories from either the paganised Christmas or Easter shows; and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack, namely, in terror at the prospect of danger and affliction from without.
17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.”
— the Lord, thy God, the Lord of host in the midst of thee is mighty, not at a dim distance, but in the closest proximity, and powerful to help; he will save, that’s his name Yeshua, he is the Savior;
— he will rejoice over thee with joy, in his delight over the renewal of the marriage covenant between himself and his Church; he will rest in his love, in quiet satisfaction; he will joy over thee, after his meditation has proved so satisfactory, with singing. Moreover, the Lord will let all humble and afflicted partake of his joy.
18 “I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
— the Lord of host will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, mourning far from the festive gathering when the Lord would make his salvation known, who are of thee, they were of the same family and descent;
— but were now far removed from the visible congregation of the Lord, to whom the reproach of it was a burden, who felt the weight of their captivity among the Gentiles.
19 Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee; and I will save her that is halt, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
— behold, at that time, in the Millennium, the Lord of host will undo all that afflict thee, dealing with the oppressors according to his justice; and he will save her that halteth, heal the limping, and gather her that was driven out, those who were dispersed;
— and he will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame, so that the name of the Lord’s people would be celebrated everywhere.
20 At that time will I bring you back, even in the time that I gather you; for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I bring back your captives before your eyes,” saith the Lord.
— at that time will the Lord of host bring you again, the calling of the Lord to join his Kingdom being an act of his mercy, even in the time that I gather you, in his Kingdom;
— for he will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when he turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord;
— the fulfillment of this prophecy is clearly found in the gathering of the Kingdom, its members being called from the various nations of the earth, and the consummation and climax will be reached in the eventual complete deliverance from this present evil world as the Kingdom of God opens its portals.
Facing the East, worship the host of heaven (Ezekiel 8:16); worshipping the Sun:
— the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty “and shalt stone them with stones” is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die).
— those 25 men in Ezekiel 8:16 corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord” — they turned their backs against the most holy place; which is an aggravation of their impiety; casting the utmost contempt for God:
Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17
3 And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, 5 then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5
The following quotation show that the first Christians understood the Sabbath but were made forbidden and gathered for worship on Sunday: “Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians” (Canon 29 AD 360);
— also, Days of the Week Names: “Sunday” is the Sun’s day and “Monday” is the Moon’s day. “Tuesday” is Tiw’s day; Tiw is an Anglo-Saxon god of war. “Wednesday” comes from Woden, the Anglo-Saxon king of the gods; in Saxon the name is Wodnesdaeg. “Thursday” is Thursdaeg, Thor’s day; Thor is a Norse god of thunder, lightning and storms. “Friday” is Frigedaeg, Frigga’s day; Frigg is a Norse goddess of home, marriage and fertility. “Saturday” is Saeterndaeg, Saturn’s day; Saturn is an ancient Roman god of fun and feasting;
— Months of the Year Names: January (derived from the Latin Januarius) is to honor their Roman gods Janus; and March, named for Mars, is the Roman mighty god of war; February is derived from the Februa festival or its eponymous februa (“purifications, expiatory offerings”); April relates to what the Romans called the month Aprilis; from a word meaning “to open” and further back from Aphrodite, the Greek name for the goddess of love. May – named for Maia, is the Roman goddess of spring and growth;
— June is a name attributed to Juno, the female mighty wife of Jupiter in Roman mythology. She is also called the “Queen of Heaven” and “Queen of Mighty Ones.” July is to honor Julius Caesar; the Roman Senate named it “Julius” in honor of Roman emperor Julius Caesar. August honor Julius Caesar’s successor, the emperor Augustus; and the months September, October, November, and December are archaic adjectives derived from the ordinal numbers 7 to 10;
— do you think we can get away from God’s wrath and judgement by repudiating his Word and his Calendar; adopping paganisation and get away with impunity?
— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honouring the Sun by observing Sunday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly penalty is to be stoned to death – ’till they die.
— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a Sunday; always on a Sunday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says he is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of his mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!
Venezuela’s authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro called on the Colombian army to join forces with his country’s counterparts as the US continues ramping up pressure on the regime.
In a televised address, Maduro said the “best guarantee we have for peace and stability in this world is unity.” Therefore, he said, he was calling on the “Colombian people, its social movements, political forces, its military, to for a perfect union with Venezuela so no one dares to touch our sovereignty.”
The call is similar to one made in November by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who is also going through tensions with the Trump administration.
Concretely, he floated the idea of uniting several South American nations to revive Gran Colombia, the 19th-century republic that once encompassed modern-day Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama, claiming that he United States’ military campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific is undermining regional sovereignty.
Speaking in Santa Marta, where independence hero Simón Bolívar died, Petro invoked the memory of the liberator to call for unity among South American nations as a way to resist what he called US aggression.
He later reaffirmed his message in a post on X, writing, “I propose to the peoples who inhabit this territory demarcated in 1819 that, through constituent power and agreements among governments, we reconstruct Bolívar’s idea of a Great Colombia — a confederation of sovereign nations with a common parliament and a shared presidency, similar to the European Union.”
Despite Petro’s repeated references to Gran Colombia, Interior Minister Armando Benedetti later told the Miami Herald that the president’s comments were “symbolic.”
Moreover, relations between Petro and Maduro are seemingly rocky at the moment, considering that the former called the latter a dictator for the first time this week.
In a social media post, Petro said Maduro is a dictator for concentrating power in Venezuela. Despite that characterization, the Colombian president defended Maduro by saying he is not a drug trafficker, arguing there is no evidence in Colombia linking him to organized crime, as the Trump administration claims.
“Maduro is a dictator for concentrating power,” Petro wrote on X. “There is no evidence in Colombia that he is a narco. That is a narrative from the US.”
And below is a Prophecy concerning the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
The book of Habakkuk is a dialogue between what the Prophet Habakkuk saw and questions he had for God and how God responded to him. That is, it is a dialogue between Habakkuk and God about the difficult scene before him, at a latter day, at the endtime.
The time seems to have been set at around 610 BC, when the Chaldeans attacked Jerusalem in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, 605 BC.
And Habakkuk, a contemporary of the Prophet Jeremiah, spoke of the Chaldeans as about to invade Judah (Habakkuk 1:6), and he seemed to have seen the people’s desperations of their attack that followed; hence he asked many questions. And although the oracle was relevant for his time, it was also prophetic; that is, it is for the endtime.
“For I will work a work in your days” (verse 1:5 below) means that the message of Habakkuk is really for us in the latter days, today. And this is reinforced in Habakkuk chapter 2
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry,” Habakkuk 2:3
A similar statement was made by Prophet Jeremiah:
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly,” Jeremiah 23:20.
The crtical statement is “In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means, “you wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until you are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!”
Habakkuk 1
Habakkuk made his observations and started them with a series of three Questions:
“The vision is yet for an appointed time.” Habakkuk 2:3 makes clear that this vision was not just for his time, but principally for the end-time, and although it had a narrow vision for the house of Judah, its wider implication for the latter days is for the latter days house of Israel; the time shortly before the second coming of the Messiah.
1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw. — the prophet Habakkuk saw, did see, that is, foresee: a burden, the oracle, a grievous calamity or heavy judgment;
— not only in the sense of a message from God, but also in the sense of a heavy weight. It was heavy in its content, a burden, because Habakkuk announced the coming judgement on the house of Judah. It was also heavy in its source, because Habakkuk deals with tough questions he brings to God and God’s answer to those questions;
— “for I will work a work in your days” (verse 5 below) means that the message of Habakkuk is meant for us in the latter days, today at the endtime. And this is reinforced in Habakkuk 2:3, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie.”
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save? — Q (1): O Lord, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? Q (2): Or cry to you, “Violence!” and you will not come to the rescue?
— Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki 1040–1105, France): O Lord! How long: Habakkuk foresaw that Nebuchadnezzar was destined to be the ruler of the world and to cause trouble for Israel, as the matter is stated in his prophecy (1:6): “For behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, etc.”
— Habakkuk was asking a series of questions we all have today: when we ask and it seems God is not hearing; and when there is violence, it seems God is not saving! Or cry out to you, “Violence!” and you do not intervene?
3 Why dost Thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For despoiling and violence are before me, and there are those that raise up strife and contention. — Q (3): Why do you make me see wickedness, and cause me to see trouble? Plundering and violence; strife and contention everywhere;
— iniquity, plunder and violence are all before me; you look upon these mischieves, but you do not help; why He seems to see these and leave them unpunished?
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgement doth never go forth. For the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgement proceedeth. —“Judgment” (that is, redress of evils); the law is “slacked” it means the law is powerless; it loses its force and vigour;
— so the first point is that the law is lacking in physical and moral strength! The law is applied weakly to evildoers; those who are guilty are hardly charged for their crimes. Judgement seldom has its enforcement; that there is little justice in the land;
— “the wicked compass about the righteous” means that the wicked surround the righteous, frequently in the form of rioting, to pressure the law-abiding population into accepting their criminal activities. “Therefore wrong judgement proceeds” means that justice is perverted;
“Therefore the Torah is weakened / slackened. And judgment does not go forth to be clarified. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore judgment does not go forth rightly.”
Remember, the Targum, whose origin was in the Aramaic language, could be traced to Ezra speaking to the returning exiles who couldn’t understand Hebrew, but was expounded to them in a language they could understand.
The Lord’s Answer to Habakkuk’s first series of Questions:
5 “Behold ye among the nations and regard, and wonder marvelously; for I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
— look among the nations and watch, God said; be wondered and be amazed! “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe, though it were told you.”
— “ye among the nations” the Jews during Habakkuk’s time were not among the nations (plural); hence this could only referenced the Jews, or the wider Israelites, as being of a different timeframe, they are to be amazed, or terrified, as one being yet-to-be scattered amongst the nations;
— the expression “in your days” tells us that this is a reference to the endtimes when they are, again, to be scattered “among the nations” ~ the period preceding the return of the Messiah;
— this Scripture is speaking about very different type of work where people will not accept what is done as being “the work of God” something very extraordinary which the people will not believe, but only “wonder marvelously;”
“therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.”
— which means in the context of those in leadership positions lack wisdom and understanding today; perhaps drunk and incoherent;
— and bear in mind that only then, in the latter days, could we understand fully, as the Targum says
“Look among the nations; observe, be astonished and be amazed. For a work is being done in your days. You will not believe it; even if it were told to you.”
6 For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs. — God is going to send “the Chaldeans” or the Babylonians; that land that goes to the breadth of the earth as the Targum says; they will march throughout the earth to take possession of lands that don’t belong to them;
— to the Babylonians the land of Judea couldn’t be that land that goes to the breadth of the earth; hence the Targum version is prophetic of the endtime, where the house of Jacob are scattered to the four corners of the earth;
— the land that the Jews dwelled in Judea and Jerusalem were actually their given land; already alloted and given during Joshua’s time; but this is talking of “dwelling places that are not theirs;” hence this could only refered to when they are in exile, in captivity;
— Q. Since this is speaking of the endtime, who could these new Chaldeans be?
7 They are terrible and dreadful; their judgement and their dignity shall proceed from themselves. — they “the Chaldeans” will be terrifying and fearsome with they assault, and cruelty with which they use their captives; they will carry out their own kind of justice and honor.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the vulture that hasten to eat. — they “the Chaldeans” fly like an eagle swooping down to devour;
— their horses will be faster than leopards and quicker than wolves in the evening; or are swifter than the eagles of the heavens. Their riders will gallop along proudly; their riders will come from far away; they will fly like a vulture that swoops down for carcases or its food; or they fly like an eagle swooping down to devour;
— taken historically, these verses can be seen as applying only to the Babylonians who took Judah into captivity; but prophecy are meant to be dual, so when we consider the context that follows, it should be clear that God is using the Babylonian captivity as a type of the yet future great tribulation on all Israel; and particularly on Ephraim, the head of Israel;
9 They shall come all for violence; their faces shall consume as the east wind, and they shall gather the captives as the sand.
— they, the “Chaldeans” will all come for violence to seize prey; every face will be directed forward; they will gather prisoners as innumerable as the sand of the sea; remember, this prophecy to be better understood for the latter days;
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them. They shall deride every stronghold, for they shall heap up dirt and take it. — the Babylonian soldiers laugh at kings; Jehoiakim as a tributary sovereign; then Zedekiah;
— they make fun of their rulers; they laugh at all their strong walled cities. They build dirt roads up to the top of their walls, then they capture the cities.
11 Then shall his mind change; and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” — imputing this his power; or success rather, that his might becometh his god;
— they will move quickly and pass through like the wind. So they will be guilty, because their own strength is their god; made only of stones and wood.
Habakkuk’s Second Series of Questions
Habakkuk wonders why God would use a wicked nation to bring judgement on Judah.
12 Art Thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, Thou hast ordained them for judgement; and, O mighty God, Thou hast established them for correction. — O Lord God, you’re from eternity, aren’t you?
Q (1) If thou art from everlasting, we are not going to die, are we? O Lord, you have appointed them, a nation more wicked than Judah, for judgement; and you, O Rock, have established them for correction.
— but three times Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, described as God’s servant: Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10; and thou hast appointed the Chaldeans to execute thy judgments on sinners;
— the Targum recognizes God’s justice but struggles with the paradox of using such a violent nation as His instrument, says
“Are You not, O Lord, the one who created the world from the beginning? You are God, the true Judge over all Your creatures; holy in works of faithfulness; your word endures forever. O Lord, You have established him (the Chaldean) to execute judgment; and You have made him strong to bring punishment.”
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest Thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest Thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
— the Lord with all seeing eyes to behold all things, good and evil, yet your eyes are too pure to look on evil, and you cannot look on wickedness;
Q (2) Why do you look on those who deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devours the one who is more righteous than he?
If God is pure and holy, unable to tolerate evil, why does He allow the Chaldeans—violent oppressors—to prosper? from the Targum Habakkuk 1:13 Jonathan
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things that have no ruler over them? — you make men like fish of the sea, that is, sufferest them to be used as the fishes of the sea, which are easily taken in the net, like crawling things that have no dignity; to be killed and devoured for food;
15 They take up all of them with the hook; they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag; therefore they rejoice and are glad. — some they take up as with the angle, one by one; others they catch in shoals, as in their net, and gather them in their drag, their enclosing net;
— the Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, they catch them in their net; they gather them in their lootings; therefore they rejoice and are laughing.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag, because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous. — therefore they sacrifice with their choicest booty and burn incense to their idols which they set in the heart; for by them their portion is extravagant, and their food plentiful;
— there have not indeed been lacking of savage nations, who indeed worshiped their arms; those of old worshiped spears as immortal gods; others designate their bow and arrow as the only beneficent deities whom they worship;
— the Targum adds, the Chaldeans not only capture but also rejoice in their success, highlighting their arrogance and delight in wickedness.
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
— should these Chaldeans, when they have conquered one nation, and so filled their net with the spoil, carry it to Babylon, and there lay it up, and then proceed to fight against another kingdom and nation and plunder it in like manner?
Q (3) shall they continue to empty their net, and continually killing the nations while not sparing anyone? The Targum asks, “shall he send his armies continually to consume nations, and that without mercy?”
~~~
A Description of the Chaldeans, one from the East an anti-type of one similar coming from the South in the latter days:
“Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than evening wolves. Their horsemen charge on; their horsemen come from afar; they fly like the eagle that hastens to eat,” Habakkuk 1:8
Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 46 “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland. 47 And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’” 49 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’” Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North, 5 that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’ Ezekiel 20:45-21:5
The Scriptures above are shrouded in cryptic language, and so the Q is: how would such scenarios be played out?
For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
1 I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what He will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. — the way Habakkuk says has a sense of arrogance, he was yet to be humbled;
— reproved: that is, how he will respond to my complaint: Habakkuk will stand at his watchtower and station himself; and he will wait and keep watch to see what God will say to him, and what he will answer when he expect himself to be reprimanded.
The Lord’s Answer to Habakkuk’s second series of Questions:
2 And the Lord answered me and said: “Write the vision and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run that readeth it. — here Habakkuk is expecting some message or some instructions from God; and sure enough, God gave him specific instructions, which is: write this message down in big block letters, engraving it, for people to read it;
— it reads “that he may run who reads it,” that none would need to make a stop while reading the message, but hold on his course in great haste of fleeing from those terrible times to come who take warning.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry. — for an appointed time; determined and fixed with God, though unknown to men; but where else but the present time;
— a witness for the appointed time, a testimony to the endtime; a prophecy for the latter days at the end; if it seems slow in coming; wait, it’s on its way; it will come right on time. If it delays, wait for it; it will not be delayed;
“For the prophecy is appointed for a time. It establishes an end, and it will not be annulled. Though the word may seem delayed, wait for it. For it will surely come at its appointed time and not be late.”
— a parallel Scripture in Jeremiah:
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20
“In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole, “you wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until you’re are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!”
4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith. — look, the soul of the Chaldæan invader, is lifted up; or be puffed up or arrogant; it is not upright in him;
— but the just shall live by his faith; yes, not just the NT, but the OT talks of mercy (Ezekiel 39:25) and here about faith!
“Behold, the wicked say: ‘None of these (prophecies) will come to pass. But the righteous, by their truth/faithfulness, shall endure.”
5 “Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people.
— the arrogant trangress in wine; and money deceives; the arrogant riches wouldn’t last; God sees the proud man and how he cannot be satisfied; indeed, wine betrays the proud man, who does not stay at home. He enlarges his appetite and even when in death he is never satisfied;
— they are like cemeteries filled with dead bones; like graveyards filled with corpses. Don’t give people like this a second thought. Woe to the Wicked, soon the whole world will be taunting them.
6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his (how long?) and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay’?
— shall not all these take up a taunt against him, with satire and riddles, and say, “Woe to him who increases what is not his—how long? And to him who loads himself with heavy debts!”
— to him that ladeth himself; woe to him that increaseth that which is not his, substance or goods, not his own, while he burdens himself with amassed treasures gathered by extortion and grievous, unjust gains!
7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake, that shall vex thee? And shalt thou be for booty unto them? — shall not your debtors rise up suddenly, or shall exact usury from thee? Then you will be their plunder; and those awake shall suddenly oppress you;
8 Because thou hast despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee, because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
— this threat applies to the Chaldaeans, as well as to Israel; because you Israel have plundered many nations, all the remnant of these nations will plunder you;
— and for the violence of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein: because you did it through warfares, bloodsheds, deceits and violence; of the cities and all of the land where you live in them; it shall return like a boomarang;
— when you visit any museum of the house of modern Israel (London, Paris, New York), you’ll witness lots of plunderings of other nations over the centuries; thus one day “all the remnant of these people will plunder you.”
“‘Who do you think you are— getting rich by stealing and extortion? How long do you think you can get away with this?’ Indeed, how long before your victims wake up, stand up and make you the victim? You’ve plundered nation after nation. Now you’ll get a taste of your own medicine. All the survivors are out to plunder you, a payback for all your murders and massacres.
Here is one example of an article by Jason Hickel’s How Britain stole $45 trillion from India (from economist Utsa Patnaik – published by Columbia University Press) and thus funded the industrialisation of Britain. And during the entire 200-year history of British rule, income in India collapsed and millions died needlessly of policy-induced famine. India’s share of world’s GDP went from over 20 percent to less than 2 percent when India won her independence in 1947.
But the plundering of India wasn’t alone; after the British had conquered India, they then went to war with China (the First and Second Opium Wars: 1839–42; 1856–60), “trading opiums” for tea, porcelain and silk, promoting opium smoking as fashionable and resulting a quarter of China’s population hooked on opium. Not satisfied, they, together with the French, went to war again, burnt down Beijing’s Summer Palace after looting its arts and treasures. These plundered treasure are still hidden today by the rich and famous in their lofty homes, a few in their national museums.
Following Christopher Columbus’ voyage in 1492, the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 15th and 16th century with steel weapons and armor, they plundered the Aztecs and Incas of their gold and silver, as native weapons could not pierce Spanish armor nor could native armor defend against steel swords.
Later they came with rifles, firearms and cannons. In Mexico, conquistadors found great golden treasures, including great discs of gold, masks, jewelry, and even gold dust and bars. In Peru, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro demanded that the Incan Emperor Atahualpa fill up a large room once with gold and twice with silver in exchange for his freedom. The emperor complied, but the Spanish killed him anyway. All in all, Atahualpa’s ransom came to 13,000 pounds of gold and twice that much silver. This did not even count the vast treasures taken later when the Inca capital city of Cuzco was looted.
And following the Mexican-American War that ended in 1848, the United States plundered more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 square km) of land from Mexico, expanding US territory by about one-third. Mexico ceded nearly all the territory now included in the US states of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and western Colorado for $15 million and US assumption of its citizens’ claims against Mexico.
More recently, the Americans “assisted” American museums in acquiring vast quantities of Persian antiquities and archaeological finds; this was the looting of Persia’s mosques and shrines, the transfer of these religious artifacts first, to London, and the subsequent acquisition of some of the objects by such museums as the Metropolitan of New York.
God says He saw all these; and how these Godly Judgements will play out, we’ll have to wait and see; but there is a parallel from the Prophet Ezekiel; and this mystery is an “enemy” coming from the SOUTH:
Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 46 “Son of man, set thy face toward the South, and drop thy word toward the South, and prophesy against the forest of the Southland. 47 And say to the forest of the South: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the South to the North shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’” 49 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’” Ezekiel 21: And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My Sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My Sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the South to the North, 5 that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My Sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more.’ Ezekiel 20:45-21:5
Q: Who is this enemy from the SOUTH, and how would such scenarios be played out? But God says He will kindle a fire and “all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee.”
9 “Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
— woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, that is, greedily seizing enormous wealth, not merely for himself, but for his family, to set his nest on high, an image is from an eagle (Job 39:27); the royal family or dynasty is meant.
10 Thou hast devised shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. — instead of bringing honour and glory to their nation, you have given shameful counsel to your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting their lives;
“You have planned shame for your house, by plundering many nations; and you have sinned against your own soul.”
11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. — for the stone will cry out from the wall, from wall of cruelty and oppression, and the beam of the woodwork will answer it.
“Who do you think you are— recklessly grabbing and looting, Living it up, acting like king of the mountain, acting above it all, above trials and troubles? You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house. In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself. You’ve undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. The bricks of your house will speak up and accuse you. The woodwork will step forward with evidence.
12 “Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! — “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and sweat of the subjugated nations and establishes a city by cruelty and wickedness!”
13 Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? — is it not the Lord’s will that people labor to fan the flames, and the nations exhaust themselves for vanity?
14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. — jumping into the Millennium, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the seas.
15 “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on his nakedness! — “Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink, pouring out your poison until they are drunk, that you may look on their nakedness with the utmost pleasure and delight!”
16 Thou art filled with the shame for glory; drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered. The cup of the Lord’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. — you will be filled with shame instead of glory; you yourself—drink and show your own uncircumcision!
— let thy foreskin be uncovered; in retaliation for uncovering the nakedness of others, now let thy own shame of sinning, like king David did with murder of Urioah after adultery with Bathsheba, be laid open before all nations of the world;
— the judgement of the Lord’s right hand will be turned against you; the drunk and those who promote drunkenness loved their own cup full of drink; now a cup of shame after judgement shall be a cup of glory for them;
17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts which made them afraid, because of men’s blood and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.
— since Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of the land of Israel, from whence cedar wood was brought, of which the Temple was built, so the Targum interprets it, “Because you plundered the Temple, it shall cover thee (with ruin);”
— the exploitation done to the forest of Lebanon for the house of the sanctuary, the desolation of the land of Judea and city of Jerusalem and all who live in them “shall cover thee.”
“Who do you think you are— inviting your neighbors to your drunken parties, Giving them too much to drink, roping them into your sexual orgies? You thought you were having the time of your life. Wrong! It’s a time of disgrace. All the time you were drinking, you were drinking from the cup of God’s wrath. You’ll wake up holding your throbbing head, hung over— hung over from Lebanon violence, Hung over from animal massacres, hung over from murder and mayhem, From multiple violations of place and people.
18 “What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it, the molten image and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb idols?
— what profit is a carved image when its maker has carved it, their man-make dumb idols, a cast image, and a teacher of lies, that its maker trusts in what he has shaped when he makes graven and molten images?
19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, ‘Awake!’ To the dumb stone, ‘Arise, it shall teach!’ Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.
— woe to him who says to the wood, “Awake!” To the silent stone, “Arise!” Can it teach? It is overlaid with gold and silver, but there is no breath at all in any of them;
“What’s the use of a carved god so skillfully carved by its sculptor? What good is a fancy cast god when all it tells is lies? What sense does it make to be a pious god-maker who makes gods that can’t even talk? Who do you think you are— saying to a stick of wood, ‘Wake up,’ Or to a dumb stone, ‘Get up’? Can they teach you anything about anything?
20 “But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.” — but the Lord is in His holy Temple; He is on His Throne; not in graven and molten images; not in idols of wood and stone, covered with gold and silver;
— therefore the whole earth, that is, all the population of the earth, of every tribe and tongue, is to be still before Him: to submit silently to Him, and wait for His judgement;
— or, as the Septuagint renders it, stand in awe, or stand in fear; let all the earth stand in fear before him;
— the point of this verse is that even though terrible times lie around, God is always in full control; the ultimate outcome will be exactly what God predicted; that is, that all question has a full and adequate answer before a God of Omniscience, Omnipresence and Omnipotence.
Let all the earth stand in fear and in awe before him.
Habakkuk 3
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: The first two chapters of Habakkuk presented the prophet’s question and answer time with God. Now that the Lord had answered Habakkuk, the prophet offered a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God “in wrath remember mercy” before keeping silence before Him and close the book.
1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon “Shigionoth.” — this may be interpreted by Ezra according to the Targum: a prayer of Habakkuk because of his ignorance; concerning his errors of judgement:
— however, according to the apparent meaning, Habakkuk is begging for mercy for himself because he spoke rebelliously: (1: 4) “Therefore Law is slackened,” and (verse 14) “You have made man like the fish of the sea.” Habakkuk also criticized the Divine standard of justice;
— in a more explanatory way, the Targum as interpreted by Ezra, says,
“A prayer that Habakkuk the prophet prayed when it was revealed to him about the length of time given to the wicked—that if they return to the Torah with a whole heart, they will be forgiven, and all the sins they committed before Him will be pardoned. This is the prayer.”
— Job, too, repented of his sin for questioning God; earlier, Job had stated that he had lived righteously before God and was undeserving of God’s punishment, as if God was unjust in his treatment:
“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:3-6.
2 O Lord, I have heard Thy speech and was afraid; O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.
— O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years: Habakkuk simply prayed for revival, knowing how God once worked and how His people once responded, and he wanted to see that again;
— this prayer of Habakkuk shows us that repentence is a work of God, not the achievement of man; there is something man can and must do for repentence; simply crying out to God and pleading for his mercy;
— notice the prayer: “revive thy work” – often, our prayers are really “revive my or our work,” but we must have a heart and mind for God’s work, far bigger than our portion of it;
— in wrath remember mercy: Habakkuk prayed, knowing well that they didn’t deserve revival, so he prayed for mercy. The idea is, “Lord, I know that we deserve your wrath, but in the midst of your wrath remember mercy.”
— the Targum provides great insight of allowing time for the wicked to repent, says,
“O Lord, I have heard the report of Your strength and I was in awe. O Lord, great are Your works: You give an extension of time to the wicked—if they return to Your Torah, they will be forgiven; but if they do not return, they provoke You during the years of life You granted them.
Therefore You are destined to make Your strength known in the years when You have said You will renew the world, to exact punishment from the wicked who transgressed Your word, and to remember the righteous who do Your will with mercy.”
3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran [with everlasting might, Chabad Bible]. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.
— Teman: Esau; Paran: Ishmael, as Scripture states (Genesis 21:21): “And he (Ishmael) dwelt in the desert of Paran.”
— having rejected Ismael and Esau, God came to the house of Jacob; or God’s might and wrath could possibly come from Teman (Esau) and Mount Paran (Ismael);
— Selah; “stop and think.” Oh ye house of Jacob; stop and ponder: his glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise: All creatures bow down to him!
4 And His brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His hand, and there was the hiding of His power. — Oh house of Jacob; stop and ponder:
— God appeared in unparalleled splendour which shined from him, was as the light; pure, clear as the sun, but much more dazzling and overcoming;
“And the brightness of His glory was revealed like the brightness at the beginning, and sparks went forth from the chariot of His glory. There He revealed His Presence, which had been hidden from humankind, in the strength of His majesty.”
5 Before Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet. — Covid-19 has been spreading around the globe; first the Delta variant, then the Omicron; and who knows what’s next? Could Covid-19, or another bioweapon, destroys a third of mankind eventually?
— and sparks went out at his feet: fiery angels came with him to witness the affairs of the heavens and earth. Could “burning coals” went forth at his feet be civil wars within nations? Witness the numerous civil strives within many nations because of the various issues of how to manage Covid;
— the Targum interprets imagery of plague and burning coals as the angel of death and fiery flame,
“From before Him was sent the angel of death, and it went forth like a flame of fire from His word.”
6 He stood and measured the earth; He beheld and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are everlasting.
— He stood and judged the earth; he looked and shook the nations; as he did at Mount Sinai, now the whole world is experiencing it; the everlasting mountains were scattered: Ephraim and the other twelve, the heavenly princes of the nations; all are either scattered or bow low;
“He was revealed, and the earth trembled; He brought a flood upon the generation that transgressed His word. And likewise in later times, when they sinned before Him in their iniquities, He confounded the nations, and the ancient mountains were shattered, the eternal heights collapsed—His is the eternal strength.”
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
“When the house of Israel served idols, He delivered them into the hand of Cushan the guilty one. But when they returned to do the Torah, He performed miracles and mighty acts for them, and delivered them from the hand of the Midianites by the hand of Gideon son of Joash.”
8 Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? Was Thine anger against the rivers? Was Thy wrath against the sea, that Thou didst ride upon Thine horses and Thy chariots of salvation?
— Habakkuk was asking another series of Questions: asking the question thrice, Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
— was thy wrath kindled against the rivers? in the Nile, the Red Sea and the Jordan? God meant more by these acts; he showed his supremacy over all creation, and these rivers are no problem in the execution of his great design (Psalm 106:9; Psalm 114:3);
“Behold, against their kings and their many armies, like the waters of a river, there was trembling before You, O Lord. Against the kings was Your wrath, and in the sea You made known upon them the punishment of Your strength. For You were revealed upon the chariot of Your glory, Your Presence for Your people as power and deliverance.”
~ a Parallel in Ezekiel 6:3 on mountains, hills and rivers ~
— this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, UK and France. . . . “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;
— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.
9 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oaths of the tribes, even Thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. — your bow revealed itself: your might being revealed; thy bow was made quite naked; that is, the sheath of the bow was laid aside to make it ready for use;
— Rashi: You split the earth into rivers: according to the Targum, “for thou didst break strong rocks, rivers came forth overflowing the earth.”
10 The mountains saw Thee and they trembled; the overflowing of the water passed by; the deep uttered his voice and lifted up his hands on high.
— the mountains saw thee, and they trembled; literally, were in pain, Septuagint, the words point to the phenomena of an earthquake, as Sinai shook at the presence of the Lord (Exodus 19:18; Psalm 114:6);
— there is a similar scene at the end-time in Isaiah: where, not just the Israelites, every being will have a Mt Sinai experience: the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard; the land utterly emptied!
“The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again” Isaiah 24:20
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of Thy glittering spear. — as a similar scene in Isaiah 60:19‘: ‘the sun shall be no more for thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, and the Lord shall be to thee an everlasting light.’”
“Also in the miracles You performed for Joshua in the plain of Gibeon, the sun and the moon stood still in their dwelling places with You. By Your Word they prevailed, in the strength of Your victory and power.”
Remember, the Targum, whose origin was in the Aramaic language, could be traced to Ezra speaking to the returning exiles who couldn’t understand Hebrew, but was expounded to them in a language they could understand.
12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation; Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. — Habakkuk says, in fury you walkest through the earth, in wrath you stampest down the nations, both Israelites and others;
“In Your going forth You trampled upon the enemies of Your people; in Your revelation You shattered the wicked of the earth. In Your wrath You slew the nations.”
13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, even for salvation with Thine Anointed. Thou wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by uncovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.
— Habakkuk says you went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Anointed:
— Selah; “stop and think.” Oh house of Judah; stop and ponder; don’t be stiff-necked: as Habakkuk remembered how God had saved in the past; this made him full of faith for what God could do in the present and in the future.
— He also declared that salvation is brought with your Anointed – and the Lord’s Anointed is none other than the Messiah (Isaiah 52:13 Targum says God’s suffering servant is the Messiah), Jesus Christ; others call him Yeshua (for Christmas is rightly called “the Mother of all paganism”).
14 Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages; they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me; their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. — Thou, O God, didst strike through with his staves;
— the Targum interpret of Pharaoh and his host, who were destroyed by the steps and methods which they themselves took, going into the sea of themselves, and so were struck through with their own staves.
15 Thou didst walk through the sea with Thine horses, through the heap of great waters. — the gists of this interpretation rests upon the retelling of the destruction of Pharaoh and his horsemen in the Red Sea.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble. When he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
— when Habakkuk heard God’s voice, his body trembled: he showed the righteous response of man under the sovereign power of God, recognizing his own weakness and low standing before this God of all majesty and power;
— the Babylon king Nebuchadnezzar will invade him with his troops: the prophet Habakkuk remembered that the Babylonians were coming, and that this God of sovereign power and majesty would direct their work against Judah;
“Babylon said: I have heard, and the kings trembled before the judgment that was executed upon Egypt. For these few words my prayer was uttered, and trembling seized the wise men. And in the place of my dwelling I shook, for I was left until the day of calamity, until the time when the exile of my people would ascend from me, and I would be broken.”
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls—
— Habakkuk depicts the effects of the hostile invasion, which are such as to make the natural heart despair; though the fig tree may not blossom, no fruit on the vines; nor fruit on the vines;
— though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls; yet Habakkuk will still rejoice in the Lord, whom he knows, has full control from His throne;
— the Targum interpretes the fruit metaphors as foreign invasions, says
“For the kingdom of Babylon will not endure, nor will it rule over Israel. The kings of Media will be killed, and the mighty ones who worship the stars and constellations will not succeed. The Romans will be destroyed, and they will not again prophesy divination from Jerusalem.”
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in the God of my salvation. — Habakkuk rejoices in the God of his salvation: in a vision, he saw the Judean countryside desolate, perhaps from the invading Babylonian army or perhaps from natural calamity;
— but in the midst of this almost complete loss, the cities and countryside desolate, Habakkuk could still rejoice in the Lord;
— sometimes when we see a day of trouble approach, we think, “If God is so great and powerful, how come we’re going through a hard time?” Habakkuk knew this was the wrong question and the wrong attitude; instead, he said: “I know you are strong and mighty, and if we are in desolate circumstances it is because we deserve it. I will praise You still, and even rejoice in You.”
“Therefore, for the miracle and deliverance that You will perform for Your Messiah and for the remnant of Your people who will remain, they will give thanks and say: the prophet said, ‘And I, in the Word of the Lord, will rejoice and exult in God who works my deliverance.’”
19 The Lord God is my strength; and He will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
— the Lord God is my strength: he could only properly declare this after he prayed the prayer of faith in the previous verses. He rightly declared that his strength was not in fig trees or vines or fields or flocks, but only in the Lord God;
“The Lord God who supports me with strength makes my feet swift like the deer, and upon the stronghold of my might He raises me up. For Him are victories and power, and before Him I sing with my praise.”
— Habakkuk’s prayer could also be adapted as a song of prayer and/or a prayer of reflection. Selah!
In summary, the theme of Habakkuk is for the vision is yet for an appointed time, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come to pass; and we wouldn’t fully understand until the anger and God’s judgement had passed in the latter day; then and only then will we be able to understand fully:
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry” Habakkuk 2:3
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
“In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole: “we wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until we are living in the latter days after God had executed his judgement in anger and pertformed the thoughts of his heart!” Selah!
For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
A report from Reuters claims that scientists in China have created a prototype of a machine that could eventually be used to produce semiconductor chips capable of powering artificial intelligence.
Sources told the publication that a team in Shenzhen completed the prototype of an extreme ultraviolet lithography machine earlier this year and it is allegedly now undergoing testing.
The EUV machine was reportedly made by former engineers from Dutch semiconductor supplier ASML. Reuters states that China is targeting production of its own EUV chips beginning in 2028, although other experts have projected 2030 as a more likely date.
EUV is a supremely complicated bit of technology; we have an explainer below that gets into some of the details. It is at the heart of the chips made by companies such as Intel and TSMC, so any company trying to compete would also need access to EUV.
Although the Chinese prototype is not yet making chips, it is reportedly able to generate the extreme ultraviolet light needed for chip manufacturing.
If confirmed, this development would put China in control of tech much sooner than analysts had previously expected. To date, EUV has largely been kept out of reach by Western companies and used as a bargaining chip by the US government.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has placed a high priority on the country being able to produce its own semiconductors. “The aim is for China to eventually be able to make advanced chips on machines that are entirely China-made,” a source told Reuters. “China wants the United States 100 percent kicked out of its supply chains.”
Made-in-China EUV machine targets AI chip output by 2028
China has reportedly built an extreme‑ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine inside a high‑security laboratory in Shenzhen, in what sources described as a nationally coordinated push to overcome the most tightly held chokepoint in advanced chipmaking.
The machine is described as operational and capable of generating EUV light, though it has yet to produce functional chips, Reuters reported. Sources said Beijing is targeting 2028 for chip production, though they suggested that 2030 is a more realistic milestone.
The report said Huawei is playing a central role, coordinating a web of companies and state research institutes across the country involving thousands of engineers. Sources compared the effort to China’s version of the Manhattan Project, the top‑secret US wartime program that mobilized scientists, industry and the state to develop the atomic bomb in 1942-1947.
Sources told Reuters that the prototype EUV machine was completed in early 2025 and is now undergoing testing. The report said the machine fills nearly an entire factory floor and was assembled by a team that included former engineers from Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML.
According to Chinese media, two teams of scientists are working in parallel to develop EUV light sources for high-end chip production.
One team is led by Lin Nan, a former ASML engineer who is currently a professor at the School of Integrated Circuit Science and Engineering at Beihang University. Zhao Yongpeng, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, leads the other team. Both teams use solid-state lasers to heat and vaporize tin droplets for EUV light generation, while ASML uses CO2 lasers supplied by its US-based subsidiary, Cymer.
It is unclear whether Lin is in charge of the top-secret laboratory in Shenzhen. Before this, some Chinese media had reported in March this year that Huawei was testing a customized EUV machine at a factory in Dongguan, Guangdong.
They said Harbin Institute of Technology was responsible for the light source, the Changchun Institute of Optics for optical systems, and Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group (SMEE) for overall integration.
Huawei and Shenzhen state-backed firm SiCarrier were also deeply involved, coordinating more than 3,000 researchers across lithography, deposition and etching equipment development.
The Global Times, a newspaper aligned with the Chinese Communist Party, on Friday published a commentary titled “There is no need for Reuters to be anxious about China’s technological progress.”
The article argued that the Reuters report, which relied heavily on unnamed sources, reflected Western unease rather than facts, portraying lithography machines as a supposed final stronghold of Western technological dominance.
However, tt did not deny the existence of a high-security EUV research laboratory in Guangdong. The state-aligned newspaper said China has long pursued domestic alternatives to imported lithography tools, citing officially disclosed progress in deep ultraviolet (DUV) machines, and described Beijing’s technology strategy as one of self-reliance paired with continued openness to international cooperation.
The commentary said export controls had not slowed China’s technological advance, but instead spurred domestic innovation. It argued that China’s breakthroughs would benefit humanity and coexist with openness and cooperation, warning that efforts to block China could fragment global technology supply chains.
China’s ongoing research
After the United States moved in 2019 to block sales of ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography machines to China, Beijing began pouring substantial resources into domestic lithography development. However, parts of the effort have been weakened by inefficiency and corruption scandals in the semiconductor sector.
Lin’s own career trajectory illustrates both the talent Beijing has sought to mobilize and the opacity surrounding the EUV project.
In April 2021, Lin left the Netherlands, where he had worked as a scientist at ASML Research since October 2015, to take up a post as deputy director at the State Key Laboratory of Ultra-Intense Laser Science and Technology at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In October this year, he joined Beihang University.
“We have experienced unauthorized misappropriation of data relating to proprietary technology by a (now) former employee in China,” ASML said in its 2022 annual report. “We promptly initiated a comprehensive internal review. Based upon our initial findings, we do not believe that the misappropriation is material to our business.”
The company added that the incident may have involved violations of export control regulations and said it had reported the matter to relevant authorities.
The company added that the incident may have involved violations of export control regulations and said it had reported the matter to relevant authorities.
There is no evidence that Lin was the former employee referenced in ASML’s disclosure. Publicly available information also does not indicate that Lin relocated to Shenzhen or has any formal connection with Huawei’s reported EUV program.
However, his current research clearly builds on the expertise he has accumulated over more than five years at ASML’s research division, particularly in laser-based EUV light generation. Lin, a CCP member, was a student of Anne l’Huillier, the 2023 Nobel Prize laureate for Physics.
In December 2024, Lin and his team published an academic paper reporting a conversion efficiency (CE) of 3.42% in an experiment aimed at generating EUV light. The paper was published in March 2025 by the Chinese Laser Press, an academic journal.
The paper noted that even the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL) achieved only 3.2% CE in a comparable experiment in 2019. Higher conversion efficiency means less energy is required to produce usable EUV light, making it easier to transition from laboratory experiments to practical lithography systems.
Lin’s team said, theoretically, the CE would reach 6% in the future, meeting the commercial standard of 5.5%.
According to the paper, the team used a Nd:YAG (neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet) 1,064-nanometer laser with a maximum pulse energy of 600 millijoules to heat and vaporize molten tin droplets, producing EUV radiation. The laser device’s power is similar to that used for tattoo removal and fungal nail treatment.
A Hebei-based columnist surnamed Li addresses the question of why Lin’s team used a solid-state laser rather than replicating ASML’s approach of using a high-power CO₂ laser.
“Solid-state lasers are already widely deployed in industrial applications in China, which accounts for about 34% of global patent filings in the field,” he says. “Choosing this technological route allows researchers to build on existing industrial strengths while avoiding patent barriers linked to CO₂ laser systems, lowering the cost and risk of technology transfer.”
Zhao’s research team is reportedly using a solid-state laser to vaporize tin droplets, but with an added step that accelerates plasma formation by passing high-voltage electricity through an electrode disk. The approach, known as laser-assisted discharge-produced plasma (LDP), is designed to produce a stable, reliable EUV light source.
According to Chinese media, the EUV output of the Harbin system is around 100 watts, still well below ASML’s laser-produced plasma (LPP) process, which can deliver close to 600 watts of EUV power.
Some analysts noted that, due to underlying physics, Zhao’s LDP-based systems are challenging to scale to much higher power levels. This is why LDP is usually not used for chip lithography, but for applications such as photomask defect inspection and photoresist outgassing tests.
The prophecy of Nahum chiefly relates to the Assyrian empire and its chief city, Nineveh, of their destruction. God used Assyria as a rod of his anger to punish Israel but finally this rod itself had to be punished for its own haughtiness and malice.
The period in which Nahum prophesied may approximately before the destruction of Nineveh in the year 606 BC but after the dissolution of the northern kingdom through the Assyrian hosts and after some serious visitation which struck the southern kingdom.
Some references over Assyria are yet to be fulfilled. The king of Assyria will come towards Israel and Egypt again in a day to come will find his end in Palestine. “Assyria also has joined with them,” Psalms 83.
Second, when the king of Assyria leading a conferderate to invade Israel, the Targum version of Nahum 1:12 clarifies that they would cross the Tigris and the Euphrates. Such a scene lead us directly to the 200 million warriors crossing the Euphrates in Revelation 9:14,16.
Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot. Selah Psalm 83:8
Nahum 1
1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. — the burden of Nineveh; a burden is a heavy message of weighty importance, heavy in the sense that it produces sorrow or grief.
—Jonah was earlier sent to this city to warn it with ruin for its sins; at that time the king and all his people humbled themselves and repented and the threatened destruction was averted; but they soon relapsed to their former iniquities, and that Nahum prophesied after Jonah a considerable time, perhaps a hundred to a hundred and fifty years later;
— this prophecy is called a burden; it was taken up by Nahum the prophet at the command of the Lord, and was sent by him to Nineveh; and that ‘burden’ was a hard, heavy and grievous prophecy to that city, predicting its utter ruin and desolation;
The burden of the cup of cursing which Nineveh is to be made to drink. First Jonah, son of Amitti, of Gath Hepher, proph[e]sied against her, and she turned from her sins; and now that she sinned again, Nahum from the house of Koshi prophesied against her again, according as it is written in this record.
2 God is jealous, and the Lord avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.
— God is jealous of his own honour and glory and for his own worship and ordinances; and will not give his glory to another, nor to graven images;
— the Lord is furious and avenges; or is “master of wrath” full of it or has it at his command; he can restrain it and let it out as he pleases, which man cannot do. The Lord’s avenging is repeated for its certainty and confirmation; yea, it is a third time emphasized;
— the Targum explains it, “that hate his people;” vengeance belongs to the Lord, and he will repay it sooner or later.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.
— the Lord is slow to anger, long-suffering and patient against wickedness of long standing; his almighty strength becoming evident when he does strike and will not at all acquit the wicked;
— the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, which are but instruments and exhibitions of his power, and the clouds are the dust of his feet, they are insignificant before him and he uses them as he pleases;
— a parallel Scripture in Isaiah says:
“Behold the day of the Lord cometh cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate. And he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it … Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce anger” Isaiah 13:9,13.
4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
— when he rebukes the seas they becomes dry as when he caused the Red Sea to part before the children of Israel, Exodus 14:15, and dries up all the rivers, since they all are subject to his directions;
— Bashan, the rich pasture-land east of Jordan, languishes in desolation; and Carmel, the wooded slopes of the mountain overlooking the Mediterranean and the flower of Lebanon, otherwise a symbol of rich fertility, also languishes in desolations, namely, when he withholds the moisture or bids the river go dry;
— and all the rivers drieth up; that is, he can do it if he will; he divided the waters of Jordan, through the midst of which the Israelites passed on dry ground; and will dry up the river Euphrates to make way for the kings of the east; and as for Tigris, on the banks of which the city of Nineveh stood;
— “Bashan … Carmel … Lebanon …” these names are associated with the richest and most-favoured dwelling places of antiquity; and they were mentioned here to show that no place on earth is beyond the judgement of God when the sins of its inhabitants require judgement and punishment. The Tigris valley, where Nineveh lay, was another of the garden spots of the earth; but today it’s a desolation!
5 The mountains quake at Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein.
— the mountains quake before him, or in front of him; as was at Mount Sinai, when the Lord descended on it, Exodus 19:18. Mountains figuratively signify large countries; hills are smaller countries;
— and the hills melt before him as at the time of terrible earthquakes, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein, both men and any irrational brutes.
6 Who can stand before His indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.
— who can stand before his indignation? before his wrath when it burns freely. And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? Cf Jeremiah 10:10.
— his fury is poured out like fire in a torrent consuming everything before it, Deuteronomy 4:24, and the rocks are thrown down by him. Cf Jeremiah 23:29. But this wrath of God may or may not strike those who keep his commandments and put their trust in him;
When he reveals himself in mercy to give the law to his people, then the world trembles before him.
But when he reveals himself in anger to take vengeance upon the haters of his people, before his vengeance who shall arise, and who shall bear up in the evil of his anger? His wrath is likened to consuming fire, shattering even the most solid elements of creation.
7 The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him. — the Lord is good, even in the midst of his judgements, a strong refuge in the day of trouble,
— a safe place when distress and misery come upon believers; and he knows them that trust in him; he has that intimate knowledge of them, that peculiar insight into their needs which guarantees them his help.
8 But with an overrunning flood He will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue His enemies. — from a single enemy, Ninevah, the stubject is expanded to numerous enemies;
— but with an overrunning flood, a deluge which carries everything before it; he will make an utter end of Nineveh, which would be a microsm of all his enemies; they cease to be cities, and darkness shall pursue them all into complete desolation.
9 What do ye contrive against the Lord? He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time.
— what do ye imagine against the Lord? O ye Ninevites or Assyrians; or you peoples who have spoiled Israel, as the Targum says; do you think you can frustrate the designs of the Lord, resist his power, and hinder him from executing what he has threatened to do?
— he will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time, for the one blow on the part of the Lord would be sufficient so that the affliction which Judah suffered on the part of Assyria would not arise twice;
— Q: if so, our understand of Psalm 83 needs to be restudied, because Assyria did rise again in a study of Psalm 83! as “Assyria also has joined with them.”
10 For while they are folded together as thorns and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. — for though the Assyrians are folded together as thorns, braided together or entangled;
— and while they, or the rulers of the people who spoiled the house of Israel, are drunken as drunkards, though they are drowned in their carousing in their wine, so that it might seem that fire would not be able to reach them or to affect them seriously, they shall be devoured as being fully dried up.
11 There is one that comes out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor. — there is one come out of thee, namely, Sennacherib or one of the other rulers who invaded Judah,
— that imagined evil against the Lord, meditating and speaking in this sense, a wicked counselor, one who advised worthlessness, things that were foolish and brought no results. Cf Isaiah 36:14-20.
— or as the Targum says: formed a scheme to invade the people of Yehovah; take the fenced cities and seize upon Jerusalem and carry the king, princes and all the people captive as Shalmaneser his father had carried away the ten tribes.
12 Thus saith the Lord: “Though they be quiet and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more;
— thus saith the Lord, Though the enemies be quiet and likewise many, yet shall they be cut down when he, the king from the Assyrians, shall pass through, but it’s not clear where or over what the passage is meant to be, making the text vague and ambiguous;
— however, the Targum clarifies this ambiguities by adding that the passing through are the crossing of the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Thus saith Jehovah: Though perfect in counsel and great in number be the peoples who are assembled to afflict thee, O Jerusalem, and they cross the Tigris and pass over the Euphrates and come to afflict thee, though I have made thee serve, I will not make thee serve again. Nahum 1:12 Jonathan
— and this seems to parallel a familiar scene in Revelation:
“Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates . . . And the number of the army of horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand, and I heard the number of them.” Revelation 9:14,16
13 for now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder.”
— the nations that had imposed servitude upon the congregation of Israel are stripped of control, as the Targum clarifies with greater insight, says
“And now I will break the yoke of the nations from your necks; and I will tear off your chains.”
14 And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: “Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave, for thou art vile.”
— and the Lord hath given a commandment that no more of their name be remembered, that the dynasty of the Assyrian kings should become extinct;
— out of the house of thy gods will God cut off their graven image and the molten image, their goddess Ishtar, and others in whom the Assyrians placed their trust; God would make their graves for thou art vile, morally unworthy, no longer fit to live and to be in power;
— thus concerning you, O king of Assyria, the Targum says, “there will I put [thee into] thy grave.”
15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows; for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
— behold upon the mountains the feet of him that brought good tidings of the messenger of joy hastening forward to bring the good news, that publishes peace, announcing to Judah the overthrow of the enemies;
— O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts: the celebration of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles, when the deliverance of the Lord’s people from violence and oppression constituted a further incentive for joy and thanksgiving, those in anticipation of their deliverance; for the wicked Assyrians shall no more pass through thee, they were utterly cut off.
Nahum 2
1 He that dasheth in pieces has come up before thy face. Man the defenses! Watch the way! Make thy loins strong! Fortify thy power mightily!
— “He that dasheth in pieces …” is the Lord of hosts; the instrument by which his will would be executed upon Nineveh was Babylon. The fourfold warning of “keep… watch … make strong … fortify” is irony. Who can stand against the Almighty? What human strength could avail against the Lord?
Those who were coming up and spreading over thy land were laying siege to thee, setting watches upon thy ways. Strengthen the neck; make your military force exceedingly firm.
2 For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.
— for the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob; “Jacob” is used here, not Judah; and Jacob necessarily included all of Israel, northern and southern; Yehovah being on the side of the invading army, making them captives before he restored them back their glory as when the covenant nation was at the height of its glory;
— for the invaders have emptied them out, or “plunderers have plundered them” and marred their vine-branches;
— the Targum interprets it of their restored cities, towns and villages, being to the land as branches to the vine; and which had been ransacked and pillaged by the Assyrians, destroying the land and outraging its inhabitants, so that the Lord felt obliged to avenge this indignity.
3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.
— the shield of his mighty men, is made red; red, either with the blood of the slain; or this may express the lustre of them, which being gilded or made of gold or brass in the rays of the sun glittered, and looked of a fiery red; all shining for the battle;
— the valiant men are in scarlet; their shield are red as are their cloaks; clothed in scarlet; partly to show their greatness and nobleness and partly to strike their enemies with terror and to hide their blood should they be wounded and so keep up their own spirits and not encourage their enemies:
— the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, blazing with their iron equipments and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken, the spears made of cypresses are brandished.
4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways; they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightning.
— the chariots shall rage in the streets as part of Nahum’s prophetic vision of Nineveh’s downfall; they shall jostle one against another like madmen in their broadways, running to and fro in the market-places of Nineveh, all confused by the attack of the enemy;
— they shall seem like torches as the light struck the steel ornaments of the chariots; because of their numbers and the haste they shall make, they shall run like the lightnings, namely, as lightning plays in blinding flashes.
5 He shall muster his worthies; they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
— the Assyrian king will recount his warriors; remembering his nobles and the troops; but they shall stumble in their charge; being many and in haste, all became confused and uncertain in their effort to reach the point where the attack is launched against the city.
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. — the gates of Nineveh which lay nearest to the river Tigris shall be opened,
— the reference being to some natural or artificial inundation of the city which helped in its destruction, and the palace shall be flooded, its inhabitants being overcome with terror and losing all semblance of careful thinking and planning.
7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up; and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts.
— and the queen of Assyria, Huzzab, perhaps a reference to the patron goddess of Assyria, Ishtar; shall be led away captive as the Targum says, literally,
“The queen sitting in a sedan goes forth into captivity, and her attending maidens go after her, mourning as with the sound of doves, beating upon their breasts.”
8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away. “Stand, stand!” shall they cry, but none shall look back.
— but Nineveh is liked an old pool of water; this was a very ancient city, built by Nimrod, as some say; or rather by Ashur, as appears from Genesis 10:10
— and it was like fish pool, full of people as it was in the times of Jonah, an expression of her great population and prosperity; yet they shall flee away, her great population leaving her to her fate;
— Stand, stand! shall they cry, in an attempt to stop the heedless rush; but none shall look back, refusing to return to the ravished city.
9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store and glory of all the pleasant furnishings.
— the looting by Assyria is taking place: take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold! For there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture, of the various rich treasures with which the palaces of the city of Nineveh were filled;
— no people who ever lived on earth knew any more about looting than the Assyrians; and now it was their turn to be the looted! What a fat city Assyria was! It was the grand central warehouse of looted treasures of the whole ancient world.
10 She is empty and void and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together; and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
— the city of Nineveh, now empty, void and in waste, literally, “emptiness and being emptied out and desolation!” and the heart melted in utter discouragement;
— and the knees smite together in the terror which cannot control itself and much pain is in all loins, Isaiah 21:3, and the faces of them all gather blackness, all of them pale with fear. Thus the mighty city would be destroyed with all its rich treasures;
— and their faces all gather in blackness like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see Joel 2:6;
— the story of the Assyrians or the city of Nineveh is not just a manifestation of a people or a city but a manifestation of any nation or tribe before God’s justice and judgement.
11 Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
— of the kings of Assyria, comparable to lions for their strength, courage, and cruelty, tyranny and oppression; such as Pul, Tiglathpileser, Shalmaneser, and Sennacherib. So the Targum says “where are the habitations of kings and the house of the dwelling of the princes?”
— “Where is the den,” where were the powers dreaded all over the earth? Where was the mighty king? Where was the rapacious army, red with the blood of all peoples? Where was it? Where is it now? Where has it ever been since “the day of the wrath of the Lord?”
— Q: if the Assyrians or Nineveh will never rise again our understand of Psalm 83 would be questionable, or is it? So they must be risen now, ready to strike again.
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey and his dens with rapine.
— the lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps as much as his young ones desired and strangled for his lionesses and filled his holes, the dens occupied by him, with prey and his dens with ravin, his lurking-places with spoil. Even so the kings of Assyria heaped up treasures taken from every part of the world for the use of the inhabitants of Nineveh;
— the kings brought booty to their wives and sons, as the Targum says
“The kings brought booty to their wives and spoils to their sons, and filled their treasures with booty and their palace with spoil.”
13 “Behold, I am against thee,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.”
— behold, I, the Lord is against thee, against Nineveh and the whole Assyrian empire for such rapine, violence and oppression, saith the Lord of hosts, the ruler of the heavenly armies, and God will burn her chariots in the smoke, so that all her war material goes up in smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, the mighty men of the city;
— and God will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard as they boasted of the might and prowess of Assyria and Nineveh. God has ways of subduing even the mightiest enemies, no matter how mightily they rise up in their own conceit;
Behold I am about to send my fury upon thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn up thy chariots with fire, and thy villages the sword shall destroy; and I will consume thy commerce from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Nahum 3
1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not. — woe to the bloody city, Nineveh, in which many murders were daily committed;
— or “O city of blood, of blood-guiltiness!” It is a city full of lies and robbery, so that deceit, violence and extortion were the order of the day; the prey departs not, robbery goes on without ceasing; like the cities of Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York or Chicago today!
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University, TX. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
Mike Pompeo: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole.”
— as the Targum says, “Woe to the city shedding blood! She is all full of lies and spoils.”
— and because of the above sins they shall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not cease plundering them till he has utterly stripped them of all they have; and who is represented in the next verse Nahum 3:2 as just at hand.
2 The noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots! — the noise of a battle: of whip, its sharp crack heard as the horses are urged forward in battle,
— or of a horseman or chariot driver whipping his horses to make speed to Nineveh, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels and of the prancing horses and of the jumping chariots, bounding along over the ground as the horses broke into a gallop.
3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear, and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcasses. And there is no end of their corpses—they stumble upon their corpses”
— the Assyrians in fleeing and endeavouring to make their escape from the Chaldeans pursuing them; the horseman mounting, rather, “horsemen rearing,” as they directed their mounts to charge, both the bright sword and the glittering spear, or “the name of the sword and the lightning of the lance;”
— and there is a multitude of slain as the Targum affirms, “Horsemen charging, flame and glitter of swords, flash of spears, a great number of slain, a multitude of corpses, no end to the dead—they stumble over their slain.”
4 because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcraft, that selleth nations through her whoredom, and families through her witchcraft.
— because of the multitude of whoredoms, meaning Nineveh; which as it was an ancient city, was a well built one; full of stately and beautiful buildings, the seat of the kings of Assyria, and the metropolis of the nation, and abounded with wealth and riches; the acts of idolatry and wickedness;
— of the well-favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, idolatry and witchcraft being the special marks of the heathen character, that seduced nations through her whoredoms, with her hypocritical friendship and feigned interest, and families, smaller tribes, through her witchcrafts,
— namely, by her political schemes and intrigues, enslaved whole kingdoms and brought them under her power and dominion, to be her vassals; but the Lord will plunge Nineveh into a shameful destruction.
5 “Behold, I am against thee,” saith the Lord of hosts, “and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness and the kingdoms thy shame.
— behold, I am against Nineveh, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts and throw them up so high that they would reach over her face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness as that of a lewd woman, and the kingdoms thy shame, in bringing the utmost disgrace upon Nineveh and the kingdom of Assyria;
— Q; is God intending this “uncover thy skirts” as the subject could have changed to the house of Israel at a latter day, too? False landing on the moon? The Covid-19 origin, still covering up where Congress had asked WH to disclose declassify information? Why are there so many bio-labs all over the world? What were they scheming to achieve?
6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. — and I will cast abominable filth upon thee, as an expression of the utmost disgust and loathing,
— and make thee vile, an object of disgrace, and will set thee as a gazing-stock, upon which men would look with contempt and derision.
7 And it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her?’ From whence shall I seek comforters for thee?”
— and it shall come to pass that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, with a feeling of deepest revulsion, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?
— whence shall I seek comforters for thee? so the prophet interjects his question. No one would have the slightest sympathy with the stricken city because she had so thoroughly deserved her judgement and its subsequent punishment.
8 Art thou better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea?
— art thou better than Alexandria; No, that is, No-Amon, Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, namely, in the great irrigation canals, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? the great expanse of the Nile;
— No-Amon, Thebes, signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says, call Jupiter by the name of Ammon; thus the Targum interprets it of the great Alexandria, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the Great;
9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. — countries in this brief outline is overlappping with the God and Magog Prophecy, Ezekiel 38:5;
— Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength; that is, the strength, support, protection, and defence of No, whether Alexandria, or Thebes or Memphis;
— Egypt was for these cities in it; or in alliance with Ethiopia and under its protection; and a country that lay near to it; and Put and Lubim were thy helpers, though they are strengthened by such powerful neighbours and allies.
10 Yet was she carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
— yet, in spite of all her own power and the strength of her allies, was she carried away into captivity, after a conquest by either Sennacherib or Sargon; her young children were dashed in pieces and they cast lots for her men, the conquerors dividing them by lot, as slaves and bound in chains;
— although the Assyrians were taken away as captives, this could also be a reference to the northern house of Israel as they were earlier taken as captives by the Assyrians; showing that any great power could be humbled, their nobility and leaders humiliated, treated like property to be divided.
11 Thou also shalt be drunken; thou shalt be hid; thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. — thou also, namely, Nineveh, shalt be drunken, upon receiving the cup of God’s fury in judgement;
— thou shall be hid, covered over, “hid” from the sight of men, as though she had never existed; thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy, protection or refuge before the advancing enemy, without being able to find it.
12 All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.
— all thy fortresses and castles of the Assyrian country, shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs, considered a special delicacy; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the hunter, they would readily be taken or consumed by the invading enemy.
13 Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars.
— behold, thy people in the midst of thee are like women: weak and feeble, fearful and timorous; frightened at the first approach of the enemy; without strength and courage for the battle;
— the gates of thy land shall be set wide open, the Lord making the land easy of access to the invaders, unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars, those which held the great gates of the city shut.
14 Draw thee waters for the siege! Fortify thy strongholds! Go into clay and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln!
— draw enough waters before the siege has begun, from the rivers, wells, or fountains outside the city, that needed for a long period of siege; fortify thy strongholds, strengthening the forts; go for bricks and tread the mortar in order to fashion strength for all defenses.
15 There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm. Make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
— there shall the fire devouring thee, either of divine wrath; or the fire of the enemy; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm, as locusts do; make thyself many as the cankerworm, like devouring insects; make thyself many as the locusts;
— the thought is that the fire and the sword, like locusts devouring everything before them, would consume Nineveh, even though the city with its masses of houses and inhabitants, in swarms and innumerable, would in turn, resemble a swarm of locusts.
16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The cankerworm despoileth, and fleeth away.
— thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven; the cankerworm spoileth, literally, “the licking locusts enter to plunder,” and fled in haste, or be suddenly stripped of their power or riches; the military might of Assyria being powerless before the armies of the invaders.
17 Thy crowned ones are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day; but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
— thy crowned, the vassal princes are as the locusts, and thy captains, the commanders of her armies as the great grasshoppers, or “locusts of locusts” which camp in the hedges in the cold day, too chilled to use their wings;
— but when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. In a similar way the Assyrian army would vanish from sight; it would not be in evidence to withstand the invaders.
18 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
— thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, that is, the mighty ones, the leaders of the people, were resting in a false security; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust, rather, “thy powerful ones are lying still” not making a move to defend their country;
— thy people is scattered, and no man gathereth them, like sheep without a shepherd, which being frightened by beasts of prey, run here and there, and there is none to get them back again; no one assumes the leadership over them, and so their identity as an Assyrian nation is lost.
19 There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous. All that hear the report of thee shall clap the hands over thee. For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
— there is no healing of thy wound, thy ruins are irreparable and irrecoverable; of the fracture which the Lord had inflicted; thy wound is grievous, the stroke or ruin being deadly;
— all that hear the bruit, the report, of thee shall clap the hands over thee, in a gesture of joy over the downfall of the oppressor; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? The Lord indeed used Assyria as his scourge,
— but he, at the same time, wanted Assyria to acknowledge his sovereignty. When Nineveh and the entire country, therefore, persisted in their wickedness, his punishment came upon them with crushing force;
— but another Q arises: Is this exposition speaking of the house of Israel instead of the Assyrian empire?
For the first time in modern history, American forces have been blocked from a region China has abruptly declared a restricted military zone.
John Mearsheimer unpacks the significance of this bold maneuver and what it reveals about Beijing’s growing confidence and military reach.
This video examines how China positioned assets to enforce the zone, why US commanders are alarmed, and how this move reshapes the balance of power in contested waters.
With rising tensions and shrinking operational room for the US, this moment could mark a turning point in great-power competition.
Donald Trump has accused European leaders of being “weak” and claimed their countries are “decaying” in an extraordinary attack on Washington’s traditionally closest allies.
The US president claimed European nations had failed to control migration or take decisive action to end the war in Ukraine, calling into question America’s longstanding alliances.
“I think they’re weak,” Trump said in a wide-ranging interview with Politico. “But I also think that they want to be so politically correct. I think they don’t know what to do. What they’re doing with immigration is a disaster.”
Asked whether foreign leaders deemed weak could still be friends of the United States, Trump said: “It depends. They’ll change their ideology, obviously, because the people coming in have a totally different ideology. It’s gonna make them much weaker.”
‘They don’t know what to do. Europe doesn’t know what to do. They don’t know what to do on trade either,” he said. “They want to be politically correct, and it makes them weak. That’s what makes them weak.”
His inflammatory comments followed a week of turbulent diplomacy as Europe rallied around Kyiv and Trump turned his ire back to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, whom he accused of not having read the latest American peace proposals.
Fragile talks to end the war appeared on the brink of collapse after Donald Trump Jr said on Sunday his father might be ready to walk away altogether.
“They have to play ball,” Trump said when asked about his eldest son’s remarks. “If they don’t read agreements, potential agreements, it’s not easy.”
Zelensky met with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday during a tour to shore up support from European allies.
He said Italy had brought concrete ideas towards peace as he prepares to present Washington with a revised peace plan in the wake of talks with European leaders in London on Monday.
But the US president hit out at European efforts to end the war, arguing they had not led to results.
“They talk but they don’t produce,” he said. “And the war just keeps going on and on. I mean, four years now it’s been going on, long before I got here.”
In his latest broadside against immigration, Trump singled out leaders and cities in Europe for specific criticism.
He launched a fresh attack against London mayor Sadiq Khan, whom he called a “disaster” who “gets elected because so many people have come in.” He also hit out at Paris during a rant on migration to Europe, and claimed Sweden is a “pretty unsafe country.”
“If you take a look at Paris, it’s a much different place,” he said. “If you take a look at London, you have a mayor named Khan.
“He’s a horrible mayor. He’s an incompetent mayor, but he’s a horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor … London’s a different place. I love London … And I hate to see it happen.”
By contrast, Trump praised Hungary’s right-wing leader and friend of Putin Viktor Orbán, saying he was “doing a very good job in a different sense on immigration.”
“And Poland has done a very good job in that respect, too,” Trump added. “But most European nations, they’re … they’re decaying. They’re decaying.”
British foreign secretary Yvette Cooper defended the “crucial work” of the coalition of the willing and the “strong work” of the government in tackling illegal immigration as she was questioned on Trump’s criticism of Europe.
“What I see in Europe is strength,” she said. “The strength and commitment to the support for Ukraine and also strength to step up to the plate and to ensure that we are increasing our investment in defence, and also ensure that we are doing our bit through the coalition of the willing, as well as through investment in military support and the energy infrastructure support that Ukraine needs.”
Trump: Just ook at London, just look ar Paris; Europe is ‘weak’ and ‘decaying’
Ms Cooper also defended Mayor Khan: “When it comes to the mayor of London, you will not be surprised that I of course take a strongly different view. I think the mayor is doing an excellent job for all of London.”
Downing Street declined to criticise Trump’s latest assault on the mayor.
“The prime minister has a strong relationship with the US president and a strong relationship with the mayor of London and on both is committed to working together to deliver stronger outcomes for the British people right across the country,” a spokesperson said.
Responding to Trump’s comments, European Council president António Costa urged the president to show “respect.”
“We respect the choice of Americans, and they need to respect the democratic choices of our citizens,” he said during a press conference.
“When all the leaders elect me president of the European Council, President Trump must respect this. As we respect that American citizens elected him President of the United States. It is like this, that allies behave with each other.”
Trump’s latest remarks broadly echo rhetoric included in America’s new national security strategy, which questioned whether some European nations could remain “reliable allies” in the long term.
The document branded Europe as being over-regulated and said it was facing “civilisational erasure,” a narrative that aligned with far-right parties.
The document did not name Russia as a threat to the US at a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine, as leaders rally to hash out a peace deal.
The Prophecy of Micah, the word of the Lord that came to Micah during the reigns of kings: Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah and Uzziah. Micah is thought to have prophesied thirty or forty years, which places him in the years 713 to 750 BC; thus contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea and Amos though they had started earlier.
Micah 5
1 Now gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops; he hath laid siege against us; they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek. — it seems this verse ought to be joined to the foregoing chapter, as it evidently belongs to it, as in the Targum, as it was of the same subject;
— the “daughter of troops” is still the same who was before addressed, the children of Judah; the word is almost always used of “bands of men employed in irregular, marauding, in-roads.” Judah is entitled “daughter of troops,” on account of her violence, the robbery and bloodshed within the city being besieged.
2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto Me He that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”
— but thou, Bethlehem; but though Jerusalem should be besieged and taken and the land of Judea laid waste, yet before all this should be the Messiah should be born in Bethlehem of which this is a prophecy as is evident from Matthew 2:4;
— though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, the town being of little importance over against the mighty Jerusalem nearby, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel, out of thee shall come forth unto me a Judge, that is to be ruler in Israel, and this is the King; for because he is to be of the seed of David, that is, the selection of the Messiah as the true King of Israel;
— whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting; thus the Father’s will and purpose from eternity was made manifest in the coming of the Prince of Peace. And even as his outgoings were from eternity, since he is the Son of the Father;
— the Targum identifies this ruler, coming from Bethlehem, as the Messiah, says,
“And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are small to be counted among the thousands of the house of Judah, from you before Me shall come forth the Messiah, to be a ruler over Israel, whose name has been spoken from of old, from the days of eternity.”
3 Therefore will He give them up, until the time that she who travaileth hath brought forth; then the remnant of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.
— meanwhile, God will deliver Israel into the hands of its foes; Bethlehem will be in foster homes until the birth pangs are over and the child is born then the scattered brothers come back home to the land of Jacob;
— He will stand tall in his Messiah-rule with God’s strength, centered in the Kingdom of God. And the people will have a good and safe home, his Greatness shall reach the ends of the earth; the “remnant of their brothers” refers to the scattered Israelites who will eventually return and be united with their people.
4 And He shall stand and feed them in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. And they shall abide; for now shall He be great unto the ends of the earth.
— and he shall stand and feed, both ruling and nourishing as the King and Shepherd of his people, in the strength of the Lord, he himself being the mighty God, Isaiah 9:6;
— in the majesty of the name of the Lord, Yehovah, and they shall abide, namely, the true spiritual children of Israel; for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth, his kingdom, the Kingdom of God, extending over the entire earth.
5 And this Man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land; and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men.
— the Assyrian may be here put for any powerful enemy of the people of God in later times; then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes of men; we, the Israel of God shall be enabled to repel the enemy.
— “Shepherds,” that is, princes, “seven” is the perfect number, representing completeness and rest; often signifies fullness; and “eight” suggests going beyond completeness into superabundance.
6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at the entrances thereof; thus shall He deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
— and they; the seven shepherds and eight principal men; or the rulers and princes of men, mentioned in the preceding verse; shall pasture (subdue) the land of Assyria with the sword,” turning its land into spoil.
7 And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many nations, as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
— in the Messianic Age, the remnant of Jacob, those that survived the Fire, Famine, Pestilences and the Sword, shall be in the midst of many people as captives, “in the midst of the abundance of the nations,”
— they shall be as a dew from the Lord, their testimonies would nourish the nations, as the showers upon the grass, the truth about their abominations and captivity would give the nations much need truth in their judgement and a testimony for the Word of God, (more on the remnants from Ezekiel 12 at the end)
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
— and the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations in the midst of many people; the same persons are meant here as before; who are compared to dew and showers of rain; because numerous and full of blessings in themselves and useful and beneficial to others;
— in the great Millennium or the Messianic Age, as a lion among the beasts of the forest; strong, mighty, powerful, courageous and superior to their enemies as the lion is strongest among beasts and keeps all others in awe of him;
— as a young lion among the flocks of sheep; their enemies shall be no more able to oppose them than a flock of sheep are to a young lion to resist him; the design of the metaphor is not to signify the harmlessness and innocence of their enemies but their weakness and the strength and courage of them.
9 Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off. — in the great Millennium or the Messianic Age thy hand shall be lifted up upon thy adversaries; O remnant of Jacob or Israel, will destroy their enemies with the sword that proceeds out of his mouth.
10 “And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord, “that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots.
— and it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, at the time of Messiah’s reign that he will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, ordinarily, the confidence of men, and he will destroy thy chariots.
11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds. — the Targum says, “I will cut off the cities of the people out of thy land and destroy all their strong fortresses;” these shall dwell no more there and be no more offensive and troublesome.
12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers. — and God will cut off witchcrafts or sorcerers out of thine hand;
— in the Messianic Age, all unlawful arts, cheating and juggling in religious matters will cease and be no more; every religious building of any kind (churches, cathedrals, temples, shrines, monuments, mosques) will all be totally demolished, so that no vestige of any false religion remains.
13 Thy graven images also will I cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee; and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands. — thy graven images; which were for this matter made of wood or stone, and fashioned to the images, which the blind idolaters thought well to represent their god.
14 And I will pluck up thine Asherah poles out of the midst of thee: so will I destroy thy cities. — I will pluck up thy groves; that is, either the statues, pillars, or trees connected with the worship of Baal and Astarte.
15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations, such as they have not heard.” — such as they have not heard; such terrible judgements, and dreadful expressions of divine wrath and fury,
— by earthquakes, hailstones, as were never known or heard before of in the world before see Revelation 16:18; or “which have not heard” the people that have not heard and hearkened to the word of God or the voice of the Messiah, but have turned a deaf ear to it, and despised it. So the Targum says, “who have not received the doctrine of the law.”
~~~ “as a dew from the Lord” ~~~
Ref: Micah 5:7 “as a dew from the Lord,” more on the Remnants from Ezekiel 12
16 But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine and from the pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations whither they come; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” — “that they may declare all their abominations among the nations;” this explains why a few are left to survive;
— if they have hidden in some secret hideouts, they won’t be able to “declare all their abominations among the nations” whither they come; who, observing their calamities, and distresses, could deserve and a need to know, and hear those who are well-versed to explain their sins, abominations and judgement to the nations. From God’s viewpoint, this gift is “as a dew from the Lord.”
Micah 6
1 Hear ye now what the Lord saith: “Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. — hear ye now what the Lord saith; the third portion of Micah’s prophecy opens with a solemn appeal to Nature, mountains and hills, to hear the Lord;
— hear ye now what the Lord saith; here begins a new discourse and with an address of the prophet to contend before the mountains; a parallel Scripture in Ezekiel 6 against the mountains and hills of Israel.
2 Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord’S controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel. — a detailed parallel Scripture in Ezekiel 6 on the mountains and hills of Israel;
— the “mountains of Israel” refer to the United States, UK and France – “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” their colonies, their new territories; and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.
3 O My people, what have I done unto thee? And wherein have I wearied thee? Testify against Me! — then addressing his people, what have I done unto thee?
— namely, in inflicting any kind of wrong unto them. And wherein have I wearied thee? is my requirements too rigorous or too hard to follow? Testify against me! God challenges his people, ready to entertain any reply which they might want to make concerning any charges.
4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house of servitude; and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
— for I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt; instead of doing them any wrong, God had done them much good; of which this is one instance and he was able to produce more: this a notorious, plain and full proof of his goodness to them which could not be denied;
— and redeemed thee out of the house of slaves; or “out of the house of bondage” as the same words are rendered, Exodus 20:2; that is, out of hard service in which their lives were made bitter; out of cruel bondage and slavery which made them cry to the Lord for help and deliverance; and he heard them and sent them a deliverer;
— and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam; Moses was their lawgiver, leader and commander; Aaron was their priest to offer sacrifice for them and to intercede on their behalf; and Miriam was a prophetess;
— the Targum says, “I sent before thee three prophets, Moses to teach the tradition of judgements; Aaron to make atonement for the people; and Miriam to instruct the women;” Miriam’s prophetic role is emphasized, particularly as a guide and exemplar for Israel’s women.
5 O My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab counseled, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord.” — O My people, remember now what Balak, king of Moab, consulted, the counsel he took in trying to bring about their downfall;
— and what Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, between the first station after Balaam’s blessing and the first station on the soil of the Holy Land, Cf Numbers 25:1; Joshua 4:19.
6 With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?
— wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before the high God? the prophet asks in the name of the people in order to restore the relationship which had been so rudely disturbed by their transgressions. Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? these being considered the choicest sacrifices.
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? — will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams; if single burnt offerings of bullocks and heifers will not do, will thousands of rams be acceptable to him?
— or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? for meat offerings, in which oil was used: if he could but gain his point and get the God of Israel on his side;
— shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? It is well known that the Phenicians and others in the land of Canaan sacrificed their children to Saturn or Molech, and some of the idolatrous Israelites imitated this horrid practice: see note on Leviticus 18:21, where God in a solemn manner prohibits it;
— these two verses give us an exact description of the character of hypocrites and habitual sinners who hope to obtain God’s favour by performing certain external ceremonies and are willing to purchase their own pardon upon any terms, except that of reforming their lives.
8 He hath shown thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? — and to do justly; to do private and personal justice between man and man; to hurt no man’s property and character; which as it is agreeable to the law of God;
— and to love mercy; not only to show mercy to miserable objects, to persons in distress; to relieve the poor, to clothe the naked and feed the hungry, but to delight in such exercises and which a king especially should do;
— and to walk humbly before thy God? To walk humbly in the fear of your God, as the Targum says, acknowledging his distance and fear from him; and even though a king yet his God and Creator was above him, King of kings, and Lord of lords, to whom he owed his crown, sceptre and kingdom and was accountable to him for all his administrations:
— and this “walking humbly” as opposed to “walking in pride” or compare to “come boldly before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16)” which kings are apt to do; but God can humble them and bring them low as kings have been obliged to learn; see Daniel 2:21:
“And He changeth the times and the seasons; He removeth kings and setteth up kings. He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding,” Daniel 2:21
9 The Lord’S voice crieth unto the city (and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name): “Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it! — the prophet speaks God’s word of warning and correction, directed toward the city; hear, O king and rulers, and the rest of the people of the land;
“The voice of the Lord’s prophet is upon the city for rebuke; and the teachers who fear His Name. Hear, O king, ruler, and the rest of the people of the land.”
10 Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable? — are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked? namely, such as had been gained by wickedness, by oppression, corruption and cheating;
— and the scant measure that is abominable? or for such practices as they were abominable and detestable to God; they stirred up his wrath, and brought destruction on those that used them. The Targum says, “and deceitful measures that bring forth fraud.”
11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances, and with the bag of deceitful weights? — and with the bag of deceitful weights? or “stones” which were used in weighing goods and which were deceitful when a heavier was used in buying and a lighter in selling;
— so the Targum says, “and with the bag that contains great and small weights?” condemned in Deuteronomy 25:13.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony for spiritual inspiration and understanding, as virtually all the endtime Churches do, is an absolute disgrace.
12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence, and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. — greedy men like Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates, Charles Schwab and George Soros;
— for the rich men (read rich nations like the United States and United kingdom) thereof are full of violence; that is, the rich men of the city, to whom the voice of the Lord cried, ancient Samaria, but more likely modern nations like the US and the UK, are full of violence, invading Iraq under the false pretext of WMD (weapons of mass destruction);
— or any or all the cities of Israel and Judah; the rich men of these cities, who had enough of the world and were under no temptation to do an ill thing, to get money; and yet their hands and their houses and their treasuries,
“For the rich are full of violence, and their treasuries are filled with plunder; and her inhabitants speak lies. And their tongues are deceitful in their mouths.”
13 Therefore also will I make thee sick by smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins. — therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee; with the rod to be heard by some of his sore judgments:
— as famine, pestilence, the sword of the enemy, civil disorders and the like which should cause their kingdom and state and families to decline and waste away as a sickly and diseased body. So the Targum says “and I brought upon thee with evil and with diseases.”
14 Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied, and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee. And thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver; and that which thou deliverest will I give up to the sword.
— thou shalt eat, but remain unsatisfied; either not having enough to eat, for the refreshing and satisfying of nature; or else a blessing being withheld from food, though eaten, and so not nourishing; or a voracious and insatiable appetite being given as a curse;
— and you shall be overtaken: and your enemies who lead your sons and daughters away into captivity; but you shall not rescue them and if you rescue them their end will be given to the Sword.
15 Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine.
— thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap, the enemy either destroying or robbing the crop; thou shalt tread the olives but thou shalt not anoint thee with oil since the enemy would plunder the stores; and sweet wine, these must as pressed from the grapes, but shalt not drink wine, the finished product.
16 For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and ye walk in their counsels, that I should make thee a desolation and the inhabitants thereof a hissing: Therefore ye shall bear the reproach of My people.”
— statutes of Omri; the founder of Samaria; Omri, king of Israel, is remembered for establishing policies of idolatry and corruption; and Ahab exceeded Omri his father and all his predecessors in impiety. He did more, it is said in 1 Kings 16:33; to provoke the Lord God than all the kings of Israel that were before him;
— God would make thee a desolation, an object of astonishment and horror, and the inhabitants thereof an hissing, to be jeered by the nations at on every side; therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people, the disgrace which is ordinarily heaped upon the people of God if it is delivered into the hands of its enemies.
Micah 7
1 Woe is me! For I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: There is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit. — Woe is me! alas for an unhappy man, Micah, that I am to live in such an age and among such a people as I do!
— this the prophet laments; for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits as the grape gleanings of the vintage; when there are only an apple or a pear or two leftover, signifying either that he was like Elijah left alone or however that the number of good men were very few;
— there is no cluster to eat; the prophet compares the moral state of Israel to a vineyard after harvest—empty, stripped, barren; that society has been picked clean of virtue, leaving only scraps of corruption.
2 The good man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. — the good man is perished out of the earth; here the complaint is that there are few of this character in the earth in the land of Israel;
— and there is none upright among men; that are upright in heart and life; that have right spirits renewed in them are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; and walk uprightly according to the rule of the divine word, truly honest, faithful men; very few such were to be found, scarce;
— they hunt every man his brother with a net as men lay nets for fish, fowl, beasts and hunt them till they have got them into them; so these men laid snares not for strangers only but for their own brethren to entangle them in and cheat and defraud them of their substance; and this they would do even to their destruction;
—there are very few left because the majority in our society have succumbed to four great deceptions in our modern era (Easter, Christmas, Sundays, holy ghost); so the Targum says, “betray or deliver his brother to destruction.” More at the end.
3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man uttereth his wicked desire; so they wrap it up.
— that they may do evil with both hands earnestly; as wicked men generally are more industrious and exert themselves more to do evil than good men do to do good; and even weary themselves to commit iniquity:
— the prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward; and if they do it must be bribed and have a reward for it even persons of such high character; and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire; the depravity, corruption and perverseness of his soul;
— who is either some great man at court, that being encouraged by the example of the prince and judge, openly and publicly requires a bribe also to do an ill thing; and without any shame or blushing promises to do it on that consideration; or a counsellor at the bar who openly declares that he will speak in such a cause.
4 The best of them is as a brier; the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity. — the Targum says, the best of them is difficult to escape from, like trying to get free of thorns;
— thy watchmen; either the true prophets of the Lord, foretold to come but were discredited and despised will most assuredly come; but now the time of your confusion has arrived whether it would be the day of their punishment for their false prophecies promised only good times ahead;
— and thy visitation cometh; the time that God would punish the people in general for their iniquities, as well as their false prophets, princes, judges and great men; who also may be designed by watchmen.
5 Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide; keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom. — do not put any confidence to any guide; in spiritual matters, in civil affairs as civil magistrates, judges, counsellors or in domestic matters.
6 For the son dishonoreth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law: a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. — for family respect has collapsed: the son dishonoreth the father, openly despising him, the daughter riseth up against her mother;
— the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, all the most sacred relationships being utterly broken down; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house. Similar conditions preceded the fall of Jerusalem and will precede the end of the world.
7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. — but as for me, I will look to God, who works my salvation;
— my God will hear me; this is the language of faith, both to say that God was his God, and that he would hear and answer him; unlike the failed human relationships described earlier.
8 Rejoice not over me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me.
— rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; for though I have fallen, I will rise; though I sit in darkness, the Lord will shine upon me.
9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He plead my cause and execute judgement for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteousness.
— I will bear the indignation of the Lord; the Targum prefaces these words with “Jerusalem saith” and thus they are the words of the prophet in the name of Jerusalem; with the humble submission which characterizes the repentant heart, such a free and unequivocal confession being essential if the sorrow is genuine;
— until he plead my cause, taking the part of his people against the enemies and execute judgement for me, maintaining and establishing his Kingdom in spite of all hostility;
— God will bring me forth to the light, namely, out of the darkness of captivity and oppression and I shall behold his righteousness for the deliverance of his people was in agreement with the Lord’s ancient promises.
10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her that said unto me, “Where is the Lord thy God?” Mine eyes shall behold her; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
— then mine enemy shall see it, this being the confident expectation of the Lord’s people and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the Lord, thy God? in the scornful question usually asked by the enemies of the Kingdom;
— God’s eyes shall behold her, with quiet satisfaction; now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets;
“And my enemy shall see, and she shall be covered with shame—she who said to me, ‘Where is the Lord your God?’ My eyes shall behold her downfall; now she shall be trampled like the mud of the streets.”
11 In that day thy walls are to be built; in that day shall the decree be far removed. — when Jerusalem is to be rebuilt in the Millennium, then it will be larger than it was previously;
— “far removed” refers to being extended outwards and implied these extended walls are the city limits of Jerusalem; the Targum includes the congregation of Israel shall be rebuilt.
12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
— in that day also God shall come even to the house of Jacob, the restored Zion, from Assyria and from the fortified cities where many of the ten tribes were, whither they were carried captives and from the fortress, namely, Assyria, even beyond the river, the Euphrates, to indicate all the countries lying between;
— and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain, from all the regions and countries of the earth, all those whom the Lord had chosen from the various countries of the world;
— here is a parallel and contrast from Ezekiel 6:3
and say: ‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. — this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, the UK and France. . . .
“and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;
— and to the rivers; where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.
13 Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, because of the fruit of their doings. — notwithstanding the land, the land of Israel, shall be desolate,
— the reference to the land; possessed by the ten tribes and at the latter days shall be desolate; because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings; the fruit of their doings are the fruits of their wickedness, which is desolation: by Fire, Pestilence and Famine, and if they still survive, to be smitten by a Sword.
14 Rule Thy people with Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, who dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel; let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
— led thy people with God’s rod, with her true shepherd’s care, the staff being the mark of the shepherd; the Targum says, “feed thy people with thy Word, the people of thine inheritance, in the age which is to be renewed.”
15 “As in the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt, will I show unto them marvelous things.” — as of thy coming out of the land of Egypt,
— when God overthrew their enemies with a mighty hand and revealed his goodness to Israel, will will againI show unto them wonders: God promises to perform miraculous acts again, comparable to those of the Exodus.
16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might; they shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf. — the nations will be stunned with what they saw, and scarce to know what they hear;
— become deaf, they shall lay their hand upon their mouth in token that they were reduced to silence; and will choose to hear no more; they shall stand astounded so as not to hear what shall be said and will stop their ears at what is being told.
17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of Thee.
— the nations shall lick the dust like a serpent, in deepest humiliation; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth, literally, “as those things that creep on the earth” they shall tremble forth out of their hiding-places;
— they shall be afraid of the Lord, our God, approaching to him with terror, and shall fear because of thee. With these words the prophet once more turns directly to Yehovah, addressing him in words of praise;
“They shall crawl upon their faces on the earth like serpents; like those that creep in the dust they shall tremble out of their strongholds. From before the Lord our God they shall be broken and shall be afraid before You.”
18 Who is a God like unto Thee, who pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. — the Targum says,
“There is none besides You—You are the God who pardons iniquity and passes over sins for the remnant of His inheritance. He does not maintain His anger forever, because He delights in doing good.”
19 He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities. And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. — he will turn again, so the prophet Micah assures the believers;
— God will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, treading them down like enemies that rise up against the believers; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea, so that they are covered over and can no more rise to condemn the Lord’s people.
20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. — thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob; that is, the promise made to Jacob; unfortunately there is very little truth in the house of Jacob today!
— and the mercy to Abraham; the gracious promises made to him, which sprung from mere grace and mercy the Lord would faithfully perform and make good to his posterity, natural and spiritual, especially to those who are Israelites indeed;
— all respecting his natural and spiritual seed; and especially the promise of the coming of the Millenium and the Messianic Age, that seed of his in which all nations of the earth were to be blessed; and which is the eminent instance of the mercy and grace of God to all nations of the world that walk in the steps of Abraham.
“The pious have perished from the land. Among men there is none. All of them [are set] to shed innocent blood. Each man delivers his brother to destruction.”
Why would each man delivers his brother to destruction? And that’s because of Four Great Deceptions that are really destructive:
(a) Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven: Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; Jeremiah 7:18 the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven; in Egypt, Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25, this is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’
(b) Christmas; Ezekiel 8:16 five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple; their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east; Christmas, which honor the Mithraism, birthday on December 25th – a form of nature worship based on the Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice;
(c) Sundays; her sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original keepers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria: And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof, II Kings 17:24.
— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honoring the SUN by observing SUNday worship. Ezekiel 8:16 They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the SUN toward the east; whose penalty is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:3-5 – ’till they die.
— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a SUNday; always on a SUNday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says He is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of His mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!
(4) Holy Ghosts – Revelation 4:5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; if the Spirit is a Being or an independent Personage; there would be seven Holy Spirits;
— and with these we would add Jesus Christ the Son, and God the Father, then there would be nine Personage; we should have a Polygon or a Nonagon; so surely the Godhead would be a Polyty or a Nonaty; nine heads, that would be more like an Indian goddess more than a Trinity?
— more about the missing Holy Ghost; indeed he’s real and around; he was created full of wisdom and beauty, his head swelled up so much that he wanted to be like the Most High: these clues are giving in the book of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14.
Accident or Attack? In what is considered a highly unusual event, two US naval aircraft flying from the US aircraft carrier Nimitz (CVN 68), an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and an F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter crashed within a 30-minute time span in the volatile South China Sea on October 26 on a Sunday.
The incidents occurred amid President Trump’s tour of Asia, during which he is expected to meet a host of Asian leaders, including China’s leader, Xi Jinping, making it more suspicious, and embarrassing.
With a surge of hidden electronic warfare upgrades, China is reshaping the South China Sea into an electronic battlespace tilted decisively in its favor.
This month, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) reported that China has quietly expanded its electronic warfare and surveillance infrastructure across its artificial island bases in the disputed Spratly Islands.
The upgrades, implemented between 2023 and 2025, bolster China’s ability to monitor and contest activity in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway claimed by multiple nations.
China’s military structures and electromagnetic gadgets on Fiery Cross Reef
Satellite imagery shows new antenna arrays and mobile electronic warfare vehicles deployed on Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi reefs. At least six paved sites with monopole antennas were installed, each oriented toward the sea.
The facilities appear linked to vehicle-mounted jamming systems designed to target specific electromagnetic bands. At Subi Reef, a roofed shelter was built in 2025 to house the units, while Mischief Reef hosts five vehicles connected to fixed arrays.
Additional upgrades include a circular concrete platform at Mischief Reef, for rapid antenna deployment, and two new radomes at Subi Reef, mirroring earlier installations on Fiery Cross and Mischief. These radomes provide overlapping intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) coverage.
China also constructed fortified coastal emplacements at Mischief Reef, capable of hosting artillery or mobile weapons.
Outlining the threat that China’s electronic warfare capabilities pose to the US and its allies in the South China Sea and in the Taiwan Strait, a November 2025 report by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) states that these capabilities target the networks that are the nervous system of US military operations.
Upon hearing of this rare occurrence many informed observers, and many uninformed ones, worried that the naval aircraft had been attacked with some sort of electronic warfare (EW) or Directed Energy Warfare (DEW) laser, or cyber weapon, causing them to fail and crash.
DEW, EW or cyber warfare, could all induce these crashes by disrupting flight systems subtly, including aircraft GPS, or frying electronics, especially in a contested area like the South China Sea where advanced Chinese surveillance ships and EW aircraft operate routinely.
China likely also has the capabilities to down aircraft, either through sabotage or flaws in our avionics that they have discovered through espionage.
All are part of China’s emphasis on ‘grey zone’ warfare.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doctrine includes targeting US Navy carrier groups’ electronic vulnerabilities, potentially causing cascading failures in coordinated operations like those from the USS Nimitz.
For instance, Chinese High-Power Microwave (HPM) weapons, such as those unveiled in 2025 capable of disabling electronics, could disable aircraft electronics non-kinetically, while aerial EW platforms like China’s J-16D jets are designed to create “electronic nightmares” by overwhelming US defenses.
These Chinese efforts are potentially more effective in the South China Sea due to China’s A2/AD (anti-access/area denial) networks, and militarized artificial island outposts, though US aircraft do have countermeasures like hardened electronics that should mitigate these threats.
The US aircraft carrier Nimitz (CVN 68) as two US Navy Aircraft Drown
If China did employ these measures, it would likely be detectable post-crash via telemetry analysis. Though, not with certainty. It would be most difficult to detect if this was a cyber attack.
After offering to help in search and rescue efforts, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman took the opportunity to criticize US operations in the region, accusing Washington of carrying out regular displays of military force in the South China Sea (while ignoring its own displays), and claiming that these US naval activities are increasing the risk to maritime activity, and undermining regional peace.
When President Trump was asked by a reporter aboard Air Force One enroute to Japan if he knew what had happened to the two aircraft Trump shrugged off worries of foul play, saying:
They’re going to let me know pretty soon. I think they should be able to find out. It could be bad fuel. I mean, it’s possible it’s bad fuel. Very unusual that that would happen. We’re going to find out. Nothing to hide. We’ll find out.
Yes, it is very unusual, as Newsweek reported:
“it’s certainly unusual to have two on the same day,” said Matthew Savill, the director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a British think tank.
It is “odd for two aircraft to go down in separate instances, so close together in time,” added Dan Rice, a former aide to Ukraine’s commander in chief and West Point graduate currently the president of American University Kyiv. The US Navy is likely to be on high alert.
And, as some have noted, bad fuel would likely affect more than just these two aircraft. Beware, Team Trump may be trying to downplay the event to avoid sabotaging his meeting with Xi.
If China was guilty, it would be an act of war. But it may be very difficult to prove.
However, it could be something else entirely. “Carrier operations are fearsomely complicated, especially on a big and busy one like the Nimitz,” Savill told Newsweek.
“There are any number of small things that can go wrong which can have dangerous consequences.”
Bad, or contaminated fuel, onboard the Nimitz could definitely have been one thing that could have gone wrong. But it could also have been an undetected Chinese DEW, EW, or cyber attack.
Either way, this is a costly couple of incidents, both financially, running into a couple of hundred million dollars, and reputationally. It is critical to quickly identify the cause.
The Prophecy of Micah, whose word of the Lord was meant for the heads of Jacob, the princes of the house of Israel; but then who is of the house of Israel today? Are they not of the United States today?
The Prophecy of Micah, whose Word of the Lord is meant for the house of Jacob
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony for spiritual inspiration and understanding, as virtually all the endtime Churches do, is an absolute disgrace.
The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. That is, the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us today from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
1 And I said: “Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know judgement” — and Micah said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob; the whole head of Jacob,
— the leading men and particularly those princes of the house of Israel, the ten tribes, being ringleaders in sin, who ought to have set good examples to others; and these are not to be spared because of their grandeur and dignity;
— is it not for you to know judgement? not the house of Israel to pass judgement, especially of (1) when and where to hold the feasts and (2) how the laws were administered by the house of Judah (who has the Scepter); and set rules and pass judgement; to determine the Sacred Calendar, administered by the Sanhedrin; to give heed to that which is just and unjust.
2 you who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck off their skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones, — who hate good and love evil, doing just the opposite of that which their leaders required of them;
— who pluck off their skin from off them, like wild beasts that tear off skin and flesh from the bones, and then devour them; or like cruel shepherds that not content to fleece their flocks, skin them; and their flesh from off their bones and take their flesh also and feed themselves and not the flock; or like butchers that first take off the skin off a beast and then cut up its flesh;
— so the Targum says, “they hate good and love evil; they seize the property of the people and take their precious wealth.”
3 who also eat the flesh of My people and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones and chop them in pieces, as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron?”
— like cannibals, they eat the flesh of my people and flay their skins from off them; flay them alive and then eat their flesh, devouring their substance, set forth their savageness, barbarity, and cruelty;
— and they break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the cauldron; with emphasis of detail: did with them as cooks do who not only cut flesh off the bones and into slices but break the bones themselves; pictures the excess of cruelty which the rulers of the people were practicing;
— this set forth their savageness, barbarity, and cruelty; sound like those who operates Unit 731 during World War II; would God also intended this to mean those Vietnamese who also had their skin sprayed with Agent Orange?
4 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but He will not hear them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings. — then shall they, the guilty ones, cry unto the Lord but He will not hear them namely at the time of the revelation of His wrath;
— the Targum says in the time of their distress but he will not hear their prayer so as to answer it according to their desire; that is, he will not save them from danger but deliver them up and all that belong unto them into the hands of such that shall use them as they have done others;
— he will even hide his face from them at that time, refusing to pay the slightest attention to their distress as they have behaved themselves ill in their doings and were thus fully ripe for judgement.
5 Thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth and cry “Peace”; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him:
— thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets, namely the false shepherds and false prophets, who presumed to speak in the name of the Lord without being sent that make my people to err, leading them astray, they led them into mistakes about matters of religion and civil government;
— that bite with their teeth and cry, Peace! that is, who prophesy smooth things, promise all kind of prosperity and plenty when they receive a sufficient amount of tithe money, proclaim peace; may even get a “Nobel Peace Prize” for so doing; do not keep a good table for them and cram and pamper them, but neglect them and do not provide well for them;
— they even declare war against him; these they threaten with one calamity or another that shall befall them; and endeavour to set their neighbours against them and even the government itself and do them all the mischief they can by defamation and slander, solemnly declaring warfare as for the honor of God;
“Thus said the Lord concerning the false prophets who lead my people astray: when they are fed with meat they prophesy peace for them, but when none feeds them, they prepare war against them.”
6 “Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine. And the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.
— therefore night shall be unto you that ye shall not have a vision, being excluded from the light granted by the Spirit of God; and it shall be dark unto you that ye shall not divine; they have no understanding and granted no revelation of the future;
— and the sun shall go down and the day shall be dark over the prophets; their time of prosperity will be over and they shall no more be in favour with the people, or courted and feasted by them; but shall be held in the utmost contempt and abhorrence with darkness as in the Day of Judgement;
“Therefore ye shall be confounded at prophesying, and you shall be ashamed of teaching; and the false prophets shall cover their lips, for the time will come upon them.”
7 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded; yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer from God.” — then shall the seers be ashamed, confounded, blushing with shame on account of their miserable failures in trying to uncover the future;
— yea, they shall all cover their lips, literally “their beard” their face up to the nostrils as a sign of shame; for there is no answer of God, not that they shall be ashamed and silenced because they shall now have no answer of God for they never had any;
“And the false prophets shall be confounded, and they shall be ashamed from teaching, and they shall cover their lips like mourners, all of them, because there is no spirit of prophecy in them from before the Lord.”
8 But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgement and of might, to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. — declare unto Jacob; the whole head of Jacob, the leading men of the nation and particularly those princes of the house of Israel, the ten tribes, those northern kingdom that followed Jeroboam;
— to declare unto Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin; especially of (1) when and where to hold the feasts and (2) how to determine the calendar which were administered by the house of Judah (who has the Scepter) and the Sanhedrin; and set rules and pass judgement; to give heed to that which is just and unjust;
“But as for me, I am filled with the strength of the spirit of prophecy from before the Lord, with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”
9 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgement and pervert all equity: — hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob and princes of the house of Israel, the very leaders whose wickedness had been described in the first part of the Chapter;
— that abhor judgement, the law and ordinances; everything that was right or just, making crooked paths that which should have been kept straight; hate to do that which was right and just; and pervert all the rules and laws of justice and equity, clearing the guilty and condemning the innocent.
10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. — their building projects in Zion and Jerusalem are founded on violence and dishonesty.
11 The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money. Yet will they lean upon the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us.”
— the heads thereof judge for bribes, the priests teach for money, and the prophets prophesy for payment; who were first hired by king Jeroboam after payment of bribes and fees from the lowest of people, people who were not qualified but for money;
— and the prophets thereof hired for money, their oracles being fashioned according to the presents which men gave them; yet will they lean upon the Lord, insisting that they were performing the work of their office by authority the God living in the midst of His people;
— and say, Is not the Lord among us? namely, with His power and protection. No evil can come upon us: namely pestilence, famine, sword and captivity that the prophets of the Lord had threatened them with.
12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest. — therefore shall Zion for your sake on account of their wickedness in making the Lord’s Temple a den of murderers, be plowed as a field, the king’s quarter turned into tillable soil;
— Jerusalem and the rest of the city shall become heaps, piles of broken stones and the mountain of the house, that is, of the Temple, as the high places of the forest, being overgrown with brush and trees. It is a vivid description of the ruin which comes upon the enemies of the Lord;
“Therefore, because of your sins, Zion shall be plowed as a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the Temple shall be like a forested hill.”
Micah 4
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it.
— but in the last days, beginning with the Millennium or the Messianic Age, it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord, of the Kingdom of God, shall be established in the top of the mountains which also mean a new Ezekiel Temple built on Mount Moriah where the divine Majesty would reside; the ideal Zion being elevated above all else in the world;
— and it shall be exalted above the hills, visible before all nations and before the eyes of all men; and people shall flow unto it, members of all the nations of the world come come to keep the feasts; should they refuse, there would be no rain, but plagues:
“And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles” Zechariah 14:18 (more at end of this chapter)
2 And many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.” For the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
— and Gentile many nations shall come, namely, the Elects whom the Lord would choose and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, the place where salvation is proclaimed, and to the house of the God of Jacob, the Kingdom of the Messiah;
— and he will teach us of his ways and we will walk in his paths; no longer paying homage to the Queen of heaven of Egypt: Astarte, nor would they pay homage to Mithras of Babylon, whose birthday is on December 25th, by dubbing it Christmas; nor they be Sunworshippers, whose services are always on Sundays; and Pentecost on Whitsundays;
— for the Law, as the revelation of the holy and righteous will of God, shall go forth of Zion and the Word of the Lord, particularly in the revelation of the way of salvation, from Jerusalem, where the house of Judah has dominion: of the Word, in speaking of the law, statutes and ordinances, of sin, justice and judgement, of redemption and grace, all in the hands of the Elects.
— and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks, both in an earthly, Millennial peace of which men are dreaming from time to time, but also in the spiritual peace in Him where heretic doctrines are beaten into plowshares and their hatred among men into pruning-hooks, in whom there is truly peace on earth;
— nation shall not lift up a sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more, this being said of the inner peace and harmony of the Kingdom of God;
“And many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’s Temple, to the house of the Presence of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us from His righteous ways, and we will walk in the instruction of His Torah. For from Zion shall go forth the Torah, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’”
3 And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
— and he, the God of the covenant, shall judge among many people, between Ishmaelites and the sons of Isaac; between Esau and Jacob; between the house of Israel and the house of Judah; teaching them true justice in accordance with his spoken and unspoken will, and rebuke strong nations afar off, to make them cease their enmity against him;
— and God will gather her that is driven out; out of the land of Israel, and scattered among the nations of the world; because of their transgressions against him; Jeremiah 16:15; and that God have afflicted them with calamities: Pestilence, Famine, Sword, Captivity and Deaths.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.
— sitting every man under his vine and fig tree; a proverbial phrase, expressive of the greatest tranquillity, security and enjoyment of prosperity; 1 Kings 4:25; when persons need not keep within their walled towns and cities and lack themselves up in their houses but may sit down in their gardens, fields and vineyards and enjoy the fruit thereof;
— as the Targum interprets it, “under the fruit of his vine and under the fruit of his fig tree.”
5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever. — for all people, all those concerned in this prophecy,
— for even if all other nations shall walk every one in his own way, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever; with a full trust in His supporting strength and powerful protection of the God of Jacob, which turns aside all the efforts of the enemies to disturb the inner peace of the Kingdom.
6 “In that day,” saith the Lord, “will I assemble her that is halt, and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted. — in that day, in the great Millennium or the Messianic Age, saith the Lord, will I assemble the lame and gather those who were dispersed, along with those I afflicted, all worshipping the God of Abraham.
7 And I will make her that is halt (or lame) a remnant, and her that was cast far off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from hence forth, even for ever.
— “The people of that ‘crippled’ city will be the only ones left alive (ERV); but I will make them into a strong nation; the Lord will be their king who will rule from Mount Zion forever;
“And I will make the exiles into a remnant, and the dispersed into a strong nation; and the kingdom of the Lord shall be revealed over them on Mount Zion, from now and forever.”
8 And thou, O tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion; the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”
— and thou, O tower of the flock, the term being applied to a tower of refuge for flocks in time of danger, here as a fort from which the great King and Shepherd, the Messiah Himself, observes and guards His flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, the impregnable palace of the Kingdom of God;
— unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion, the glory of the earliest OT Elects: Enoch, Noah, Abraham and to the Patriarchs, Job? compared with that of the kingdom of Israel, when established, which are the latter OT Elects, under its mightiest king; King David; and before that Moses, Joshua, Samuel;
— the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem: King Hezekiah, King Josiah; Daniel and his three friends, Ezra and Nehemiah; since the earthly Jerusalem is always at the foundation of the kingdom, the afflictions of the Jewish capital are made typical of the experiences of the Lord’s people.
9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud? Is there no king in thee? Is thy counselor perished? For pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail. — now, why dost thou cry out aloud? at the approach of the Chaldean invasion; Nebuchadnezzar was described as “my servant” or at other times, the Sword;
— is there no king in thee? is there no visible representative of the capable king to keep and protect them? Is thy counselor perished? to counsel, instruct and comfort them and at last to deliver and save them this name also being applied to the reigning member of the house of David?
— for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail, the true believers in Israel feeling the deepest grief and sorrow over the desolation of the kingdom; and in modern times a time of Jacob’s trouble.
10 Be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail; for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field. And thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.
— be in pain and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion like a woman in travail, the catastrophe of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the exile of the people being imminent; that was for ancient Judah which were for a period of 70 years; but for Ezekiel’s Israel and Judah it could be 190/40 years; for more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline
— for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, after it had been taken by the enemies, their houses taken away from them; and thou shalt dwell in the field if they could survive and thou shalt go even to Babylon, being dragged into captivity again;
— there shalt thou be delivered, namely, when a modern Cyrus issued the decree setting the captives free and thus laid the foundation upon which later arose the Messianic Age or the great Millennium there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies so that the people of the covenant would be restored to the Promise Land, the land where the Messiah was to reign.
11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, “Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion!” — now also, namely, at the time of Jacob’s deepest humiliation, a time known as Jacob’s trouble;
— that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion, namely, in malicious joy over her downfall; and many nations are gathered against thee, in bold hostility, starting with those of the South and spread to the North; for more on the enemy from the South, see The Flaming Sword and Fire from the South!
12 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel; for He shall gather them as the sheaves onto the threshing floor. — but they know not the thoughts of the Lord, the object which He has in mind in thus dealing with His people;
— one example is the slaughtering of his people spreading from the South to the North (for more see notes from Ezekiel 20:45-21:5)
— neither do they understand God’s thoughts, neither his unspoken will:
“Thus saith the LORD of hosts: ‘The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness and cheerful feasts. Therefore love the truth and peace.’ Zechariah 8:19
— but surprisingly, there were the unspoken Word of God! Like parents, they have their secret wishes for and from their children. So is God. But how do we know God’s unspoken will if they were unspoken? To be unspoken would also mean unwritten. More on the unspoken will of God above Zechariah 8:19;
“But they do not know the secrets of the Lord, nor do they understand His counsel; for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.”
13 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass. And thou shalt beat in pieces many people, and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth.
— arise and slay, O congregation of Zion, all the Elects that will gathered in Jerusalem, who live according to His commands; for he will make thine horn iron and he will make thy hoofs brass, giving to his Elects a new and unconquerable strength;
— and thou shall beat in pieces many people, not by victories of the flesh, but by those of the spirit; and he will consecrate their gain, what the enemies had gotten by robbery and plunder;
— unto the Lord, as devoted to him, and their substance, all their possessions, unto the Lord of the whole earth, the Elects who will now have a dominion, kingdom and cities given him by the Ancient of Days that so all people, nations and languages shall serve him, Daniel 7:14;
“Arise and slay, congregation of Zion, for I will make your people strong like iron and your leaders firm like bronze. You shall crush many nations, and you shall consecrate their wealth and their precious possessions before the Lord, the Master of all the world.”
~~~
More from Zechariah 14: the great Millennium or the Messianic Age
16 And it shall come to pass that every one who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
17 And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.
18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, upon whom there is no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
20 In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses: “Holiness Unto The Lord.” And the pots in the Lord’S house shall be like the bowls before the altar;
21 yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all those who sacrifice shall come and take of them and boil therein. And in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 14:16-21
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For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
President Donald Trump issued a message to Colombian President Gustavo Petro as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate, warning: “He will be next soon.”
Speaking to reporters, Trump stated that Petro is “next” on the White House’s list of alleged drug trafficking suspects to remove from power. Initially, Trump stated he “really thought too much about” removing Petro from power.
Now, it seems the president has changed his mind regarding the leader. “Colombia is producing a lot of drugs,” Trump told reporters. It comes amid fears Trump has sparked ‘beginning of war’ after an ‘act of piracy.’
“So he better wise up or he’ll be next. He’ll be next soon,” he added. “I hope he’s listening; he’s going to be next.”
The comments from the president mark a major escalation of Trump’s threats against the Colombian leader. During a conversation with Politico this week, Trump teased that he planned on expanding his anti-drug trafficking operation to both Mexico and Colombia.
Previously, Petro slammed Trump, stating, “To threaten our sovereignty is to declare war; do not damage two centuries of diplomatic relations.”
The Colombian commander-in-chief also extended an invitation for his American counterpart to observe the nation’s dismantling of drug facilities firsthand.
While Trump has made his feelings on Petro very clear, it is likely that the president may get his wish without having to resort to violence. Politico reported that the office of the Colombian leader is term-limited and the country is scheduled to hold elections in May.
For the last few months, the president has concentrated his efforts on Venezuela. Since September, the White House has authorized the systematic strikes of alleged drug trafficking boats leaving the country and built up a massive military buildup.
Maduro produced his trusty sword as he squirmed under pressure
Rising tensions
The strikes have been a concentrated effort to force Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to leave office.
On Wednesday, US Navy forces intercepted and seized a sanctioned oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, then Nicolas Maduro has vowed to “kick in the teeth” of America.
He fumed the US had committed an act of “piracy” – while a nonchalant Donald Trump suggested the States would “keep the oil.”
And below is a Prophecy between the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
The Prophecy of Micah, the word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of kings, as Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah and Uzziah. Micah was thought to have prophesied thirty or forty years, which places him in the years 713 to 750 BC; thus contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea and Amos but they could have started earlier.
Although Micah was from Judah, his prophecies were for “Samaria and Jerusalem.” Yet the message is “Hear, all ye people! Hearken, O earth,” and thus all humanity that is therein! That is, the warning of such message is to the whole earth!
The expression, “O earth” is expressed seven times throughout the OT, by Moses, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah and here by Micah, empahsizing that God, too, has a message for the whole of humanity.
Micah 1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem. — in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah; Micah is thought to have prophesied about sixteen years in Jotham’s time, as many under Ahaz and fourteen under Hezekiah;
— by this it appears that Micah was contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea and Amos though they began to prophesy somewhat sooner than he even in the days of Uzziah; very probably he conversed with these prophets especially Isaiah with whom he agrees in many things; his style is like his and sometimes the same phrases;
— which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem; in the vision of prophecy, Samaria the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel; assigned to the tribe of Joseph; its southern part of Samaria was then known as Mount Ephraim;
— and Ephraim is representing the ten-tribes, as Jerusalem was of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and Samaria is mentioned first because it was the head of the greatest body of tribes; and as it was the first in transgression it was also the first to face judgement.
2 Hear, all ye people! Hearken, O earth, and all that is therein! And let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from His holy temple. — hear, all ye people; or “the people, all of them” all the nations of the world, not just the nations of Israel or only from several tribes of Judah;
— hearken, O earth, and all that therein is; or “its fullness” the land of Israel and Judah and the whole earth and all the inhabitants of it; reinforcing what was said above;
— and let the Lord God be witness against you; or “let the word of the LORD God be among you as a witness,” as the Targum, interpreted by Ezra, says; let him who is God, who knows all hearts, thoughts, words and actions, let him bear witness in your consciences that what he is about to say.
3 For behold, the Lord cometh forth out of His place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. — for, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place; out of heaven;
— the place of the house of his Shekinah as the Targum says; where his throne is, where he keeps his court and displays his glory; from whence he removes not by local motion since he is everywhere but by some manifest exertion of his power, either on the behalf of his people or in taking vengeance on his and their enemies;
— and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth; which are his footstool; not in Samaria but in Jerusalem, built on mountains and all other high towers and fortified places together with men of high looks and haughty countenances who exalt themselves like mountains and swell with pride;
— these the Lord can easily subdue and humble them, bring low and tread down like the mire of the street; perhaps there may be an allusion to the high places where idols were worshipped; and which were the cause of the Lord’s wrath and vengeance and of his coming forth in this unusual way in his providences.
4 And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as waters that are poured down a steep place.
— and the mountains shall be molten under him, like wax before the fire, dissolving before his almighty power, and the valleys shall be cleft, cleaving asunder before his majesty as the waters that are poured down a steep place, tearing down the abysses and causing a general dissolution of the entire surface of the earth.
5 For the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
— for the transgression of Jacob is all this, and for the sins of the house of Israel; all this evil, all these calamities and judgements, signified these did not come by chance nor without reason; but were or would be inflicted according to the judgement of God, for their lies and idolatries;
— is it not Samaria? the wickedness of Samaria, the calf of Samaria? as in Hosea 7:1; that is, the worship is that of idolatry which the ten tribes have given themselves into; or the altering of the Sacred Calendar? where they shifted the feast days a month later? that is; are these not enough reasons for all this wrath to come upon them: or “who is the transgression of Jacob?”
— are they not the kings that have reigned in Samaria with their nobles, princes and great men, who, by their edicts influence encouraged the worship of the golden calves? they caused the people to sin: or as the Targum says “where have they of the house of Jacob sinned? is it not in Samaria?”
— and what are the high places of Judah? or “who are they?” are they not Jerusalem? are they not the king, the princes and priests that dwell at Jerusalem? certainly they are; such as Ahaz and others in whose times this prophet lived; see II Kings 16:4;
— or as the Targum, interpreted by Ezra, says, “where did they of the house of Judah commit sin? was it not in Jerusalem?” truly it was and even in the Temple; here Ahaz built an altar similar to the one in Damascus, offered sacrifices and thus desecrated the temple along with many of its vessels. II Kings 16:10.
6 “Therefore I will make Samaria as a heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard; and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will uncover the foundations thereof.
— therefore God will make Samaria as an heap of ruins that fall into dust and finally become a part of the soil and as plantings of a vineyard, that is, places where vineyards may be planted;
— and he will pour down the stones thereof, scattered like those used to mark vineyards, those which King Omri had used in building the city, into the valley, and he will discover, lay bare, the foundations thereof, destroying it to the very ground.
7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate; for she gathered it from the hire of a harlot, and they shall return to the hire of a harlot.”
— and all the graven images of Samaria shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof, namely, those of spiritual harlotry, the consecrated offerings placed on the idol altars, shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will God lay desolate, making them a wilderness;
— for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, by her spiritual adultery, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot, for the rich treasures were taken away by the enemies and devoted to their own idols. The vanity of false worship also in this respect seems rarely to strike the consciousness of idolaters;
— the Targum emphasizes that even the material wealth tied to false worship will be destroyed, as “All the treasures or ornaments associated with idol worship will be consumed by fire.”
8 Therefore I will wail and howl; I will go stripped and naked; I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls. — therefore, on account of the calamity which would strike Samaria and Judah, I, Micah, will wail and howl, in a most bitter and mournful cry,
— I will rent my garments, will go stripped and naked as Isaiah did, Isaiah 20:3; he went about like a madman, one disturbed in his mind, bereft of his senses because of the desolation coming upon Israel;
— I will make a wailing like the dragons like the jackals of the desert, and mourning as the owls like ostriches crying in pain; so the Targum emphasizes that their lament will be shrill, piercing, and unrestrained, “for this they shall wail and howl, and go naked among the spoilers;”
“And the Lord said, “As My servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia,” Isaiah 20:3
9 For her wound is incurable; for it has come unto Judah; he has come unto the gate of My people, even to Jerusalem. — for her wound is incurable; or her “stroke is desperate” the ruin of Samaria and the ten tribes are inevitable; the decree being gone forth and they hardened in their sins and continuing in their impenitence;
— and their destructions are irrevocable; till the time comes that all Israel shall be saved; “she is grievously sick of her wounds” just ready to die upon the brink of ruin and no hope of saving her; this is the cause and reason of the above lamentation of the prophet, and increased his grief and sorrow;
— for the calamity has reached the land of Judah; it stopped not with Israel but spread itself into the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; for the Assyrian army, having taken Samaria and carried Israel captive in a short time, about seven or eight years, invaded Judea and took the fenced cities of Judah in Hezekiah’s time in which Micah prophesied;
— he, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, having taken the fenced cities came up to the very gates of Jerusalem and besieged it where the courts of judicature were kept and the people resorted to, to have justice done them; and Micah, being of the tribe of Judah calls them his people and was the more affected with their distress.
10 Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust. — declare ye it not in Gath, one of the chief cities of the Philistines,
— weep ye not at all lest the message cause these enemies to rejoice; in the house of Aphrah roll thyself in the dust, literally “in Beth-leaphra I wallow in the dust,” for such scattering of dust was a sign of deep grief. Throughout this paragraph the prophet in the Hebrew uses puns (a joke exploiting different possible meanings), for Gath means “announcement” and Ophra “dust-house.”
11 Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Shaphir, having thy shame naked. The inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Bethezel; he shall receive from you his standing.
12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited anxiously for good, but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. — for the inhabitants of Maroth (bitterness) waited carefully for good, being anxiously and bitterly concerned about it,
— writhing in grief and pain on account of her lost prosperity; but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem. But while all these towns were in the neighborhood of Jerusalem the prophet next shows that the punishment would not be confined to the immediate neighborhood of the capital.
13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast (she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion), for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee.
— O thou inhabitant of Lachish, a fortified city in the plain toward the southwest, bind the chariot to the swift beast, to the fastest horses, namely, to escape the impending punishment; she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee, she was the first city of Judah to introduce the idol-worship of the northern kingdom.
14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moreshethgath; the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. — therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath (the betrothed of Gath), the daughter of Zion being obliged to dismiss or release this city to the enemy, like the gift of a marriage portion;
— the houses of Achzib (deception); shall be a lie to the kings of Israel, a deceitful brook which offers no refreshment to the thirsty wanderer; just so the city would slip from the grasp of the kings of Judah (the southern kingdom being meant in this instance) so that it would no longer be in their possession.
15 Yet I will bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah: he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel. — yet will God bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah (town of inheritance), for Israel had been the heir obtaining it from the Canaanites;
— and the enemy would now be the heir receiving it from the people of Judah; he shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel, rather “even unto Adullam will the nobility of Israel come,” to hide themselves in the cave in which David once sought refuge from Saul, 1 Samuel 22:1.
16 Make thyself bald, and shear thy beard because of thy pleasant children; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, for they are gone into captivity from thee.
— Micah was asked to make himself bald, Zion as the mother of the nation being addressed, and poll thee, shearing her head, for thy delicate children in deep grief and sorrowful lamentation;
— enlarge thy baldness as the eagle, the griffin vulture of the Orient, the entire forepart of whose head is without feathers; for they are gone into captivity from thee. The entire chapter is a powerful and vivid description of the overthrow of the land by the armies of the invaders, which would be sent to punish the transgression of Judah.
Micah 2
1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! When the morning is light they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand. — woe to them that devise iniquity; who premeditated deliberately; any kind of iniquity, lying, cheating, especially those with strength or influence use it to oppress others;
— or the sin of coveting of neighbours’ goods and oppressing the poor, sins which are instanced in Micah 2:2; and every thing that is vain, foolish, wicked and in the issue brings trouble and distress: now a woe is denounced against such that think on such things and please themselves with them in their imaginations and contrive ways and means to commit them;
— and work evil upon their beds; introduces a prophetic lament, signaling condemnation of those who plan evil, when they should be asleep and at rest or engaged in good things; that is, they plot and contrive how to accomplish the evil they meditate; Psalms 36:4.
2 They covet fields and take them by violence, and houses, and take them away. So they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. — and they covet fields and seize them; the fields of their poor neighbours which lie near them and convenient for them;
— they wish they were theirs and they contrive ways and means to get them into their possession; and if they cannot get them by fair means, if they cannot persuade them to sell them or at their price they will either use some crafty method to get them from them or they will take them away by force and violence; as Ahab got Naboth’s vineyard from him;
— and houses and take them away; they covet the houses of their neighbours also and take the same course to get them out of their hands and add them to their own estates;
— so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage; and so distressed a man and his family for the present and his posterity after him; which seems to be designed to make it agree with the story of Ahab, 1 Kings 21:13.
3 Therefore thus saith the Lord: “Behold, against this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your necks, neither shall ye go haughtily; for this time is evil.
— therefore thus saith the Lord, behold, against this family; against the family of Jacob; do I devise an evil; because of those evils of covetousness, oppression and injustice, secretly devised and deliberately committed; even an invasion of their land by the Assyrians and the carrying of them captive from it into foreign regions;
— from which ye shall not remove your necks; that is, the house of Jacob would not be able to deliver themselves from it; they would not be able to stop the enemy in his progress, having entered their land; nor oblige him to break up the siege of their city and being carried captive they would never be able to free themselves from the yoke of bondage put upon them;
— neither shall ye go haughtily; with necks stretched out and heads lifted up high and looking upon others with scorn and contempt; but hereafter their heads would hang down, their countenances be dejected and their backs bowed with the burdens upon them: for this time is evil.
— the Targum, as interpreted by Ezra, identifies this of the last wicked generation:
“Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am planning evil against this generation, from which you will not be able to remove your necks, nor walk upright, for it is a time of calamity.”
4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation and say, ‘We are utterly despoiled; He hath changed the portion of my people. How hath He removed it from me! Turning away, He hath divided our fields.’”
— in that day shall one take up a parable against you; making use of your name as a byword, a proverb, a taunt and a jeer; mocking at your calamities and miseries: or “concerning you” take up and deliver out a narrative of your troubles in figurative and parabolical expressions;
— and lament with a doleful lamentation for the mocking song of the enemies would be a mournful dirge in the mouths of the house of Israel and say, “We will be utterly spoiled” losing everything we have. God himself permitting one of the nations, an enemy from the South, to take possession of it; (for a more comprehensive and a parallel Ezekiel 20-21 scene is added at the end);
— the Targum expresses clearly that those who plundered will have themselves plundered:
The people who once exploited others will themselves be plundered, their inheritance lost, and their land divided among outsiders. It is a prophetic reversal: the oppressors become the oppressed, and their downfall becomes proverbial.
5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord. — therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot, to cast a measuring-line refers to the practice of dividing land by measurement and lot before the assembly of God;
— because the people have exploited others (coveting fields, seizing houses, oppressing families in Micah 2:2), God declares that they will lose the privilege of participating in the sacred assembly where land is apportioned.
6 “Prophesy ye not,” say they to them that prophesy: “They shall not prophesy to them, that they shall not suffer shame.” — like, Amaziah: prophesy not, say they to them that prophesy, literally, “Drop not,” or “drivel (senseless talk or writing; nonsense) not, they drivel,” almost like the slang, balderdash;
— “Dry up! they drivel,” in speaking to the true prophets in a silly fashion. They shall not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame, that is: If the prophecy which the apostate Jews regarded as drivel would not continue then there would be no chance for them to escape the shame which would come upon the entire nation by the conquest of the enemies;
“Do not prophesy, they say; do not teach this people, for they will not accept correction.”
7 Oh thou that art named the house of Jacob: Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened? Are these His doings? Do not My words do good to him that walketh uprightly?
— O thou that art named the house of Jacob; but dost not act suitably to the piety of thy father Jacob and therefore though thou art in name, yet not in truth the genuine seed of Jacob;
— is the Spirit of the Lord straitened. Is God’s hand shortened? are his power, wisdom and kindness less now than formerly? are the judgements he brings upon you the genuine effects of his power and goodness? thus punishments are called his strange work, Isaiah 28:21;
— do not my words do good to him, that walketh uprightly? Certainly, both God’s laws and the words delivered by his prophets would do you great and lasting good if you would obey them.
8 “Even of late My people have risen up as an enemy; ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that pass by trustingly as men returning from war. — even of late, in fact, yesterday, my people is risen up as an enemy, taking an open stand against Yehovah; and this hostility is openly shown;
— ye pull off the robe with the garment, stripping off the mantle or upper garment from them that pass by securely, considering themselves safe from robbery and violence, as men averse from war, that is, from peaceable people, such as seek no quarrel with any one;
“Because of the sins of my people, they strip away garments from those who pass by peacefully. Foreign nations rise up and seize their treasures. Their precious wealth is taken away. They are left in their land like those crushed in battle, humiliated and stripped of dignity.”
9 The women of My people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away My glory for ever. — the women of my people, the unprotected widows have ye cast out from their pleasant houses, the homes of their delight to which they were attached by the memory of their wedded love;
— from their children have ye taken away my glory, emphasizing the cruelty of oppression, where even the next generation suffers displacement.
10 Arise ye and depart, for this is not your rest; because it is polluted it shall destroy you, even with a sore destruction. — arise ye and go into the exile which the enemies would force upon you; for this is not your rest,
— they would not be permitted to remain in Canaan; because it is polluted, it shall destroy them, even with a sore destruction, or “on account of the corruption which brings a most powerful destruction;” setting forth the depth of the nation’s corruption are very unwelcome to their wicked leaders.
11 If a man walking in the spirit of falsehood lieth, saying, ‘I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink,’ he shall even be the prophet of this people!
— if a man walking in the spirit and falsehood, in vanity and falsehood, namely, in preaching his own ideas, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink, that is, of the enjoyment of this present life,
— he shall even be the prophet of this people, possessing “itching ears” referring to: tell me what we want to hear, even if there are little lies, sweet little lies, that they will all go to a place of safety, they would meet with the approval of their leaders for a time of final training, and those who desired a cover for their lives of luxury and dissipation (kill the righteous and the wicked – more at the end);
“Because they went astray after false prophets, who prophesied to them under a spirit of falsehood, and taught them to pursue wine and strong drink, it shall be: just as they were taught to err by following false prophets, so shall they be exiled to a land of falsehood together with this generation.”
12 “I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel. I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold; and they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
— in the end, God will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee all those whom he intended as members of his congregation; he will surely gather the remnant of Israel, collecting the believers from all the nations of the earth;
— he will put them together in one fold, John 10:16, as the sheep of Bozrah, the rich meadowland east of Jordan as the flock in the midst of the fold, secure from the attack of the enemies. They shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men, surging with their great numbers.
13 The Breaker has come up before them; they have broken forth and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it; and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord at the head of them.”
— the Deliverer shall come up before them, rather “There will go up before them He that breaketh through,” their powerful Champion; they have broken up, rather “they break up,”
— and have passed through the gate, passing into the gate of the Lord’s kingdom, and are gone out by it, having free access to the throne of God; their King, the Messiah Himself, shall pass before them and the Lord on the head of them, leading them through all the vicissitudes of this life to the promised life of eternity. While men are clamoring for a kingdom which will suit their fleshly lusts and desires, all true shepherds will continue to proclaim sin and repentance.
~~~
More about an enemy – to kill the righteous and the wicked – from South to North
Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
46 “Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop thy word toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the southland. 47 And say to the forest of the south: ‘Hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee and every dry tree. The flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.’” 49 Then said I, “Ah, Lord God! They say of me, ‘Doth he not speak parables?’”
Ezekiel 21:1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 2 “Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem, and drop thy word toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel; 3 and say to the land of Israel, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I am against thee, and will draw forth My sword out of his sheath and will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from thee the righteous and the wicked, therefore shall My sword go forth out of his sheath against all flesh from the south to the north, 5 that all flesh may know that I, the Lord, have drawn forth My sword out of his sheath. It shall not return any more. Ezekiel 20:45-21:5
Q: how would such scenarios be played out?
~~~~
For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
That’s a good, timely question. The short answer is: it’s unclear — there is interest, but China has not yet committed publicly to large-scale purchases of Nvidia H200 chips, and Chinese government policy may limit adoption. The situation is still fluid. Here’s what we know as of now. Reuters+2South China Morning Post+2
What shows China could buy / wants H200s
According to recent reporting, some Chinese AI developers and data-center operators have reacted positively to the US decision to allow H200 exports — because the H200 still outperforms many domestic chips, especially in high-performance AI training workloads. South China Morning Post+1
Analysts quoted in media say the H200’s architecture (derived from Hopper line) remains attractive because many Chinese AI frameworks and models are already optimized around Nvidia chips. South China Morning Post
The sale approval covers “approved customers” — meaning some companies in China could legally place orders under the new export-licensing rules. euronews+1
So from the demand and technical-needs side, there’s reason to expect interest.
What works against broad Chinese adoption
Regulatory/resistance from Beijing: Several reports note that Chinese authorities, while not outright banning H200 imports under the new policy, are likely to restrict or limit access — to protect domestic chipmakers and maintain technological self-reliance. Reuters+2The Straits Times+2
Domestic-first policy: Even before the US re-opened exports, China had already been pushing for domestic AI-chip development. Some big Chinese tech firms had begun shifting away from relying on Nvidia chips. Tom’s Hardware+1
Uncertainty about licensing and revenue-sharing fees: The US policy imposes a 25% fee (or share) on exports to China, which likely raises costs. That may make H200s less attractive compared with domestic alternatives — if performance gains don’t outweigh cost and regulatory risk. Yahoo Finance+1
Strategic risk and supply-chain caution: Given geopolitics — export-import restrictions, future sanctions, potential backlash — many Chinese firms may hesitate to rely on imported GPUs for core AI infrastructure, especially for sensitive applications. The Straits Times+1
Also, according to Nvidia’s own CEO (quoted recently), he is “unsure” whether Chinese companies will decide to buy H200s even if they can. Tom’s Hardware
Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is “unsure” whether Chinese companies will decide to buy H200s even if they can
Current Outlook (as of December 2025)
We’re likely to see some limited purchases — mostly by private Chinese tech firms that want high-performance GPUs quickly and are willing to pay a premium/accept regulatory risk.
Large-scale adoption across the Chinese state sector or major data centers seems less likely right away, due to government preference for domestic chips and policy uncertainty.
Over the next 6–12 months we’ll see— depending on how many licenses China grants, how many firms actually place orders, and whether the chips deliver enough value compared with domestic alternatives.
China’s AI gold rush just minted its newest market sensation.
Moore Threads, founded in 2020 by former Nvidia executive Zhang Jianzhong, staged a blockbuster debut on Shanghai’s STAR Market, raising more than $1 billion before soaring more than fivefold in Friday trading.
The chipmaker closed at 600.5 yuan and reached a market capitalization of about 282.3 billion yuan, or slightly under $40 billion. Retail demand was electric: individual investor orders exceeded shares available by roughly 2,750 times.
Zhang is positioning Moore Threads as a central player in Beijing’s mission to reduce dependence on foreign computing power at a moment when Washington has tightened export restrictions targeting advanced AI chips.
China’s domestic AI ecosystem has been accelerating since startup DeepSeek released a large language model that rivaled global offerings at significantly lower cost, fueling a surge of capital across local tech giants including Alibaba and Tencent.
Moore Threads is the first of China’s four little dragons to list, and plans to use its IPO proceeds to expand GPU research, development, and working capital.
Analysts note that Chinese AI chips and models still trail foreign platforms in important areas, but the combination of policy support, engineering investment, and soaring investor enthusiasm could help accelerate innovation.
Zhang said AI likely isn’t in a bubble as long as large language models keep advancing and no major problem-solving bottlenecks appear.
With US markets becoming more cautious about lofty AI valuations, Moore Threads remains valued at only a fraction of Nvidia’s nearly $4.5 trillion market cap, giving investors room to imagine future domestic upside if China continues building self-sufficient computing infrastructure.
Friday’s frenzy may also set the tone for the next wave of semiconductor listings.
MetaX, another Shanghai chipmaker and member of the four dragons, is working toward a deal expected to raise the equivalent of more than $550 million.
If Beijing’s AI policy momentum continues and private capital stays engaged, China’s semiconductor IPO window could be one of the most closely watched areas for investors tracking the next phase of AI infrastructure spending.
The reluctant prophet Jonah had received a severe lesson at the hand of God, but being benefited by his survival he was ready to undertake the commission which had originally been issued to him.
The story of Jonah before God’s Omniscience is not just a manifestation of himself or even for Jerusalem, Judea or Israel but a manifestation of the whole human experience.
Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, the Assyrian capital and all its people
Jonah 3
1And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying, — Jonah having been scourged by the Lord for his stubbornness and disobedience, and being humbled under the mighty hand of God, is tried a second time;
— perhaps Jonah had settled down “somewhere” for the Word of God that came the second time, said, “Arise and go (Jonah 3:2)” and that is inconsistent with the idea that Jonah was already on the way after his first bad experience.
2 “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.” — Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, the Assyrian capital and metropolis, and preach unto it the preaching that God bid him, loudly proclaiming the message which the Lord would reveal to him in due time.
3 So Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey. — now in unquestioning obediences, Jonah arose and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Nineveh was an exceeding great city, literally, “a great city to God,”
— of three days’ journey; in compass, being sixty miles from end to end; allowing twenty miles for a day’s journey on foot.
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.”— and as Jonah began to enter into the city the first twenty miles toward the center of Nineveh, he preached wherever he found a suitable place and a fitting opportunity;
— he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown; the word “overthrown” here, literally means, “Destroyed from the very foundation” and is the same word used in speaking of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah;
— his speech likely to be in Aramaic, which was a lingua franca for the people at the time, understood by Jews and Assyrians alike.
5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. — so the people heard the Word of God, believed and obeyed it; and were filled with wholesome fear;
— they proclaimed a fast as an outward evidence of their sorrow and put on sackcloth, the garment of mourning, from the greatest of them even to the least of them, old and young, all without exception.
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes. — for word came unto the king of Nineveh, into the neighborhood of whose palace the prophet had very likely progressed in his first day’s journey;
— and he arose from his throne, symbol of his earthly power, and he laid his imperial robe from him, his royal mantle, and covered him with sackcloth, also adopting the mourning-dress, and sat in ashes, all signs of sorrow and repentance. Cf Job 2:8; Ezekiel 27:30.
7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water.
— and the king proclaimed throughout Nineveh by the decree of the king himself and his nobles, the royal heralds being dispatched in accordance with the custom of making edicts of this kind known, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything, as sufferers with the people; let them not feed nor drink water.
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and cry mightily unto God. Yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. — but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, clothed in mourning,
— and cry mightily unto God, the very lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep in their distress being considered appeals for mercy; yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, from his sinful habits;
— and from the violence that is in their hands. Cf Isaiah 59:6; their rapine and oppression, their thefts and robberies, and preying upon the substance of others; which seem to be the reigning vices of this city, in doing which many murders were committed also; see Nahum 3:1.
9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not?” — who can tell if God will turn and repent, the possibility of His doing so being suggested by His interest in sending a prophet to warn them, and turn away from His fierce anger that we perish not?
— it was a true repentance on the part of the Ninevites and is so cited by the Messiah in reproof of those who, with much greater light and privileges, did not repent. Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32, even if its effects were not lasting.
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. And God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them, and He did it not. — and God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, from the security of their open transgressions of the Lord’s will;
— and God repented of the evil that He had said that he would do unto them; and He did it not, letting His mercy guide His actions rather than a stern and immutable justice;
— as God spared Nineveh when its inhabitants turned to Him in repentance, so He is ready to show mercy to all those who lay aside their obstinate impenitence and plead with Him for forgiveness.
Jonah 4
1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. — but it displeased Jonah exceedingly, namely, that the Lord did not carry out His threat of punishment upon the people of Nineveh, and he was very angry, provoked, filled with grief and vexation;
— whatever the reasons for Jonah’s anger, he was wrong; his anger was as much a repudiation of God as was his flight in Jonah 1. It was an anger that could not tolerate the thought of God having compassion upon the heathen; and even among the Elects from the nations/Gentiles ahead of those from the Israelites.
2 And he prayed unto the Lord and said, “I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this what I said when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repent of the evil.
— and Jonah prayed unto the Lord and said, I pray Thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, the argument which he had used within himself; when Jonah was yet in his country? when he first received the commission to go to Nineveh, he fled before unto Tarshish,
— that is, he anticipated the fruitlessness of his errand, the fact that his prediction against Nineveh was not fulfilled; for he knew that Thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and repent Thee of the evil. Cf Exodus 34:6.
— the words were spoken out of a very decided ill humor, because Jonah, as he thought, had been sent to deliver a message which the Lord intended to revoke and which so readily produced repentance. It was a sad contradiction between an irritable mood and the better knowledge of his head and heart.
3 Therefore now, O Lord, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” — therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, Jonah beseech God; for he thought it was better for him to die than to live;
— his impatience of life under disappointed hopes of Israel’s repentance through the destruction of Nineveh is like that of Elijah at his plan for to reform Israel, 1 Kings 18, failing through Jezebel. Cf 1 Kings 19:4;
— the entire world of spiritual reality, as Jonah had misunderstood it, had come crashing down around him; and his frustration was complete; not being able to bear the reproach of being a false prophet.
4 Then said the Lord, “Doest thou well to be angry?” — then said the Lord, in a preliminary reproof, Do thou well to be angry? Was there any justification for Jonah’s attitude?
— an endeavour on the part of the Lord to provoke in Jonah for a self-examination of his own emotions and attitudes; the Targum says, “You mad?” or “why art thou so angry?” and so other interpreters, Jewish and Christian understand the vigour of his anger.
5 So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, and there made himself a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city.
— so Jonah, still smarting under the displeasure which he felt, went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city, choosing an elevated portion in its immediate neighborhood, hoping it would provide a better vantage point for seeing the city overthrown,
— and there made him a booth, a temporary hut of branches and leaves, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city, whether the original judgement would not, after all, be carried out upon it; for the forty days named in his message had not yet elapsed.
6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad for the gourd.
— and the Lord God prepared a gourd, the castor-oil plant, commonly called palm-crist, and made it to come up over Jonah, the plant growing up very rapidly, with its large leaves quickly casting a pleasant coolness,
— that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief, to cause his peevishness to disappear and thus to afford him some relief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd, he enjoyed the shadow offered by the green plant.
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered. — but God, intending to teach Jonah a further lesson, prepared a worm, appointing it to that end;
— when the morning rose the next day, at the breaking of the dawn, and it smote the gourd that it withered, for it is a peculiarity of the castor-oil plant that it fades readily when injured.
8 And it came to pass, when the sun arose, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, so that he grew faint and wished in himself to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”
— and it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind, blowing with a sultry heat; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah that he fainted, overcome with the heat,
— and wished in himself to die, the reaction once more being rapid and furious, and said, It is better for him to die than to live, namely, in such circumstances, with everything combining to make life frustrated.
9 And God said to Jonah, “Doest thou well to be angry over the gourd?” And he said, “I do well to be angry, even unto death.” — and taking this opportunity to drive home His lesson, God said to Jonah, Does thou well to be angry for the gourd?
— and Jonah replied with a sudden flare of bitterness; and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death; or, “I am so mad I want to die,” as the Targum says; Jonah was so very angry that he felt he cannot live under so much fretting and vexing.
10 Then said the Lord, “Thou hast had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. — then the Lord said, Thou hast had pity on the gourd,
— for one thou hast not labored, which had cost him no toil to rear, neither made it grow, Jonah not being obliged so much as to water it; which came up in a night and perished in a night, being, as the Hebrew has it, the son of a night, of only a night’s duration.
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many cattle?”
— and should not God spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein there are more than six-score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand, that is, 120,000 infants, who could not be accused of any particular wrong-doing, and also many cattle?
— this limitation would include children of three or four years old; and taking these as one fifth of the population, we should set the inhabitants at six hundred thousand in number;
— Jonah despised the Gentiles, being perfectly happy to pride himself of being an Israelite, a perfect type of the self-satisfied, complacent and indifferent elite, unmindful of its duty to be a light to the heathens, enjoying the favors and privileges that undoubtedly came to him as a popular prophet of God;
— this argument of Yehovah, in exposing the selfishness of the today’s prophets or shepherd in Israel today, was at the same time sufficient to silence Jonah, as he stood rebuked before this exhibit of God’s Omniscience and Omnipotencen to all His human creation;
— moreover, the tidings which Jonah was able to bring back to his countrymen was a most emphatic call to repentance, as the Messiah brings out in His reference to the repentance of the Ninevites. Israel failed to learn the lesson and therefore was cast out of its land. All the more is it necessary for us to consider the sign of the prophet Jonah and to cling to the confession of Him who could say of Himself, “Behold, here is more than Jonah!”
The Book of Jonah is a prophetic account of events connected with the sending of Jonah to Nineveh. It abounds in miraculous circumstances, such as the great fish in whose stomach the life of the prophet was preserved by the terrible storm sent by God, which died down as soon as the prophet had been delivered to the waves.
The period in which Jonah lived was approximately that of the prophets Amos and Hosea in the northern kingdom and of Isaiah and Micah in the southern kingdom. The story is not just a microcosm for Judah or Israel, but a microcosm of the whole human experience.
Jonah 1
1Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, — “The word of the Lord” signifies a prophecy from the Lord of hosts;
— or as the Targum renders it, “the word of prophecy from the Lord” it may be so interpreted, since Jonah, under a spirit of prophecy foretold that Nineveh should be destroyed within forty days; though the phrase rather signifies the order and command of the Lord to the prophet to do as is expressed in the next verse.
2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” — Nineveh was the metropolis of the Assyrian empire at that time; it was an ancient city built by Ashur, not by Nimrod; though he by some is said to go into Ashur or Assyria, and build it, Genesis 10:11;
— and cry against it; or prophesy against it as the Targum says; Jonah was to lift up his voice and cry aloud as he passed along in it that the inhabitants might hear him; and the more to affect them and to show that he was in earnest and what he delivered was concerning them, of greatest importance: what he was to cry or preach, see Jonah 3:2;
— for their wickedness is at great height; even to the heavens; it called for immediate judgement; the inhabitants ripe for destruction; it was committed openly and boldly with much impudence in the sight of the Lord and was no more to be suffered and connived at: it includes idolatry, bloodshed, oppression, rapine, fraud and lying; see Jonah 3:8.
3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord; and he went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
— Jonah was not obedient to the heavenly vision; he rose up, but instead of going to Nineveh, he intended to go to Tarshish; the reverse of it; to the sea as the Targum says, the Mediterranean sea, as Joppa is its gateway, which lay west as Nineveh was to the east;
— and went down to Joppa; formerly called Japho; a seaport town in the tribe of Dan upon the Mediterranean sea where there was a haven of ships; and Tarshish could be in the southern coast of Spain where Jews could have already migrated there as Sepharadi Jews, see Obadiah.
4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was likely to be broken. — winds are an instrument of God which he commands at his pleasure, and fulfil his will and this was sent in pursuit of Jonah to stop him in his voyage when he thought he had got clear off and was safe enough.
5 Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner parts of the ship, and he lay and was fast asleep.
— then the sailors were afraid; perceiving that the storm was not ordinary but a supernatural one; and that the ship and all in it were in extreme danger and no probability of being saved; as the storm must be very violent to frighten such men who were used to such storms and were naturally bold and intrepid.
6 So the shipmaster came to him and said unto him, “What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God, if it so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.”
— so the shipmaster came to Jonah and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? Why should he withdraw at the time of this great peril? Arise, call upon thy God, each prays to his own god or deity, but none can stop the storm.
7 And they said every one to his fellow, “Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
— after Jonah had obeyed the call of the captain, everyone said to his fellow, Come and let us cast lots, a common method of determining the guilt of men at that time, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon them, who was to blame for the present condition of affairs. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8 Then said they unto him, “Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us: What is thine occupation? And from whence comest thou? What is thy country? And of what people art thou?”
— then they said unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us, who and what was responsible for this condition of affairs. What is thine occupation? his business, which might have been of a nature to arouse the wrath of God;
— and whence are you from, from what nation and people? What is thy country? And of what people art thou? The questions are shouted in a confused mass, as always under the stress of great emotion.
9 And he said unto them, “I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who hath made the sea and the dry land.” — and he said unto them, in a confession of his guilt, I am an Hebrew, the usual name applied to the people of Israel by the surrounding nations;
— and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, worshiping Him alone, which hath made the sea and the dry land, the one Creator of the world and all it contained.
10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, “Why hast thou done this?” For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
— then the men were exceedingly afraid, filled with terror at the scope of this confession, which showed them that they were, although unwittingly, assisting Jonah in his effort to escape the Lord; and said unto him,
— Why hast thou done this? a cry of horror and fear more than a question, for the God of the Hebrews was known as a powerful Deity; for even non-Hebrews quake at any evidence of the wrath of God, much as they otherwise scoff at those who worship Him.
11 Then said they unto him, “What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. — then they asked him, What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us?
— What would Jonah himself suggest or advise in order to turn away the wrath of God from those who were not implicated in his guilt?. For the sea wrought, continued to rage, and was tempestuous, still rising in angry billows.
12 And he said unto them, “Take me up and cast me forth into the sea. So shall the sea be calm unto you, for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.”
— and Jonah said unto them, showing the right spirit in offering himself up as a sacrifice in their behalf, Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you, be quieted down; for Jonah knew that for his sake this great tempest is upon them.
13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land; but they could not, for the sea was wrought up and was tempestuous against them. — nevertheless the men, not desiring to carry out the prophet’s suggestion, rowed hard to bring it to the land;
— that is, they tried everything they knew in the line of seamanship in order to break through the billows which hemmed in the ship; but they could not, for the sea was raging and was tempestuous against them so that they could make no headway against the surging waves.
14 Therefore they cried unto the Lord and said, “We beseech Thee, O Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood! For Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee.”
— wherefore they cried unto the Lord, in this case addressing Yehovah, His true name, and said, We beseech Thee, O Lord Yehovah, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man’s life, be held accountable for the fact that they would now deliver him to what appeared to them a certain death,
— and lay not upon us innocent blood, by imputing it to them, since Jonah had not harmed them in any manner; for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee; He had determined it, the lot, as directed by Him, made the execution necessary.
15 So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging. — so they took Jonah and cast him into the sea; and the sea ceased from raging, it stood still and no longer rose in such tremendous billows.
16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows. — then the sailors, seeing in this as the almighty hand of God, feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vows;
— possibly a vow that the God of the Hebrews should be their God, and that they would for the future serve and worship him only; that they would become proselytes, as men will under the stress of such a fear and emotion.
17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. — now, the Lord had prepared a great fish, not a whale, but a special sea-monster, to swallow up Jonah;
— and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, being alive and conscious through the power of the Lord, whose plans called for a further use of this prophet.
This story is not just a microcosm for Judah or Israel, but could be a microcosm of the whole human experience
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly, — then amidst agonies, stinks of the fish’s stomach, sufferings and near death, Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish’s belly, his prayers occurring again and again during his awful experience,
— the story of Jonah is not just an archetype for human being like himself or even for the children of Israel, but an archetype that the whole human race could face one day.
2 and said: “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and He heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice. — and Jonah cried by reason of his affliction, out of the midst of the distress which he was suffering, unto the Lord,
— and God heard him; out of the belly of hell, literally, “out of the womb of sheol,” the realm of death, cried Jonah, and He heard his voice, delivering him from what seemed to be certain destruction, Cf Psalms 18:6; Psalms 30:4.
3 For Thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over me. — for the Lord had cast Jonah into the deep, the sailors on the ship,
— being the executors of the punishment placed upon him by the Lord in the midst of the seas, literally, “into the heart of the oceans” and the floods compassed him about, namely, as he sank to the bottom; all Thy billows and Thy waves passed over him. Cf Psalms 42:8.
4 Then I said, ‘I am cast out of Thy sight; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.’ — then Jonah said, I am cast out of Thy sight, under the eye of his omniscience, which saw him in the fish’s belly; yet Jonah will look again toward God’s holy Temple, certain that he would again be permitted to worship with the Lord’s people.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. — the waters compassed Jonah about, even to the soul, so that he was ready to despair of his life, Cf Psalms 18:5; Psalms 69:2;
— the depth closed him round about; Jonah in the fish’s stomach were wrapped around his head, the seaweeds, of which there are great quantities from the sea apparently, enclosing him so that he could hardly move;
— so the Targum says, “the waters surrounded me unto death.” In this Jonah was an archetype for any other human being trapped in his afflictions and sorrows, which were so many and heavy before repentance, that he is said to be “exceeding sorrowful” or surrounded with sorrow, “even unto death.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. — Jonah went down to the bottoms of the sea-mounts, the very depths of the ocean abyss;
— where the mountains have their foundations; the earth with her bars, the walls of the sea-basin, was about him forever; yet God brought up his life from the pit which threatened to be his grave, ‘O Lord, my God,’ he pleaded.
7 “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thine holy temple. — when Jonah’s soul fainted within him, when he was at the point of yielding to the night of death;
— he remembered the Lord; and his prayer came in unto Thee, like a petitioner presenting his appeal in person, into Thine holy Temple, where the Lord had promised to hear those who put their trust in Him.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy, — they that observe lying vanities or in riches, or placing their trust in idols and in false worship, forsake their own mercy, deliberately abandon their one hope of deliverance, namely, through the loving-kindness and tender mercies of Yehovah.
9 but I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.” — but Jonah pledged to sacrifice unto God with the voice of thanksgiving, loudly proclaiming his gratitude for mercies received, Psalms 42:5;
— Jonah will pay that what he have vowed. Cf Psalms 50:14-23. Salvation is of the Lord, it belongs to Yehovah, it is in His power. He alone can grant deliverance from all evil.
10 And the Lord spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. — and the Lord spoke unto the fish, giving it a definite command, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land, very likely back on the coast of Joppa, where he started.
— the story of Jonah is not just an archetype for human being like himself or even for Israel, but an prophecy of an archetype of bringing repentance for the whole human race.
The book of Obadiah is about the Prophecy of Esau, also known as Edom (Hebrew for red), Mount Seir (Esau’s residence), Teman, a grandson of Esau. They are posterity living to the South of the children of Israel; sometimes they are known as the Idumaean, children of Edom who live in Idumea, south of Judea and Jerusalem.
The long feud between the brotherly tribes of the children of Israel and the descendants of Esau which began at the birth of the twin ancestors, and continued with varied fortunes down to the extinction of both as distinct nationalities, forms the subject of Obadiah’s vision.
The title of this Book in the Hebrew copies is usually “Sepher Obadiah” which means the Prophecy of the Prophet Obadiah. This book is the shortest of the OT with 21 verses only. We do not know anything of the book’s author, except its name, Obadiah (meaning servant of Yehovah).
Many would place Obadiah into the time of king Jehoram of Judah (848 – 841 BC) under whose reign the Edomites revolted from under the dominion of Judah (II Chronicles 21:8-10). In this case Obadiah would have been the first writing prophet in the history of Israel.
Other observers, however, think that Obadiah lived and ministered at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC or even later as we obviously couldn’t be sure.
In the latter days our knowledge would increase, and that would include the knowledge of the children of Esau, who they are, how and where they live from the above prophecy,
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days you will understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
Upon discovery of his birthright being stolen by his brother Jacob, Esau was desperated; but nevertheless, pleaded with his father, Isaac, to bestow him any that could be salvaged. And Isaac responded, uttering a plea of not much of a blessing, but on deeper ananlysis, more of a curse instead, said:
And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.”
41 And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.” Genesis 27:40-41
Esau was to live an unstable life of violence, by warfare, by the sword, to kill or be killed, rather than agriculture or divine favor; yet subject to the dominion of his brother, Jacob; he was made to wait to break from his brother’s yoke; Or as the Targum adds how he would go about gaining his independence, when Jacob’s descendants abandon observance of God’s law, Esau will be freed from servitude; and by even strategic waiting, to have the birthright restored back to him:
“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck;
“And Esau kept hatred in his heart against Jakob his brother, on account of the order of blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, I will not do as Kain did, who slew Habel in the life (time) of his father, for which his father begat Sheth, but will wait till the time when the days of mourning for the death of my father come, and then will I kill Jakob my brother, and will be found the killer and the heir.” Genesis 27:41-42Jonathan
When Esau was born, he was born red, all over like a hairy garment. Jewish sources further say that he was already fully formed like a grown-up man. He was fully completed: had hair across his body, hair of the head, beard, teeth and even molars.
España in Principally Red: “And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment; and they called his name Esau” Genesis 25:25
This short prophetical book is about the nation of Edom; whose hatred for Israel will eventually lead to their destruction, a destruction that may not has a return; but as could be understood by following this study, its fate is still in suspense. The Lord was asked by the remnants to remember in Psalms 137 against the Edomites who had rejoiced that Jerusalem be razed to its foundations:
7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem’s fall, who said, “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” 8 O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. 9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. Psalms 137:7-9
To call for and rejoiced over the razing of the Temple of God “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” is a serious crime against the God of the Most High; the Most High dwelled there and these Edomites cheered the Babylonians to burn it down? Madness! Just Madness!
Prophecies against Ammon and the Ammonites (Genesis 19:38; it is stated they descendants of Lot) have no promise of restoration “that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations” for the Lord have spoken it (Ezekiel 21:32, 25:10).
But for Edomites, and they shall know My vengeance: “And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel, and they shall do in Edom according to Mine anger and according to My fury; and they shall know My vengeance, saith the Lord God,’ Ezekiel 25:14; indicating they’ll survive? Or, perhaps, their fate is still in the balance?
Historically, the children of Esau dwelt to the South of the children of Israel; in the mountains of Seir, South of the Dead Sea down to the Gulf of Akaba. When the Israelites were on their journey from Egypt to Canaan the Edomites would not let them pass through their territory (Numbers 20:14-21).
Edom rejoiced over Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC (Psalms 137:7). When the Romans conquered Judea the Idumeans (Edomites) family of Herod reached the royal dignity. Since Jerusalem’s destruction in 70 AD the Edomites “disappeared” from history. But where did they go after leaving the Levant? This Study will attempt this Question.
These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz (7) the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel (4) the son of Basemath the wife of Esau (Genesis 36:10); and Jeush, Jaalam and Korah from Abolibamah (Genesis 36:18); so Esau had five sons and numerous grandsons.
One strong indication points to where they are today: in ancient times they live South to the children of Israel and would most probably today; that they are now in Spain, Portugal, Italy (Rashi’s comment on Genesis 36:43); and across the Atlantic: Mexico and the Latin Americas.
The Hebrew term, Sepharad in Obadiah 20, is synonymous with Edom (Esau), Negev, the South, the Southland, or Ispamiah (Spain) as identified by the Targum; that is, the children of Esau in today’s world are the Spanish people and the Latin Americans.
Esau selling his Birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil soup
— a prophesy against Mount Seir — a prophesy against all Edom
1 The vision of Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom: We have heard a word from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent among the nations: “Arise ye, and let us rise up against her in battle”
— the Edomites thought their land was unconquerable because of the defence system that they had built throughout their rocky mountains. Obadiah warns them that no matter how high up the mountains they go or how strong they make their defences, nothing will save them from the coming destruction;
Why is Obadiah different that he was chosen to prophesy concerning Edom and did not prophesy any other prophecy? Our Sages of blessed memory stated: Obadiah was an Edomite proselyte. Said the Holy One, blessed be He: From them and in them will I bring upon them.
Let Obadiah, who dwelt between two wicked people, Ahab and Jezebel, and did not learn from their deeds, come and impose retribution upon Esau, who dwelt between two righteous people, Isaac and Rebecca, and did not learn from their deeds.
2 “Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised. — thou art greatly despised; a parallel in Jeremiah 49:15 “For lo, I will make thee small among the heathen and despised among men,” as the term beaners (Latinx or Latinos?) could allude to;
— Rashi: Behold I have made you small: In contrast with what his father called him, his big son, and his mother called him her big son, the Holy One, blessed be He, says: In My eyes, he is small. And our Sages expounded: small for they have neither script nor language;
— the Targum (translated by Lenihan): “Behold, I will make you weak among the nations. You are highly contemptible.”
A Targum version of Obadiah as translated by Lenihan exists online here. The Targum Jonathan hosted by Sefaria is here. The Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the verses quoted.
3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, ‘Who shall bring me down to the ground?’
— the Targum says: The wickedness of your heart has led you astray. For you are like an eagle that dwells in the teeth of the rock, whose dwelling-place is in the heights, who says in his heart, “Who will bring me down to earth?”
— one Report by McKinsey (published in December 9, 202), says Latinos are projected to make up 22.4 percent of the US labor force by 2030 and more than 30 percent by 2060 (Latinos population projected to be 111.2 million by ’60);
— McKinsey: of the 60 millions Latinos in US, they often live in ‘deserts’ where adequate housing, groceries are hard to find. “Nearly 9 in 10 of the Latino residents in such communities lived in five states: California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas.”
4 Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, from thence will I bring thee down,” saith the Lord.
— being the firstborn, Esau was set to exalt thyself as an eagle and favored by his father Isaac for the birthrights, but Jacob coveted it and stole it from under him, and Esau was brought down like a pigeon. Also, like Herod the Great, an Idumean, he was a great eagle with his famed cruelty over the Jews as king over Judea; shall come up and fly as the eagle but he, too, would be brought down;
Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer; when he set foot in the Americas on October 12, 1492, claimed the newly discovered land in the first of four expeditions for King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain
— but the most significant fulfillment of this prophecy of an eagle is that, under the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, set foot in the Americas on October 12, 1492, claimed the land for the kingdom of Spain.
5 “If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night (how thou art cut off!), would they not have stolen till they had enough? If the grape-gatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes? — if thieves come upon you by day and robbers by night? would they not have taken till they had enough?
— would (the vintagers) not leave over some gleaning grapes? But these will not leave you anything, for they will search and reveal and seek out your hidden things.
— the Targum emphasizes that Edom’s destruction will be total and merciless, unlike ordinary theft or harvest: “If thieves came upon you, if plunderers of the night – How then would you sleep until they had stolen their fill! And if robbers, as grape-cutters, came upon you – Would they not leave gleanings?”
— the Moors, led by a Berber general named Tariq ibn Ziyad, began their conquest of Spain in 711 AD, establishing Muslim rule that lasted until 1492 when the last Moorish stronghold, Granada, fell to Ferdinand and Isabella, ending Muslim rule in Spain for almost 800 years.
6 How the things of Esau are searched out! How his hidden things are sought out! — how are the hidden things of Esau searched out! Or how are the posterity of Esau sought out!
— the Targum: How then has Esau been ransacked! His hidden things have been revealed.
— Spain was not merely “ransacked” by the Moors—it was conquered militarily, integrated into the Islamic world, and profoundly reshaped culturally and intellectually. The legacy of Moorish Spain includes architecture (Alhambra, Mezquita of Córdoba), scientific advancements, and linguistic influences that remain visible today.
The Spanish Armada, defeated by Queen Elizabeth I and her Royal Navy, 1588, when the British emerged to become the top dog and ruled the waves
7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border; the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee and prevailed against thee. They that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee; there is no understanding in him.
— Rashi: Until the border… escorted you: Those who promised to aid you, came with you and escorted you to the border of your land, to the boundary, whence they came upon you in war, and with this they enticed you and succeeded;
— they prevailed against you: betrayal by allies and covenant partners to entice you to leave, and they deserted you;
— your food they lay as a wound under you, as a trap: Even your food your brother Jacob made for you as a wound, for he gave you bread and a pottage of lentils, and thereby you despised the birthright.
8 Shall I not in that day,” saith the Lord, “even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?
— “I will destroy the wise men from Edom,” hence none of the top hundred universities or major inventions or discoveries are from Spain or from the Latino world. Edom’s downfall is not only military, economic and political but also intellectual and spiritual.
Americans moving westward after they bought Louisiana Purchase from France (Dec 20, 1803, but three weeks before, was under Spain)
9 And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter. — Teman was a grandson of Esau; but ranked as a chief: Genesis 36:11,15,42; which led some to believe the Ottoman Turks were posterity of Esau;
— Rashi: And your mighty men shall be dismayed: They shall be dismayed and frightened to flee to the land of Israel [Malbim: to the land of Edom]. And Jonathan rendered: And your mighty men shall be dismayed, dwellers of the southland.
— the Targum: the prophecy shifts from intellectual collapse to military collapse: not only will Edom lose its wisdom, but its warriors—especially those in the southern strongholds—will be shattered; that every mighty man be cut off.
10 “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.
— Rashi: identified Chief Magdiel, a posterity of Esau, as Rome, the Roman empire; or Italy;
— “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob,” but the Masoretic Text doesn’t record any violence Esau had committed against Jacob, thus this is left to their posterity;
— (1) King Herod (ruled 37–4 BC), an Idumean (Edomite) descent, was set to rule harshly over the Jews under the Romans; (2) later, Judea was to be ruled by the Ottoman Turks for about 400 years, until World War I (1917).
11 In the day that thou stoodest on the other side—in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots upon Jerusalem” even thou wast as one of them.
— Rashi: On the day you stood from afar: that you did not come to aid him.
— you, too, are like one of them, by siding with the Babylonians in Psalm 137:7, “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem’s fall, who said, “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” I account it for you as though you were one of their attackers, “Raze it, raze it.”
— the Targum: On the day you stood aside, on the day the nations plundered his possessions and strangers entered his forts and cast lots upon Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
12 But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldest thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction; neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress.
— Rashi: And you should not have looked on the day of your brother: You should not have looked and stood from afar.
— on the day of his being delivered: Heb. נָכְרוֹ. On the day of his being delivered into the hands of the heathens. And so does Scripture state concerning Saul: (I Sam. 23:7) “ נִכַּר אֹתו ֹאֱלֹהִים בְּיָדְי”, “He has delivered him into my hand.”
13 Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of My people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity.
— “in the day of their calamity” emphasized three times; or “on the day of their destruction” in the Targum:
And that you entered the gates of my people on the day of their destruction, and that even you watched his affliction of the day of his destruction, and that you laid your hand on his possessions on the day of his destruction.
14 Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crossway to cut off those of his that did escape; neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that remained in the day of distress.
— Edom deliberately positioned itself to intercept the fleeing Jews or Israelites; confirms by the Targum, “And that you stood on the crossroad to cut off his refugees, and that you handed over his survivors in a time of trouble.”
15 “For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. — firstly, whatever Edom (and other nations) did to Israel will be repaid upon them;
— secondly, upon all the nations (Goyim); which sometimes include the Israelites: such as in Genesis 35:11 “a company of nations (Goyim H1471)” shall be of thee.
Spain and Mexico losing their territories after Napoleon, broke but wanting France to fight the Russians and British, was forced to sell Louisiana to the American in 1803, but ended defeated by the Russians in 1812 and by the British at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815
16 For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually; yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
— nations that rejoiced at Israel’s or Judah’s downfall will themselves drink the cup of divine wrath; the Targum affirms the Masoretic, says,
“For just as you rejoiced over the smiting of my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink constantly from the cup of their punishment. And they shall drink and be confounded, and they shall be as if they never existed.”
17 “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
— while Edom and the nations face annihilation, Mount Zion becomes the place of deliverance, confirmed by the Targum: “But in Mount Zion there shall be deliverance, and they shall be holy, and the House of Jacob shall inherit the possessions of the nations who had been storing them up.”
Reuben, firstborn but drunk, climbed up onto his father’s bed, hence lost his birthright, defeated at the Battle of Waterloo and Napoleon exiled to the island of St Helena
18 And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble; and they shall kindle them and devour them. And there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord hath spoken it.”
— this is a prophecy: “the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame” as unstoppable forces; the Spanish Empire suffered numerous defeats, first at the hands of the British and later by the Americans, who ushered in with the Monroe Doctrine since 1825;
— and the house of Esau for stubble; as stubble, that is, left over after a harvest, or as weak as straw; and they of Jacob shall dominate them and kill them with a flame going through them and there will hardly any survivor left for the house of Esau, for the Lord has decreed it so;
— Oh, wait; is “there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau,” meaning an end of any survival for the house of Esau, which seems contrary to Ezekiel 25:14 “and they shall know my vengeance”? Or, perhaps according to Rashi above, verse 10, only those “that remains in the city” won’t survive?
As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee. Thou shalt be desolate, O Mount Seir, and all Edom, even all of it; and they shall know that I am the Lord.’” Ezekiel 35:15
— even though all Edom were made desolate, they survive at the end: “and they shall know that I am the Lord.” If they don’t survive, then they would have a similar ending like the fate of the Ammonites; that they “may not be remembered among the nations” see Ezekiel 25:10.
19 And they of the south shall possess the mount of Esau, and they of the plain the Philistines. And they shall possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead. — and they, this in the context that they of Mount Seir in the Southland have been given as a possession to the children of Esau, Deuteronomy 2:5,8;
— an Idumean, like Herod the Great, did conquered and ruled the plain the Philistines, the land of Ephraim, Samaria and Gilead; but they only occupied those land temporary;
— but a better interpretation acknowledges a reversal of fortunes: that “they of the south” that is, now the children of Israel who would one day live there in place od Esau, will process the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin returns to be [the inhabitants of] Gilead.
20 And the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south. — the clause, “the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south,” is critical in understanding this prophecy;
— this connection has an ingenius way of both hiding and revealing a truth; it does not say Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south, but “the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad (בִּסְפָרַ֑ד Hebrew 5614),” shall possess the cities of the south (Negev הַנֶּֽגֶב 5045);
And the exiles of this nation of the Children of Israel that is in the land of the Canaanites (shall inherit) until Zerapahath. And the exiles of Jerusalem that are in Ispamiah will inherit the villages of the south land. Obadiah 1:20 Jonathan
— many versions of the Scriptures translate the captives of Jerusalem as the exiles, the Jews and who are in Sepharad (bis·p̄ā·raḏ) as the South or Negev; so Q. Who lives in the place called Sepharad? The Spanish. And these Spanish are connected to the region south of Judea, known as the Negev? The Edomites had moved into Spain and the captives of Jerusalem who live there, that is, the Jews—specifically, the Sepharadi Jews, are from Spain, (or sometimes the broader Iberian Peninsula).
— the Jews are to possess the cities of the Negev (South); and they, as captives from Jerusalem, had came to live, in ancient times, with the Edomites in Sepharad, which is Spain; the Spanish in Spain; the children of Esau were living at the South of Judea and Samaria; they shall returned before or during the Second Exodus;
— similarly, today the Spanish live South of the United kingdom and the north-west Europeans; then some the Spanish migrated to the New World after 1492 and today the Spanish-speaking Mexicans and others still live South of the United States and Canada; further evidence are provided and confirmed by the Targum Jonathan which identifies a Sepharad as Spain (Ispamiah);
— Rashi agrees by quoting the Targum: Sepharad shall inherit the cities of the Southland as Spain; the Targum identified Sepharad with Spain (Ispamiah), hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim;
— and the exile of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad: who are of the people of Judah who were exiled to Sepharad – they, the new Jews, shall inherit the cities of the southland, which are in the Southern part of Eretz Israel.
The Targum is an indispensable source of understanding the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning Jews from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand the Sacred Text in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Sacred Text.
— Peshitta (by Lamsa): The first exiles, that is, of the children of Israel, shall possess the land from Canaan as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Spain shall possess the cities of the south;
— Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: Sepharad is the name of a place; the modern Jews understand it of Spain, and accordingly, “at the present day the Spanish Jews, who form the chief of the two great sections into which the Jewish nation is divided, are called by the Jews themselves the Sephardim, German Jews being known as the Ashkenazim.”
— Wikipedia: Sepharad (/sɛfəræd/or səˈfɛərəd/ Hebrew: סְפָרַד Sp̄āraḏ; also Sefarad, Sephared, Sfard) is the Hebrew name for Spain. A place called Sepharad, probably referring to Sardis in Lydia (‘Sfard’ in Lydian), in the Book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20, 6th century BC) of the Hebrew Bible. The name was later applied to the Iberian Peninsula, consisting of both modern-time Western Europe’s Spain and Portugal.
The Spanish Empire at its height: 16th-17th Centuries ~ 13.7 million sq kms. “Meddle not with them; for I will not give you of their land, no, not so much as a foot breadth, because I have given Mount Seir unto Esau for a possession,” God says of the land of Esau to the childen of Jacob, Deuteronomy 2:5
— but the most important pointer is this: that Esau were living South of Judea and Samaria or Sepharad; today the Spanish live south of the United kingdom and the north-west Europeans; the Spanish migrated to the New World after 1492 and today the Spanish-speaking Mexicans and others live south of the United States and Canada;
— thus in summary:
The Hebrew term, Sepharad, is synonymous with Edom (Esau), Negev, the South, the Southland, or Spain (Ispamiah); that is, the children of Esau in today’s world are the Spanish people and the Latin Americans.
In the latter days our knowledge would increase, and this would include the knowledge of the children of Esau, and the fulfilment of this prophecy: “but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck…. and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:40-41 Jonathan
21 And saviors shall come up on Mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord’S.
— Rashi: shall ascend: Princes of Israel as saviors on Mount Zion.
— to judge the mountain of Esau: to exact retribution from the mountain of Esau for what they did to Israel.
— to judge: Heb. לִשְׁפֹּט. joustiser in O.F.
— the mountain of Esau: Jonathan renders: the great city of Esau.
— and the Lord shall have the kingdom: This teaches us that His kingdom will not be complete until He exacts retribution from Amalek.
Final decision seems to be still in suspense, yet to be decided, if this is the correct understanding, until the saints would come to Mount Zion to judge the house of Esau?
However Chabad and Rashi consider a chief of Esau as the Progenitor of Rome, saying, “Esau’s offspring were split into various groups, each one led by a chieftain. One of these groups was named Magdiel, which is identified as Rome.” Rome, they implied, is synonymous with the Roman Empire in history, but today, is Italy for this purpose.
Chief Magdiel identified as Rome or the Roman Empire in Jewish writing
Another theory is that the Ottoman Turks (or today’s Turkey) are the sons of Teman. Perhaps, from Chief Teman, they could be another branch of the numerous sons or grandson of Esau.
If so who and where are the other chieftains? Who are today’s Chief Timna, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth; Chief Oholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon, Chief Kenaz, (Chief Teman, identified as the Ottoman Empire above) Chief Mibzar, (Chief Magdiel, identified as Rome or the Roman empire above) and Chief Iram? Genesis 36:40-43.
Christopher Columbus was an Italian hired by the Spanish Monarchs to venture west and founded the New World. Could Columbus had rounded all the other Chieftians together and collectively they are known as Ispamiah? Or a more familiar term, the Latin Americans?
(Note that Chief Amalek appears in Genesis 36:16 but absent from Genesis 36:40-43)
Finally, consider this PROPHECY
“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother [Jacob]; — that is, under the hegemony and yoke of the Monroe Doctrine since December 2, 1823;
but it will be that when his sons [the endtime children of Israel, led especially by Ephraim, the United States] become evil [such as leading in a global woke rot amongst other evils], and fall from keeping the commandments of the law [a culture of telling lies, swearing false oaths, domestic killings and breaking od God’s Sabbaths], thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck….and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:41-42 Jonathan
To be supple and credulous mean the ability of bending, be able of moving easily and be flexible; like a contortionist at a circus sideshow. Yet if you describe someone as credulous, you have a low opinion of them because they are too gullible, too ready to believe what people tell them and are easily deceived, such as quack doctors charming money out of the pockets of credulous health-hungry citizens.
But the posterity of Esau now lays in wait: and when the posterity of his brother Jacob sinned, become evil, and fall from God’s protection by not keeping the commandments of the law, then the posterity of Esau will take the Sword and kill the posterity of Jacob.
The book of Amos is an encrypted message to the United States today in which the prophet warns of the impending judgement, beginning with the ancient house of Israel; then Israel’s neighbors, then upon the house of Judah, and by way of climax describing the prophetic utter ruin and devastation of the endtime house of the Anglosphere.
And God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? The vision that he seeth is for many days, and he prophesieth of the times far off” Ezekiel 12:22, Ezekiel 12:27; that is, the message is for the endtime, our time.
The Five Eyes Operating as One Big Eye centered in Washington DC
1 Thus hath the Lord God shown unto me: And behold, He formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
— thus by the Spirit of God hath the Lord God shown unto me in visions, and, behold, he formed grasshoppers or locusts in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth of the second crop of the season;
— and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings; the first crop, apparently, belonging to the king; the time of the grasshoppers’ coming, therefore, was very unfortunate since the first crop had been delivered as the law required and the second crop was bound to be ruined;
— or, when the first grass was mowed down and the first crop gathered in for the use of the king’s cattle; as the later grass was just springing up and promised a second crop these locusts were forming which threatened their harvesting, thus the people were left vulnerable.
2 And it came to pass, when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, “O Lord God, forgive, I beseech Thee! By whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small.”
— and it came to pass that when these locusts had made an end of eating the grass of the land all the plants which came up at that time in the rest of the season; the destruction is so complete that Amos cries out in intercession;
— then Amos said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech Thee; by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small refers to only a remnant of Jacob left behind: Amos 5:15, greatly weakened by one calamity or another, even now reduced in numbers and strength.
3 The Lord repented concerning this. “It shall not be,” saith the Lord. — the Lord regretted; it shall not be, the Lord saith, who is willing to spare the people and the land upon the intercession of the prophet;
— it shall not be; in other words, even though judgment was pronounced, God’s anger was turned back in response to Amos’ intercession, and the judgment was averted.
4 Thus hath the Lord God shown unto me: And behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire; and it devoured the great deep and ate up a part. — thus the Lord God showed Amos a second vision; and, behold, the Lord God called to contend by fire,
— that is, God directed that the punishment was to be made by fire “and it consumed the great deep” that is, the fire is so vast it dries up the cosmic waters (the “deep”); the great ocean itself and would eat up a part, the heritage of God, which pictures the Lord’s devouring anger directed against his own remnant.
5 Then said I, “O Lord God, cease, I beseech thee! By whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small.” — then said Amos, O Lord God, cease, I beseech Thee; by whom shall Jacob arise? For he is small (refers again to only a remnant of Jacob left behind: Amos 5:15), the prophet Amos thus once more interceding in behalf of a few remnants left.
6 The Lord repented concerning this. “This also shall not be,” saith the Lord God. — the Lord repented for this; God heard the prophet’s intercession and desisted from going on with the threatened destruction; this also shall not be, saith the Lord God; the whole land shall not be destroyed, only a remnant of it remains carried as captives.
7 Thus He showed me: And behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made with a plumb line, with a plumb line in His hand. — thus God showed me in a third vision; and, behold, the Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, one which was built upright and according to all the rules of the craft with a plumb-line in his hand.
8 And the Lord said unto me, “Amos, what seest thou?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then said the Lord, “Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. — and the Lord inquired, Amos, what seest thou?
— and Amos replied, A plumb-line. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel, the object, in this case, like in II Kings 21:13; Isaiah 34:11, being to tear down a building. God will not again pass by them any more;
— the Targum says, “behold, I will exercise judgement in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not overlook or pardon Israel’s sins.” God was signaling that covenant violations must now be addressed directly.
9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.” — and the high places of Isaac, in this case, Esau and Jacob, shall be desolate and the sanctuaries of both Esau and Israel the various places devoted to idolatrous purposes;
— shall be laid waste; and God will rise against the house of Jeroboam, identified as Jeroboam II; Son of King Jehoash (Joash), fourth king of the House of Jehu; Reign: approximately 793–753 BC (some scholars date 786–746 BC); despite prosperity, prophets like Amos and Hosea condemned the era for social injustice, idolatry, and moral decline;
— thus the dissolution of both nations, Esau and Jacob, was definitely foretold and the prophet did not dare to intercede any more in behalf of his people; (but who is Esau that ‘shall be desolate’? see Obadiah)
10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words. — then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, the false priest in charge of the sanctuary of idolatry at Bethel, sent to Jeroboam, king of Israel;
— lying, Amaziah charged Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel, namely, by announcing the coming punishment of the Lord; the land is not able to bear all his words;
“And Amaziah, the chief priest of Bethel, sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: ‘Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is not able to bear all his words.’”
Amaziah, priest of Bethel, conspired against Amos before Jeroboam king of Israel
11 For thus Amos saith, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.’” — for thus Amos saith, Jeroboam II shall die by the sword, for this was actually included in the warning statement of verse 9; and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land;
“For thus Amos has said: Jeroboam shall be killed by the sword, and Israel shall surely be exiled from their land.”
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. — go, flee thee South into the land of Judah; to which he belonged and where the Temple stood and where the Jewish king, princes and people, were on his side of the question;
— and where Amos’ prophecies should be received; for he thought, if he stayed down there, Amos may be at liberty to say what he pleases in his own country: predictions of Israel’s fall might not be acceptable at Bethel; surely not at Jeroboam’s capital;
— and there eat bread and prophesy there: Amaziah implies that prophecy was a trade or profession. Already in early times we know that those who consulted a rô’eh paid a fee for his advice (1 Samuel 9:7-8);
— the Targum says, “And Amaziah said to Amos the prophet: Go, flee to the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and there prophesy.”
13 But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is the king’s court.” — for it is the king’s chapel; or “sanctuary” where a false temple was built for the idol calf; offering calves for worship; and where the king worshipped it and attended all other religious service:
— and it is the king’s court; or “the house of the kingdom” the seat of where the king of Israel dwell at Samaria; often coming hither to worship it being nearer to him than Dan, and by prophesying to interrupt him either in his religious or civil affairs; and therefore advises him by all means to depart if he had any regard to his life or peace;
— the Targum says, “And at Bethel you shall no longer prophesy, for it is the king’s sanctuary and it is the house of the kingdom.”
14 Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit. — then answered Amos in a humble way: “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son;”
— that is, Amos was not born to that honor nor did he attend any school of the prophets, but he was an herdman, a shepherd of humble position and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, that is, of the sycamore-fig-tree;
— the Targum adds why he was call, because of Israel’s sins:
“And Amos answered and said to Amaziah: I am not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; rather, I am a master of herds, and I have sycamore trees in the lowland. From before the sins of the people of Israel, I dedicate myself.”
15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, ‘Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.’ — but the Lord took him as he followed the flock; not one from the established school, or sons of a prophet such an one Amos was and in this employ when the Lord called him and took him to be a prophet;
— Amos did not seek after it nor did he take this honour to himself; by which it appears that his mission was divine and that he did not enter on this work with lucrative views: similarly, God took a humble David from a modest life and made him king of Israel, and Elisha from the plow and made him a prophet;
— and the Lord said unto Amos; go, prophesy unto my people Israel, the Northern Kingdom; wherefore what Amos did was in obedience to the command of God and he did to fulfil his duty.
16 Now therefore, hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou sayest, ‘Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac.’ — Amos continued speaking to Amaziah, “Thou sayest, ‘Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac;’
— Amaziah had before warned Amos not to say any word against Israel, nor the house of Isaac; say nothing against either of them, and is a rebuke by Amaziah to prophesy against the ten tribes that descended from Isaac in the line of Jacob;
— hence the Targum paraphrases it, “Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord against Israel,” or deliver out any prophecy or doctrine that is against Isaac or threatens them with any calamity. Amaziah of the house of Israel only want to hear smooth sayings, not warnings!
17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: ‘Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword; and thy land shall be divided by line, and thou shalt die in a polluted land. And Israel shall surely go into captivity forth from his land.’”
— thus Amos spoke to Amaziah, warning, “thus saith the Lord; your wife shall be an harlot in the city: either of Bethel or Samaria; probably through force, being ravished by the soldiers upon taking and plundering the city;
— and Amaziah’ sons and daughters shall fall by the sword; either of Shallum, who smote Zachariah the son of Jeroboam with the sword before the people, among whom this family was; or of Menahem, who slew Shallum, with their inhabitants and ripped up the women with child; or in the after invasions by Pul, Tiglathpileser, and Shalmaneser, II Kings 15:10;
— and Israel shall surely go into captivity as Amos had prophesied before and reconfirms here; and which was fulfilled in the times of Hoshea king of Israel by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, II Kings 17:6; but then again, such a prophecy are often dual, and could accur again;
— the Septuagint reaffirm both the Masoretic and the Targum:
And Amos answered, and said to Amasias, I was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruits. 15 And the Lord took me from the sheep, and the Lord said to me, Go, and prophesy to my people Israel. 16 And now hear the word of the Lord: Thou sayest, Prophesy not to Israel, and raise not a tumult against the house of Jacob. 17 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be a harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be measured with the line; and thou shalt die in an unclean land; and Israel shall be led captive out of his land. Thus has the Lord God shewed me. Amos 7:14-17 Septuagint
Amos 8
1 Thus hath the Lord God shown unto me: And behold, a basket of summer fruit. — there are three visions in the former chapter, thus another vision, which is the fourth:
— and, behold, a basket of summer fruit; this symbolically indicates that Israel’s sins are now ripe for judgement, not of the first ripe fruit but of such as are gathered at the close of the summer when autumn began. So the Targum says “a basket filled with summer fruit;” which symbolizes ripeness and the end of a cycle.
2 And He said, “Amos, what seest thou?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then said the Lord unto me: “The end is come upon My people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more. — and Amos said, a basket of summer fruit; some render it “a hook” such as they pull down branches with to gather the fruit;
— then said the Lord unto Amos; by way of explanation of the vision: the end is come upon my people Israel; of their state; of all their outward happiness and glory; their “summer has ended” and Jeremiah 8:20; all their prosperity was over; and as the Targum says, their “final punishment was come,” the last destruction is on its way.
3 And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day,” saith the Lord God. “There shall be many dead bodies in every place; they shall cast them forth with silence.” — there shall be many dead bodies everywhere; with silence under the terrible severity of divine judgement, saith the Lord God;
— and the songs of the temple, (some say “the palace” instead of “the temple” as the word היכל, signifying palace as well as temple) originally intended to convey the spirit of the highest rejoicing, shall be howlings in that day, cries of the deepest grief and mourning over the large number of the slain;
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail, — be warned of this, O ye that behave like a beast after its prey, eager to devour;
— panting after the poor in their anxiety to destroy them, adding field to field and to grasp their property, even to make the poor of the land to fail in order to take their property by a show of might; perhaps a failure to observe the land release on Jubilees.
5 saying, “When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? And the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit, — the festivals of the new moon, the day to sell more thing, or do more business, liked our Black Friday, being appointed and used for religious service;
— that we may sell corn and wheat; speculating at the expense of the poor in the land and the Sabbath, opening their storehouses in order to make unjust gains; making the ephah small, giving the people short measure and the shekel great by raising the price which they charged those in need, so that they sold below weight, their scales been prearranged to cheat.
6 that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?” — that might purchase them and theirs for slaves at so small a price as a piece of silver, or a single shekel; and this was their end and design in using them after this manner; see Leviticus 25:39;
— the poor are treated as commodities, effectively enslaved or indebted through economic manipulation.
7 The Lord hath sworn for the pretensions of Jacob: “Surely I will never forget any of their works. — the Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, that is, by himself; Surely he will never forget any of their evils;
— today, instead of “the pretensions of Jacob,” we have pretending Christians; and they make up much of what passes for Christianity today.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? And it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. — shall not the land tremble for this; for this wickedness committed, in using the poor with so much inhumanity?
— may not a great flood from climate change or hotspots of torrential rains from God be expected? or that the earth should gape and swallow up these men alive guilty of such enormities? or shall not the inhabitants of the land tremble at such judgements which the Lord hath sworn he will bring upon it?
9 And it shall come to pass in that day,” saith the Lord God, “that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. — and it shall come in that day, that God will cause the sun to go down at noon, to express the overwhelming calamities which are to befell upon the earth;
— and God will darken the earth in the clear day by a terrible catastrophe, the picture being well applicable to the fate of a nation or of the earth when it is destroyed while in the very midst of its misfortune and calamity.
— a parallel Scripture in Isaiah says, “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard” Isaiah 24:20;
“And it shall be in that time, says the Lord God: I will cover the sun at midday, and I will darken the earth in the day of light.”
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
— God will turn your feasts into mourning; he despise your feast-days: (a) Easters (Jeremiah 44:17-25); (b) Christmas (Ezekiel 8:15-16); and he will bring up sackcloth upon them upon their solemn assemblies;
(a) Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven: Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; Jeremiah 7:18 the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven; in Egypt, Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25, this is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’
(b) Christmas; Ezekiel 8:16 five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple; their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east; Christmas, which honor Mithraism, birthday on December 25th – a form of nature worship based on the Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice.
— and God will turn your feasts into mourning, why? because Jeroboam had changed the feast of Tabernacles from the seventh to the eighth month and from Jerusalem to Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:26-33); offering calves for worship, much like Hinduism today;
— hence God is not just taking away all joy, but all their songs into lamentation and he will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, the usual garment of deepest grief; and baldness upon every head, for shaving the head was a sign of the deepest mourning;
— and he will make their mournings as the mourning of the death an only son as in the day of Egypt, a most intense sorrow which cannot be appeased and the end thereof as a bitter day, one whose objectionable taste would not soon be forgotten.
11 “Behold, the days come,” saith the Lord God, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. — true prophets of God were yet to speak the message of threatened doom and the call to repentance upon Israel;
— as Amos had prophesied an end to his mission, which was fulfilled during the inter-testamental period between the OT and the NT when no prophet spoke anything at all to the wayward and rebellious people of Israel;
— this hearing the words of the Lord; the prophecy of the ten tribes were deprived at their captivity and have been ever since; and the Jews, upon their rejection of Christ, the word of God taken from them and remain so to this day; the seven churches of Asia have had their candlestick removed out of its place and this famine continues to this day.
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. — and they shall wander from the Dead Sea to the Mediterranean, and from the North even to the East, to the limitless extent of the four corners of the earth, they shall not find it.
13 “In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. — the result of the end for God’s guardian leads to physical and spiritual collapse; hence fair virgins and young men faint for thirst;
— after the word for want of that grain and wine, which make young men and maids cheerful, Zechariah 9:17; but being destitute of them should be covered with sorrow, overwhelmed with grief and ready to sink and die away.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say, ‘Thy god, O Dan, liveth,’ and, ‘The manner of Beersheba liveth’ — even they shall fall and never rise up again.”
— they that swear by the false religion of Samaria; the calf at Bethel which was near Samaria and which the Samaritans worshipped; offering calves for worship, much like Hinduism today; or false shepherd pretending to be Christians everywhere;
— and was set up by their kings and their religious leaders; worshipping at Dan and Bethel and encouraged by their example which is called the calf of Samaria, Hosea 8:5; and say, thy God, O Dan, liveth; the other calf which was set up in Bethel, liveth;
— even in our days, these idolatrous cult shall fall and rise up again; the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, same as Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, both Hindu, both worshippers of calves regarding them as sacred. They made pilgrimages to these spiritual cities, Dan and Bethel.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both regard calves as sacred
Amos 9
1 I saw the Lord standing upon the altar, and He said: “Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake, and wound them on the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword. He that fleeth from them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth from them shall not be delivered.
— and Amos saw the Lord standing upon the altar; either upon the altar of burnt offerings in the Temple; signifying his being about to depart and that he was displeased: so the Targum says “said Amos the prophet, I saw the glory of the Lord rising up from the cherub, and standing upon the altar;”
— and the vision may refer to the destruction of the Jews, their city and Temple, either by the Chaldeans or by the Romans: or rather, since the prophecy in general and this vision in particular seems to respect the ten tribes only, it was upon the altar at Bethel the Lord was seen standing as offended at the sacrifices there offered and to hinder them from sacrificing them as well as to take vengeance on those that offered them, I Kings 13:1;
— and the Lord said, either to the prophet in vision or to one of the angels or to the executioners of his vengeance; either the house of Israel or the enemies of Israel: but the Targum below confirms the former;
— smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake; the upper lintel on which pomegranates and flowers were carved and therefore called “caphtor” this was the lintel of the door, either of the Temple at Jerusalem; signifying the destruction of the whole building in a short time and that none should be able to go in and out;
— and cut them in the head, all of them; and God will slay the last of them with the sword; which shows that the lintel and doorposts are not to be taken literally but figuratively; and that the smiting and cutting by the “head” the king, the princes and nobles, or the priests; and by “the last of them” the common people, the meanest sort, or those that were left of them;
— he that fleeth of them shall not flee away; he that attempts to make his escape and shall flee for his life, shall not get clear, but either be stopped or pursued and taken: and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered; those that destroy with the sword shall not be delivered from death but shall die by famine or pestilence;
— the Targum says, “and he said, unless the people of the house of Israel return to the law, the candlestick shall be extinguished, King Josiah shall be killed, and the house destroyed, and the courts dissipated and the vessels of the house of the sanctuary shall go into captivity; and the rest of them I will slay with the sword,” referring the whole to the Jews and to the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem;
— the Targum adds that “King Josiah will be killed;” was also meant that the house of Judah was to be included in this prophecy; the verse below in full
Amos the prophet said: I saw the glory of the Lord, rising up from the cherub and standing upon the altar, and He said: If the people of the house of Israel do not repent to the Torah, the lamp will be extinguished, King Josiah will be killed, the house will be destroyed, the courtyards will be laid waste, and the vessels of the Temple will go into captivity, and their remnant I will slay with the sword, none who flee shall escape, none who seek refuge shall be delivered.” Amos 8:1 Jonathan
2 Though they dig into hell, thence shall Mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down.
— though they dig into hell, thence shall my hand take them; that is, the remnants of the house of Israel that endeavour to make their escape from their enemies though hell, the repository of the dead; they would not succeed;
— though they try to climb up to heaven, God will bring them down; the summit of the highest mountains and get as near to heaven and at as great a distance from men as can be; yet all in vain;
— the Targum says, “if they imagine to be able to hide in hell, from thence by My word, their enemies shall drag them out; and if they ascend the high mountains to the top of heaven, I will bring them down.”
3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from My sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them.
— God will search and take them out from thence by directing their enemies where to find them: so the Targum says, “if they think to be hid in the tops of the towers of castles, thither will I command the searchers, and they shall search them;”
— and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, get into ships, like Jonah did, going by sea to distant land; or make their escape to isles upon the sea afar off where they may think themselves safe:
— thence will God command the serpent and he shall bite them; the dragon that is in the sea, Isaiah 27:1; the great whale in the sea or the leviathan, describes as very monstrous, horrible and terrible, and which not only devours other large fishes but men; and having such teeth with great propriety may be said to bite;
“And if they imagine themselves like the eagle, at the tops of the towers of the cities, from there I will appoint tongues (serpents/creatures) and they will bite them. And if they hide themselves from before My word in the wonders of the sea from there I will appoint mighty nations, strong like serpents, and they will kill them.”
4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies, thence will I command the sword, and it shall slay them. And I will set Mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good.”
— thence will God command the Sword and it shall slay them; or them that kill with the Sword as the Targum says; so that though they thought by going into another country or into an enemy’s country of their own accord to escape the Sword of the enemy or to curry favour with them yet should not escape;
— and God will set his eyes upon them for evil and not for good, which are everywhere, in heaven, earth and the sea are set upon them for their ruin and destruction; and there is no fleeing from his presence or getting out of his sight or escaping his hand.
5 And the Lord God of hosts is He that toucheth the land, and it shall melt, and all that dwell therein shall mourn; and it shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt. — this is the third of Amos’ doxologies, the other two being in Amos 4:13 and Amos 5:8-9;
— the purpose of all three being quite clearly that of a reminder that the Lord, was indeed all-sufficient and powerful to bring to pass exactly that which he promised. The Targum expands the imagery: God raises up a king with vast armies, overwhelming the land like a flood, until it sinks as the Nile does in Egypt.
6 It is He that buildeth His spheres in the heaven, and hath founded His troop on the earth. He that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth—the Lord is His name.
— it is he that buildeth his spheres in three elements: fire, air, and water; the orbs, one above another; a word near akin to this is rendered “his chambers” which are the clouds, Psalms 104:3;
— perhaps the heaven and the heaven of heavens which are three spheres high may be meant; we read of the third heaven, II Corinthians 12:2; and particularly the throne of God is in the highest heaven; and the “ascents” to it as it may be rendered. The Targum says, “who causeth to dwell in a high fortress the Shekinah of his glory;”
— he that calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth either to drown it as at the general deluge; or to water and refresh it; now all these things are to show the power of God and that therefore there can be no hope of escaping out of his hands;
— the Lord is his name; the Lord isn’t his name; Yehovah (יהוה) is his name (More on God’s name at the end)
7 “Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto Me, O children of Israel?” saith the Lord. “Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir? — are ye, O children of Israel, not as children of the Ethiopians unto me? saith the Lord;
— and therefore had no reason to think you should be delivered because you were the children of Israel: of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; since you were no more to God than the children of the Ethiopians, that you could no more change your course and custom of sinning than the Ethiopian could change their skin, Jeremiah 13:23;
— have not God brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and therefore it was ungrateful for you to behave as they have; nor can you have any dependence on this or argue from hence that you shall be indulged with other favours or be continued in your land since the like has been done for other nations.
8 Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth, except that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” saith the Lord. — God is omniscient and his eyes are everywhere and upon all persons; but especially upon the sinful kingdom of Israel;
— and God could destroy it from off the face of the earth: so that it shall be no more, at least as a kingdom; as the ten tribes have never been since their captivity by Shalmaneser; this of all the kingdoms of the earth, being sinful, the eyes of God are upon them to destroy them excepting the kingdom of Israel;
— saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord; and so it is that though they have been destroyed as a kingdom, yet not utterly as a people; there were a few of the ten tribes that mixed with the Jews, and others that were scattered about in the world; and in the latter day all Israel shall be saved; see Jeremiah 30:10;
9 “For lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, as corn is sifted in a sieve; yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. — for, lo, God will command and he will sift the house of Israel, shaking them as in a colander, or sieve;
— among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth; the nations of the world are the sieve by which Israel is cleaned of the chaff found in its midst of the godless people that claimed back heritage of the Promised Land;
and say: ‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. — this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, UK and France. . . .
“and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” — the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;
“and to the rivers;” — where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.
10 All the sinners of My people shall die by the sword, who say, ‘The evil shall not overtake nor come before us.’ — all the sinners of the house of Israel shall die by the Sword; by the Sword of the Assyrians and of others into whose countries they shall flee for shelter, Amos 9:1;
— even all such who are notorious sinners, abandoned to their lusts, obstinate and incorrigible; live in lies, and continue lying convulsively; repent not of them, disbelieve the prophets of the Lord and defy his threatenings and put away the evil day far from them.
11 In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old, — in that great Messianic age to which the entire Old Testament looks forward, will God raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, which parallels Ezekiel 37;
— the monarchy and family of David and close up the breaches thereof; and God will raise up his ruins, and he will build it as in the days of old so that the kingdom of the son of David would once more be secure, established forever;
12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the nations that are called by My name,” saith the Lord that doeth this. — that they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the nations which are called by My name, rather, “upon whom My name is called,” that is, all those whom He had chosen from all the people of the earth, saith the Lord that doeth this;
— an an alternate view: the “tabernacle of David” could mean the rise of the house of Ephraim, and then ruled over the posterity of Edom, the Latinos in the New World through its Monroe Doctrine;
— called by My name; the Lord isn’t his name; Yehovah (יהוה) is his name (More on God’s name at the end)
13 “Behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. — behold, the days of harvest are coming, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed;
— by spreading it by print, web and broadcast so fruitful would the land be that the ripe grain would be cut while the plowman was still preparing the soil for the seed and the harvest of grapes would be so plentiful that it would take till seeding-time to tread out the grapes;
— and the mountains shall drop sweet wine so that new wine would be continually dripping from them and all the hills shall melt, dissolving themselves in blessings.
14 And I will bring back the captives of My people of Israel, and they shall build the wasted cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
— and God will bring again the captivity of his people of Israel, all those who accept the deliverance from the powers of evil being assembled in the congregation of the Lord’s people;
— and they shall build the waste cities, being secure in their citizenship and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.
15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them,” saith the Lord thy God. — and God will plant them upon their land; that is the land they are now living on isn’t their land;
— thus the prophet Amos, in the conclusion of his book, under the type of Israel restored to its land, pictures the peace and prosperity of the true spiritual Israel in which every nation is a garden in order to bring peace to the hearts of poor sinners all those withoutn hope throughout the world.
~~~ Amos 9:6 ~~~
More on God’s name, Yehovah.
God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).
It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter ‘J’ that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe, including our English language. Even in 1611 when the first edition English Bible, the King James was published, the prophet Jeremiah was known as Ieremiah. Similarly, the name Jehovah is a very late comer.
But the Orthodox Jews have gone overboard, so holy is his name, they believe, thus they refrain from even calling his name, referring to him as Hashem, that is, “The Name,” which isn’t his name; just pointing, saying somewhat ‘you know what name I mean.’ His name is Yehovah, and is also not Yahweh, which is the Samaritan counterfeit version.
It is the same as the name Jesus we used today; if his name was used in his time two thousand years ago, he would have been known as Yeshua instead of Jesus. But never mind, as had often been the case, the essence is more important than the form.
His name Yehovah is specifically stated and should be used. The following verses translated as the LORD erred in translation. Titles are okay, but sometimes He asked us pointedly to call on His name:
I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32
“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1
When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.
Andrew Yang warned in 2018 that automation could “destabilize society” and spark riots.
He says that future is here, predicting 40 million job losses and urging a UBI funded by AI giants.
“We could be doing much more for the millions of Americans who are going to be displaced,” he said.
Andrew Yang has warned for several years that automation would upend the American workforce.
In the run-up to his 2020 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, he predicted that self-driving cars alone could displace a million mostly male truck drivers with limited education — a shift that could “destabilize society” and even trigger “riots in the street,” he told The New York Times in 2018.
Seven years later, Yang says the crisis he feared is no longer hypothetical.
“It’s aging very, very well, unfortunately,” he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish of his predictions in a recent interview.
AI job losses are no longer theoretical
Recent analyses indicate that AI and automation are already capable of performing a significant share of US labor tasks and are reshaping employment.
MIT’s Iceberg Index, released last week, found that current AI systems can already technically perform skills representing 11.7% of the US labor market — roughly $1.2 trillion in wages across finance, healthcare, and professional services.
The New York Times, citing internal Amazon strategy documents and interviews, reported in October that the company believes automation could allow it to avoid hiring more than 600,000 US workers over the next few years, and that its robotics team has an ultimate goal of automating 75% of its operations.
Salesforce, Walmart, HP, IBM, and Fiverr have all cited AI in recent rounds of layoffs or announced layoffs tied to AI.
“44% of American jobs are either repetitive manual or repetitive cognitive and thus could be subject to AI and automation,” Yang said in the interview with CNN. “We’re seeing that unfold right now.”
Yang’s 44% estimate is broadly in line with some major studies on automation.
An IMF analysis from 2024 suggested that around 60% of jobs in advanced economies will be affected by AI, with half benefiting from the technology and the other being negatively impacted by it.
A McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) report released last month found that technologies could theoretically automate more than half of US work hours.
He predicted an automation crisis years ago. Now, Andrew Yang
says AI may wipe out 40 million jobs over the next decade
Yang’s warning: Up to 40 million jobs could vanish
Yang pushed back against Roman Yampolskiy, a computer science professor at the University of Louisville and an AI safety researcher, who in September predicted 99% unemployment within five years.
“It’s going to get bad. I certainly don’t think 99% bad,” Yang said.
Using his 44% vulnerability benchmark, Yang offered a rough projection: if the US “churns through” even half of those jobs over the next decade, the country could see 30 to 40 million positions eliminated.
“That would be devastating,” he said. “That would be catastrophic for many, many communities.”
His fix: guaranteed income paid for by the companies winning the AI boom
The rapid pace of AI-driven disruption has revived Yang’s signature policy idea: a universal basic income that gives every American adult $1,000 a month, no strings attached.
He said guaranteed cash would help workers survive the shockwaves of automation and maintain basic economic stability.
To fund a nationwide program, Yang said the firms driving AI’s explosive growth should bear the cost.
He cited Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who floated to Axios in May the idea of a “token tax” that the government should levy on AI companies.
With tech giants generating “hundreds of billions” in value — powered in part by data the public never knowingly provided — Yang said an AI tax or “compute tax” could raise “very big numbers very quickly.”
Given that the US produced roughly $85,000 in GDP per person in 2024, according to the World Bank, Yang said his $12,000 annual Freedom Dividend “seems pretty modest and reasonable.”
A final warning
Yang said that a cash stipend isn’t a cure-all — people also need purpose, structure, and a sense of community.
But without financial stability, he said, millions risk being left behind and pushed toward radicalization.
“We could be doing much, much more for the millions of Americans who are going to be displaced,” Yang said.
This prophecy of Amos is a lamentation to Ephraim, of the house of Israel, in which the prophet warns of an impending judgement, beginning with the ancient house of Israel, the northern kingdom; then Israel’s surrounding neighbors, then briefly resting for a moment upon the house of Judah, and by way of climax describing the prophetic utter ruin and devastation of the endtime house of the Five Eyes.
And God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? The vision that he seeth is for many days, and he prophesieth of the times far off” Ezekiel 12:22, Ezekiel 12:27.
1 Hear ye this word which I take up against you, even a lamentation, O house of Israel: — hear ye the word which God take up against you; and which was not Amos’ word but the word of the Lord;
— and which he took up by God’s heavy burden as some prophecies are called, and though against them, a reproof for their sins and was to be heard; for every word of God is pure and to be hearkened to, whether for us or against us; since the whole is profitable. It may be rendered, “which I take up concerning you” or “over you;”
— even a lamentation, O house of Israel; a mournful ditty, an elegiac song over the house of Israel, now expiring and as it were dead. This word was like Ezekiel’s scroll, in which were written “lamentation and mourning and woe,” Ezekiel 2:10; full of mournful matter, misery and distress.
2 The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise. She is forsaken upon her land; there is none to raise her up. — the virgin of Israel is fallen; the kingdom of Israel, so called, because it had never been subdued or become subject to a foreign power since it was a nation;
— or because considered in its ecclesiastic state it had been espoused to the Lord as a chaste virgin; and perhaps this may be ironically spoken and refers to its present adulterate and degenerated state worshipping the calves at Dan and Bethel;
— she shall no more rise; and become a nation again as it never has as yet since the ten tribes were carried away captive by Shalmaneser king of Assyria to which calamity this prophecy refers; the Targum says, “shall not rise again this year.”
3 For thus saith the Lord God: “The city that went out by a thousand shall be left a hundred, and that which went forth by a hundred shall be left ten to the house of Israel.”
— the city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred; that is, the city in which there were a thousand going in and out; or caused to go out, or furnished, a thousand men upon occasion for war had only a hundred left;
— and on the house of Israel again; that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten; or which sent out a hundred men to the army to fight their battles had now only ten remaining; or not a number sufficient to raise up Israel to its former state and glory.
4 For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel: “Seek ye Me, and ye shall live; — for thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel in a last attempt to save its people from themselves, Seek ye Me, in sincere worship of the one true God and ye shall live;
— the Targum sharpens this into a call to seek the fear of God; that is, not just his presence, but reverence expressed through obedience and humility.
5 but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.
— but seek not Bethel as Israel pretended to seek God there; the place where one of Jeroboam’s calves was set up and worshipped, to consult the oracle, idols and priests there; or to perform religious worship, which will be your ruin, if not prevented by another course of living:
— nor enter into Gilgal; another city of great idolatry, a place where God will not be sought nor found by you: see Hosea 4:15; another place of idolatry where idols were set up and where Israel played the harlot.
6 Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest He break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel — lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it; that is, lest his wrath and fury break out against the house of the Five Eyes like fire;
— and there be none to quench it in Bethel; the calf worshipped there, and the priests that officiated, would not be able to avert the stroke of divine vengeance or turn back the enemy and save the land from ruin. The Targum says, “Seek the fear of the Lord, and you shall live.”
7 ye who turn judgement to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth. — ye who turn judgement to wormwood; or into something bitter and poisonous, as the word here used is translated, Amos 6:12. Ye judges and rulers that pervert the law that was designed to protect innocence, and under colour of it exercise the greatest oppression.
8 Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night, who calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is His name,
— the creator of Pleaides and Orion; these great constellations, the first dominating the spring and summer months and the second the months of fall and winter were known to the ancients; and, “They are referred to in the Old Testament (Job 9:9; 38:31) as demonstrations of God’s creative power;
— the Lord is His name; He, the One Self-existent Unchangeable God, the Lord isn’t his name, the Lord is a title; Yehovah is his name (more at the end)
9 who strengtheneth the despoiled against the strong, so that the despoiled shall come against the fortress. — that strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong; God empowers those who are vulnerable so they can prevail over the strong;
— the Targum says, “that strengthens the weak against the strong” or causes the weak to prevail over the strong; so that the spoiled shall come against the fortress: lay siege to it and take it in which the spoiler thought himself secure with the spoil and substance he had taken from the spoiled.
10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. — they hate him that rebuketh in the gate; openly and publicly in the courts of judicature: wicked judges hated the prophets of the Lord;
— they hate such as Amos who faithfully reproved them for the perversion of justice even when they were upon the bench: or the people were so corrupt and degenerate that they hated those faithful judges who reproved them for their vices in the open courts of justice when they came before them;
— the Targum says, “they hate the one who reproves them in the gates of the courts with words of the Torah; and they distort the words of one who speaks uprightly.”
11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine from them.
— forasmuch, therefore, as your treading is upon the poor in the oppression which was then so generally practiced and ye take from him; burdens of wheat, exacting such gifts by methods of violence:
— ye have built houses of hewn stone, costly dwellings, but ye shall not dwell in them; because of their ill-gotten gains; also, ye have planted pleasant vineyards with their unlawful gains but ye shall not drink wine of them;
— for Ahab, as an example of not to take possession of what was their own; who by murderous plot from his wife, Jezebel, possessed himself of Naboth’s vineyard, forfeited his throne and his life; 1 Kings 21:21; yet Ahab repented not upon hearing of his sin from Elijah, but repented only after hearing what punishment had bestored upon him in days to come.
12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor at the gate from their right. — for God know their manifold transgressions and mighty sins, outstanding even in the midst of a nation steeped in wickedness; like the story of Ahab, Naboth and Jezebel;
— they afflict the just, making life a burden for others, they take a bribe causing such bribe money to be paid in order that men might buy their freedom from the oppression of these same rulers;
— and they turn aside the poor in the gate where the courts of justice were held from their right. Thus the poor were without champions of their right and were obliged to bow to the mighty, a condition which still prevails almost universally.
13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. — therefore the prudent shall keep silence at that time; not the prophets of the Lord whose business it was at all times to reprove and not hold their peace, let the consequence be known;
— or the sense is, they would not speak to God on the behalf of these wicked men, knowing that even while he speaks, the prophet feels that his reproof is useless; and therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;
— the Targum says, “Therefore, the wise at that time will keep silent before the wicked,” as the wise choosing not to speak out in the presence of corrupt rulers or oppressors, “For the time is evil.”
14 Seek good and not evil, that ye may live; and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. — seek good, turn to the law of God, study it, that ye may do the good it requireth in works of piety, justice, and charity; and not evil that ye may live for lies the way to true life; and so the Lord shall be with you by following his will.
15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgement in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph. — hate the evil, love the good and establish judgement in the gate so that justice would truly be administered in all cases brought to trial;
— it may be that the Lord God of hosts in that event will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph, which symbolizes the northern tribes (Ephraim and Manasseh) to the few of the house of Five Eyes who would be left after the judgement now impending;
— the house of Joseph; Israel was represented by Ephraim, the leading tribe; for more, see Ephraim and Manasseh, or The Ox without the Unicorn; (more from Ezekiel 12 at the end); this is where the prophecy of Amos is directed at the Five Eyes of Joseph;
16 Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord saith thus: “Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the highways, ‘Alas! Alas!’ And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
— therefore the Lord, foreseeing their obstinacy, proceeds in denouncing judgments against them: thus saith the Lord; wailing shall be in all streets, mourning which has come upon them for ignoring the warnings of the prophet; and they shall say in all the highways, expressing their grief in open lamentations;
— Alas! Alas! And they shall call the husbandman to mourning to join in the death-wail over some relative and such as are skilful of lamentation from the professional wailing women, so that the entire country would resound with cries of grief.
17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing, for I will pass through thee,” saith the Lord. — and in all vineyards shall be wailing, instead of the shouts of joy formerly heard there; for God will pass through thee, with his visitation of wrath.
18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! To what end is it for you? The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light:
— woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! or the Lord’s day (which isn’t Sunday, Revelation 1:10); believing that their external redemption with the Lord’s people would save them from God’s judgement; which was to judge and strike the nations;
— to what end is it for you? What result would it have for them? What good would it bring to them? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light; it would bring to willful sinners destruction and not deliverance;
19 as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. — as if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him, so it would be with those who desired the day of the Lord’s judgement,
— or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him, hoping to escape the one calamity, these wicked Israelites would be overtaken by another.
20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? Even very dark, and no brightness in it? — the day of the Lord, or the Lord’s day, shall be a day of darkness and not light; full of tribulation and misery;
— is darkness and not light; it would bring no deliverance to those who trample justice beneath their feet; even very dark, and no brightness in it? not a ray for the willful transgressors;
— the Targum says, “Surely, the day that is to come from before the Lord will be darkness, and not light. It will be gloom and it will not shine for them.” The day of the Lord, or the Lord’s day, isn’t Sunday, Revelation 1:10).
21 “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell the scent in your solemn assemblies. — God hate and despise their feast-days, as the Lord calls out to them: (a) Easters (Jeremiah 44:17-25); (b) Christmas (Ezekiel 8:15-16); and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies, by taking pleasure in the odor of the offerings brought by them;
(a) Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven: Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; Jeremiah 7:18 the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven; in Egypt, Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25, this is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’
Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven, Ishtar
(b) Christmas; Ezekiel 8:16 five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple; their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east; Christmas, which honor Mithraism, birthday on December 25th – a form of nature worship based on the Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice.
Christmas, which honor Mithraism, birthday on December 25th
— the Targum reaffirms the Masoretic Text: “I have rejected your festivals, and I will not accept the offerings of your gatherings;” and the Septuagint: “I hate, I reject your feasts, and I will not smell your meat-offerings in your general assemblies.”
22 Though ye offer Me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts.
— though ye offer burnt offerings and meat-offerings, or as you appear church services, as they continued to do in their effort to have the Lord accept their outward worship, he will not accept them; they are rejected since their entire services are idolatory and hypocrisy;
— the Targum reaffirms the Masoretic Text: “Even if you present burnt offerings and sacrifices, they will not be pleasing, and your holy gifts will not be accepted;” and the Septuagint: “Wherefore if ye should bring me your whole-burnt-sacrifices and meat-offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I have respect to your grand peace-offerings.”
23 Take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy viols. — take thou away from me the noise of thy songs as he contemptuously calls their congregational singing; for God will not hear the melody of thy viols (family of string instruments) of the harps and other instrumental music;
— the Targum reaffirms the Masoretic Text: “Take away from before Me the tumult of your songs; the music of your lyres I will not listen to;” and the Septuagint: “Remove from me the sound of thy songs, and I will not hear the music of thine instruments.”
24 But let judgement run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream. — but let just justice and punishment of the Lord run down like a powerful falls;
— in a great and consuming flood and righteousness as a mighty stream, like a mighty torrential rain pouring down, overwhelm and destroy all before it, righteousness should surge like a flood, overwhelming injustice; even against any transgressors in Israel.
25 “Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? — have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings; no; they were not offered to God, but to the golden calf and to other host of heaven; and to the devils, as their fathers did;
— in the wilderness forty years; where Passover and sacrifices were omitted during that time, it being about thirty eight years; and these their children were imitators of them and offered sacrifice to idols too, and therefore deserved punishment as they: even ye,
— O house of Israel? the ten tribes who are here particularly charged and warned; particularly when Jeroboam their king repeated the calves worshipping at Dan and Bethel.
26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god which ye made for yourselves. — but ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch, the war-god of the Moabites and Ammonites;
— and Chiun, which in the Arabic and Persian languages is the name of Saturn, a star-divinity; your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves. Even in the wilderness the children of Israel did not quite discard their idolatry but carried their idol-pictures along with them and thus provoked the Lord.
27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,” saith the Lord, whose name is The God of Hosts. — therefore the God of Hosts will send you into captivity; far beyond Damascus; the chief city of Syria; and which lay to the north of the land of Israel, and was a very strong and fortified place;
— as Syria being in alliance with Israel, the Israelites might think of fleeing there for refuge in the time of their distress; but they are told here that they should be taken captive and be carried to places far more remote than that.
Ezekiel 12:16 But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine and from the pestilence, that they may declare all their abominations among the nations whither they come; and they shall know that I am the Lord.” — “that they may declare all their abominations among the nations;” this explains why a few from “the remnants of Joseph” (Amos 5:15) are left to survive;
— if they have hidden in some secret hideouts, they won’t be able to “declare all their abominations among the nations” whither they come; who, observing their calamities, and distresses, could deserve and a need to know, and hear those who are well-versed to explain their sins, abominations and judgement to the nations;
— those remnants who survive would explain to the nations that they have been guilty of great enormities, so that their punishment was a visible and standing declaration and warning to the nations of the abominable sins they, of the house of Israel, had been guilty of; and not to repeat them in their own nations.
Amos 6
1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, who are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! — woe to them that dwell comfortably in the Churches of God, given to a false security and trust in the doctrines of the Samaritans, where the Pascha was killed on the fourteenth night and the wave sheaf on Sundays;
— or, the chief of the nations refer to the United States, the United Kingdom and France; those who are apparently the upper classes in Samaria, where they consider themselves safe, rich and respected who are the chief of the nations;
— the Targum says, “that trust in the fortress of Samaria;” that is, in modern term, the United States, the UK and France, with all have wealth, power and nuclear weapons; described as the ‘notable men, which, in modern language, are looked to as authorities and leaders, whether in political, commercial or social life.
‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places; — this message to the “mountains of Israel” these refer to the United States, the UK and France;
“and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Or their border greater than your border?
— pass ye unto Calneh, a city in Babylonia, on the east bank of river Tigris, and see, and from thence go ye to Hamath, the great, a district and city of Syria; so that they would visit some of the most powerful of the neighboring nations;
— are these two or three kingdoms mentioned above in better condition in dignity or grandeur, in wealth or strength than Judah and Israel, or their border greater than your border? Israel thus ranking at that time among the first of the nations, unexcelled by any of their neighbors.
3 Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near, — ye that deny any wrong doing, pushing away the day of judgement, one of the evil days;
— that is, refusing to believe that a day of reckoning is near and cause the seat of violence to come near, so that violence and oppression come ever nearer to them; ignoring the Lord and his judgement was apparent particularly in their luxurious feasting.
4 that lie upon beds of ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall; — the elites that lie upon beds of luxurious ivory, on costly couches, inlaid with ivory;
— and stretch themselves upon their couches, reclining in self-indulgence on the sofas of their dining-rooms; and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall, in either case the choicest animals;
— or else these this luxury imagery of gluttonous judges and rulers eat the best lambs, not of their own, but out of poor oppressed men’s flocks.
5 that chant to the sound of the viol, and invent for themselves instruments of music, like David; — that chant to the sound of the viol in quavering and silly songs and invent to themselves instruments of music for the gratification of their own vanity and sensuality, instead of for the glory of God as David did;
— by invoking David, the text highlights a distortion—what was once holy (music for worship) has become profane (secular and self-serving, that is, music for indulgence).
6 that drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments— but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. — that drink wine in bowls; Joseph, members of the Five Eyes drink wine not in small cups or glasses but in large bowls and that they might drink freely, even to drunkenness;
— hence we read of the drunkards of Ephraim or the drunkeness of the Anglosphere, Isaiah 28:1; and they “drink in bowls of wine”; which is much to the same sense. The Targum says, “that drink wine in silver phials;” – a phial is a small cylindrical glass bottle;
— and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, using only the finest grades for their purpose; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, literally, “the breach of Joseph,” that is, the impending calamity, the looming destruction of the house of the Anglosphere; they indulge in wanton luxury even while their country is hastening to its national debts, inflations, civil unrests and declines.
7 Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive, and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.
— therefore now shall they, those who indulged themselves in drinking while their country was getting ready for dissolution, go into captivity with the first that go captive, this being said in bitter irony concerning the position of the rulers in the procession of captives,
— and the banquet of them that stretched themselves upon couches, reclining in careless ease shall be removed so that they could no more indulge in feasts and drinking-bouts;
“Therefore now they shall go into exile at the head of the exiles, and the revelry of those who stretch themselves shall pass away.”
8 The Lord God hath sworn by Himself; saith the Lord the God of hosts: “I abhor the pretensions of Jacob, and hate his palaces; therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein.” — the Lord God couldn’t hath sworn anything higher, but by himself, a most solemn oath;
— I abhor the excellency of Jacob, or “the pride of Jacob” of the ten tribes, remarkable for their pride; the prosperous West, or “the pride of Jacob” where church attendance is dwindling, with “mountains of cheese and lakes of wine” hence called the crown of pride, the pride which they exhibited regarding their prosperity and power;
— today, instead of “the pretensions of Jacob,” we have pretending Christians; and they make up much of what passes for Christianity today.
9 And it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, that they shall die. — and it shall come to pass, if there remain ten men in one house, suggesting that even a group of ten (a symbolic number of completeness or community) will not escape;
— that they shall all die, that is, no matter how large the number who are not already carried captive or destroyed by the sword; not one would escape but would die.
10 And a man’s kinsman shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring the bones out of the house, and shall say unto him that is by the side of the house, “Is there yet any with thee?” And he shall say, “No.” Then shall he say, “Hold thy tongue, for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord.”
— and a man’s uncle shall take him up and he that burneth him, literally, “his cousin and his burier,” that is, a near relative who had the duty of providing for his burial to bring out the bones out of the house and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house, a last survivor hiding in the innermost recesses of the house;
— is there yet any with thee? And he shall say, No. Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue, quickly cautioning him not to say any more; for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord, he should not utter Yehovah’s name, lest by doing so he call the Lord’s attention and bring down judgement upon them.
11 For behold, the Lord commandeth, and He will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. — for, behold, the Lord will smite the great house with breaches so that it would become a total ruin;
— also strongly supports the probability that the “ten men left in one house” in those verses (Amos 5:3, 6:9) has reference to one of those great palatial establishments for which “Samaria” was famous for, each having an occupancy of a hundred or so, including domestics, servants and retainers;
— and the little house with clefts; so that it shall fall to ruin; that is, he shall smite the houses both of great and small of the princes and of the common people either with an earthquake so that they shall part asunder and fall or being left without inhabitants shall of course become desolate, there being none to repair their breaches;
— the judgement for the “great house” the ten tribes of Israel, is the greater, for 190 years; and judgement for the “little house” the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, is for 40 years; to which the Targum seems to incline, “he will smite the great kingdom with a mighty stroke and the little kingdom with a weak stroke,”
12 Shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? For ye have turned judgement into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock, — shall horses run upon the rock? Will one plow there with oxen? as little as either feat is possible, so little it is possible that one by perverting right and justice into the opposite can bring deliverance to himself and his country;
— there is a spiritual and moral order in the house of Joseph that is just as impossible to ignore as the natural order; it is as senseless to pervert justice as it is to expect horses to run on the rocks or for oxen to plow on rock;
— for ye have turned judgement into gall, justice into poison; into a hemlock, which is a dangerous plant containing toxic alkaloids that can be fatal even in small amounts; injustice and oppression rule the day.
13 ye that rejoice in a thing of nought, who say, “Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength?” — ye which rejoice in trusting in our wealth and riches or our own ingenuity or power which are things that are not permanent, except in our own imagination because of our own folly;
— which say, Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? trusting in the strength of our armies and weapons by which we hoped to overcome all enemies. Horns are well-known symbol of strength which repels and tosses away what opposes it.
14 “But, behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel,” saith the Lord the God of hosts; “and they shall afflict you from the entrance of Hemath unto the river of the wilderness.” — “I will raise up against you a nation” is it Russia? or is it China?
— it should always be remembered in studying this prophecy that it was exactly and terribly fulfilled just as God had promised. Both the Sacred Scriptures and the testimony of the archeologist testify to the overwhelming destruction of Israel within some thirty years after Amos wrote this prophecy; but that was just a preamble;
“The kingdom of Israel was destroyed in the year 722 by Sargon in the first month of his reign when Samaria was taken after a siege which was begun by his predecessor, Shalmanezer IV, and had lasted three years.”
— the enemy is not random; God Himself “raises up” the nation, making the oppression an instrument of divine justice; and they shall afflict you; by battles, sieges, forages, plunders and burning of cities and towns and putting the inhabitants to the sword.
Again, the Question remains: is it Russia? or is it China? Or even someone else?
God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).
It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter ‘J’ that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe, including our English language. Even in 1611 when the first edition English Bible, the King James was published, the prophet Jeremiah was known as Ieremiah. Similarly, the name Jehovah is a very late comer.
But the Orthodox Jews have gone overboard, so holy is his name, they believe, thus they refrain from even calling his name, referring to him as Hashem, that is, “The Name,” which isn’t his name; just pointing, saying somewhat ‘you know what name I mean.’ His name is Yehovah, and is also not Yahweh, which is the Samaritan counterfeit version.
It is the same as the name Jesus we used today; if his name was used in his time two thousand years ago, he would have been known as Yeshua instead of Jesus. But never mind, as had often been the case, the essence is more important than the form.
His name Yehovah is specifically stated and should be used. The following verses translated as the LORD erred in translation. Titles are okay, but sometimes He asked us pointedly to call on His name:
I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32
“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1
When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.
The thought of nuclear war feels like something pulled from a Cold War documentary or a dystopian movie — not a real possibility. But experts, defense analysts, and national security planners still map out the unthinkable: which U.S. cities would be targeted first if a nuclear conflict ever erupted. It’s not about fear-mongering; it’s about understanding how geopolitical strategy works, how population centers factor into risk, and why certain cities sit high on every hypothetical strike list.
1. Washington, DC
As the heart of American governance, Washington, DC, stands out as a prime target in any nuclear conflict scenario. The city houses key institutions like the White House, the Capitol, and the Pentagon. This makes it not only a symbol of US political power but also a functional node critical to national defense operations. You can imagine the strategic chaos that would unfold if DC were compromised.
According to an article from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Washington, DC, tops the list of potential nuclear targets due to its political significance. The piece emphasizes the catastrophic impact on both governance and civilian life. So, while the idea of such an event is unsettling, it underscores the importance of diplomatic solutions to international tensions.
2. New York City
New York City, with its bustling streets and towering skyscrapers, represents not only economic prowess but also cultural influence. As a global financial hub, it’s home to the New York Stock Exchange and major corporate headquarters. A nuclear strike here would ripple across global markets, creating financial instability worldwide. It’s a city whose vibrancy is matched only by its vulnerability in such dire scenarios.
For the millions who call it home, NYC is a mosaic of cultures and dreams, making the thought of its disappearance profoundly poignant. Imagine the loss of iconic landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and Times Square, and the impact on art, media, and commerce. It’s a scenario that highlights the stakes of global peace, as well as the resilience inherent in the spirit of its people.
Los Angeles, renowned for its entertainment industry, holds a unique place in American society. It’s a city of dreams, where films and music that shape global culture are created. Beyond the glitz, L.A. is a critical port city, essential for trade and the flow of goods into the United States. Its loss would not only disrupt Hollywood but also the supply chains that support daily life across the nation.
A report by the RAND Corporation outlines Los Angeles as a potential nuclear target due to its economic and cultural significance. The study highlights how a strike here would impact everything from international trade to entertainment. This dual role as both a cultural and logistical hub makes Los Angeles an essential city in discussions about strategic defense and policy-making.
4. San Francisco
San Francisco is a technological powerhouse, home to Silicon Valley and the birthplace of many innovative startups. As a leader in tech and innovation, its reach extends far beyond its iconic Golden Gate Bridge. In a nuclear scenario, crippling the tech industry would have profound global implications, affecting everything from communications to finance. It’s a city whose future-oriented mindset is its greatest strength—and its potential vulnerability.
The Bay Area’s unique geography, marked by its picturesque hills and bridges, adds another layer of complexity to evacuation and defense planning. The community here thrives on diversity and innovation, making the idea of its erasure all the more tragic. In contemplating its fate, you’re reminded of the broader importance of safeguarding innovation centers that drive progress worldwide.
5. Houston
Houston stands as a giant in the energy sector, renowned for its oil and gas industries. As the energy capital of the world, it plays a pivotal role in the global economy by influencing energy prices and innovations. A nuclear strike here would reverberate through every sector dependent on energy, affecting global markets and everyday life. The city’s strategic importance cannot be overstated.
According to a study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Houston’s critical infrastructure makes it a prime target. The research underscores the interconnected nature of energy and national security. Such insights emphasize the delicate balance of energy dependence and the risks associated with centralizing essential services in a single location.
6. Chicago
Chicago, with its iconic skyline and deep-dish pizza, stands as a central hub in America’s heartland. Known for its architectural beauty and bustling O’Hare International Airport, it’s a nexus for both tourism and transportation. A nuclear attack would disrupt air travel and logistics operations that connect the country. The city’s vibrant neighborhoods paint a picture of American diversity and resilience.
As a major financial center, Chicago’s Board of Trade influences agricultural and financial markets worldwide. The loss of such a key economic player would send shockwaves far beyond its city limits. Contemplating such a scenario is a reminder of the importance of interconnectedness and preparedness in the face of potential crises.
7. Seattle
Seattle’s significance lies in its dual role as a tech hub and a major port city. Home to giants like Amazon and Boeing, it’s a cradle of innovation that impacts industries globally. A nuclear strike would send tremors through the tech world and disrupt trade routes dependent on its port. The city’s unique culture blends progressive values with a fierce entrepreneurial spirit.
A report from the Union of Concerned Scientists highlights Seattle’s vulnerability due to its strategic economic importance. The analysis underscores how its tech innovations are intertwined with global progress. Reflecting on its potential targeting reveals the broader stakes of safeguarding hubs of creativity and commerce.
8. Atlanta
Atlanta is a growing economic powerhouse, known for its role in global commerce and transportation. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport serves as a key artery for travel and logistics. A nuclear strike here would halt air travel and disrupt supply chains that extend far beyond the city. The diverse communities that call Atlanta home add to its rich tapestry of culture and innovation.
The city is also a media center, housing major networks like CNN, which influence global news and views. Its crossroads of culture and commerce make Atlanta a vital component of the national mosaic. Imagining its loss prompts reflection on the resilience of its people and the broader importance of maintaining peace.
9. Miami
Miami is more than just a sun-soaked tourist destination; it is a gateway to Latin America and a cultural melting pot. As a crucial port city, it handles commerce that connects the Americas. A nuclear disaster would devastate its economy and sever vital trade links, affecting businesses and people across the region. The vibrant Art Deco architecture and rich Latino heritage make it a city like no other.
The city’s coastal location also raises concerns about evacuation and disaster management. Imagining its impact underlines the importance of robust defense and diplomacy efforts to protect such vibrant communities. With its unique blend of cultures and economic significance, Miami stands as a reminder of the intricate web of global connections.
Philadelphia, known as the birthplace of American democracy, holds a special place in the nation’s heart. Its historic sites, like Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, are symbols of freedom and resilience. A nuclear strike here would not only devastate these landmarks but also disrupt a key economic region. The city’s role in shaping American values and history adds to its strategic significance.
Philadelphia’s diverse economy, from healthcare to finance, makes it a linchpin for the Northeast corridor. The potential loss underscores the importance of protecting areas rich in historical and economic value. As a city that balances tradition with modernity, its preservation is crucial in maintaining the nation’s cultural and economic heritage.
11. Dallas
Dallas, a beacon of Texan pride, boasts a booming economy driven by industries like energy and technology. As a corporate headquarters hub, it influences both local and national markets. A nuclear event would cripple these industries, with repercussions felt across the country. Dallas represents a unique blend of southern charm and metropolitan dynamism.
The city’s sprawling layout and modern infrastructure present challenges and opportunities in terms of urban planning and disaster preparedness. Its diverse communities contribute to a rich cultural landscape that would be irrevocably altered in such a scenario. The potential impact serves as a stark reminder of the need for vigilant diplomacy and defense strategies.
12. Boston
Boston is a cradle of education and innovation, home to prestigious institutions like Harvard and MIT. Its intellectual capital fuels advancements in technology, medicine, and beyond. A nuclear event would disrupt research and development, stalling progress in numerous fields. The city’s historic significance and cutting-edge innovations create a fascinating juxtaposition.
The cultural heritage of Boston, from Fenway Park to its revolutionary history, adds layers of complexity to its potential targeting. The intellectual and cultural loss would be profound, affecting not just the city but the world. It highlights the need for protecting centers of knowledge and culture as pillars of a progressive society.
13. Detroit
Detroit, the Motor City, has long been a cornerstone of America’s automotive industry. As a hub of manufacturing and innovation, its influence extends across the globe. A nuclear strike would decimate production lines and disrupt supply chains, affecting economies worldwide. Detroit’s story of resilience and reinvention is central to its identity.
The city’s gritty determination and cultural renaissance offer a narrative of hope and recovery. Imagining its loss underscores the broader importance of preserving industries that drive economic growth and community resilience. Detroit’s legacy as a symbol of American industry endures, highlighting the stakes of global peace and stability.
14. Las Vegas
Las Vegas, synonymous with entertainment and opulence, is a symbol of escapism and American excess. Beyond the neon lights and casinos, it’s a key player in the hospitality and tourism sectors. A nuclear strike would bring these industries to a grinding halt, affecting millions of jobs and livelihoods. The city’s ability to reinvent itself amid challenges makes it uniquely resilient.
The stark desert landscape surrounding Las Vegas adds an eerie backdrop to considerations of its potential targeting. Contemplating its fate brings to mind the fragility of human creations in the face of existential threats. The city’s vibrancy and adaptability serve as poignant reminders of the enduring power of hope and innovation.
The prophecy of Amos is mainly to Ephraim today, in which the prophet thunders the warning of the impending judgement of God, beginning with the ancient house of Israel, the northern kingdom; then Israel’s surrounding pagan neighbors, then briefly resting for a moment upon the house of Judah, and by way of climax describing the prophetic utter ruin and devastation of the house of Israel.
In Chapter 3 the prophet Amos goes on with his prophecy against Israel, whom God had highly favoured, and yet sinned against him, and therefore must expect to be punished; and in this chapter, it is more about Israel.
‘The Prophet Amos’ – a Message for today’s houses of Judah and Israel
1 Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, — hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel;
— the prophecy against Israel begins in the preceding chapter where notice is taken of their sins and sure destruction; and here they are called upon to listen to what the Lord by his prophet had spoken; and to “receive” this word, or as the Targum says; to receive it as the Word of God with all humility and reverence.
2 “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” — you, children of Israel, only have I known of all the families of the earth; but notice the sweetness and bitterness composite message above!
— therefore I, God, will punish you for all your iniquities; or “visit upon you” or “against you” in a way of chastisement and correction; they were a family he had highly favoured and yet departed from him; children he had brought up in a tender manner and brought out of a most miserable condition and yet rebelled against him;
— to be truly qualified to be kings and priests or kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) requiries numerous immense purifications; and that’s how the prophets of God see things. Prime examples are Daniel and his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego;
— God’s message usually has sweetness in the mouth (Ezekiel 3:3), but bitterness when reaches the stomach! (Revelation 10:9-10); were worthy of more stripes; their sins were more aggravated than others, and therefore the Lord was determined to make an example of them for the surrounding nations to watch, mediate and learn.
3 Can two walk together, unless they be agreed? — shall two walk together; Israel’s having forsaken God’s way means that they are no longer “agreed” with God. “Can they continue together? The law of cause and effect operates to separate them.
4 Will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing? — will a lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey? No, the lion will not, unless he has it in his sight or in his paws;
— he roars when he first sees it whereby he terrifies the creature that it cannot move till he comes up to it; and when he has got it in his paws, he roars over it to invite others to partake with him;
— now prophecy from the Lord is compared to the roaring of a lion, and this is never in a way of judgement without a cause; the sin of men or of a nation which makes them a prey to the wrath and fury of God.
5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no trap is for him? Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? — can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no trap is for him?
— no, there must be a snare set or a bird can never be taken in it; but when that is done, not by chance but with the design of the fowler; yea, with the knowledge and will of God himself; and have taken nothing at all?
— when men set a snare to catch anything, do they take it up before anything is caught? they do not; they let it stand till something is ensnared in it; and thus when God denounces or brings a judgement or an affliction upon a people, does he remove it before the end is accomplished?
6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? — shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid? As the signal of the trumpet was intended to arouse the people out of their security;
— shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it? or, if disaster happens in the city, has it not been brought about by the Lord?”
7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing, unless He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets. — any decree would not be carried out by the Lord God unless he first reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.
8 The lion hath roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken! Who can but prophesy? — the lion hath roared in sounding the warning of his approach, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who shouldn’t take warning?
— Amos was simply carrying out the work of his calling in announcing to his people the impending judgement. Even so the servants of God are bound to make known his holy will, regardless of the manner in which their hearers react to the truth.
9 Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, “Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof.
— and say, assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria; the metropolis of the ten tribes, Isaiah 7:9; and which was built upon a mountain and several others were about it and joined to it; and behold the great tumults in the midst; the riots of its inhabitants, the noise of the mob committing all manner of outrages and wickedness;
— in prophecy, the mountains of Samaria are the northern kingdom of Israel; that is, United States, the UK and France (more at the end)
10 For they know not to do right,” saith the Lord, “who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.” — and the oppressed in the midst thereof of their palaces; the poor, the homeless, the fatherless and the widow, injured in their persons and properties, plundered of their substance, or being defrauded.
11 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: “An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be despoiled.”
— therefore, thus saith the Lord God, an adversary there shall be round about the land, literally, “and that, too, from every side of the land,” attacking Israel from all sides; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, dashing it down to the ground and thy palaces heaped with the treasures of unrighteousness shall be looted;
12 Thus saith the Lord: “As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out, that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus on a couch.
— two legs or a piece of an ear, insignificant, useless remnants; the body of the creature being devoured by the lion, only some offal left; that is, scraps from a lion’s mouth, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria;
— in the corner of a bed, occupying the most comfortable soft parts of California, Beverly Hills, living in carefree gossips, and in Damascus in a couch, rather, “on the damask of the bed.” The powerful men of Samaria, living a life of luxury and ease on silken couch, could save their lives only with the greatest difficulties.
13 “Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob,” saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, — this house of Jacob is a reference to the ten northern tribes as indicated in the next verses by the mention of the altars of Bethel; not Jerusalem;
14 “that in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground. — that in the day that God shall visit the transgressions of the house of Israel with significant punishment;
— he will visit the altars of Bethel, singling out of the polluted shrine at Bethel as this was the seat of the religion of Samaria, their center of idolatrous worship, in defiance of Jerusalem being the holy city;
— and the horns of the altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground, thus demolishing the altars themselves and to which persons in distress fled and laid hold of for refuge; but now these should be of no use unto them, since they would be entirely demolished by the enemy and laid level with the ground.
15 And I will smite the winter house and the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end,” saith the Lord. — and God will smite their vacational winter-houses and summer-homes, for not only the kings but the noble and the rich as those with at least two establishments;
— the prophet now describes the collapse of Israel’s luxurious lifestyle; the “winter house” and “summer house” symbolize wealth and excess—multiple residences for comfort in different seasons;
— and the houses of ivory, whose walls were decorated with inlaid ivory, Cf 1 Kings 22:39, shall perish and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord. All extravagance of luxury is displeasing to the Lord, especially if it is connected in any manner with denial of the Lord’s truth.
More on the Mountains of Samaria or the Mountains of Israel in Ezekiel 6:
3 and say: ‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. — this message to the “mountains of Israel;” these mountains refer to the United States, UK and France. . . .
— “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys;” the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland, and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg;
— “and to the rivers,” where during the nineteenth century, the British Royal Navy were known to “Rule the Waves;” and the United States having been plowing up and down the five oceans with her Seven Fleets since the British left the scene.
Amos 4
1 Hear this word, ye cows of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to their masters, “Bring, and let us drink.” — Bashan was famous for its flocks and herds, Deuteronomy 32:14; Ezekiel 39:18; and Samaria was the principal city of Ephraim, the metropolis of the ten tribes; cows and oxen are often associate with Samaria;
— in fact cows are associated with Ephraim, the head of the house of Israel; a ox or its horn is a symbol of strength; “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh,” Deuteronomy 33:17 (more at the end);
— “who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,” and who say to their masters, bring, and let us drink; Jewish commentators interpret these words as of the wives of great men, supposes their husbands are here addressed, who are, and acknowledged to be, their masters or lords.
Bulls and Cows are associated with Ephraim, the head of the house of Israel
2 The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness that: “Lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks. — that, lo, the days shall come upon you; speedily, swiftly and unaware: that he will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fish hooks;
— the enemy, or God himself, would take them out of their own land as fish out of water and carry them captive into a strange land, both them and their posterity; and which should be as easily done as fish are taken with the hook. The word for fish hooks signifies “thorns” and is by some so rendered; these perhaps being used in angling before iron hooks were invented;
— the Targum says, “the nations shall take you away with their shields, and your daughters in fishing nets.” In the midst of their security, they should on a sudden be taken away violently from the abode of their luxury, as the fish, when hooked, is lifted out of the water, and not just fish, but even “your daughters in fishing nets.”
3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her (each woman straight ahead), and ye shall cast them into the palace,” saith the Lord. — reference to “cow” again, that is, Ephraim;
— and ye shall go out at the breaches; not at the gates of the city as they had used to do at pleasure; but at the breaches which had been torn in the walls by the attacking enemies, every woman at that which is before her, literally “every one before her,” anxious to get away, looking neither to the right nor to the left;
— and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord, or “be cast forth to Harmon” apparently the place where they were led away captive. So much having been said of the rulers of Samaria and of Israel, the Lord now, in bitter irony, turns to the entire nation, bidding the people just continue in their idolatry and transgression; the divine punishment would not be kept away by their tactics;
— the Targum of the whole is, “and they shall break down the wall upon you, and bring you out, gathered everyone before him, and exile you beyond the mountains of Hermon (or Armenia).”
4 “Come to Bethel and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years. — come to Bethel and transgress; like a man who says to a scoundrel, “Do as you please until your measure of sin is full” for Bethel was one of the places where the calves were placed and worshipped; in defiance of Jerusalem being the holy city:
— at Gilgal multiply transgression; that is, multiply acts of idolatry: Gilgal was a place where high places and altars were erected, and idols worshipped; as it had formerly been a place of religious worship of the true God, the ten tribes made use of it in the times of their apostasy for idolatrous worship; see Hosea 4:15;
— and bring your sacrifices every morning; and offer them to your idols, as you were wont formerly to offer them unto the true God, according to the law of Moses, Exodus 29:38; that is, altogether, there is a sarcastic force of an appearance of worship, but and yet it is a form of false whorship!
5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish the free offerings; for so ye love, O ye children of Israel,” saith the Lord God. — the special meat offering of the thank offering was to be without leaven, Leviticus 7:12; so ironically to “offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven” was a direct infringement of God’s commandment;
— the Targum says, “And they offer up thanksgiving offerings from what is taken by force (compulsion),” emphasizing that the offerings are not freely given, but coerced or taken under duress;
— “for so ye love” but not loved by God; the Targum says, “And they say: ‘This is acceptable,’” that is, the people declare their worship pleasing, as if God desires it.
— the Targum dramatizes their performance with music and self-justification; in full:
“And they offer up thanksgiving offerings from what is taken by force (compulsion). And they bring it with song. And they say: ‘This is acceptable.’ For thus you have loved (preferred), O House of Israel, says the Lord God.”
— this verse parallels Jeremiah 6:27’s “their houses full of deceit” where pretending Christians celebrate their festivals with songs and joy, as follows:
(a) Easters, a celebration of the Queen of heaven: Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; Jeremiah 7:18 the women knead their dough to make cakes to the Queen of heaven; in Egypt, Jeremiah 44:17-19, 25, this is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’
(b) Christmas; Ezekiel 8:16 five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple; their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east; Christmas, which honor Mithraism, birthday on December 25th – a form of nature worship based on the Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice.
(c) Sundays; her sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original Sun- worshippers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria: And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof, II Kings 17:24;
6 “And I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord. — this is confusing, what is the cleanness of teeth? although it is hinted the “want of bread in all your places;”
— but the Targum clears this all up, by making the metaphor explicit: widespread hunger and scarcity, “And I also gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities” to mean there was no food to dirty them; follows by the “lack of food in all your places,” yet you did not return to Me, says the Lord.
7 “And also I have withheld the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city. One piece was rained upon, and the piece upon which it rained not withered.
— and God caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; so that it might appear to be not by the course of nature, or through the influence of the planets, or by chance; but was according to the direction of the hand of God.
8 So two or three cities wandered unto one city to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord. — two or three cities, that is, their inhabitants, being without water, went up and down in quest of any city or place where they could find water for themselves and cattle to drink:
— but they were not satisfied; could not get enough for their present use and much less to carry back with them to supply them for any length of time; such a scarcity in other parts; see 1 Kings 18:5;
— yet they are blind, obstinate or stiffnecked and have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord; this had no more effect upon them than the other to relinquish their former courses, and return unto the Lord by humiliation and repentance.
9 “I have smitten you with blight (plant disease) and mildew (mold or fungus); when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmer worm devoured them; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord.
— the two disasters recorded here are (1) the blasting and mildew, and (2) the invasion of the palmer-worm, or locust (as in some versions). Some doubt persists as to which insect exactly is mentioned; but whatever it is, the effect of it is totally ruinous;
— “blasting and mildew; both words are doubly intensive; they stand together in the prophecy of Moses (Deuteronomy 28:22), among the other scourges of disobedience; and the mention of these would awaken in those who would hear, the memory of a long train of other warnings and other judgements.
“The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish” (Deuteronomy 28:22)
10 “I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt; your young men have I slain with the sword, and have taken away your horses; and I have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord.
— two more disasters are recounted here, (1) pestilence, and (2) military disaster. God have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt, or “plagues of Egypt” so called because it was prevalent in that country;
— your young men have God slain with the sword, especially when the Israelites suffered defeats at the hand of the Syrians, Egypt or Assyria; and have taken away your horses, these also being slaughtered in battle;
— and God have made the stink of your camps to come up unto your nostrils, namely, that of the dead bodies of men and beasts; yet you have not returned unto him;
— all the calamities above are confirmed by the Targum:
“I sent among you death, as in the manner of Egypt. I slew your young men with the sword, together with the captivity of your horses. I caused the stench of your camps to rise up into your nostrils, yet you did not return to My worship, says the Lord,” Amos 4:10 Jonathan
11 “I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and ye were as a firebrand plucked out of the burning; yet have ye not returned unto Me,” saith the Lord.
— God have overthrown some of them as he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah; either their houses were burnt or their bodies consumed by fire from heaven with lightning; not whole cities but the habitations of some particular persons or they themselves;
— “yet have ye not returned unto him,” saith the Lord, even this repeated chastisements have no effect upon them; even though it is repeated five times (Amos 4:6, 8, 9, 10, 11), yet such solicitations to repent and return to the Lord have no effect;
12 “Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!” — therefore thus will God do unto thee; what he would do is not expressly and particularly said;
— it is commonly understood to be something in a way of judgement and worse than what he had done, since they had no effect upon them; or these things should be done over again until an utter end was made of them; Amos 3:11.
13 For lo, He that formeth the mountains and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth—the Lord, the God of Hosts, is His name.
— for lo, the Lord that formeth the mountains, calling them into existence by his almighty power and createth the wind and declareth unto man what is his thought; his omniscience readily penetrating into the mind of man;
— the Lord, the God of hosts, Yehovah, is his name, the Ruler of all the heavenly armies;
— God is sovereign over things visible (the mountains), things invisible (the wind), and things rational (man and his thought). He is in direct executive control of the world as is evident when he makes the morning darkness, brings about the sequence of day and night. No place is beyond his reach, even the heights of the earth being beneath his feet.
The Five Eyes Operate as One Eye, its center runs through Washington, DC
“His (singular) glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth; and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh” Deuteronomy 33:17.
The first part of the above: the armies of Ephraim and Manasseh are majestic and fierce like a bull or a wild ox; its horns like that of a unicorn.
Rashi: and his horns are the horns of a re’em (unicorn): The ox is powerful, but its horns are not beautiful; on the other hand, a re’em has beautiful horns, but it is not powerful. Moses thus blessed Joshua with the power of an ox and the beauty of a re’em ‘s horns. — [Sifrei 33:17]
Or, Joseph is like a powerful firstling bull. His two sons are like bull’s horns; and its horns are like that of unicorns;
“I know it, my son, I know it,” Jacob said to Joseph, “he [Manasseh] also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations (H1471 goyim)” Genesis 48:19; “And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.”
Or, Joseph has the strength of a firstling bull; one horn like that of a wild ox, the other like that of a unicorn. These are the ten thousands of Ephraim. And these are the thousands of Manasseh.
Today, the “Five Eyes” is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and led by the United States. After breaking out of the yoke of Europe, the UK thought they could operate independently.
Not so, and soon Americans are documented to have shouted down at the British! And Boris Johnson succumbed to the whelm of Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the many Uncle Sam’s policies they adopted.
Unlike the Saudis or the Emirates, they just refused taking up the phones, but within the Anglosphere, the British as a vassel couldn’t avoid being shouted down! Canada and Australia are no exceptions. Hence now the Five Eyes operate as One Eye with its nerve center in Washington, DC; impulsively telling lies and constantly impregnating themselves with many other abominations as they dance like a gang of drunkards along a cliff.
And when they fall, sadly, they would fall together. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. Isaiah 34:7; thus saith the Lord: which is to show the Lord God had spoken it; and it is timeless, fulfilled today as it was by ancient Israel shortly after this prophecy was written.
The prophecy of Amos, in which the prophet warns of the impending judgement of God upon no less than eight nations, beginning with the ancient house of Israel, the northern kingdom; then Israel’s surrounding neighbors (Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon and Moab) then resting upon the house of Judah, and by way of climax describing the prophetic utter ruin and devastation of the endtime house of Israel itself.
These prophecies are encrypted but it was written to be made plain, yet it isn’t plain unless we could uncover certain codes. If it were written for ancient Israel it would have little or no relevance, but this book of Amos is a prophecy about the northern kingdom, Israel, headed by Ephraim, the United States today, the most mighty nation of the earth with seven fleets plowing up and down the five oceans ever ready for a fight with an enemy.
But when the opportunity comes, it flees like one Joseph of old in Egypt, but then, for a righteous reason, but in the endtimes, Joseph favourite son, Ephraim, flees out of Saigon and more recently out of Afghanistan like one who is naked! The awful judgements, rolling like a storm in strophe after strophe or tragedy after tragedy around the world. And then we are obliged to ask why?
And God says to Ezekiel, “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, the days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? The vision that he seeth is for many days, and he prophesieth of the times far off” Ezekiel 12:22, Ezekiel 12:27; that is, the message is for the endtime, our time.
‘The Prophet Amos’ – a Message for today’s Judah and Israel
1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
— the text reveals Amos’s background: a herdsman from Tekoa (a town in Judah), not a professional prophet by lineage, who was among the herdsmen, a man who owned and tended sheep which he saw concerning Israel; that is, chiefly with regard to the northern kingdom;
— the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah: 767–751 BC; the tenth king of the ancient kingdom of Judah; Uzziah was 16 when he became king of Judah and reigned for 52 years. The first 24 years of his reign were as co-regent with his father, Amaziah;
— Jeroboam II (786–746 BC) was the son and successor of Jehoash (alternatively spelled Joash) and the thirteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in the eighth century BC. His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah and Uzziah, kings of Judah.
2 And he said: “The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither.”
— the Lord will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; not from Samaria, nor from Dan and Bethel, but from Zion and Jerusalem, where the Temple of the Lord stood; where was the seat of the Most High;
— and his voice being the roaring of a lion, which denotes his wrath and vengeance; and is expressive of some terrible threatening prophecy he would send one of his prophets, Amos; to which he compares his prophecy concerning the judgements of God on nations.
3 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
— for three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, is a prophetic idiom meaning repeated, excessive transgressions that have reached their limit; many or multiplied transgressions; for he will not turn away the punishment thereof; Damascus was an ancient city; it was in the times of Abraham, Genesis 15:2. It was the “metropolis” of Syria, Isaiah 7:8;
— because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron; that is, “the inhabitants of the land of Gilead,” as the Targum says; this country lay beyond Jordan.
4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad. — and God will send a fire into the house of Hazael, the cruel king of Syria, which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad, the son of Hazael, so that both would suffer the Lord’s punishment.
5 I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,” saith the Lord.
— God will also break the bar of Damascus, shattering the bolt of its gate at the conquest of the city, and cut off the inhabitant from the Plain of Avon, possibly a place near Damascus, or the valley between Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon;
— and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden, in the district of Laodicea; and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir, very likely a district of Assyria, saith the Lord. This prophecy, perhaps, was fulfilled when the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser took the city of Damascus and dissolved the Syrian kingdom; but this prophecy could yet be in the future!
6 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they carried away the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. — thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions of Gaza, the leading city-state of Philistia, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, rather;
— God would not reverse his intention of punishing this city, because they carried away captive the whole captivity, all the prisoners who had been in a certain campaign, very likely that mentioned II Chronicles 21:16-17, to deliver them. up to Edom, the archenemy of Israel, who would be sure to treat the captive Israelites with the highest degree of cruelty.
7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, which shall devour the palaces thereof. — “will” and “shall” as indicated above, this prophecy could be yet in the future!
8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn Mine hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish,” saith the Lord God. — and God will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, to make the city desolate, and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon, the ruler of this city-state with his people;
— and God will turn his hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, the prophecy finding its fulfillment in the repeated conquest of Philistia by the great world-powers, so that it did not retain its existence for any length of time; yet a similar one could be meant for the future.
9 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom, and remembered not the brotherly covenant.
— thus saith the Lord, for three transgressions of Tyre, the great metropolis and seaport of Phoenicia, Cf Isaiah 23, and for four, God will not turn away the punishment thereof, refusing to change the punishment which he had decided upon;
— because they delivered up the whole captivity, all the captives obtained from the Philistines or the Syrians as the result of one of their campaigns, to Edom and remembered not the brotherly covenant, both David and Solomon having been allied with Phoenicia by a special treaty.
10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, which shall devour the palaces thereof.” — Tyre, as the most important of the Phoenician cities, is taken as representing Phoenicia generally; today it is Lebanon.
11 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity; and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever.
— thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Edom; or the Edomites, the posterity of Esau, whose name was Edom, so called from the red pottage he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob: and for four, God will not turn away the punishment thereof;
— among these three or four transgressions, not only what follows is included, but their idolatry; for that the Edomites had their idols is certain, though what they were cannot be said; see II Chronicles 25:14; because he did pursue his brother with the sword: not Esau his brother Jacob; for though he purposed in his heart to slay him, which obliged him to flee; and frightened him, upon his return, by meeting him with four hundred men;
— yet he never pursued him with the sword; but his posterity, the Edomites, not only would not suffer the Israelites their brethren to pass by their borders, but came out against them with a large army, Numbers 20:18; and in the times of Ahaz they came against Judah with the sword and smote them and carried away captives, II Chronicles 28:17; and were at the taking and destruction of Jerusalem and assisted and encouraged its destruction, Psalms 137:7; though to these latter instances the prophet could have no respect, because they were after his time:
— and his anger did tear perpetually; it was deeply rooted in them; it began in their first father Esau on account of the blessing and birthright Jacob got from him and it descended from father to son in all generations and was vented in a most cruel manner like the ravening of a lion or any other beast of prey:
— and kept his wrath for ever; reserved it in their breasts till they had an opportunity of showing it as Esau their father proposed to do, Genesis 27:41 “And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob.”
— the Targum version of the Genesis account says with greater insight, explaining why Esau wouldn’t not want to repeat Cain’s mistake, as after Abel’s death, Adam and Eve had another son, Seth, and the birthright slipped away from Cain; hence he was ready to wait:
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth. Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.'” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
12 But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah.” — but God will send a fire upon Teman; a principal city of Edom or Idumea, so called from Teman a grandson of Esau, Genesis 36:11; there was in his time a village called Theman, five miles from the city Petra; it signifies the south;
— so the Targum renders it, “and I will send fire into the south;” the fire will devastate the strongholds of Bozrah, a key Edomite city,
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
13 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead, that they might enlarge their border. — the Scriptures follow the same pattern as earlier oracles (against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom), now Ammon;
— the children of Ammon, the ancient enemies of Israel, who lived northeast of the Dead Sea, on the edge of the Arabian Desert, now mostly identied as the Jordanians, and for four, God will not turn away the punishment thereof, not reverse his intention of punishing them severely,
— because they have ripped up the women with child of Gilead (II Kings 8:12), in the unspeakably cruel manner employed in many instances in those days, that they might enlarge their border, taking possession once more of the territory gained by the tribes of Israel east of Jordan: Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh.
14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, with shouting in the day of battle, with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind. — but God will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, the capital of their country, and it shall devour the palaces thereof;
— with shouting in the day of battle as soon as the enemies would enter the city with a tempest, an onset swift, sudden, and resistless as a hurricane in the day of the whirlwind for the enemies would come in a tumultuous assault and carry all before them.
15 And their king shall go into captivity, he and his princes together,” saith the Lord. — and their king shall go into captivity; not only the common people that are left of the sword shall be carried captive, but their king also;
— this was Baalis their last king, who was accessory to the murder of Gedaliah, Jeremiah 40:14; whom the king of Babylon had set over the remnant of the Jews left in Judea; which might provoke him to send Nebuzaradan his general against him, who put his country to fire and sword, destroyed his chief city Rabbah, and carried him and his nobles into captivity.
Amos 2
1 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime. — for three …. and for four, I will not forgive them; this pattern means an accumulated transgressions reaching a threshold beyond pardon;
— the Scriptures follow the same pattern as earlier oracles: against Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon; and now Moab, closely associated with today’s Jordan;
— for three transgressions of Moab; or the Moabites, who descended from the eldest son of Lot, by one of his daughters; and though related were great enemies to the Israelites;
— they sent for Balaam to curse them when on their borders, and greatly oppressed them in the times of the judges: and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; idolatry, as well as other sins, must be one of these four transgressions: the idols of Moab were Chemosh and Baalpeor;
— because the Moabites burned the bones of the king of Edom, Esau’s descendant, into lime and by way of contempt, used it to plaster a Moabite palace; the point of violating the corpse; a mark of peculiar hatred and particularly offensive to the common conscience of mankind; this unrestrained hatred didn’t stop with death.
2 But I will send a fire upon Moab, and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and Moab shall die with tumult, with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
— but God will send a fire upon Moab; either on the whole country or on some particular city; and there was a city called Moab, now Areopolis; though it may be put for the whole country into which an enemy should be sent to destroy it, even Nebuchadnezzar:
— and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth; and according to the Targum, “and shall consume the palaces of the fortified place” and so may signify all the cities of Moab, and their palaces: or however may be put for them.
3 And I will cut off the judge from the midst thereof, and will slay all the princes thereof with him,” saith the Lord. — and God will cut off the judges, all the magistrates from the midst thereof and will slay all the princes thereof with him so that Moab would cease to exist as a nation. This came to pass at the time of the Babylonian conquests.
4 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they have despised the law of the Lord, and have not kept His commandments; and their lies caused them to err, after which their fathers have walked.
— God will not turn away the punishment from Judah because they have despised the law of the Lord; a law so holy, just and righteous as no other nation had; and yet was not only not observed, but condemned;
— other nations sinned, but are not charged with breaches of the law of God, which was not given them; but these from the house of Judah, the Jews had it, yet despised it; counted it as a strange thing; walked not according to it, but cast it away from them; and trampling upon God’s legislative power and authority:
— and have not kept his commandments; or “statutes” the ordinances and the law, which he appointed them to observe for the honour of his name, as parts of their worship;
— and their lies caused them to err, their idols leading them into every kind of foolishness and sin, after their fathers have walked, for idolatry had been practiced in the country almost continually, secretly hiding around their walls and doors, and not openly.
5 But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.” — and God will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem; the military judgements here prophesied with reference to Judah and Jerusalem were fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar:
— the royal city, Jerusalem, where stood the Temple, the palace of the Most High, and the palaces of the king and his nobles; these were burnt with fire when it was taken by the Chaldean army, about two hundred years after this prophecy; and finally a second time in the destruction by Vespasian and Titus in the AD 70 Inferno.
6 Thus saith the Lord: “For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof, because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes.
— for three transgressions of Israel; the ten tribes rent from the house of David in the times of Rehoboam and who departed from the true worship of God to set up calves at Dan and Bethel;
— but now under under the reign of Jeroboam the Second, against which the prophet Amos was chiefly sent: and for four, God will not turn away the punishment thereof; the following part of this prophecy is taken up in pointing at the sins and punishment of Israel, who is headed by their topdog, Ephraim;
— now the prophet Amos has come to the main commission he was sent to, committed in writing and because this book of Amos is prophetic, its reference of Israel is actually referring to Ephraim and who is, in essence, the United States today;
— because they sold the righteous for silver; the sense is, that the judges, or their leaders of Israel, the United States, are so corrupt, that for a piece of money they would give a cause against a righteous man, and in favour of an unjust man that bribed them:
— and the poor for a pair of shoes; that is, for a mere trifle they would pervert justice; if two men came before them with a cause, and both poor; yet if one could but give a pair of shoes, or anything he could part with, though he could not give money; so mean and sordid were they, they would take it, and give the cause for him, however unjust it was.
7 They pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid to profane My holy name.
— the capitalistic nature of the house of Ephraim pant after the dust on the head of the poor; by oppressing the poor and their homeless so severely that they, in their misery, show their grief by placing dust on their heads, Job 2:12;
— and turn aside the way of the meek, by placing obstacles in their way, thereby causing them to stumble and fall; and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid, in an excess of shameless lechery, which was regarded as being on a level with incest, to profane my holy name.
8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid in pledge by every altar, and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. — and they lay themselves down upon clothes, the upper garment of the poor, laid to pledge by every altar, although the law required that such pledges be returned in the evening, Exodus 22:25-27;
— because the garments also served as covers by night, as this being his only covering, and they drink the wine of the condemned, such as was purchased with money gotten from the poor by oppression in the house of their god being brazen enough to do this in their places of worship.
9 “Yet I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars, and he was strong as the oaks; yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath. — yet God destroyed the Amorite when Joshua overthrew them in battle, Numbers 21:24;
— whose height was like the height of the cedars, as the Amorites were strong as the oaks, a powerful people; yet God destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath, the picture of a mighty tree being retained to make the fact of his annihilation more vivid.
10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness to possess the land of the Amorite. — also God brought you, the children of Israel, up from the land of Egypt by the deliverance to which the prophets point time and again, Exodus 12:51;
— and led you forty years through the wilderness by Moses to possess the land of the Amorite, so the entire land of Canaan might fitly be called, as having been in the possession of this nation before the Hittite invasion; all given to the children of Israel.
11 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazirites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel?” saith the Lord.
— and God raised up of your sons for their roles as prophets; such as Moses, Joshua and the seventy elders; not only to foretell things to come but to teach and instruct the people in the doctrines and duties of religion and to warn them of their sins;
— and of your young men for Nazarites: such as Samson, Samuel and others; whose vow not only obliged them from shaving their hair, but to abstain from drinking wine and eating grapes, which the youthful age is inclined unto; as enabled them to deny themselves sensual gratifications and to be examples of piety and constant attendance on the service of God;
— the Targum adds, “of your young men for teachers,” and for instructing the people;
12 “But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink, and commanded the prophets, saying, ‘Prophesy not.’ — but ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink; contrary to their vow and calling, and in contempt of God’s instructions;
— and commanded the prophets, saying, prophesy not hard and heavy things, judgements and denunciations of vengeance, only smooth things;
— for an example, see what Amaziah said unto Amos,
11 “For thus Amos saith, ‘Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land.’”
12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there.” Amos 7:11-12 (more details at the end).
13 “Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. — behold, I am pressed under you, rather, “Behold, I will press you down.” It is unlikely that God, in this passage, should declare himself “crushed” under the weight of Israel’s sin, for in the context it is Israel, and not God, who is described as the victim;
— as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves, as a cart loaded with sheaves presses down the ground beneath; the Lord signifies he would afflict and distress this people, bring them into strait circumstances, by a close siege, and other judgements, not to ruin nor destroy them, but to straiten them;
— so the Targum says, “behold, I bring distress upon you, and it shall straiten you in your place, as a cart is straitened which is loaded with sheaves.”
The Targum is another source of the Bible. Started by Ezra for those returning from Babylon and for these returnees they could only understand in Aramaic; hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to them in ancient times and to us today from the Sacred Text.
14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift, and the strong shall not strengthen his force, neither shall the mighty deliver himself.
— therefore, speaking of Israel, their flight shall perish from the swift; their “place of refuge” or their “place of refuge should perish from the swift,” as though it were not. He, Israel, should flee, but there would be no “place to flee unto,”
— they should be so straitened and cooped up and be so loaded with pressures that those as swift on foot should not be able to make their escape by fleeing; and the strong shall not strengthen his force; should not increase it or exert it to such a degree as to be able to defend and secure himself from the enemy.
15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow, and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself; neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself.
— neither shall Israel stand that handleth the bow; that is, safe at some distance, and can make use of his instruments of war afar off; yet will not think it safe to stand his ground, but be ready to spring as fast as he can to save himself:
— and even if Israel that is swift of foot he shall not deliver himself; this is repeated, lest any should place confidence in their agility, and to show how complete and inevitable the affliction will be:
— neither shall Israel that rideth the horse deliver himself; by fleeing on horseback, no more than he that is on foot; no ways that can be devised or thought on would preserve from this general calamity.
16 And he that is courageous among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day,” saith the Lord. — and among the Israelites, he that is courageous among the mighty; or “strong in his heart” one that is of the bravest hero, famous for courage and bravery, that excels in it among the mighty; the most valiant soldiers and warriors;
— shall flee away naked in that day: shall throw away his armour, nay, put off his warrior clothes, changed into civilian as being both a hindrance in his flight; and that he may make the better speed under disguise; this is talking about the United States, the most mighty nation of the earth today, it flees Vietnam and Afghanistan like one who is naked in the night!
— saith the Lord: which is added to show its certainty of such prophecies; it might be depended upon that so it would be, since the Lord God had spoken it; and it is timeless, fulfilled today as it was about eighty years after this prophecy was written.
More examples of ‘Prophesy not,’ but just say smooth things, Amos 7:12, “And Amaziah said unto Amos, “O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there.”
(1) Ahab, during the famine foretold by Elijah, (“Art thou he that troubleth Israel?”) sought him everywhere to destroy him, 1 Kings 18:10-12,because he had prophesied earlier, “As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except according to my word,” I kings 17:1.
(2) Jezebel, after the miracle at Carmel and the death of her prophets, swore by her gods to do so, 1 Kings 19:2-3. Ahab’s last act was to imprison Micaiah, 1 Kings 22:26-27, the son of Imlath, for prophesying his death, when adjured by himself to speak truly.
(3) Ahaziah, Ahab’s son, undeterred by the fire from heaven which destroyed two captains, each with his fifty, sent yet a third to take Elijah, when he prophesied that the king would not recover from his sickness, II Kings 1:9-13.
(4) Jehoram, Ahab’s second son, swore by God to destroy Elisha, II Kings 6:31, laying the evils of the siege to the prophet.
For more about a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah
The Prophecy of Joel tells of a terrible calamity striking the Jewish people, brought on by locusts, caterpillars, and drought. Some believed Joel lived around the same time as Elisha, saying he prophesied during the reign of Jehoram, son of Ahab, when the land was hit by the seven years of famine that had been foretold.
It seems likely that Joel gave his prophecy after the ten tribes were taken into captivity, during the sixth year of Hezekiah’s reign, since the house of Israel is only mentioned in reference to the future, with the focus solely on Judah and Jerusalem.
Joel 1
1 The word of the Lord that came to Joel the son of Pethuel. — the name Joel signifies “Yehovah is God,” or “whose God is Yehovah.”
— Rashi: to Joel, son of Pethuel: the son of Samuel the prophet who persuaded God with his prayer (פִתָּה לְאֵל). Some say that this prophecy was said in those seven years in which Elisha said: “For the Lord has decreed a famine etc.” and they took place during the days of Jehoram son of Ahab.
2 Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?
— Hear this, ye old men, whose memory reached back through generations of men and give ear in yielding a most willing and careful attention;
— all ye inhabitants of the land. It is a spirited challenge to all the people of Judah to mark the lesson of the great calamity which has befallen them. Hath this been in their days or even in the days of their fathers? A visitation of this kind and grievous to this extent had never yet been seen in Palestine.
3 Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.
— tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children, passing it on from generation to generation, all of them accepting this tradition with awe, fear and trembling as being an unparalleled manifestation of God’s anger against men on account of their sins.
This could be a prophecy of plagues of locusts as yet in the future
4 That which the palmer worm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. — this could be a prophecy of plagues of locusts as yet in the future;
— that which the palmer-worm, literally, “the gnawer-off,” hath left the locust eaten, the swarming or multiplying locust of the desert;
— and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm, the devouring grasshopper, eaten; and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten, that is, the consuming locust;
“What the crawling locust left, the swarming locust ate; what the swarming locust left, the young locust ate; and what the young locust left, the finishing locust ate.”
5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. — weep and howl: signs of dark days;
— awake, ye drunkards and weep; howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine, since the supply of grapes and therefore of the liquor made from them were not available; for it is cut off from your mouth. This appeal is introduced to describe the complete devastation of the land.
6 For a nation has come up upon my land, strong and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.
— regarding the swarming locusts in the first five verses, they could be a metaphor of swarm of literal mighty armies of fierce warriors, strong and without number like swarms of countless locusts;
— that is, swarms of insects are described as a nation or people marching in order under their leaders because of their power to do mischief; the prophet Joel now urges his countrymen to mourn;
— whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great lion or like the “the grinders” of teeth being hard, strong and sharp to bite off the tops, boughs and branches of trees: the jaw-teeth of a lioness protecting or avenging her young, grinding to pieces everything that came in their path.
What Joel really meant could be swarms of invading armies instead
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
“In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole, we wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until we’re living in the latter days; so was Joel prophesying about swarms of locusts or swarms of invading armies?
7 He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig tree; he hath made it clean bare and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. — he, the nation of locust;
— the locust hath laid the Lord’s vine waste, that is, and spoiled the vines by consuming its foliage and barked at his fig-tree; gnawing off the bark and laying bare stem and branches, so that they hath made it clean bare and cast it away; by the complete removal of the bark, stripped it of its leaves, fruit and bark also: this being the condition in which the land was left after the visit of the locusts,
8 Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. — personified as a woman, lamenting like a virgin, girded with sackcloth, the “daughter of Judah,” or “daughter of my people,”
— the dress of mourning for the husband of her youth, whom after their betrothal, death took away. The grief of a bereaved virgin and bride is represented also in other passages as deep and overwhelming. Cf Isaiah 54:6.
9 The meat offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord; the priests, the Lord’S ministers, mourn.
— the meat-offering and the drink-offering, the sacrifices in the worship of God Almighty is cut off from the house of the Lord because it was impossible to procure the necessary materials since everything was destroyed;
— the priests, the Lord’s shepherd, mourn on account of the decay resulting from the devastation which was followed also by a dearth of the animals used for sacrificial purposes;
“Sacrifices and libations have ceased from the house of the LORD’s sanctuary; the priests who serve in the LORD’s temple mourn.”
10 The field is wasted, the land mourneth, for the corn is wasted; the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
— the resultant field is wasted, made desolate; the land mourneth, both the uncultivated and the cultivated sections of the land suffering in the same measure; for the corn is wasted, destroyed by the locusts, the grain completely consumed;
— the new wine is dried up, the grapes being spoiled for want of foliage on the vines; the oil languisheth because the olive-trees produced no fruit.
11 Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field is perished. — manifest by overt signs your distress;
— be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen, bearing the shame of disappointed hopes after working hard for a crop; howl, O ye vine-dressers; these two representing the agricultural classes of the land for the wheat and for the barley because the harvest of the field is perished, this being the cause of the farmers’ lament.
Four stages of locusts, not four different species of locusts
12 The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree—even all the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
— the ravages produced by the locusts and the drought are universal; the vine is dried up and the fig-tree languisheth so that gardener and horticulturist likewise had reasons for mourning; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, the date-palm, which ordinarily escaped the onslaughts of the locust;
— and the apple-tree, or the quince, even all the trees of the field are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men so that there could be no rejoicing over a bountiful harvest as usual; Cf Psalms 4:7; Isaiah 9:3.
13 Gird yourselves and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God; for the meat offering and the drink offering is withheld from the house of your God.
— gird yourselves, namely, with garments of mourning and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar, whose chief duties were concerned with the sacrifices brought on the two altars of the Temple;
— Come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God, extending their exercises of mourning even through the night season; for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God, so that all the usual sacrifices had to be discontinued;
— as Ahab did, when he humbled himself before Elijah (1 Kings 21:27). The sackcloth would be a token not only of grief, but also of sorrow, regret and repentance (Nehemiah 9:1; Jonah 3:5-6).
14 Sanctify ye a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord!
— sanctify ye a fast, appointing a day or a number of days for a special religious service, during which the depth of the people’s grief should be indicated by their abstaining from food;
— call a solemn assembly, such as were held in connection with the great festivals; gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord, your God, and cry unto the Lord with impetuous and importunate praying;
“Proclaim a fast, call an assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land, and go up to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out before the LORD.”
15 Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
— alas for the day coming near! “shall it come,” so the prophet himself laments for the Day of the Lord, the time of stern visitation is coming as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come, bringing its desolating scourge upon the land.;
16 Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God?
— is not the meat cut off before our eyes as their food supply was destroyed by the invading hordes of locusts? Yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God since the various sacrifices and meals of thanksgiving were no longer possible.
17 The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered.
— the seed is rotten under their clods, withering in the soil on account of the terrible drought; the garners are laid desolate, the granaries being empty because there could be no harvest;
— the barns, which otherwise harbored such rich crops are broken down, falling to pieces for want of money to repair them; for the corn is withered.
18 How the beasts do groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate.
— how do the beasts groan? since the meadows also were dried up. The herds of cattle are perplexed, restless hunting of hungry cattle because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate, bearing their sufferings as a consequence of the transgressions of the people of the land.
19 O Lord, to Thee will I cry! For the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
— O Lord, to thee will I cry; for the fire, the parching heat hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness of the great Judean steppes; indicating land which iare unenclosed and uncultivated,
— and the flame, the fierce heat of the drought hath burned all the trees of the field; all this causes the prophet to lift up his voice to the Lord in a cry for help.
20 The beasts of the field cry also unto Thee; for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.
— the beasts of the field, both domestic and wild animals, cry also unto thee, their dumb misery being a powerful appeal for help;
— for the rivers of waters are dried up and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Cf Job 38:41; Psalms 104:21; 145:15; 147:9; Jeremiah 14:5-6. All creation groans and travails in pain together until now on account of the burden of man’s guilt, Romans 8:19-22.
Joel 2
1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble; for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand—
— blow ye the trumpet in Zion; this signal the priests announcing the coming calamity and sound an alarm in the Lord’s holy mountain, from the Temple as the center of Yehovah’s worship and the place of his presence in the midst of his people;
— let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, shaken up out of their care-free condition; for the Day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand, the visitation is no longer in the dim and distant future, but is an event to be expected soon;
— the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21
Jamieson-Fausset: Four stages of locusts, Literally, (1) the gnawing locust; (2) the swarming locust; (3) the licking locust; (4) the consuming locust
2 a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains. A great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like; neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
— a day of darkness and of gloominess as when the light of the sun is shut out by immense swarms of locusts, a day of clouds and of thick darkness of heavy, dense and obscuring cloudiness;
— as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, the wings of the locusts reflecting the rays of the sun in a murky light before their immense numbers shut out the sun altogether. There hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations, Cf Joel 1:2.
3 A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. The land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
— a fire, a most intense and parching heat, devoureth before them in preparing for the desolation to follow; and behind them a flame burneth, the terrible, withering heat continuing even after the swarms of grasshoppers had passed;
— the land is as the Garden of Eden before them like the beautiful park of paradise described in Genesis 2, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them, the devastation would be thorough.
4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. — the appearance of the locusts is as the appearance of horses, whom they resemble as to the shape of their heads; and as horsemen, so shall they run with uncanny swiftness.
5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
— like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains as they clatter along over rough mountain roads shall they leap; such would be the noise of their crackling movements in a great mass;
— like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array for there is a strong similarity to all these rushing, pounding sounds in the movements of vast swarms of locusts.
6 Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. — before their face as they proceed on their path of devastation, the people all those so visited, shall be much pained, trembling and helpless with terror;
— all faces shall gather blackness, losing the glowing color of health, growing pale with conscious helplessness.
7 They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks.
— they shall run like mighty men, straightforward to the attack; they shall climb the wall like men of war in an advance that cannot be stopped;
— and they shall march every one on his ways and they shall not break their ranks, this peculiarity being noted by all observers. It was and is vain to resist them by the means ordinarily used to stop the progress of an invading army.
8 Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded.
— neither shall one thrust another, not pressing ahead, upon those going before; they shall walk every one in his path, like a well-drilled army; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded for they are represented as an invincible army of the Lord.
9 They shall run to and fro in the city, they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses, they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
— they shall run to and fro in the city, being altogether unhindered in their advance; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief;
— when the locusts come and fill the whole space between earth and sky, they fly in perfect order, as if obedient to a divine command so that they look like the squares of a pavement; each one holds its own place, not diverging from it even so much as by a finger’s breadth. To these locusts nothing is impenetrable, fields, meadows, trees, cities, houses, even their most secret chambers.
10 The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
— the earth shall quake before them, liked before Mount Sinai, terrified by their dreadful host, the heavens shall tremble, resounding with the rushing of their flight;
— the sun and the moon shall be dark and the stars shall withdraw their shining, their light shut out by the immense hosts of locusts.
11 And the Lord shall utter His voice before His army, for His camp is very great. For He is strong that executeth His word; for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?
— and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army, which the grasshoppers here represent; for his camp is very great, the host under his command exceedingly large; for he (the Son?) is strong that executeth his word, carrying out the will of the Lord; for the day of the Lord, his coming visitation, is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
— it is evident that the entire description is incidentally symbolical of the great and mighty Judgement Day of the Lord, which, in its preliminary features, is seen in the two destructions of Jerusalem, but which is destined to be immeasurably greater than man can conceive of when it shall come to pass.
12 “Therefore also now,” saith the Lord, “turn ye even to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
— therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, in a true repentance and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, as outward indications of the change of heart,
13 And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God; for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth of the evil.
— and rend your heart in a true and unfeigned sorrow, and not your garments for the latter may be done also by hypocrites;
— and turn unto the Lord, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil, that is, he is persuaded not to let stern justice alone rule. Cf Exodus 34:6.
14 Who knoweth if He will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind Him—even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God?
— who knoweth if he will return, not carry out the threatened punishment, and repent and leave a blessing behind him, namely, when he, as men pictured him, returns to his throne in heaven;
— even a meat-offering and a drink-offering unto the Lord, for by an abundant harvest which he may be persuaded to give, the people would again be enabled to bring their usual sacrifices in the Temple; in a service of prayer and supplication.
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast! Call a solemn assembly, — blow the trumpet in Zion, signaling urgency and summoning the people, the call once more going forth; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly,
16 gather the people! Sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth from his chamber and the bride out of her retreat.
— gather the people for a great meeting of worship and supplication; sanctify the congregation, so that no one would be Levitically unclean;
— assemble the elders, the aged people of the congregation; gather the children and those that suck the breast for no one is to be omitted in this great appeal for mercy, since all of them, from the smallest to the greatest, were guilty;
— let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, where they were preparing for the coming wedding. The fact that even infants in arms and bride and groom were included in the appeal of the prophet shows that the guilt was universal and beyond excuse.
17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar; and let them say, “Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.Why should they say among the people, ‘Where is their God?’”
— let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, who occupied the position of mediators between God and his people, weep between the porch and the altar and let them say, in a solemn litany chanted at the very door of the Holy Place;
— Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage, the people of his own possession to reproach, Cf Exodus 32:11-12, that the heathen should rule over them, or “make mockery of them.” Where is their God? thus bringing disgrace upon the holy name of the Lord.
18 Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people.
— then, when the Lord saw that his people were truly penitent, will he be jealous for his land be filled with the zeal of his love, rather, he was so filled and acted accordingly, and pity his people.
19 Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto His people: “Behold, I will send you corn and wine and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen.
— yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, actuated with the zeal of his love for them, Behold, the Lord will send you corn and wine and oil, the richest temporal blessings made possible by the renewed fertility of the land;
— and ye shall be satisfied therewith; and the Lord will no more make you a reproach among the nations of which their prayer had complained.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea. And his stink shall come up, and his ill savor shall come up” because He hath done great things.
— but the Lord will remove far off from you the northern army, the swarms of locusts which came from that direction, and will drive him into a land barren and desolate into the desert of Arabia;
— with his face toward the East Sea, that is, the Dead Sea and his hinder part, his rearguard toward the utmost sea, that is, the Mediterranean; and his stink shall come up, the terrible stench of the decaying insects, and his ill savor shall come up, because he hath done great things;
The Message Bible offers a more colorful description:
At that, God went into action to get his land back. He took pity on his people. God answered and spoke to his people, “Look, listen—I’m sending a gift: Grain and wine and olive oil. The fast is over—eat your fill! I won’t expose you any longer to contempt among the pagans.
I’ll head off the final enemy coming out of the north and dump them in a wasteland. Half of them will end up in the Dead Sea, the other half in the Mediterranean. There they’ll rot, a stench to high heaven. The bigger the enemy, the stronger the stench!” Joel 2:18-20 MSG
21 Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord will do great things!
— fear not, O land, the entire country being included in this new admonition as before; be glad and rejoice, namely, over the hosts that laid waste the country; for the Lord will do great things, Yehovah is able to perform marvelous works in delivering his people.
22 Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine do yield their strength.
— be not afraid, ye beasts of the field which had been so sorely in need of food supplies; for the pastures of the wilderness of the great prairies of the South, do spring, once more verdant with an abundance of grass;
— for the tree beareth her fruit as before the terrible visitation, the fig-tree and the vine do yield their strength so as to bring forth fruit as of old.
23 Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He hath given you the early rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the early rain and the latter rain in the first month.
— be glad, then, ye children of Zion, the inhabitants of Judah, the children of the Lord and rejoice in the Lord, your God, the God of the covenant, the Lord of mercy;
— for he hath given you the former rain moderately, literally, “a teacher for righteousness” or “rain in just measure” and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month, the former rain being due right after seeding-time, in the fall, and the latter rain coming just before harvest, in the spring.
24 And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
— and the floors, the threshing-floors shall be full of wheat, the result of a new, rich harvest and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil, the receptacles of the vineyards being unable to hold the rich measure of blessings.
25 “And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm and the caterpillar and the palmer worm, My great army which I sent among you.
— locust … cankerworm … caterpiller … palmer worm—the reverse order from Joel 1:4, where God will restore not only what has been lost by the full-grown consuming locust, but also what has been lost by the less destructive licking locust, and swarming locust, and gnawing locust;
— and the Lord will restore to you, make up the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm, his great army which he sent among you, the insects of Joel 1:4 being named in the reverse order;
— the Targum reveals this was God talking, not of literal locusts, but locusts symbolic of foreign oppressors, and of an invading human army instead:
“I will repay you with good years in place of the years stolen from you by idol-worshippers, nations, tongues, rulers, and kingdoms, through the punishment of the great army I sent against you.”
26 And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you; and My people shall never be ashamed.
— and ye shall have plenty to eat, having an abundance of the best food and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wondrously with you, making his wonders known through the manner in which he dealt with them;
— and the Lord’s people shall never be ashamed again, never to be heaped with mockery and disgrace, since it would be so evident that the Lord was on their side. This would, moreover, be substantiated more than ever by the fullness of spiritual blessings which he intended to pour out upon his children after their restoration to his sonship.
27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else; and My people shall never be ashamed.
— and ye shall know that the Lord is in the midst of Israel as his chosen people, and that Yehovah is the Lord, their God, the God of the covenant and none else; and his people, the true spiritual Israel shall never be ashamed again.
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions; — the Millennium begins, and the Targum recogizes this as a new chapter, chapter 3 for them;
— and it shall come to pass afterward, in the Millennium toward which this prophecy converged, that the Lord will pour out his Spirit upon all flesh, upon men of every race and nation;
— and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, openly proclaiming the great deeds of God, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions, the great possibilities of the Lord’s work and the energy for carrying out the plans of the Lord coming to them and urging them forward with irresistible power, the barriers of both sex and age being removed, except as limited in other parts of the Scriptures.
29 and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out My Spirit. — and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids, upon the lowliest of the land;
— in those days will the Lord pour out his Spirit, all social distinction being abandoned during the Millennium as far as the work of the Kingdom is concerned;
— this prophecy was fulfilled, so far as its beginning is concerned, on the Day of Pentecost, as Peter also states in the introduction to his powerful sermon held before the astonished inhabitants of the city of Jerusalem, Acts 2:17-21. But this event by no means exhausted its wonderful promises;
— for the spirit of the Lord is being poured out on the members of the Kingdom of God, which will continue to be given to all true believers; but this great and wonderful deed of the Lord is placed side by side with His judgement upon the nations.
30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth— blood and fire and pillars of smoke.
— and the Lord will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, strange and terrifying portents, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, miracles in the sky above and signs of His majesty on the earth beneath, blood and fire and smoky vapor.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. — from the days of the Millennium, this looks like a flashback;
— the sun shall be turned into darkness, being changed into a dark and cold mass, and the moon into blood, as bloody wars and devastations would occur on the earth, before the great and the terrible Day of the Lord come, namely, the Day of final Judgement.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
— and it shall come to pass, throughout this great Day of the Lord’s preparation for the final Judgement, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, Yehovah, confessing the Messiah and accepting him as the one Savior of mankind, shall be delivered, saved from the wrath to come;
— for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, the Gospel-message proclaimed in and by the Chosen people of God bringing redemption and the assurance of eternal life to all believers, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call;
— namely, the remainder according to the selection by the Lord, Yehovah, the people whom the Lord has chosen from all nations of the earth. This glorious promise is held out to this day to all who turn to the Lord in keeping his commandments, repentance and faith, confessing his name as the only Savior and fervently calling upon him for deliverance from all evil, especially that of the body of sin;
— God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century).
Joel 3
1 “For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
— for behold, heading towards the Millennium, in those days, when the Lord of hosts shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem for forty years, by the deliverance through the Messiah, of which the return of Judah from exile was but a type;
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted My land.
— the Lord will also gather all nations, great and mighty heathen nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, another Mount Sinai experience, which is here remade the scene of another Face to Face before the last Great Judgement and the Lord will plead with them there;
— for the Lord’s people and for his heritage Israel, in the interest of the Lord’s, whom they have scattered among the nations, in the various oppressions and captivities which have struck the Lord’s people from the earliest days, and parted his land, appropriating it or dividing it as they saw fit.
3 And they have cast lots for My people, and have given a boy for a harlot and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
— and they have cast lots for the Lord’s people, after they had taken them captive and have given a boy for an harlot, namely, as the price for which they secured the services of a prostitute;
— and sold a girl for wine, for the sake of a drunken debauch that they might drink. The description is typical of the manner with which the Lord’s enemies have ever dealt with the captive Israelites.
4 Yea, and what have ye to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the coasts of Palestine? Will ye render Me a recompense? And if ye recompense Me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head,
— yea, and what have ye to do with the Lord, O Tyre and Zidon and all the coasts of Palestine? that is, what object did they have in acting as they did, when not only the capitals of Phoenicia but also the state of Philistia were showing such enmity against him?
— will ye render the Lord a recompense? seeking revenge for what they consider a wrong done them? They had neither cause to seek revenge nor occasion to carry it out. And if ye recompense the Lord, swiftly and speedily will he return your recompense upon your own head, Cf Psalms 7:17,
5 because ye have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried into your temples My goodly, pleasant things.
— because ye have taken silver and gold from the Lord, in the Temple-treasures and throughout the city of Jerusalem, and have carried into your temples, including also the palaces of their rulers, the Lord’s goodly, pleasant things, his most costly possessions.
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
— the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, the Greeks, who reduced the captives to slavery, selling the Hebrew slaves that ye might remove them far from their border, to be slaves in distant countries.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head.
— behold, the Lord will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, delivering them from the masters to whom they had been sold, and will return your recompense upon your own head so that their revenge would react upon themselves.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the Lord hath spoken it.”
— completes the reversal: the nations who sold Judah’s children into slavery will themselves have their children sold into slavery; and the Lord will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah;
— and their inhabitants reduced to slavery or sold to the Sabeans who are mentioned as being the remotest nation toward the east in the Arabian Desert; often associated with southern Arabia.
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: Prepare war! Wake up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
— proclaim ye this among the nations as they get ready to wage war against the Lord’s people. Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let them arouse themselves from their inactivity, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am strong.”
— beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning-hooks into spears, bending every effort toward the winning of their unholy war. Let the weak say, I am strong, as when warlike excitement takes hold of a whole nation.
11 Assemble yourselves and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about; thither cause Thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord. — the nations being summoned to a tribunal before God;
— assemble yourselves and come, all ye nations, and gather yourselves together round Lord’s people, occupying a central position in the earth; thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord, to meet the invasion of the enemies with a fearless countercharge.
12 “Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
— let the nations awake, stir up to warfare and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat just east of Jerusalem; and now a shift the imagery: the nations are not merely assembling for war, but are being drawn into God’s courtroom;
— for there will the Lord sits to judge all the nations round about, since they would have seen, or ought to have seen, all that the God of Israel had manifested before the people of Israel;
“Let the nations come openly and ascend to establish judgment, for there the Lord will be revealed to judge all the nations from all around.”
All nations would be brought before God for judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, get you down; for the press is full, the vats overflow—for their wickedness is great!”
— put ye in the sickle so the Lord shouts to his mighty champions for the harvest is ripe, the crop of the world having reached its maturity. Come, get you down, stamping the vats of gathered grapes;
— for the press is full, the fats overflow, the earth being more than ripe for Judgment; for their wickedness is great. Cf Revelation 14:15-18
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
— multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for the Day of the Lord, the Day of final Judgement, is also call the Valley of Decision, bound to be revealed as soon as all men would have had an opportunity to learn the Warning.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. — the Lord would be manifesting himself, he wants the whole world to fear him;
— the Targum of Zephaniah 2:3 says, “seek the fear of the Lord, all ye humble ones of the earth, who do the judgements of his will; seek truth, seek meekness; it may be there will be a protection for you on the day of the Lord’s wrath.”
16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
— the Lord also shall roar out of Zion, with a voice of thunder terrifying his enemies, everyone given a Mount Sinai experience, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, in the Word which was proclaimed there for so many centuries;
— and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the Strength of the children of Israel. “Zion, or Jerusalem, is naturally not the earthly Jerusalem, but the Holy City of the living God, in which the Lord will be forever united with his saved and glorified congregation;”
— as in Joel 2:1 above, “the earth will shake” that is, the whole world will be given a Mount Sinai experience as the children had when they came out of Egypt; so that the fear of the Lord will always be embedded in them, all the nations of the world to fear Him; Exodus 19:16-18, 20:18-21.
17 “So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
— so shall ye know that Yehovah is your God, dwelling in Zion, his holy mountain, in the midst of the congregation of Israel, because, before, nobody seems to know him, all teaching their own imaginations;
— then shall Jerusalem be holy, a true congregation of the saints; and there shall no strangers pass through her any more, only those who have been brought over by the blood of the Messiah (the Lamb, the Christ).
18 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk; and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and shall water the valley of Shittim. — the Targum says ‘aged’ wine;
— and it shall come to pass in that day when the blessings of the Millennium that would be dispensed with abundance of wine and the hills shall flow with milk and all the rivers of Judah, most of which were dry except during the rainy season;
— shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord and shall water the Valley of Shittim, east of the Jordan, otherwise an arid desert and bringing fertility even to the unfruitful places of the earth, to the hearts of unbelievers and all other nations everywhere.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
— this verse shifts focus to judgment against specific nations—Egypt and Edom—who historically oppressed Israel; Egypt and Edom shall be a desolation and a desolate wilderness, these two being representative of the Lord’s enemies, for the violence against the children of Judah and Israel.
20 “But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. — Judah’s permanence is emphasized—its people and land will not be uprooted again;
— Jerusalem, the city is promised enduring sanctity and habitation “form generation to generation,” contrasting with the destruction of foreign powers in the past.
21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion.”
— for the Lord will cleanse their blood that he has not cleansed before, especially those from the nations, through the atonement wrought by the Messiah; for the Lord dwelleth in Zion. The entire description clearly speaks of an earthly glorification of Jerusalem;
— Cf Revelation 22:2. The Lord is dwelling in the midst of his Kingdom and revealing himself as the King of all people, after the destruction of his enemies, after the perfection of his Kingdom;
— Shekhinah in Zion; the Targum adds the concept of the Shekhinah, highlighting the Father’s indwelling presence in Zion. This expands the Hebrew text, which simply says “the Lord dwells in Zion,” by stressing the intimate, protective presence of God among His people;
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart. Jeremiah 3:17
— this during the Millennium, Jerusalem shall no longer be just a city; but it shall become the center of divine presence, “the place of the Shekhinah,” when they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord; that is, even the Father would move down from heaven with his Throne and dwell among men.
The Prophecy of Hosea is primarily to the house of Ephraim. Being the chief of the ten tribes, Ephraim is often used in place of Israel when referring to northern ten tribes. Elsewhere on this site Ephraim and Manasseh has been established as the Anglo-Saxons. Although Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encrypted message of Ephraim and Israel today is specially meant primarily for the United States and secondarily its European allies.
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
“In latter days you will understand it fully,” that is, it means as a whole, we wouldn’t fully understand these prophecies until we’re living in the latter days; after, and only after God had executed his judgement in anger and performed the thoughts of his heart would we be able to understand these prophecies fully!
1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. — “when Ephraim spoke,” as the mightiest of the northern tribes, “there was trembling;”
— sounds familiar? When the United States sneezes, the world catches a cold;
— and he died; death is the penalty of sin. Ephraim “died” spiritually; because of their worshipping of Baal, and this came into use in Israel in Ahab’s time as his his wife Jezebel, daughter to Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, prevailed with him to take her country idol and add to Jeroboam’s calves;
— for the other tribes were so much weaker that they could not hold out against the top dog; he exalted himself in Israel, assuming the leadership and enforcing his will; that was yesterday, but today, when America sneezes the world may just get a chill!
— and when the United States went to war with Vietnam or Afghtanistan through false premise, her allies, Europe, went into multiple layers of resistance!
2 And now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the sacrificers of men kiss the calves!”
— and they sin more and more; since the times of Jeroboam, and also of Ahab, adding other deities to the calves, as follows; increasing the number of their idols, and their idolatrous sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies: Easters, Christmas and then Halloweens; and from evil to more evils;
— they stop not, but run into greater absurdities; such as in Admah or as in Zeboiim (Sodom and Gomorrah, Deuteronomy 29:23) and grosser and weirdier abominations.
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
— as soon as the heat of the sun is felt, and as the early dew it passeth away, the earth is left dry;
— so these people, though they seemed to be in great prosperity, and to be very fruitful in children, and in substance, and promised themselves much more; yet in a little time their land would become desolate, and they stripped of all that was dear and valuable to them these metaphors are used in Hosea 6:4.
4 “Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but Me; for there is no savior besides Me.
— in prophetic rhetoric, God is recalling Egypt as a way of remembrance: “You’ve seen My power before; why turn elsewhere?”
5 “I knew thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. — I did know thee in the wilderness; where there were no food nor drink, where scorpions, serpents, and beasts of prey; there the Lord knew them, and showed a fatherly affection and care of them;
— in the land of great drought; in the parched sands, where were no refreshing showers, no rivers or springs of water, to suffice so many cattle and men; where thou wentest as it were through flames and on sands, scorching as embers of a fire, a place fit for none but fiery serpents;
— and fed them with manna and quails, and guided and directed them in the way, and protected and preserved them from their enemies, and from all hurt and danger; so the Targum explains it, “I sufficiently supplied their necessities in the wilderness.”
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten Me. — they were filled, their hearts exalted, elated with plenty, grew proud and haughty;
— they attributed their fullness not to God, but to their own merit; put their trust and confidence in their affluence; and thought themselves safe, secure, and out of any danger.
— as their pasture were full, their heart became exalted;
“If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us.” Madeleine Albright saw US as an ‘indispensable nation.’
— growing proud and haughty, their pride thumbed against God’s face; “Only the United States [that is, ignoring God’s power] had the power to guarantee global security: without our presence or support, multilateral endeavors would fail.” ~ this phase, or with small variation, used by numerous American politicians.
7 Therefore I will be unto them as a lion; as a leopard by the way will I observe them.
— by this and the following metaphors are set forth the severity of God’s judgements upon them for their arrogance, and utter destruction;
— the lion makes his onset more openly, the leopard more secretly; both express the various ways God would take in his judgement to chastise these people for their sins; to execute his purpose with great wrath and fury, to their utter ruin;
— see parallel Scriptures:
“For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him,” Hosea 5:14
“Wherefore a lion out of the forest shall slay them, and a wolf of the evenings shall spoil them, a leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their backslidings are increased,” Jeremiah 5:6
“Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. And their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from afar; they shall fly as the vulture that hasteneth to eat,” Habakkuk 1:8
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion; the beast of the field shall tear them.
— God will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps; a fierce bear, but especially when deprived of its whelps; or when sensing its whelps are in danger;
— and there will I devour them like a lion; in their cities and houses, when taken by the enemy; the wild beast shall tear them, and then they will utterly destroy them; which literally is one of God’s sore judgements, as in AD 70; but that was for Judah;
9 “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in Me is thine help. — thou hast destroyed thyself;
— after these menaces it might seem God had destroyed them, but thou thyself hast done it by thy sins; or as the Targum says You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me, against your help”
10 I will be thy King. Where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities, and thy judges of whom thou saidst, ‘Give me a king and princes’?
— I will be thy King, so the Lord’s offer still holds good; where is any other king that may save any of your cities? Who else could deliver you from the power of the Assyrians?
— or as the Targum says, “Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities, and your judges of whom you said: ‘Appoint for me a king and a ruler’?”
11 I gave thee a king in Mine anger, and took him away in My wrath. — the first king of all Israel, king Saul was given at the request of the people; in doing so, in fact, they rejected God as their King.
12 “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid. — the day of reckoning would certainly come, for the sin of Ephraim was neither forgotten nor blotted out;
— unrepented sin is an evergrowing store of the wrath of God, hid out of sight in the depths of his divine judgements, but of which nothing will be lost, nothing will be left unpunished; hence the Targum says, “The sins of the house of Ephraim are stored up in the treasury, kept for repayment of all their offences.”
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.
— the sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him; the travail-pangs are violent, sudden, irresistible upon Ephraim, or the ten tribes;
— that is, afflictions and calamities, which are often compared to the pains and sorrows of a woman in childbirth; see Isaiah 13:8; the Targum says, “distress and trouble shall come upon them, as pains on a woman with child.”
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues! O grave, I will be thy destruction! Repentance shall be hid from Mine eyes.”
— God’s plan of redemption would be carried out; in the very midst of a proclamation of wrath and punishment; then they would have a most glorious promise of the victory gained through redemption; as in Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones; God’s counsel for mankind established before the foundation of the world.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come; the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up; He shall despoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
— an east wind shall come; a mighty enemy king shall come upon them, like an east wind;
— Rashi: A king, strong as the east wind, shall come up by the word of the Lord from the way of the desert; he shall plunder: that king shall plunder the treasures of all coveted vessels; (more at the end).
“For they are called children, but their deeds are corrupt and multiplied. Now a mighty king shall come upon them, like an east wind, by the word of the Lord. He shall rise from the way of the wilderness, destroy their treasure house, besiege the city of his kingdom, and plunder all the desirable vessels.”
16 Samaria shall become desolate, for she hath rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
— Samaria is the abominable name for Ephraim; according to these unspeakable cruelties, things which are often done by extreme enemies;
— cities are sacked and plundered; and which Shalmaneser might have provoked into such extremes by the treachery of the king of Israel, and the city of Samaria holding out a three years’ siege;
“Samaria shall be guilty, for she has rebelled against the word of God. By the sword they shall fall, their young ones shall be dashed, and their pregnant women shall be ripped open.”
— but why does Ephraim, now named as Samaria, deserve all these unspeakable cruelties? Oh wait, perhaps the answer is in the next or last chapter?
Hosea 14
1 O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. — for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity;
— or “though thou art fallen” into sin, and into ruin, temporal and spiritual; from a state of great prosperity and happiness, both civil and religious, into great calamities;
— yet return, consider from whence thou art fallen; be restored, notwithstanding thy fall, and the low state in which thou art in; the Targum says, “return to the fear of the Lord, for you have stumbled in your sins.”
2 Take with you words, and turn to the Lord; say unto Him, “Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we offer the calves of our lips.
— so will we render the calves of our lips, literally, “and we will render as bullocks our lips,” namely, the confession of guilt and the promise to amend our ways;
— the Targum says, “Accept us, forgive our sins, and receive this as good. Let the words of our lips be accepted before You as bulls offered for favor upon the altar.”
3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Ye are our gods’; for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy.”
— we will not ride upon horses; to seek for help elsewhere; or go to Egypt for them, nor Assyria, as they had done;
“The kings of Assyria will not save us; we will not rely on riding horses, and we will no longer call the work of our hands our god. From before You, mercy shall be shown to our fathers, as when they were in Egypt—behold, we are like orphans.”
4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for Mine anger is turned away from him.
— and God will response, “I will accept them in their repentance, I will forgive their sins, I will have mercy on them when they return willingly, for My anger has turned away from them.”
5 I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
— the Targum says, “my Word shall be as dew to Israel; they shall blossom like the lily and dwell securely on their land, like a cedar tree that sends forth its branches.”
— Israel shall grow as the lily; or like a great sunflower; to which the church and people of God are sometimes compared; “they shall shine as the lily.”
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
— some render “as incense” called “lebonah” in Hebrew, from whence the mountain is thought to have its name, frankincense growing upon it;
— so the Targum says, “their fragrance shall be like the fragrance of the holy menorah of spices.”
7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine; the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
— the Targum casts the timing after the arrival of the Messiah, says,
“They shall be gathered from among their exiles, they shall dwell under the shadow of their Messiah, they shall live many days, and abundant goodness shall increase in the land. The remembrance of their goodness shall ascend and not cease, like the sound of trumpets over aged wine that is poured out in the Temple.”
8 Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do any more with idols?’ I have heard him, and observed him; I am like a green fir tree. From Me is thy fruit found.”
— Ephraim bemoaning himself, repenting of his sins; and confessing them; and God heard him; says the Lord;
— his prayers for pardon and this is what his idols he once served could not do, who had ears, but heard not; but the Lord not only heard, but answered and granted his request;
“The house of Israel shall say: ‘What more do we have to do with idols?’ I, by My word, will accept the prayers of Israel and have mercy upon them. By My word I will make them strong and beautiful, for before Me forgiveness for their repentance is found.”
9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.
— who is wise, and who shall understand these things? namely, all that the prophet has written by way of warning, rebuke, admonition and correction; prudent and he shall know them?
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; “In latter days you will understand it fully,” or even “you will understand it fully in the latter days.”
— for the ways of the Lord, particularly in the manner in which he deals with his children on earth, are right, and the just shall walk in them, finding their delight in doing the Lord’s will; but the transgressors shall fall therein;
— Rashi: who is wise and will understand these: who among you is wise and will ponder to put his heart to all these and return to Me? And the rebellious shall stumble on them: i.e. because of them, because they did not walk in them.
“Who is wise and will understand these teachings, and discerning to know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous who walk in them shall live in eternal life, but the wicked who do not walk in them shall be delivered to Gehenna.”
Wikipedia: an east wind (Hosea 13:15) is a wind that originates in the east and blows in a westward direction; and thus a strong king from the east, from areas of Jordan, Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, will come.
Second, the descendants of Esau: Edom, Idumea and Mount Seir; where and who are they?
What Happened to the Spanish Armada in 1588?
Unto the men of the East with the Ammonites, and will give them in possession, that the Ammonites may not be remembered among the nations, Ezekiel 25:10 — this prophecy against Ammon and the Ammonites has no promise of restoration.
And finally, Revelation 9: fifth angel; came out of the smoke locusts; to kill only those men who have not the seal of God in their foreheads; breastplates like breastplates of iron; sixth angel: “Loose the four angels who are bound in the great river Euphrates;” to slay a third part of men; the army of horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand; And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared, Revelation 16:12.
And finally, the East wind shall come to Ephraim (Hosea 13:15); the context is Ephraim (Hosea 13:12), the United States (Manasseh is UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
The Message Bible prophesies of tornadoes rampaging through the house of Israel
“God’s tornado is on its way, roaring out of the desert. It will devastate the country, leaving a trail of ruin and wreckage. The cities will be gutted, dear possessions gone for good. Now Samaria has to face the charges because she has rebelled against her God: Her people will be killed, babies smashed on the rocks, pregnant women ripped open.”
An economic crisis isn’t something that happens all of a sudden, but a lot of factors weaken the economy before a major blow triggers a meltdown. The famous bearish strategist, Albert Edwards, of Societe Generale, who had predicted the dot com crash, has sounded the alarm about a looming financial crisis, bigger than the 2008 market crash. The analyst, who refers to himself as a “perma bear,” spoke to Bloomberg and Fortune, sharing his opinions on the current ‘AI Bubble’ and the possibility of a market correction.
Edwards, who admits that he is a very bearish market strategist, has made some high-profile and dramatic predictions in the past, including the dot-com bubble burst. However, not all of his warnings have panned out, Fortune noted. “I think there’s a bubble, but there again I always think there’s a bubble,” Edwards told Bloomberg’s Merryn Somerset Webb, in a podcast. He was also firm in his opinion that “it will end in tears,” saying, “that much I’m sure of.” He further told Fortune in an interview that previous theories of a bubble before the 1999 and early 2000 dot com crash, and the 2008 financial crisis were also “very convincing.”
He noted that each time, a “surge in the market was so relentless” that he would just stop talking about bubbles, as his clients don’t like it. “Clients get pissed off with you repeating the same thing over and over again and being wrong,” he said, adding that the tone changes when the bubble bursts. “Generally, when you’re gripped by a bubble, people just don’t want to listen because they’re making so much money,” he told the publication.
Edwards pointed to two key elements that would play a major role in the bursting of the bubble. Drawing parallels to the markets before the dot-com crash, he noted that some things were different today, which could make the crash much worse. He explained that previous bursts were triggered by the monetary policies of the Federal Reserve and the hikes in rates that exposed the market froth. However, this time, Edwards anticipates that the Fed will move away from “quantitative tightening to quantitative easing” with rate cuts, which won’t trigger a burst. He told Bloomberg that this policy could lead to a “further meltup,” making the eventual burst more devastating.
“What’s more worrying about the AI bubble is how much more dependent the economy is on this theme, not just for the business investments, which is driving growth, but also the fact that consumption growth is being dominated far more than normal by the top quintile,” Edwards told Fortune.
Edwards told Fortune that the market was overdue for a correction, and apart from the pandemic, there hasn’t been a real recession since 2008. “That’s a bloody long time, and the business cycle eventually always goes into recession,” he told the publication.
The Prophecy of Hosea is targetted primarily to the house of Ephraim (mentions 32 times in this book of Hosea, more than in any other books of the Bible). Often, as Ephraim, being the chief tribe of the ten tribes, the name is used in place of Israel (used 41 times) when referring to the northern kingdom.
Yet, from God’s point of view, he address Israel as “thy calf, O Samaria!” This being the case because Samaria was also the capital of the northern kingdom. Second, Ephraim also indulged in many of the abomination of the Samaritans that were relocated by their conquerer, the Assyrians!
1 “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt. — or “though Israel was a child” a weak, helpless, foolish, and imprudent one, “yet I loved him;”
— or “when a child” in the infancy when in Egypt as he said to Pharaoh, “Israel is My son, even my firstborn; let my son go, that he may serve me” Exodus 4:22-23;
— and in the wilderness; the Lord loved him, not only as his creature as he does all the works of his hands, but with a more special love than he loved others; choosing them to be a special people above all others; giving them his law, his statutes and his judgements.
2 As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed unto the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
— but they turned a deaf ear to them, and their backs upon them; or as the Targum says, “I sent the prophets to teach them, but they wandered from them. Instead of turning toward Me, they sacrificed to falsehood and offered incense to idols.”
3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
— I taught Ephraim and all the tribes of Israel to go; Ephraim or with the rest of the ten tribes; these the Lord instructed in the way of his commandments;
— and taught them to walk therein; he with his angel before them to lead them through the wilderness; yea, he himself went before them in the pillar of cloud by day and in the pillar of fire by night;
— so the Targum says, “I, by an angel sent by me, led Israel in the right way;” and the Septuagint: “Yet I bound the feet of Ephraim, I took him on my arm; but they knew not that I healed them.”
4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke from their jaws, and I laid meat before them.
— when Israel were weak I drew them with cords of a man, as with bands which support the first weak steps of a child, with bands of love, not with chains to hold them captive against their will;
— and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, as when a man slips back the yoke on the neck of a draft animal in order to give it the liberty to eat freely, and I laid meat unto them, gently offering them food for their souls.
5 “He shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
— the Septuagint says “and Ephraim dwelt in Egypt” he did so indeed with the other tribes formerly; but it is eluciated in the Targum that as he had not repent before God, he shall be a captive and into bondage again more severe than that in Egypt, even into captivity in Assyria.
6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches and devour them, because of their own counsels.
— because of their own evil counsels, the sword shall fall upon their cities, it shall kill their warriors, which their enemies took and pursued, because the acted contrary to the counsel of God, notwithstanding all the admonitions, exhortations and threats of God by his prophets.
7 And My people are bent on backsliding from Me; though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt Him.
— none at all would exalt him; the most high God, and give him the praise and glory due to his name; but, they extolled their idols;
— Rashi paraphrases it, “when the prophets teach them to return to Me, they are in doubt whether to return or not to return; it is with difficulty that they return to Me.”
— none at all would exalt the most high God, and give him the praise and glory; but they kept looking to their idols; who were deaf to all counsel and reproof; the Targum says, “my people are divided (or hesitate) about returning to my law.”
8 “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboiim? Mine heart is turned within Me; My repentings are kindled together.
— how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? two cities that were utterly destroyed by fire from heaven, along with Sodom and Gomorrah, Deuteronomy 29:23;
— so would God even judge and put an end to Ephraim as Sodom and Gomorrah, who were so severely punished for their sins, and were never restored again? God is asking a question for reflection above, so should we?
— both the Septuagint and the Targum also uses Ephraim as if Israel; the later says
“How shall I hand you over, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you up, Israel? How shall I make you like Admah? How shall I set you as Zeboiim? My word is disturbed within Me; together My compassions are stirred.”
9 I will not execute the fierceness of Mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee; and I will not enter into the city.
— then God answer the above question, that he will not return to destroy Ephraim; or “again” or “any more, destroy” him; not twice;
— he, Ephraim, might be destroyed when carried into Assyria as captives; but the remnant that shall spring from him in the latter day shall not be destroyed, but saved;
— the phase, “and I will not enter into the city” is vague, but the Targum enlightens it with wider insight,
“I will not act with the full force of My anger, nor will My word return to destroy the house of Israel. For I am God, My word endures forever, and My deeds are not like the deeds of flesh that dwell upon the earth. Thus I have decreed by My word that My holy Presence shall be among you, and I will not exchange it for another city besides Jerusalem.”
10 “They shall walk after the Lord; He shall roar like a lion. When He shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. — the remnant shall tremble and hearken to God’s call, and shall comply with his commands;
— the phrase, “from the west” or “from the sea,” meaning the Mediterranean sea, which lay west of Judea, and is often used for the west, may signify the western or European part of the world, where the house of Israel for the most part are, and from whence they will be regathered;
— the Targum says, “for he shall roar, and the captives shall be gathered from the west;” which negated those returning from Babylon, which lies to the east and north of Judea;
— for details of how the full house of Israel would come from the West, see
11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will place them in their houses,” saith the Lord.
— they shall tremble as a bird out of captivity; but from the West this time, they shall come from thence with fear and trembling;
— which may allude to the trembling of birds at the roaring of a lion, or to the trembling motion of their wings in flying to their own land, under divine influence and direction.
12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.
— their chief lie was the setting up of the worship of the calves, with a worldly end, yet with pretence of religion toward God; denying him, the One true God, in that they joined idols with him, yet professing to serve him;
— chronic political liars like Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s Secretary of State, freely admitted those lies about the CIA: We lied, We cheated, We stole.
Ex-CIA director Pompeo said: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
Interestingly, a Christian religious news broadcaster that described Pompeo’s words with such precision as follows: “that’s not the resume of the Secretary of State… that’s the resume of Satan.”
1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. — “after the east wind” means they are residing in the West, from hence they shall return;
— again, Ephraim is always associated with lies, falsehood and desolation while multiplying idols, which are fallacious and deceitful;
— not content with the daily increase of their idolatries among themselves, they continually persecute, spoil and plunder those who do not give into their false worship: thus the Targum says of their lies, “the house of Ephraim multiplied before Me;”
— MSG says “He tells lies nonstop, soul-destroying lies;” but the Targum explains Ephraim’s lies in greater details and deeper insight:
“The lies of the house of Ephraim multiplied before Me, and the deceit of the house of Israel; and the house of Judah strengthened themselves in worship until the people of God were exiled from their land. But those who worshiped before Me in the Temple were called a holy people, and thus they remained established.” Hosea 12:1 Jonathan
— Professor Jeffrey Sachs on Donald Trump’s 60 Minutes Interview, Nov 7, 2025. In this video, Professor Sachs breaks down Trump’s lies in this 60 Minutes interview —
2 The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will He recompense him.
— and God will punish all the posterity of Jacob, whether Ephraim or Judah; according to his ways; those, “will be visited according to his ways” if right, or if wrong, a divine visiting used both ways.
3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God.
— Jacob took Esau by the heel in the womb in order to obtain, if possible, the privileges of the first-born; then I will not let thee go except thou bless me; intimating the strength of his faith, henceforth, Jacob’s name, meaning “supplanter,” was changed to Israel;
— and of his getting the birthright and blessing from him, so says the Targum,”prophet, say unto them, was it not said of Jacob, before he was born, that he would be greater than his brother?”
4 Yea, he had power over the angel and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto Him; he found Him in Bethel, and there He spoke with us,
— yea, he had power over the angel (messenger), who is identified with God, and perhaps the revelation of the Son of God, and made supplication, by stating that he would not let go without having received a blessing.
5 even the Lord God of hosts; the Lord is his memorial. — the Lord is his memorial: or his name, Yehovah; this “angel” is most probably the Son of God, who also has the name Yehovah, carrying the name of his Father, who is the Lord God of hosts.
“Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him” Exodus 23:20-21
6 Therefore turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgement, and wait on thy God continually.
— keep mercy and judgement; or “observe” them to do them; to show mercy to persons in misery, to the poor and indigent, which is what the Lord desires and delights in; and wait for the redemption or salvation of thy God continually.
7 Canaan is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress.
— not Canaan, but Ephraim that should he be called; for his ideal is Canaan’s; thus Ephraim had became a Canaanite: the word also signifies a merchant; they carried on trade upon Canaanitish principles;
— Like Canaan, Israel is a merchant who uses dishonest scales — he loves to cheat people! VOICE
8 And Ephraim said, “Yet I am become rich, I have found myself substance; in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin.” — this verse confirms that in the above verse 7, ‘Canaan’ was Ephraim indeed;
— here again Ephraim, or the people of Israel, vainly ascribe all their wealth and riches to their own labour, diligence, and industry,
— and take no notice of God and his providence, or of his blessing upon them; and pretend to be very upright and honest in their dealings.
9 “And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.
— and I that am the Lord, thy God, from the land of Egypt, where he first revealed the greatness toward Israel;
— will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles as in the days of the solemn feast; the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; which brought to the attention of the Israelites the blessings with which the Lord so richly supplied them in the Land of Promise.
10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes (parallelism, analogy) by the ministry of the prophets.”
— used by the prophet Hosea, taking a wife of whoredom and have children by her; and Ezekiel being bound 390 (or 190 Septuagint) days for the iniquity of Israel and 40 days for Judah (Ezekiel 4).
11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? Surely they are vanity. They sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.
— “In Gilgal they have sacrificed oxen.” Gilead represents all the country on its side, the East of Jordan; “Gilgal,” all on its side, the West of Jordan;
— in both, God had shown forth his mercies; in both, they dishonored God, sacrificing bulls to idols, as a gift to the devils; in both they had a multitude of altars that stood there, so the Targum says,”they have multiplied their altars, like heaps upon the borders of the fields.”
12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
— and Jacob chose poverty and servitude rather than marry an idotatress of Canaan; he went to serve for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep;
— and so the last clause is supplied by the Targum: this was after his flight into Syria, and before he fled from Laban, whom he served seven years for Rachel; and seven years more for the same in like manner.
13 And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
— here, a prophet Moses is referred to, and perhaps, a hint that the Lord would yet again save Israel from worse than the Egyptian bondage where they had been bondmen two hundred and fifteen years;
— and by the words and warnings of another prophet, Joshua, they were preserved and were safely conducted through Jordan into the land of Canaan, and settled there; where the covenant of circumcision was renewed, and the first Passover was kept.
14 Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly; therefore shall He leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
— “return unto him” it was Ephraim or the ten tribes that provoked God to stir up his wrath against them; God Himself will bring disgrace upon Ephraim, undoing their pride and exposing their corruption;
— “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20
— this sequence would re-occured at the endtime, where Ephraim would fall into captivity first, then after 150 years, Judah would join the fall; and together, for another 40 years; (for details, see Ezekiel 4 – 190/40 Years of captivity).
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang sounded an alarm earlier this month, warning that China is rapidly closing in on the US in the global race to AI dominance. And DeepSeek’s sudden rise earlier this year showed just how quickly the balance of power can shift.
That competition is playing out not just in Silicon Valley and Shenzhen, but also on university campuses. Beijing has been steadily building an AI powerhouse of its own at Tsinghua University—challenging the cutting-edge tech dominance of the US Ivy League.
Tsinghua has produced more of the world’s 100 most-cited AI research papers than any other school, and the university generates more AI-related patents each year than MIT, Stanford, Princeton and Harvard combined. Between 2005 and the end of 2024, Tsinghua researchers filed 4,986 AI and machine-learning patents—including more than 900 last year—according to LexisNexis data analyzed by Bloomberg.
Still, the US maintains an edge. American institutions hold many of the most influential AI patents, and according to Stanford’s 2025 AI Index Report, the US has produced 40 “notable AI models” compared to China’s 15. However, the Chinese models have rapidly closed the quality gap.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for AI and machine learning within government, industry and academic circles,” Jun Liu, a former Harvard professor who joined Tsinghua this year to lead the school’s new statistics and data science department, told Bloomberg. “The draw of AI talent is due to capital, and the Chinese government’s support for scientific research, including in AI and related areas.”
China is building a massive AI talent pipeline—and US companies are tapping it China’s tech strategy doesn’t start at the university level—the country has begun teaching the foundations of AI to students as young as six. This fall, schools in Beijing rolled out at least eight hours of AI instruction per academic year, covering topics like how to use chatbots and other tools, general background on the technology, and AI ethics.
That early focus has helped China build out a vast tech workforce. China graduated 3.57 million STEM students in 2020—compared with 820,000 in the US—according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. State media has since reported that the number could exceed five million annually. (China’s population is more than four times that of the US)
American tech companies have taken notice—and rushed to snatch up Chinese talent. Over the summer, Meta announced a new Superintelligence Lab aimed at building a machine more powerful than the human brain. All 11 founding researchers were educated outside of the US—and seven were born in China, according to The New York Times.
A 2020 Paulson Institute study found Chinese AI researchers made up nearly one-third of the world’s 100 top AI scientists—most of whom worked for US universities and corporations. Follow-up research from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace found that despite rising geopolitical tensions, 87% of those researchers have continued working in the US.
As Matt Sheehan, an analyst who worked on both studies, put it to the NYT:
“The US AI industry is the biggest beneficiary of Chinese talent.”
Chapter 9 starts with “rejoice not” when Ephraim or Israel return to Egypt and Assyria, eating unclean food in both places where Israel have been in captivity. But another prophetic Captivity is destined for the endtime.
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; “In latter days you will understand it fully,” or even “you will understand it fully in the latter days.”
1 Rejoice not for joy, O Israel, as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God; thou hast loved for reward upon every threshing floor.
— for thou hast gone a whoring; playing the harlot with many nations; committing adultery; worshipping idols, making feasts and dancing before them; and so departing from God;
— the Targum says it this way: “for you have strayed after the worship of your God; you loved to serve idols on every threshing floor,” alluding to the hire of a harlot, prostituting herself for it on a corn floor or anywhere else.
2 The floor and the wine press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
— nothing seems to satisfy her as idolatrous Israel is personified as a harlot; and wine-drinking was, in fact, so closely connected with the customs of idolatry.
3 They shall not dwell in the Lord’S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
— Ephraim returning to Egypt and Assyria. and eating unclean food in both places where they have been in captivity; the indication of this word “shall” used three time above is prophetic; reverting back into Captivity, another time in “Egypt” for 190 years perhaps.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto Him; their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners. All that eat thereof shall be polluted, for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.
— in other words, the bread eaten at funeral meals; this was regarded as unclean, because the corpse defiled the mourners and then the house, and all who came in contact with it, for seven days (Numbers 19:14).
— they have gone too deep into idolatry that any sacrifices would be viewed as the bread of mourners; and instead of being acceptable to God, were abominable to him; and all that partook them should consider them as funeral feasts; God’s feasts are always joyous.
5 What will ye do in the solemn day (moed H4150), and in the day of the feast (cḥaḡ H2282) of the Lord?
— here “the solemn day” would the referring mō‛ēd (H4150 appointed time) and feasts of the Lord would be of a different kind: cḥaḡ (H2282);
— the three feasts at which Israel was to appear before the Lord, viz., the Passover (cḥaḡH2282Leviticus 23:6), Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles (cḥaḡH2282Leviticus 23:34), are described as chaggı̄m; and every other joyous festival is also called a chag;
— whereas mō‛ēd (H4150) simply expresses the idea of a holy assembly; the two words are synonymous, but they are so arranged that by chag the idea of joy is brought into greater prominence, and the feast-day is thereby designated as a day of holy joy before Yehovah; whereas mō‛ēd simply expresses the idea of a feast established by the Lord, and sanctified to Him;
— another word miqra (H4744 a convocation) is used very often in Leviticus 23 and elsewhere.
6 For lo, they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess the pleasant places for their silver; thorns shall be in their tabernacles.
— in Egypt they hope to be quiet, and survive these desolations, and to return into their own land; but they shall die in Egypt, and Egyptians shall lay them out and prepare them to their grave.
7 The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad because of the multitude of thine iniquity and great hatred.
— the prophet is a fool; so Israel said, before those days came, of a true prophet of the Lord, that he was a fool for prophesying of evil things, but now they shall find it otherwise;
— so the Targum says: “they of the house of Israel shall (note the subtle change of present ‘is’ to future tense ‘shall’) know that they who had prophesied to them were true prophets;”
— but there are going to be false prophets, who, when the day of God’s visitation shall come on Israel in a way of wrath and vengeance, will appear both to themselves and others to be fools, for prophesying good things to them, when evil was at hand;
— “the prophet is a fool” indicates their prophets today don’t know much about the prophecies of the Old Testament; mainly their false prophets pretend to much inspiration and flattered their faithfuls with false hopes and vain promises of safety and prosperity.
“The days of punishment have come, the days of requital for sins have arrived. The house of Israel shall know that true prophets were prophesying to them, but they treated them as fools, and false prophets they considered delightful—because your sins multiplied and your transgressions grew strong.” Hosea 9:7 Jonathan
8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God; but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
— the watchman of Ephraim was with my God; formerly the watchmen of Ephraim such as Elijah and Elisha were with the true God, with revelations and instructions from him; and were under the inspiration of his spirits, and prophesied in his name things according to his will;
— but now the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways; these are false prophets, instead of guiding and directing Ephraim in the right way in which he should go, they lay snares for him in all the ways he takes, to lead him wrong, and draw him into sin, particularly into false doctrines and false prophecies;
— these false prophets, as well as those of Judah in her latter years, flattered the kings who supported them, misled them, encouraged them in disbelieving the threats of God, and so led to their destruction; and after everything is over, these prophets become detestable in the house of God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. Therefore He will remember their iniquity; He will visit their sins.
— as recorded in Judges 19:16-22, when the abominable conduct of the men of Gibeah in connection with the concubine of a Levite from Bethlehem, Judah, took place; the consequence of which her body was cut into twelve pieces and send to all the twelve tribes of Israel; and the tribe of Benjamin was almost exterminated;
— this same depravity on the part of Israel could be equally punished; he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins: that is, God, my God, as the prophet calls him in Hosea 9:8, will not forgive and forget their sins; pardon being often expressed by a non-remembrance of sins;
— but God will make inquiry after them, who persisting in their sins, like the men of Gibeah and Benjamin; and “he will visit their sins” that is, visit them in a way of wrath and judgement,
— and punish for them (who prided themselves as “liberal” democracies, promoting their LGBTqia agenda and other filths by coercing other countries with threats and falsehoods) as they deserve: perhaps, by the same Lord in the latter days.
10 “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe of the fig tree at her first season. But they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and their abominations were according as they loved.
— Baalpeor was the place where Moabitic idolatry was practised. This great disgrace had burned itself into their national traditions and literature (Numbers 25; Deuteronomy 4:3; Psalm 106:28-31).
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
— the greatest glory, perhaps, of Ephraim was their fruitfulness; “double fruitfulness” being the meaning of their blessings; now that glory of populousness was to vanish speedily: no birth, no pregnancy and no conception, like birds winging their way swiftly out of sight.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left; yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
— yet will I bereave them; their parents of them, by the Sword, Famine, Pestilence, or by carrying them Captive into a foreign country;
— that there shall not be a man left; in the whole land of Israel, but all shall be destroyed, or carried captive; or either from being men, as though they are brought up to some ripeness, and a more adult age than others, yet arrive not to such a time and age as to be called men.
13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.”
— the reference to Tyre seems prophetic and read it as: “I look on Ephraim even as I look on Tyre, planted in a secure resting-place.” The impregnable fortress of Tyre was a conspicuous object in the days of Hosea; her strength, her pride, and in the end, her fall;
— so as in today’s Ephraim; the United States has seven fleets plowing up and down the five oceans effortlessly without any challenge;
— the Septuagint continues with a dark ending: “Ephraim, even as I saw, gave their children for a prey; yea, Ephraim was ready to bring out his children to slaughter.”
— a parallel Scripture in Isaiah: “Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” Isaiah 28:1
14 Give them, O Lord — what wilt Thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
— give them, O Lord; what wilt Thou give? the question interrupting the flow of thought showing the deep indignation of the prophet Hosea over the willful corruption of his people;
— give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts, sterility being considered a disgrace and a reproach, one of the sternest punishments of the Lord; population decline are prominent among the children of Israel, due to their collapse of fertility rate, especially among the countries in the northern kingdom;
15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them; for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of Mine house. I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.
— the wickedness of the northern kingdom had its focus there, at Gilgal, seems like it was their capital during the early years, their crimes recorded in Judges 19:16-22, were, perhaps in a provincial Gibeah, belongeth to Benjamin;
— of violating a travellor from Bethleham from Judah by certain sons of Belial of committing a sin, LGBTqia, described as “so vile a thing!” Judges 19:24. As a result concubine body was cut “into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the regions of Israel.”
16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.”
— Ephraim is smitten, like a plant struck by the direct rays of the sun; or suffer to be slain, either by the Sword of the enemy, or by Famine, or by Pestilence, or by some disease or another;
— their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb, by permitting their children to be killed by civil wars, conspiracies and murders among themselves.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
— and they shall be wanderers among the nations, being dispersed by their enemies, having no settled place of their own, nowhere where they can be called a people, or are for such owned: exiles, fugitives, and vagabonds. Deuteronomy 28:65.
Hosea 10
1 Israel is an empty vine; he bringeth forth fruit unto himself. According to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. — the people of Israel are often compared to a vine, but “empty ” in the English translation is ambigious;
— Israel is an empty [or perhaps a luxuriant] vine; and such an one from whence fruit might be expected, planted in good soil, pouring out much fruits, emptying itself;
— the Septuagint understands it in a positive sense, rendering it, “a flourishing vine, her fruit is abundant” putting forth branches, leaves and fruit;
— but the Targum renders it posiviely initially and in reverse eventually:
“Israel is a luxuriant vine, established by its practice of Torah. But the fruit of their deeds brought exile. When I increased their prosperity, they increased idol worship. When I brought goodness to their land, they built altars before their images.” Hosea 10:1 Jonathan
— although Israel is likened positively to a “luxuriant vine” the fruit of their deeds caused them to be yielding unrighteousness, their abundance should bring blessing, more fruit or material wealth, the better the harvests, but it soon brings more altars to their gods; the more the obelisks or pillars to pagan gods;
— and in the context of this chapter, the Targum rendering is more complete and correct, as the text below says Israel’s hearts are divided between God and their idols, rather than wholly belonging to God.
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty. He shall break down their altars; He shall despoil their images.
— Israel’s heart is divided; between God and their idols, as in Ahab’s time between God and Baal; or for today, between God and the world;
— as the Targum says; their hearts were divided between God and their idols; as in Ahab’s time between God and Baal; they pretended to worship God when they worshipped the calves, as if they had done that which was right and good, and were guilty of no evil;
— or further back, the heart of “Thy calf, O Samaria” (refering to Israel; Hosea 8:5-6), are divided between worshipping the God of Israel and worshipping the Sun.
Like shit stuck to a shovel, the golden calves of Ephraim are intrinsicaly linked with the golden calves of Samaria!
3 For now they shall say, “We have no king, because we feared not the Lord. What then should a king do to us?”
— when Israel is in captivity, they shall say, we have no king; they had none to protect and defend them.
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant; thus judgement springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
— swearing falsely, by perjury deceiving those they treated with, in making a covenant; either among themselves, accepting a usurper, promising and swearing fealty to him; or with their allies;
— judgements, divine judgement shall prevail not as a blessing, but as a curse; not as a precious harvest, but as a poisonous plant;
5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof who rejoiced on it for the glory thereof, because glory has departed from it.
— for the people thereof shall mourn over it; either the people of Samaria [but read Israel]; who would mourn over their loss, being taken away from their land, and disposed of as in the next verse;
— again, the link between verse 5 and verse 6 shows that the golden calves of Samaria, are intrinsicaly linked with the calves of Ephraim;
“Because they worshiped the calf in Bethel, the king with his army will rise against them and exile them. They will carry away from them the calf of Samaria. For its people will mourn over it, and its worshipers will tremble for its glory, because it has departed from it.”
6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
— and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel; of giving in to such idolatry, contrary to the counsel, mind and will of God;
— or of the counsel which they and Jeroboam took to set up the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, and thereby to keep the people from going up to Jerusalem, whereby they cut themselves off from the true God.
7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.
— again, this is talking of the kings of Ephraim; after three years’ siege she shall be cut off. Her king is cut off; for all the rest of the kingdom was lost, and now he is rather a prisoner than a king.
8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
— shall say to the mountains, Cover us! and to the hills, Fall on us! That is the cry of the unbelievers, mockers, when they see the judgement approaching them, when it is too late for salvation. Cf Isaiah 2:19; Luke 23:30.
9 “O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
— O Israel, thou hast sinned; you of the ten tribes, headed by Ephraim, with such consent have sinned, that you seem to do it as one man;
— Gibeah is emblematic of gross and cruel sensuality, in allusion to Judges 19:20, just as Sodom and Gomorrah is used for unnatural vice.
10 It is in My desire that I should chastise them, and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
— when I shall chastise them for their two iniquities; namely, the calves of Dan and Bethel.
11 And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the corn, but I passed over upon her fair neck. I will make Ephraim to ride, Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.”
— and Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, that is teachable; and loveth to tread out the corn; like a heifer taught to bear the yoke, and to plough; but learned it not,
— as the Targum; does not like it; chooses to tread out the corn where it can feed upon it, its mouth not being then muzzled, according to the law; oxen or heifers were used both in ploughing and treading out corn;
— “to pass over,” says some commentators, especially when it is said of God, “always signifies inflictions and troubles.”
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.
“O house of Israel, do for yourselves good works; walk in the way of truth; establish for yourselves the doctrine of the law; behold, at all times the prophets say to you, return to the fear of the Lord; now shall he be revealed, and bring righteousness to you.”
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity, ye have eaten the fruit of lies, because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
— Septuagint: “ye have eaten false fruit; for thou hast trusted in thy sins, in the abundance of thy power;”
— “the fruit of lies” is destruction; the lies of the law being done away with; the lies surrounding Easter rabbits and Christmas, an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25; the lies of the trinity.
14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be despoiled, as Shalman despoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
— all thy fortresses shall be spoiled; every one of thy strong holds, those impregnable fortifications on which thou hast laid out all that art and diligence could, to make them able to break the power of the enemy that dares besiege them, these, every one of them, shall be wasted;
— as the plunder of a peaceful people by an ambush: Like plunderers who come upon a tranquil people suddenly with an ambush, for they did not beware of them to flee from before them, and they plunder everything; (for more see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline and The Flaming Sword and Fire from the South!)
— in the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children, in an excess of unnatural cruelty; underscoring the completeness of the calamity.
15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness; in a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.
— in a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off; meaning Hoshea, Hosea, or Osee, the last king of Israel, and the kingdom entirely destroyed; so that afterwards there was no more king in Israel, leaving neither root nor branch.
— during the life of Hosea, it was in the days of Hezekiah (Hosea 1:1); the kingdom of Israel was already exiled into captivity or in the process of doing so, so this message is prophetic; it was meant for the last days;
“Thus your sins that you committed in Bethel have caused this for you, because of the wickedness of your deeds. In the end it will happen, and the king of Israel will be cut off.”
In the 1970s, the case rate for autism was 1 in 10,000 in the United States. In 1995, it was already 1 in 1,000.
“But now, in 2025, it is at 1 in 31,” epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, says. “This is just skyrocketing. That is over 2% of all children here in the US. This is not something to joke around about.
26.7% of these cases have what is called profound autism, where they require 24/7 daily care. They can’t live on their own. They are not able to hold a job. They can’t even speak, some of them. Their parents’ lives will be shattered, their lives will be shattered,” Hulscher says.
The US childhood averages 72 vaccine doses by the age of 18
So what might be the cause for such a dramatic increase? Increased screening? Or could it be vaccines?
Since the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which effectively lifted all financial liability for vaccine injuries from the vaccine manufacturers, the childhood vaccine schedule has expanded enormously. Currently, the US childhood vaccine schedule consists of 72 doses for children up to the age of 18.
Now Hulscher, who also serves as the administrator of the McCullough Foundation, is, alongside Dr Peter A McCullough and others, one of the authors of a new study on the links between vaccines and autism. Although vaccines have been discussed as a direct or at least a contributing cause of autism for a long time, there has never been any comparable effort to sort this question out, according to Hulscher.
Their new study—“Determinants of Autism Spectrum Disorder”—looks at over 300 peer-reviewed papers and draws a conclusion that “combination and early-timed routine childhood vaccination emerges as the single most significant driver of autism risk, supported by convergent mechanistic, clinical and epidemiologic evidence.”
“We found in 12 studies with real unvaccinated control groups that all 12 of them found that the vaccinated had higher rates of neurodevelopmental disorders. Not just autism, but tics, ADHD, as well as chronic diseases including asthma, autoimmune disorders, skin disorders, allergic disorders. The evidence was quite clear,” Hulscher says.
In the episode, we will discuss why it is still the case that such reports and concerns are largely met with accusations of spreading misinformation rather than triggering further studies by the authorities.
We will also look at the current state of health policies under HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and ask why the US health authorities have not been making any moves against the provably hazardous mRNA platform.
15 “But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee:
21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until He have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. 22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blight, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. Deuteronomy 28:15, 21-22
Right at the start of this chapter, the first verse, the message is directed at the “iniquity of Ephraim” and the “wickedness of Samaria.” Ephraim is referred collectively as leader of the northern ten tribes; and elsewhere Ephraim and Manasseh has been established as the United States and the United Kingdom.
And eventually Ephraim will be caught in a snare: “My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in My [not China’s nor Russia’s] snare; and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there,” Ezekiel 12:13.
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly,” Jeremiah 23:20. The important point is that only “in later days” will we be able to “understand it fully.”
1 “When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers despoileth without.
— the house of Israel is associated with the wholedom of Samaria; troop of robbers despoileth from outside Ephraim’s borders; by a gang of robbers in the streets, or on the highway: so the Targum says: “in the night they thieve in houses, and in the day they plunder in the streets;”
— the wordings of “the iniquity of Ephraim” and “the wickedness of Samaria” are written as if they are like the attraction of the north and south poles; or Siamese twins, or as intimate as hand in glove; that is, the wickedness of Samaria is intrinsically linked with the iniquity of Ephraim!
— when I would have healed Israel; this is hypothetical and prophetic; but the thief came in; as after returning from the Babylonian captivity, when the Lord attempted to remove their corruption, then the wickedness of Samaria was discovered, when Sanballat attempted to corrupt by offering his help in building the Temple in Jerusalem; failing which, he went on to built a rival temple on Mount Gerizim;
— Tobiah, an Ammonite and an ally of Sanballet, a Samaritan, was allowed and managed to infiltrate and influence Eliashib the Jewish high priest to pollute God’s Sanctuary in Jerusalem, Nehemiah 13:4; hence not only the Temple was desecrated, but their teachings, too;
— their sabbaths, which is Sundays, where the original keepers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria, had infiltrated the house of Judah; and even modern Israel: “And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof,” II Kings 17:24;
— today more than 98.5 percent of Christians are worshipping the Sun by observing Sunday, worshipping on a pagan sabbath. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly judgement is to be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 17:3-5) – ’till they die (for more, see the Samaritans at the end).
The ancient Sun-worshipping Samaritans of Israel: From Mount Gerizim
2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have beset them about; they are before My face.
— God remember all their wickedness; this is the root of “all their wickedness.” They would not stop to say to themselves that God not only saw, but “remembered their wickedness” and not only this but that he remembered them all;
— they are before my face; so the Targum says, “which are revealed before me;” manifesting “all their wickedness” in God’s sight, but this they did not know, and therefore they went on in their bold and daring their evil deeds as they did.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
— but what about the kings? kings in the plural as in the Septuagint, meaning the succession of the kings of Israel from Jeroboam; who were highly delighted with their priests in offering sacrifice to the calves;
— by which they hoped to secure the kingdom of Israel to themselves, and prevent the people from going to worship in Jerusalem: it made them glad to the heart to hear them say that God was as well pleased with sacrifices offered at Dan and Bethel;
— “the princes with their lies” – modern version of Princely Mike Pompeo freely admitted those lies about the CIA: We lied, We cheated, We stole. Lying, that is, deception both in word and deed towards God and man, theft and highway robbery that are openly committed and have no fear of the vengeance of God;
4 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.
— they: kings, princes, priests and people, are all adulterers, all in a spiritual and corporeal sense; they were all idolaters, given to idols;
— the Targum says, “they all desire to lie with their neighbours’ wives;” Jeremiah 5:7. So after passion has once been gratified, it smoulders on for a time, but is afterwards kindled to a greater heat than before when some attractive object comes within its range.
5 In the day of our king, the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
— kings and princes, as in the Septuagint, have made him sick with bottles of wine, such as those named in the Espstein Files: that is, the courtiers, prominent figures among the swarms of Washington DC, who attended at court on such a day to compliment their kings upon their inauguration, birthdays, Halloweens, to drink in large glasses of good wine.
6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait; their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
— whiles they lie in wait; their king, prince and scorners being heated with wine and their lust enraged, were ready for any chance of adultery, lying in wait for any young interns to appear to debauch them;
— or for rebellion and treason against their king, and even the murder of him, made drunk by them, whom they now despised, and waited for an opportunity to dispatch him.
7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calleth unto Me.
— and have devoured their judges; that stood in the way of making impartial judgements, but instead, subject themselves to politics;
— and there is none among these kings or judges that calleth upon biblical principles.
8 “Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
— Ephraim is a cake not turned, like a pancake burned on the lower side, while the upper side is not yet done; the entire cake is then not fit for food; just a pretender, neither a heathen idolater nor a true worshipper of God.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
— signs of senility are upon him; yet he knoweth not, being blind to all evidences of the inevitable end.
10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face; and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek Him for all this.
“If we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us,” says Madeleine Albright regarding the US as an ‘indispensable nation.’
— their pride [of Israel] testifieth to his face: “Only the United States [that is, not God’s] had the power to guarantee global security: without our presence or support, multilateral endeavors would fail.” ~ this phase, or with small variation, used by numerous American politicians.
11 “Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
— silly dove; birds were captured with nets spread on the ground, in traps and snares; in this powerful metaphor, no creature is less able to defend itself than the dove, which flies from the bird of prey to the net of the fowler;
— and according to the Targum; but will fall by its flying right into the net of the bird-catcher, without suspecting or observing it in its search for food; instead of being faithful to God, Israel flutters between foreign powers.
12 When they shall go, I will spread My net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.
— though they fly on high, soar aloft, God will spread my net upon them; as fowlers spread the net, watch the birds, and cast it over them to catch them, so will God do to Ephraim;
— God will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard; what was written in the law, and in the prophets, if they did not observe the laws and statutes of the Lord their God, but neglected and broke them, see Leviticus 26:1,14-39.
13 Woe unto them, for they have fled from Me! Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against Me! Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.
— yet they have spoken lies against me; cast off my law and government, spoke against his being and providence, or pretending repentance for their sins, when they were hypocrites, or setting up idols in opposition to him.
14 And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against Me.
— they howled upon their beds; lying sick or wounded there; or, as some, in their idol temples, those beds of falsehood and deceits, where they pretended to worship God in his churches, and to pray to him through them; but such idolatrous prayers were no better than the howlings of wolves at night.
15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they contrive evil against Me. — here we have another instance of God’s goodness and Israel’s ingratitude; devising mischief against him.
16 They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue; this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
— like a deceitful bow; religious observance has the appearance of a bow with the arrow on the string, apparently aimed at some object, but the string being slack, the aim is diverted;
— the word rendered “rage” is used as of the wrath of God elsewhere; but here, of the “wrath” and “foaming” of man against God; thus their tongue was raging like a “sharp sword” against God;
— they misled the people; taught them to trust in science and security, not in God; persuaded them to believe in themselves, and to disbelieve God; to believe, that the enemy should depart from them and nothing would carry them away as captives.
~~~~
Worshipping their SUN-God on the slope of Mount Gerizim
The Samaritans, they have succeeded in having their heretic teachings adopted by the Sadducees and the Boethusians in the NT time. And today, such teaching are clinging to the Churches of God communities like shit stuck to a shovel: they just couldn’t shake it off!
The Samaritans are adversaries to the returning Jews because of (a) differences in defining what time at ben ha’arbayim when the Pascha lamb should be killed: the Jewish definition of ben ha’arbayim “between the two evenings” is “after noon and until nightfall,”
— whereas the Samaritans is sunset or dusk; (b) when is omer, which translated to English is rendered “wave sheaf” offering to be made: the Jews definition has it on the annual Sabbath after Pascha, whereas the Samaritans has it the day after the weekly Sabbath during the days of unleavened bread;
— (c) after counting seven weeks after the omer, on what day Shavuot is to be kept: the Jews have it on Sivan 6th, whereas the Samaritans always have it on a weekly Sabbath;
— (d) the three annual feasts are to be kept in Jerusalem, whereas the Samaritans have their feasts on Mount Gerizim, which they consider a sacred mountain; and (e) once in roughly three years, the Samaritan calendar starts one month later than the Jewish calendar.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the Samaritans: “There has been a history of genetic disorders within the group due to the small gene pool,” and as such, resulting in various reports of high incidence of autism and cripples within their community, Genesis 12:3; but of course they manage to deflect from mentioning the downside of God’s curses upon those who show hostilities to the rebuilding of the house of God in Jerusalem.
Hosea 8
1 “Set the trumpet to thy mouth! He shall come as an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed My covenant, and trespassed against My law.
— “Set the trumpet to thy mouth,” or, as the Targum says, “O prophet, cry with thy throat as with a trumpet, saying;” called upon to blow his trumpet bidding them a warning concerning the approach of judgement.
— or as God bids the prophet Isaiah, “Cry aloud, spare not, llft up thy voice like a trumpet” Isaiah 58:1. As watchman, the prophets were set by God to give warnings of his coming judgements.
2 Israel shall cry unto Me, ‘My God, we know Thee!’ — “they shall cry unto me” Israel turns to God only when calamity strikes; these transgressors of the covenant and the law,
— these hypocrites, shall only pray to God when in trouble, saying, “my God, we Israel” or Israelites, “know thee” and to this sense is the Targum, “in every time that distress comes upon them, they pray before me, and say, now we know that we have no God besides thee; redeem us, for we are thy people Israel.”
Remember, as a recollection, the Targum could be traced to the work of Ezra, highly regarded as a second Moses, and hence has prominence and enlightenment in giving us further understanding of biblical concepts which, oftentimes, where the message in the Masoretic Text are vague, uncertain, indefinite or unclear, the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect.
The verse above is another example. The original Masoretic lacks context, and the English King James version doesn’t make much sense until enlighted and provided with deeper insight by the Targum.
3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good; the enemy shall pursue him.
— in the past, “Israel hath cast off” that is, Israel had rebelled against God, and the enemy came from the North, the Assyrian; but in the future, the enemy shall come from the South: see The Flaming Sword and Fire from the South!
— the Targum says of an adverse event in the future tense, “the house of Israel have erred from my worship, for the sake of which I brought good things upon them; henceforward the enemy shall pursue them.”
4 They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
— Israel have set up kings, but not by me; not by God’s authority, order and command; not by asking advice from him, but of themselves: starting with the case of Jeroboam their first king;
— but the United States is a democracy, hence selection of its kings are not from God, but by and from wealthy campaign contributors influencing their electorates in their selection for their kings [read presidents] and princes [read governors, senators, congressmen, etc]; and is not from God.
5 “Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; Mine anger is kindled against them. How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? — Samaria, that is, Ephraim, is identified with a calf; or a bull;
— the subject in question (verses 2 &3) is still Israel, yet God address Israel as “thy calf, O Samaria”
— hath cast thee off; or is the cause of thy being cast off by the Lord, and of being cast out of thine own land, and carried captive into another; the past tense is used for the future, as is common in prophetic writings;
— according to Samaritan tradition, key parts of the Jewish text were fabricated by Ezra. ‘Samaritan and Islamic scholars, as well as several of the Church Fathers, argue that Ezra falsified the Bible when he rewrote it and that the Torah we have now could not be the same as the one that Moses dictated; (Wiki: Samaritans).[t]
6 For from Israel was it also: the workman made it, therefore it is not God; but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces. — again, the calf of Samaria;
— as stated before, the wickedness of Samaria or “the calf of Samaria” is intrinically linked with the iniquity of Ephraim!
— but the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces; or the calf of Ephraim being the reason it could not be God’s; this surely be broken to pieces by the enemy, from whom it could not save itself.
7 For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. It hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal. If so it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.
— for they (Samaria and Ephraim) have sown the wind; their idolatry sun worship, which spread throughout the world like a whirlwind!
— for their idolatry and continuance in it, the whirlwind of God’s wrath would be raised up against them, thus another “Assyrian army” like a storm of wind would rush in and destroy them; so they that sow, shall reap;
— if so it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up; the Targum says, “if they got substance, the nations shall spoil them of it.”
8 “Israel is swallowed up; now shall they be among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
— when Shalmaneser took Ephraim from Samaria, he carried them as captives and placed them among the nations in the cities of the Medes, II Kings 17:6; where they lived poor and abject, and were treated with the utmost neglect and contempt; no better than a vassal state.
9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself; Ephraim hath hired lovers.
— “Ephraim hath hired lovers;” as head of Nato, the United States had incorporated many Central and Eastern European countries as “allies and confederates, patrons and defenders” right up to the Russian bounder into her alliance;
— and is trying to extend this alliance into the Asia-Pacific:Japan and South Korea; but eventually she will be caught in a snare: “My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in God’s [not China’s nor Russia’s] snare;
— and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there” Ezekiel 12:13; and shall dwell in captivity like a wild ass.
10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.
— yea, though they have hired; namely, allies; that is, allies among the nations; now will God gather them and will bring those very allies against their kings and princes.
— as the Targum says, “Even if the house of Israel were to place My fear upon their hearts; or if Israel belatedly acknowledged God’s authority, it would not undo the consequences of their rebellion.” These Ephraimites shall be gathered together to be led away in chains and dispersed among the nations.
11 “Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
— God had appointed only “one” altar at Jerusalem; that is, any altar in Ephraim, from Dan to Bethel, and in all high places and tops of mountains, are an abomination; they had many high places and erected altars in all of them;
— the Targum says, “for the house of Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, the altars of their idols shall he to them for a stumbling block.”
Latter-days Counterfeit Temple at Salt Lake City
12 I have written to him the great things of My law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
— God have written to Ephraim the great things of his Law, literally, God presented to him the goodness of his laws and statutes; his true Sabbaths and true festivals;
— Great things; for their importance, weighty; for their excellency, precious; and for multitude of precepts, counsels, and directions, sufficient; my law had all this in it for their conduct in all righteousness towards God and man;
— the many precepts by which the Israelites might fulfill his will and be blessed; but they were counted as a strange thing; as though they did not concern them, dismissing or condemning them as “ceremonial” laws or as “the ancient Mosaic law;”
— replacing it with a “covenant of grace” so as to get rid of the law, statutes, ordinances; and any thoughts about the Sabbaths.
13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of Mine offerings, and eat it; but the Lord accepteth them not. Now will He remember their iniquity and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt.
— they have sacrificed the choicest sacrifices, and have eaten flesh: yet Yehovah taketh no delight in them.
— they shall return to Egypt, back to Captivity, once more be delivered into extreme misery, where they suffered for 210 years in bondage; but another one is coming, cut short to 190 years.
14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fortified cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.”
— God himself has allowed only one Temple, and it should be in Jerusalem, but today there are many counterfeit temples, such as those Latter-days Counterfeit Temples!
— but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof; that is, from “an enemy” that will set fire to their national icons, palaces, castles or towers, particularly New York, Paris, London, Jerusalem, their chief cities;
— and palaces of their king and nobles, and all the fine houses of their great men; as were destroyed by fires in the past by Shalmaneser the king of the Assyria; and 135 years later, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Jeremiah 52:13.
In 2005, China only had two EV battery manufacturers. Twenty years later, it produces more than three-quarters of the world’s lithium-ion cells. How did it happen?
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, athletes, journalists and officials from all over the world were transported by a fleet of sleek buses sporting a white, blue and green design as they zipped between different venues in the Chinese capital.
Different from the diesel-powered vehicles that ruled Beijing’s streets at the time, the Olympic buses, numbering around 50, ran on lithium-ion batteries to help Beijing host a “green and high-tech” Olympic Games. It also marked the country’s first foray into creating a lithium-ion battery industry for electric vehicles (EVs), laying the groundwork for China’s ascension to world leader of this technology two decades later.
The Olympic e-bus campaign had been set in motion as soon as Beijing won the bid in 2001, according to a 2020 documentary aired by China’s state media. But developing and producing EV batteries for the global event was no easy feat.
In late 2003, Mo Ke and his colleagues at the Beijing New Materials Development Centre – a government-affiliated research institute – were tasked to analyse China’s lithium battery industry as part of Beijing’s preparatory work for the Olympics.
But back then, China’s lithium battery industry was “very small” with only two EV battery producers, as Mo’s team found. In 2005, they hosted China’s first conference for the lithium battery industry as a part of their research.
“All companies in the industry came, but there were only around 200 people in total,” Mo says.
At the time, CATL, the world’s current largest EV battery maker, was a department of ATL, a Japanese-owned company that made lithium batteries for electronic gadgets. BYD, the world’s current second-largest EV battery maker and a leading EV maker, had just entered the auto industry after earning its first barrel of capital by supplying batteries to phone giants.
Twenty years later, China is the king of the industry indispensable to the world’s 2050 net-zero goal. It produces more than three-quarters of all lithium-ion batteries worldwide and is home to six out of the 10 largest battery makers on the planet.
Olympic buses, numbering around 50, ran on lithium-ion batteries to help China host a “green and high-tech” Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
What led to its meteoric rise? The answer lies in a combination of factors.
Two of them are a huge domestic market “walled off and preserved” for local firms and coordinated government support across the supply chain, says Xie Yanmei, an independent analyst of Chinese political economy and industrial policy. Consumer subsidies, state-sponsored rollout of charging networks and a policy mandating automakers to make EVs also helped, she notes.
But policy is only part of the story. Chinese companies also proved adept at large-scale production and controlling cost – both key to EV battery manufacturing.
“They have strong survival instinct and will proactively explore new ideas to help them stay competitive,” says Song Xin, who advises Chinese companies ranging from car to robot makers aiming to go global. “This is the foundation of the industry’s continuous growth.”
International roots
The story of lithium batteries began beyond China’s shores about 50 years ago with three chemists: British-American Stanley Whittingham, American John Goodenough and Japanese Akira Yoshino.
Their separate research – which earned them a joint Nobel Prize in 2019 – rode on each other’s strength and led to the invention of the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985, built by Yoshino for Tokyo-based chemical company Asahi Kasei.
In 1991, Japanese electronics company Sony worked with Asahi Kasei to bring the world’s first lithium-ion batteries to the market. Five years later, Nissan teamed up with Sony to launch the world’s first car powered by a lithium-battery.
In the following decade, Japan was the global number one lithium-ion battery producer, with South Korea keenly vying for supremacy. At the turn of the century, Japanese firms accounted for a staggering 93% of the global market share, with electronics company Sanyo leading the charge. It wasn’t until 2011 that South-Korean Samsung SDI overtook Japanese Panasonic to top the chart.
Chinese policy makers decided that EVs could be an opportunity for the Chinese auto industry to leapfrog the west – Xie Yanmei
When Mo was researching China’s lithium battery industry in the early 2000s, Mengguli and Wanxiang were the only two companies making EV batteries in the country.
“They supplied most of the batteries for the e-buses that served the Beijing Olympics and the World Expo in Shanghai in 2010,” says Mo, now the founder and chief analyst of Chinese battery-research firm, RealLi Research.
But before the Olympics, China had already planned a long game. In 2006, its cabinet launched a science and technology scheme that would cover the next 15 years. It included “low-emission and new-energy vehicles [NEVs]” as one of the 62 priority areas the country should pursue, and listed “rechargeable power battery” as a key technology for this area.
NEVs, a term frequently used by the Chinese government, refers to pure electric, plug-in hybrids, and fuel cell vehicles powered by alternative fuels such as hydrogen and methanol.
China’s goal was clear: to upgrade its vast manufacturing industry by 2020 so that it would stop relying on cheap labour and start winning with technological advantages.
More than 800 hydrogen buses at the Beijing Winter Olympics: a gold medal result
In 2009, with a smooth run of the Olympics e-buses in the bag, China made a major move to “adjust and revitalise” its auto industry.
For years, Beijing had tried but failed to be a global contender in the conventional auto industry that featured internal combustion engines. But it believed it was time for a reboot.
“Chinese policy makers decided that EVs could be an opportunity for the Chinese auto industry to leapfrog the west, because it was like a blank field where everybody was starting from scratch,” says Xie.
A national plan guided regional governments to build supply chains and charging networks for NEVs. It also supported domestic companies to spearhead the research and development of technologies related to EVs, including batteries.
In the same year, the country began its large-scale rollout of new-energy buses, with the “10 Cities and Thousand Vehicles” programme.
Sluggish American competition
In Mo’s view, China’s determination to promote EVs was vital for its battery ascension, and that vision was partly inspired by the US.
The US saw a wave of interest in developing and making battery-powered vehicles first during the 1970s after the breakout of the oil crisis, and then again in the 1990s after the federal government published a regulation to tackle air pollution.
As early as 1990, California launched a zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programme to improve air quality by encouraging the adoption of EVs. The programme led to the introduction of ZEV mandate, which essentially forced car companies like General Motors to invest in EVs, says Anders Hove, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies in the UK.
Actions on the other side of the ocean led the Chinese government to realise that EVs were “a stepping stone” to what was later described as the “fourth industrial revolution” – an era characterised and driven by digital technologies – and China wanted a place in it, according to Mo.
But the EV push by California did not lead to the establishment of a US lithium-ion battery industry, partly because car and oil companies lobbied California to “water down” the ZEV mandate to give more support for fuel cells powered by hydrogen and hybrid cars, whose batteries used non-lithium chemistries, Hove says.
In the 2000s, the George W Bush administration introduced measures to fund the research and development of EVs. US startups made major progress on both batteries and cars, Hove says, but then came the financial crisis in 2008.
BYD cars waiting at ports waiting to be loaded for overseas markets
“[The first wave of US startups] all ran into a lot of financial difficulty and the window kind of closed on investing in clean energy,” Hove says. “All the people who had invested in that, they were burned.”
In the following year, the Obama administration launched a new round of funding, but it was too late to save that first wave of renewable companies from collapsing or selling their technologies, Hove says. Many of them were bought by Chinese firms, according to him, including battery company A123, a rising-star that boasted advanced lithium-ion battery technology developed at MIT. A123 was acquired by China’s Wanxiang in 2013.
At the same time, China launched an enormous four-trillion-yuan (roughly £394bn or $649bn then) stimulus plan to counter the impact of the global financial crisis and part of it was directed towards “energy-saving and emissions-reduction” projects. The move ignited the country’s interest in renewable technologies, including NEVs, according to a 2010 report published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and China’s Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies.
China’s industry snowballs
The years between 2012 and 2020 proved to be critical for China’s battery makers as the government doubled down its effort in putting EVs on the road.
An industrial roadmap for new-energy vehicles set targets on the number of EVs the country should deploy over the period. More importantly, it also set technical requirements for EV and battery manufacturers to apply for state support – a push for them to grow. In 2013, China made EV purchase subsidies available to individual consumers, not just the public sector, opening the floodgate to private car ownership.
The scale of the state backing was enormous. In 2014, China’s central and regional governments spent nearly 10bn yuan (roughly £986m or $1.6bn then) on subsidies, according to a report at the time. Over the next eight years, the country would go on to hand out 200bn yuan (£21bn or $28bn) in tax rebates in total for new-energy vehicles.
The investment yielded almost instant result. Both the number of NEVs produced and sold in the country grew more than threefold in 2014 and 2015, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade body. Their market share would snowball from 1.3% in 2015 to 41% in 2024.
But a bigger boost for the battery industry was yet to arrive. In 2015, China introduced a key rule that – in Xie’s words – “walled off” its huge domestic market for Chinese battery firms. EV makers were mandated to use batteries produced by one of the selected suppliers if their cars were to qualify for consumer subsidies. All of the 57 companies that appeared on a government “white list” turned out to be Chinese.
“It was very cleverly designed technical specifications that narrowly defined that only Chinese battery companies would be eligible,” Xie says. At that time, some South Korean companies had already started building factories in China, “only to find out that they were completely shut out the market,” she adds.
Those Chinese EV makers that had been using foreign suppliers had to make a last-minute switch to battery manufacturer CATL and few other domestic firms complied with the policy, The Economic Observer reported. That rule ended up lasting four years.
In the fast lane
A sudden influx of new customers propelled CATL – which split from ATL in 2011 – to become the world’s largest EV battery producer in 2017, based in Ningde, China, beating Panasonic and its compatriot BYD, Chinese news site Caixin reported. CATL has held the title since.
The policy drive continued with the “Made in China 2025” strategy, which aimed at helping the country “grab the global vantage point for manufacturing” by the mid-2020s through technological innovation. NEVs were listed as a “key area” the country should “vigorously promote.”
Riding on the momentum, China introduced a “dual-credit” system for automakers in 2017. Partly based on California’s ZEV programme, the policy essentially demanded that all automakers in China produce EVs to “balance off” the conventional cars they made through a complex formula. A “one-way street” design pushed automakers to make more EVs in order to avoid unnecessary cash spending.
“As an automaker, on the one hand, you had to produce EVs in China or face a [financial] penalty. On the other, the EVs you were forced to produce would not sell without Chinese batteries,” Xie explains. “So, every automaker, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Americans, Germans, had to use Chinese batteries.”
The ballooning and protected market allowed CATL to work with advanced Western car makers on joint innovation. The process “quickly brought up its skill and capability,” Xie adds.
The way China’s EV and battery industries grew was also fundamentally different from the West. The key was the close partnership between the government and the industry, says Song, founder of Sinnvoll Global Strategy, a think tank with offices in Beijing and Berlin.
The government’s massive investment had come with a clear goal: to build a strong EV manufacturing industry. And that goal was delivered via fierce competition within the industry to decide which companies or technologies would survive and thrive, according to Song.
This method – like running rounds and rounds of industrial-wide “horse races” to pick the fastest – is much more effective than the conventional model in Europe, North America and Japan, where industrial growth is often driven by few major companies or consortiums, she explains. “This also means that China can bring a technology from the lab to mass production very quickly.”
Secrets to success
There are other important elements that set China’s battery industry apart. “It’s the supply chain, know-how and manufacturing,” says Taylor Ogan, chief executive of Shenzhen-based Snow Bull Capital, which invests in China’s clean-tech sector.
For one, top Chinese battery makers, such as CATL and BYD, run on a “vertically integrated” business model, which means that they often own their suppliers fully or partly.
“This helps control cost and ensure the security and reliability of their supply chains,” says Chen Shan, a Shanghai-based analyst on battery markets at Norwegian consultancy Rystad Energy.
CATL produces nearly 40% of the global EV battery market in 2024, more than double second-place BYD, totally 60 of global EVs
Their capability at managing large-scale manufacturing matters enormously, too.
“Modern EV battery packs string hundreds of small cells side by side or end by end. One weak cell would drag down the whole chain, cut range and raise safety risks,” explains Liu Chengguang, who researches battery materials in Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China. “Every cell must be almost identical.”
Achieving the feat “demands massive, highly automated plants with strict process control and real-time testing and smart sorting,” he notes.
This is precisely the strength of CATL, which grabbed nearly 40% of the global EV battery market in 2024, more than double second-place BYD.
“The secret to CATL’s success is that it can use less money to make better batteries while maintaining a huge manufacturing capacity,” according to Cheng Manqi, a journalist with Chinese business outlet Late Post, who has investigated the firm.
Constant innovation is another factor helping Chinese battery makers stay ahead of the game. For example, BYD’s signature “blade battery,” a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, was launched in 2020 partly because it was cheaper to make: the battery did not use cobalt, a mineral for which China had to rely on imports.
But BYD significantly improved the performance of previous LFPs, making them more powerful, safer and smaller. It became so popular that it altered the prevailing type of lithium-ion battery in China.
“There will not be a time that I can ever envision another country catching up with the Chinese in terms of battery manufacturing,” says Hove of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. “They’re just so much further ahead.”
Behind such a rapid tech revolution is a large pool of Chinese battery engineers, who came through a targeted education and vocational training system offered by colleges, universities and battery companies.
“Chinese companies have a generation of incredibly skilled technical researchers,” says Cory Combs, head of critical mineral and supply chain research at consultancy Trivium China.
“They are not just PhDs who work upstream in the lab. They’re not just floor workers in the factories,” says Combs. They are “practicing engineers,” who know the production processes thoroughly, understand what the market wants and can use their knowledge to improve existing technology quicky to win consumers. “That’s what you need to make batteries cost effective to produce,” he says.
CATL employs more than 20,000 technical engineers while BYD’s battery arm, FinDreams Battery, has more than 10,000 of them.
Can China maintain its dominance?
Today, China dominates the production at every stage of the battery supply chain, apart from the mining and processing of some raw minerals, according to the International Energy Agency.
It is home to nearly 85% of the battery production capacity globally, compared to North America’s 5% and Europe’s 7%, according to research by consultancy Wood Mackenzie, seen by the BBC.
A consensus among researchers is that it will be extremely difficult for other countries to challenge China’s dominance over the current generation of battery technologies.
China’s CJ2000 Aircraft Engine Achieves Astonishing Results | China C929
“Some aspects that led to China’s leadership, such as the existence of industrial clusters and vertical integration of supply chains, will be difficult to replicate,” says Kate Logan, a director at Asia Society Policy Institute who focuses on China’s climate and clean energy policies.
The fact that Chinese companies have already achieved scale manufacturing batteries and are expanding its production overseas is another huge hurdle for perspective competitors.
“Chinese batteries are cheaper, they are high-performing, they are available,” says Francesca Ghiretti, a researcher on China and economic security at RAND Europe, a non-profit research organisation. China’s production scale “makes it really difficult for others to catch up – not to catch up with the technology, but the commercial success of that technology,” she says.
But in Mo’s view, the door isn’t completely shut for other countries. What China is really good at is taking existing technologies and making them better and cheaper, but the country’s weakness is in cutting-edge research, he says.
If other countries can get ahead with next-generation battery technologies, such as solid-state batteries, “there may still be chances” for them to compete, Mo says. Traditional lithium-ion batteries use a liquid electrolyte to transfer ions between the electrodes, but solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte. What is unique about them is that it may not need the existing supply chain meant for liquid-based cells, potentially opening space for non-Chinese contenders, Mo says.
Companies such as China’s CATL and BYD, South Korea’s Samsung SDI and the US’s QuantumScape are developing solid-state batteries. But for the US – which heavily relies on China for lithium-ion batteries at present – scaling up manufacturing to a competitive level is expected to challenging, according to an analysis published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Obstacles include lagging know-how, uncertain demand and high energy costs, the analysis said.
But growing one’s own battery industry doesn’t automatically mean competing with China, as some point out.
“It is only possible in the near term by working with Chinese companies because they are at the forefront of the technology,” says Hove of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. “If you don’t have that manufacturing expertise, you won’t be able to scale up any breakthrough technology.” Instead, it is the expansion of the know-how that will enable the catch up, he says.
But this is no easy feat, given China’s 20-year lead in building a battery-manufacturing ecosystem. For some, such as Ogan of Snow Bull Capital, the past two decades may have sealed China’s long-lasting lead in the global battery supply chain.
“There will not be a time that I can ever envision another country catching up with the Chinese in terms of battery manufacturing,” he says. “They’re just so much further ahead.”
And here is a prophecy for the endtime children of Israel:
43 The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.
44 He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee and overtake thee till thou be destroyed, because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee. Deuteronomy 28:43-45
The Prophecy of Hosea is primarily to the house of Ephraim. Being the chief tribe of the ten tribes, Ephraim is often used in place of Israel when it is referring to northern kingdom. Elsewhere on this site Ephraim has been established as the United States.
So although Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encrypted message of Ephraim and Israel today is specially meant primarily for the United States or the “Anglosphere” and secondarily its European allies.
1 “Hear ye this, O priests! And hearken, ye house of Israel! And give ye ear, O house of the king! For judgement is against you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. — Hosea (born in the 8th century, around 784 BC), directs his message to the “house of Israel;”
— Hear ye this, O priests, the spiritual leaders of the people; and hearken, ye house of Israel, the family of the ten tribes as such; for judgment is against you;
— and give ye ear, in paying most careful attention, O house of the king, as the temporal rulers of the nation; for judgement is against you, it is intended all of them, to strike them down in due time.
2 And the revolters are deep in slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.
— the revolters; all those that have cast off the law of God, both in matters of religion and civil government;
— are profound; dig deep to hide their counsels, or have taken deep root since their apostasy from God, and revolt from the house of David; to make slaughter: all their religion is but a butchering of cattle to baal, and no sacrifice to God; or, which is worse, a murdering of men;
— so the Targum says, “the people are not just guilty of idolatry, but of multiplying sacrifices to falsehood;” instead of worship directed to God, they, priests, leaders, and people alike, lavish offerings on deceptive practices.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from Me; for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. — “Ephraim” and “Israel” are repeatedly mentioned, for emphasis;
— Ephraim and Israel are not hidden from me; though Ephraim may cover their designs from other nations;
— and seek deep to hide their counsel from them, and make plausible pretenses for what they do, and put on a good outward appearance; yet God, who knows Ephraim and their hearts cannot be deceived.
4 “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.
— their unclean mind and inclination stands bent and fixed upon spiritual whoredoms, and they are incited to it by the seducing evil spirit.
5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.
— the way this verse is phrased, it seems like Ephraim will fall first, then Judah will fall also; which is true with historical records:
— Judah also fell into idolatry and were guilty of the same crimes as Israel, so should be involved in the same punishment, though not at the same time; for the Babylonish captivity, in which Judah was carried captive, was about 135-150 years after Ephraim;
— this sequence could re-occured at the endtime, where Israel would fall into captivity first, then after 150 years, Judah would join the fall; and together, for another 40 years; (for more, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline).
6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord, but they shall not find Him; He hath withdrawn Himself from them.
— but they shall not find God; now as a punishment, and to leave them remediless, God will not be found of them; he may not accept a sacrifice, or pardon their sin, or return to save them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them with their portions.
— now shall a month devour; the word indicates the nearness and suddenness of God’s judgements; the term “month,” their rapidity. A “month” is not only a brief time, but is almost visibly passing away;
8 “Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah! Cry aloud at Bethaven! After thee, O Benjamin!
— according to the Targum, the words are directed to the prophets, “O ye prophets, lift up your voice like a trumpet”
— to declare to the house of Israel their sins and transgressions, and the punishment that would be inflicted on them for them; or it may be, this is a call of the people to fasting, mounting, and lamentation, as in Joel 2:1.
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. — Ephraim was taken away for a long time ago; and was never restored;
— the head of the ten tribes shall be laid desolate, their inhabitants destroyed either by the Sword, or Famine, or Pestilence, and the rest carried as Captives, as they were by Shalmaneser; and again in the “days afar off” – our time, of the Lord’s rebuke and chastisement.
10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmarks; therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water. — Judah will also go down, following Ephraim, as history recorded them;
— this sequence could be repeated at the endtime, where Israel would fall into Captivity first, then after 150 years, Judah would join the fall; and together, for another 40 years; (for a more indepth Study, see Ezekiel 4 – 190/40 Years of captivity.
11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement, because he willingly walked after the commandment [of man].
— or as the Targum says “The nobles of the house of Ephraim are subdued in their judgments, for their judges turned aside to pursue false money,” which clarifies this uncertainty; by the tyranny of their kings or nobles, and the injustice of their judges, who looked only monetary gains, not God’s commandment.
Remember, as a recollection, the Targum could be traced to the work of Ezra, highly regarded as a second Moses, and hence has prominence and enlightenment in giving us further understanding of biblical concepts which, oftentimes, where the message in the Masoretic Text are vague, uncertain, indefinite or unclear, the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect.
The verse above is one such example. The original Masoretic is uncertain, and the English King James version doesn’t make sense until enlightened and corrected by the Targum.
12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
— will I be unto Ephraim as a moth; as had been from Jeroboam’s death to this day, which eats garments, penetrates into them, feeds on them quietly, secretly, and gradually consumes them; but at last utterly, they are just of no use left.
13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb. Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
— then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, looking for assistance from the heathens instead of consulting the Lord; again, Ephraim is recorded first, Judah following behind in going down; its significance could be prophetic.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
— I, even I, will tear and go away, as a lion withdrawing to his den; I will take away, and none shall rescue Ephraim and Judah, for with the Lord’s merciful presence removed, there is no hope of deliverance;
— I, even I, in an emphatic way, will tear and go away; as a lion tears its prey in pieces it seizes upon, and goes away, and leaves it torn, having satisfied itself;
15 I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offense and seek My face; in their affliction they will seek Me early.”
— this is flashing forward, as if it is a Second Coming, where redemption becomes available again, but the house of Israel will have to go into captivity; perhaps for a period of 190 years! On reflection they were in Egypt for about 210 years, so some solemn cheers; this coming captivity is 20 years shorter.
— and those who consistently break the Law of Moses (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28) in their Judgement shall be more than horsewhipped!
There is a great time gap from their detestable filthy and abominable stage in chapter 5 to one where the house of Israel would be ready to accept God’s statues, judgements and new spirits in chapter 6; in fact in the book of Ezekiel, it flashes from chapter 2 to chapter 37.
1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. — sound like what Yeshua had gone through: his flesh was torn to heal us; but most translations say “he has torn us to pieces”
— it’s very prophetic, yet from a rather historical perspective as Rashi comments; he smites, and He will bind us up: Heb. It is a present tense. He smites us, and He will bind us up;
“They will say: ‘Come, let us return to the service of the Lord, for He is the one who struck us and will heal us; the one who brought affliction upon us will bind our wounds and give us rest.’”
2 After two days will He revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight. — a fulfillment of Luke 24:46, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
— after two days; and in the third day; this and the preceding expression could be passages refering to the death and resurrection of Christ; 1 Corinthians 15:4; the Targum only hints at; which says “He will raise us up on the third day,” this interprets as a reference to techiyat hametim (resurrection of the dead, a metaphor of healing and restoration into a doctrinal statement about eschatology;
— hence, other interpretation: as a thousand years is to God a single day (II Peter 3:8); the first day is the captivity of the ten tribes by the Assyrians, and of the other two tribes under the Babylonians, considered as one judgement upon the nation and both were in the fourth millennium (1 BC to 999 BC);
— beginning with the captivity of the ten; the second day is the fifth millennium, beginning with the first coming of the Messiah and the dispersion of the house of Judah by the Romans. The third day is the sixth millennium (1000 AD to 1999 AD), scattered with some restoration of the Messiah to the house of Israel.
Flashing forward into the third millennium will bring the scene to our time, when the house of Israel will be revived; the United States gained independence on July 4, 1776 and grew into a great united nation; then the revival of many churches (Catholics, Protestants; LDS, SDA, CoGs, JW, Pentecostal, Evangelical) but toward the end, to be preceded by 190 years of captivity for the house of Israel and 40 years for the house of Judah (Ezekiel 4).
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
— after the 190 years of captivity for the house of Israel; and 40 years for the house of Judah, then “shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord.” Only then they would known, so today they don’t know, though they pretend very hard to know; very strange people!
4 “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
— God is expressing his predicament, thus asking O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
— for your goodness is as a morning cloud; your goodness or godliness as morning cloud; soon easily dispersed by the sun; and as the early dew; they vanish quickly and without effect;
5 Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and [My] judgements are as the light that goeth forth.
— Rashi: Because I have hewed by the prophets: Heb. עַל-כֵּן. Because I hewed My words upon them through the prophets, but they did not take heed, therefore…the Targum is, “my judgment goes forth as the light.”
— the Targum says it clearer for the whole: “Therefore, because I warned you through the mission of the prophets and you did not return, I brought upon you those who kill, because you transgressed against the word of My will. And My judgment goes forth like a river.”
— The revelation above as to the consequence of rejecting God’s prophets is another example where the Targum offers greater clarity and deeper insight where the Masoretic Text is subject to ambiguities.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
— for I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, that is, rather than sacrifice, this being spoken comparatively. I am better pleased with true goodness, ethical conduct, compassion and charity towards men, than with the most exact observance of the duties of sacrifices:
— a parallel verse in I Samuel 15:22 says “And Samuel said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams;”
— and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings; which were reckoned the greatest and most excellent sacrifices; but knowledge of God is preferred to them; not just knowing the laws of Moses as a lawgiver, judge, and consuming fire;
— but how to execute them justly and at times where situations require, mercifully; that is, to have a form and shell of godliness, but to deny its substance, is the essence of hypocrisy.
7 But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against Me.
— in the covenant they entered into, and then breaking it by offering sacrifices to idols, under a pretense of offering them to God, was dealing treacherously against him.
8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
— Gilead is a city inhabited by Gad, Reuben and the half tribe of Manasseh; and is polluted with blood; murders committed there have polluted it, or murderers protected there against the law of God, who provided these cities a relief; and so belonged to the ten tribes;
9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the way by consent; for they commit lewdness.
— “in the way of Shechem” as good people passed by Gilead to Shechem, and so to Jerusalem, to worship there at the solemn feasts, they lay in wait for them, scheming for ambush and murdered them; because they did not give into up their idolatrous worship of the calves at Dan and Bethel.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
— I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel; idolatry, starting with the calves set up at Dan and Bethel, which God saw with abhorrence and detestation;
— and later, at Mount Gerizim, they corrupted themselves with a new version of their passover at sunset, at dusk, worshipping the Sun, yet pretending to worship God!
— a parallel Scripture in Jeremiah 8:2; facing the East, worshipping the Sun: the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die).
— those 25 men in Ezekiel 8:16 corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord”
— they turned their backs against the most holy place; which is an aggravation of their impiety; these pretenders casting their utmost contempt for God.
Pretenders worshipping God on the slope of Mount Gerizim
11 Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned My people from captivity.
— Israel, in verse 10 above, is always mentioned first, followed here by Judah, who didn’t have the wisdom to take the warning seriously, hence they, too, will go into captivity after Israel has gone into captivity for 150 years. Another 40 years to add towards 190 years in total (Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline).
Chapter 3 starts with a parable expressing the love of God to Israel, but their ingratitude to him would have much reflection again upon the house of Ephraim today. This chapters often flash forward when they repent or back as as the state of Ephraim now, and concludes with a prophecy of their conversion to God in the latter days.
Elsewhere on this site Ephraim has been established as the United States. So although the prophet Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encoded message of Ephraim and Israel is meant, primarily, for the United States or the “Anglosphere” or the “Five Eyes;” and, secondarily, its European allies.
Ephraim, where the nerve center is located in Washington DC, not London
Hosea 3
1 Then said the Lord unto me, “Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love flagons of wine.”
— then said the Lord unto me; or, as the Targum says, “Go again, prophesy about the House of Israel” for the Hebrew expression shows that this is a new vision, prophecy or parable; and is a different woman from Gomer, the person whom he had espoused before seems evidently to be intended.
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley.
— fifteen pieces of silver; an indication she’s made herself very cheap, for a slave would normally be sold for twice the number of silvers; Exodus 21:32.
3 And I said unto her, “Thou shalt abide for me many days. Thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man. So will I also be for thee.”
— and I said unto her; having bought or hired her; this was the covenant or agreement he made with her.
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.
— here begins a more plain and full explication of the symbolical action of the prophet, namely, that it signified what should befall the children of Israel; for they shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince;
— that is, in a state of captivity, but more importantly as seen from God’s point of view, no man of character of the likes of David, Hezekiah or Josiah among the northern kings.
5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God and David their king, and shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the latter days.
— after almost three thousand years, “in the latter days,” the house of Israel will end their abandonment and captivity with the appearance of “My servant David” in the “valley full of dry bones” scenario (Ezekiel 36-37) where they will dwell securely.
Hosea 4
1 Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel; for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land.
— “there is no truth;” which is extremely true; a majority (99.99%) of professing “Christians” didn’t know the simplest of what constitutes the Oracles of God; and here.
2 “By swearing and lying, and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. — the repetition of “and” builds a rhythm of relentless wrongdoing;
— by swearing, and lying; false swearing, as the Targum interprets it; for it not only takes in all cursing and imprecations, profane oaths, and taking the name of God in vain;
— and eager to be engaged in crimes of the worst kind, and blood toucheth blood, one act of mass-shooting of bloodshed following another. Mike Pompeo admitted, ‘We Lied, We Cheated, We Stole’ in the CIA;
“I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole,” former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 15, 2019 at a forum at Texas A&M University. “It was like – we had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”
Interestingly, a Christian religious news broadcaster that described Pompeo’s words with such precision as follows: “that’s not the resume of the Secretary of State… that’s the resume of Satan.”
— and blood toucheth blood; the US is on track to set record in 2023 for mass shootings and killings. No other industrialised country outside war and conflict zones experiences such habitual gun violence in civic life.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
— yea, Famine, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away; whether by drying up the waters of rivers, lakes and ponds, or by corrupting them with blood and other carcasses.
4 Yet let no man strive with, nor reprove another; for this people are as they that strive with the priest.
— yet let no man strive nor reprove another, that is, conditions being so bad as they are, all attempts to change the corruption would be vain.
5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night; and I will destroy thy mother.
— individuals are spoken of as children; the whole nation as their mother; their state, or kingdom and their false synagogues or churches; they were to be cut off, root and branch;
— and God will destroy thy mother; the northern Israelites; and as the Targum says, you shall stumble in the daytime; and the false prophets that are with them shall stumble as in the night.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me. Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
— the Christians reject that the Jews have the Sceptre, the law, hence their main pretenders altered the Sabbath to Sunday worship; others always have Pentecost on Sundays; these ‘Christians’ could not know God; his law, his judgement and his true Sabbaths! both penetrated by Samaritan teachings;
— further, the Oracles of God are inferred here; but his people reject these truths;
— the Jews are blinded as to find their Messiah (revealed plainly in Isaiah 52:13 Targum as their Messiah); Hence numerous repeats of the Son of God in the OT; repeats and reminders; but they couldn’t find their Mashiach. To God, these lacks of knowledge are serious blindness!
7 “As they were increased, so they sinned against Me; therefore will I change their glory into shame. — therefore will I change their glory into shame, so that their greatness and prosperity would become a mockery in the eyes of the nations.
8 They eat up the sin of My people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
— they eat up the sin of my people; that is, the priests of Jeroboam; they ate up the sacrifices which the people brought for their sins: pastors and ministers today, they eat the sin-offering of my people in their tithes and offerings;
— but they have no concern to instruct the people in the right way; all that they regarded are good eating and drinking, and living voluptuously; and careless about instructing the people in the nature of sacrifices, and of their duty.
9 And it shall be: like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
— and I will punish them for their ways; their evil ways, as the Targum says;
Two parallel verses reveal more details in Ezekiel:
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds: Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe yourselves with the wool, ye kill the ones that are fed; but ye feed not the flock. Ezekiel 34:2-3 — but ye feed not the flock; did not govern the people well by doing justice and judgment among men, as became civil magistrates; did not deliver out words of faith and sound teachings, to feed the minds of men with, which is the duty of those that preside in the church of God.
10 For they shall eat and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase, because they have left off taking heed of the Lord.
— this comes true in those, who, through bodily disease, are not nourished by their food; also, including those who, through their own insatiate desires, are never satisfied, but crave the more greedily, the more they have.
11 “Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
— once a man turns to prostitutes and intoxicating drink for pleasure, he loses his sense of balance and judgement. Harlots and wine take away a man’s mind.
12 My people ask counsel from their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from their God.
— my people ask counsel at their stocks; Hebrew, בעצו, at their wood, that is, the images of their idols made of wood; these they consulted as oracles, that they might foretel to them what was to come, or give them advice, what measures to take;
— for the spirit of whoredom hath caused them to err; a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God.
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good; therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
— therefore your daughters shall commit whoredoms, and your spouses shall commit adultery; or their daughters spouses;
14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery; for the men themselves consort with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: Therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
— God will not punish their daughters when they commit whoredoms, nor their spouses when they commit adultery; the words are rendered interrogatively, “shall I not punish your daughters?” Verily I will; and not them only, but their parents and husbands too, who deserve more severe corrections;
— the Targum says, “they associated themselves with whores, and ate and drank with harlots.”
— the people that doth not understand the law, what is to be done, and what to be avoided; the difference between true and false religion; have no knowledge of divine and spiritual things, at least are very wavering and unsettled in their minds about religion, having thought little, and know less, of the matter.
15 “Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, ‘The Lord liveth.’
— though the Ephraimites or people of the ten tribes committed adultery, both corporeal and spiritual, in their idolatrous worship, let Judah be warned of the same crimes.
16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer; now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
— slideth back as a backsliding heifer; rather, is stubborn like a stubborn heifer; as a stubborn cow; the object of their idolatrous worship, the calves at Dan and Bethel.
17 “Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone.
— Ephraim is joined to idols; that is, the ten tribes of Israel, because Jeroboam, by whom the revolt was made, was the top dog, and Samaria, the metropolis of their kingdom, was in it: and
— so the Targum renders it, “the house of Israel has joined themselves to lustful desires;” lust and idolatry: to the calves at Dan and Bethel; to Baal, and other idols, they worshipped; leave him alone; that is, let him that is filthy be filthy still.
18 Their drink is sour; they have committed whoredom continually; her rulers with shame do love, ‘Give ye.’
— their drink is sour in their stomachs, having drank so much that they cannot digest it; hence nauseous eructations, with a filthy stench, are belched out; so it is a charge of drunkenness which Ephraim or the ten tribes were addicted to, and are accused of.
19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
— the wind hath bound her up in her wings; that is, the wind in its wings hath bound up Ephraim, or the ten tribes; meaning, that the wind of God’s wrath and vengeance, or the enemy, the Assyrian, should come like a whirlwind, and carry them swiftly, suddenly, and irresistibly, out of their own land, into a foreign country, into captivity;
— the Targum says, “the works of their great men are not right, as it is impossible to bind the wind in a wing;” referring to the sins of their rulers, as before: or rather the sense is, the wind shall get into the loose skirts of the garments of the Israelites.
Remember, as a recollection, the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language, could be traced to the work of Ezra, and hence has prominence and enlightenment in giving us further understanding of biblical concepts which, oftentimes, where the message in the Masoretic Text are vague, uncertain, indefinite or unclear, the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect.
Trump Reportedly Presented Updated List Of Targets In Venezuela With Aircraft Carrier Already In The Caribbean. ‘Operation Southern Spear’ the he targets are mainly strikes on ports, airports and labs and hubs on land.
The aircraft carrier, USS Gerald R Ford (CVN 78), steaming toward the Caribbean
President Donald Trump was reportedly presented with an updated list of targets to strike Venezuela if he were to give the order, according to a new report.
CBS News detailed that senior military officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Dan Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presented Trump with the options, which include strikes on land. No final decision has been made, the outlet noted.
Earlier this week the Washington Post reported that there are four broad target categories that US planners might prioritize should Trump decide to strike.
(1) The first are drug production and transit nodes, including clandestine cocaine labs and large storage sites in states such as Sucre and border zones where drugs are consolidated for shipment. Hitting those nodes could be intended to degrade the financial base of corrupt officials and traffickers.
(2) A second category is small, often improvised airstrips and “parking lots” where light aircraft land to pick up shipments. Apure and the Catatumbo region were singled out as areas where traffickers use makeshift runways and where operations have increased amid recent crackdowns on maritime smuggling. Strikes on those strips would be tactically attractive because they are discrete and directly linked to trafficking networks.
(3) Third are ports and airports that could serve as hubs for cocaine shipments. Defense analysts named commercial seaports and major airports as potential targets if planners decide to disrupt larger-scale shipping and logistics. Any plan to strike such facilities would likely include parallel efforts to neutralize or degrade Venezuelan air defenses first, since even partially operational systems represent a threat to US aircraft.
(4) Fourth are political and security apparatus nodes, including units of the Venezuelan security services. US officials have discussed the possibility of targeting the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence, known as DGCIM, or other elite security formations if the administration concluded that pressure on the Maduro leadership was the primary goal. That step would carry greater political risk and the possibility of broader confrontation.
Analysts and retired officers cautioned that strikes would have uncertain results. Venezuela retains some advanced air-defense systems and a sizable, if degraded, military. Even so, some experts believe the goal for the US would be precision kinetic operations rather than a full-scale ground invasion, aiming to signal to President Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle that their hold on power is not secure.
At the same time, Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado said that Venezuela is living through “decisive hours,” hinting at potential operations.
Speaking remotely at a forum hosted by the IDEA Group — an organization of former Ibero-American presidents — at Miami Dade College, Machado urged Venezuelans and regional leaders to take an active role in the country’s political turning point, as Infobae points out. “What is happening in Venezuela is not only a national event; it is a turning point for all of Latin America,” she said. “These are decisive hours for Venezuela’s destiny.”
Machado said she was confident in the strength of the civic movement that backs her. “A united people, like no Venezuelan generation before, is the guarantee of an orderly, peaceful, irreversible transition,” she said.
She described the country as being “on the threshold of freedom and an unprecedented transformation,” pledging that her government would take control of national institutions “from the first day” to address the humanitarian crisis, ensure transparency in public finances, and begin social and economic reforms.
And below is a Prophecy between the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
JERUSALEM (AP) — The election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor has sent a chill across Israel as people come to terms with the victory of a politician propelled by an outspoken pro-Palestinian message that is rare in US politics.
Israelis across the political spectrum fear that Mamdani’s election — in the city with the world’s second-largest Jewish population — could foreshadow icier relations with the US, Israel’s most important ally. Support for Mamdani from almost one-third of Jewish voters only added to the pain.
“Very bad,” said Hana Jaeger, a Jerusalem resident, assessing the news the day after the election. “For the Jews, for Israel, for everyone, it’s very bad. What else can you say?”
Zohran Mamdani, the Ugandan-born politician of Indian heritage, who came to the United States as a child, promised to be “a mayor for all New Yorkers.” While he embraced and centered America’s progressive political tradition in his campaign, he also was proudly Muslim, refusing to hide or downplay his faith, culture or beliefs.
Across Europe, North America, Australia and beyond, antisemitism is surging once again. The same ancient hatred that drove Jews from England, Spain, Portugal and Ukraine, now reemerges — this time dressed in the language of politics, activism, and anti-Israel violence.
Aliyah, the Return of the Jewish People back to the Levant
Israelis react to the news
Israel has traditionally had a special connection with New York City. It is a popular destination for Israeli tourists and politicians, filled with kosher restaurants and home to an Israeli consulate that focuses heavily on relations with the Jewish community. Hebrew can often be heard on the streets and subways.
Mamdani has called the war in Gaza a genocide, a charge Israel’s government denies. He’s vowed to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if the premier steps foot in the city and signaled he may cut ties with Israeli industry and academia over the devastating war in Gaza.
Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, Amichai Chikli, a member of Netanyahu’s nationalist Likud party, posted a stream of anti-Mamdani graphics on social media, including a retweeted photo of the Twin Towers being engulfed in flames after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with the caption “New York already forgot.”
Chikli also encouraged Jews in New York to relocate to Israel. “The city that was once a symbol of global freedom has handed over its keys to a Hamas supporter,” he said in a social media post.
The extreme rhetoric reflected a deep-seated fear in Israel that American politics are headed in a new direction.
“For a long, long time, American domestic politics were dominated by pro-Israel politicians, pro-Israel views. In large part, they still are,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group. “Mamdani’s win represents that American Jews, specifically the younger generation, are changing and there’s no longer this monopoly of pro-Israel politics in domestic US politics.”
Across Europe, North America and beyond, antisemitism is surging once again
Palestinians celebrate Mamdani’s win
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the sentiment among Palestinians was far from gloomy.
“The election of Mr Mamdani is truly inspiring,” said Palestinian politician Mustafa Barghouti. “It reflects a great uprising among the younger generation of the United States, including the Jewish young generation, against political and social injustice.”
“It also shows that the Palestinian issue has become an internal election issue all over the world, including in the United States of America.”
In the United States, antisemitic incidents have spiked on college campuses and murders have occurred in major cities. The old assumption — that America would remain immune to the hatred —is wrong.
With the mayor-elect of New York allowing the globalization of the intifada onto the streets of New York, it is time for Jews in America to do what my aunts and European Jewry failed to do in 1930s.
Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s next mayor exposed a deepening rift between traditional Democratic Jewish voters and younger progressives — one that could reshape politics for years in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population.
Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York’s next mayor exposed a deepening rift between traditional Democratic Jewish voters and younger progressives — one that could reshape politics for years in the city with the world’s largest Jewish population.
Jewish opponents of Mamdani expressed concern about his refusal to condemn the phrase “globalize the intifada,” a slogan of support for Palestinians that many Jews interpret as a call to violence against Jewish people and Israel. After his nomination, Mamdani privately told a group of business leaders that he would not use the phrase and would discourage others from using it, according to a July New York Times report.
He has said he supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, or BDS, movement, which calls for the economic and cultural boycott of Israel.
In Britain and France, thousands have already packed their bags and left
The Diaspora was never the destination — only the journey. Living in America is and always was “Exile”-galut, as a divine intermission, not a permanent home.
In Great Britain and France, thousands have already packed their bags and left — weary of armed guards at synagogues and Jewish schools.
The words of the Prophet Isaiah are unfolding before us in real time:
“And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people . . . And He shall set up an ensign for the nations [H1471 goyim], and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” Isaiah 11:11-12
And the following from the Prophet Jeremiah:
14 “Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
15 but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:14-15
And more from Prophet Ezekiel:
CSB says: therefore, you will no longer devour people and deprive your nation of children. This is the declaration of the Lord God. 15 I will no longer allow the insults of the nations to be heard against you, and you will not have to endure the reproach of the peoples anymore; you will no longer cause your nation to stumble. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’” Ezekiel 36:14-15
This is not a punishment. It is a fulfilment of Jewish destiny as God promised through Moses in Deuteronomy:
5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good and multiply thee above thy fathers. Deuteronomy 30:5.
The Prophecy of Hosea is primarily to the house of Ephraim (mentioned 32 times in this book, Hosea, which is more than in any other books of the Bible). Often, as Ephraim being the chief tribe of the ten tribes, the name is used in place of Israel (used 41 times) when it is referring to the northern kingdom.
Elsewhere on this site Ephraim has been established as the United States. So although the prophet Hosea may refer to situation in his time, the encoded message of Ephraim and Israel is meant, primarily, for the United States or the “Anglosphere” or the “Five Eyes,” and, secondarily, its European allies.
In Ezekiel, there are parallel passages expounding on what is written in Hosea:
In Ezekiel 6:2-3 it say:“Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them
3 and say: ‘Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: Behold I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places.
— this message to the “mountains of Israel” — these mountains refer to the United States, the United Kingdom and France. . . .
— “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” ~ the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
In Ezekiel 7:2 it says, “Also, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God unto the land of Israel: “An end! The end is come upon the four corners of the land.
— the Targum version for the above is: “the punishment of the end,” or “the punishment determined to come upon the four winds of the earth.” The Targum recognizes that the Israelites are all over the face of the earth, spread over the four winds at the endtime!
This landscape in Ezekiel 6:2-3 symbolizes various countries that would include Australia, New Zealand, Canada (and perhaps South Africa; that is, the Anglosphere) and numerous small islands around the world.
And in this context, “the land of Israel” and “over the face of the earth” would most probably include the modern state of Israel in Palestine.
Hosea 1
1 The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
— Hosea; (born in the 8th century, around 784 BC), a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah, whose name is the same with Joshua and Yeshua/Jesus, and signifies a savior;
— Hosea’s mission was to deliver Israel’s souls from going into the pit, as all true prophets are to be; so rouse and ripple up these drunkards of Ephraim with their crown of pride, Isaiah 28:1;
— in the days of Hezekiah: the throne of Judah had some periods of good princes: but the message was to Israel, which had no good princes at all.
2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms; for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.”
— for the land hath committed great whoredoms most frequently and most filthily; Ezekiel 23:2-4; Aholah, that is, Israel, played the harlot when she was mine, Ezekiel 23:5;
— the Targum interprets it, “go, prophesy a prophecy against the inhabitants of the idolatrous city, who add to sin,” for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord;
— and just a recollection; the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language, could be traced to the work of Ezra, and hence has prominence and enlightenment in giving us further understanding of biblical concepts which, oftentimes, where the message in the Masoretic Text are vague, uncertain, indefinite or unclear, the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect.
God asks Hosea to marry a harlot, so he finds a harlot and marries Gomer
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, who conceived and bore him a son.
— the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language could be traced to Ezra, has the following: “and he went and prophesied against them, that if they returned, it should be forgiven them: but, if not, as fig tree leaves drop off, so should they; but they continued to do evil deeds.”
— Rabbi Rashi (1040-1105 France): that was her name by dint of her harlotry, for all would gratify their lust on her (גּוֹמְרִין) and they would tread upon her like a pressed fig (דְּבֵלָה; that is a euphemism for sexual contact). Jonathan, however, paraphrases: גֹּמֶר, that if they would return from their way, their retribution would be finished, and if not, they will be like unripe figs falling from the fig tree.
4 And the Lord said unto him, “Call his name Jezreel; for in yet a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. — note, this is a prophecy to the house of Israel;
— and will cause to cease; that is, in the family of Jehu; his reign only for six months; and second, this could also has a reference to the utter cessation of this kingdom of the house of Israel as such in the times of Hoshea by Shalmaneser king of Assyria, II Kings 17:6;
— Rashi: name him Jezreel: Jonathan renders: Call their name the scattered ones; i.e. prophesy over them that they will be exiled, and they will be sown among the peoples.
5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” — in the valley of Jezreel: next to Samaria, and thus greatly greatly influenced by idoltary; a prophecy to the house of Israel;
— Jezreel was a beautiful and a broad valley or plain, stretching, from West to East, from Mount Carmel and the sea to the Jordan; here Ahab had a palace in his days, near to which was Naboth’s vineyard, and where God revenged his blood;
— the Targum says, “I will break the strength of the warriors of Israel in the valley of Jezreel;” that is, a prophecy to the house of Israel;
6 And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said unto him, “Call her name Loruhamah [that is, Not having obtained mercy]; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
— and God said unto him, call her name Loruhamah; which signifies, “she hath not obtained mercy;” no more have mercy upon the house of Israel;
— the Targum explains the same sense: “and they added and did evil works; and he said unto him call their name, who obtained not mercy by their works.”
7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”
— no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will have mercy on the house of Judah; the three tribes of Judah, Levi and Benjamin, which retained the true worship of God among them; see Hosea 11:12;
— and though they often sinned against the Lord, God showed them mercy; and though they suffered being carried captives into Babylon, they returned after seventy years. This could be an aggravation of the perverseness and ingratitude of Israel that Judah was spared, when Israel were not.
8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.
— in the times of Pekah, king of Israel, who reigned twenty years; he was too powerful for Judah, and slew multitudes of them, and even assisted Rezin king of Syria against Ahaz king of Judah;
— the Targum says, “and the generation of them who are carried captive among the nations are found not to have obtained mercy by their works, but they added and did evil works.”
9 Then said God, “Call his name Loammi [that is, Not My people], for ye are not My people, and I will not be your God. — this, the third child, must be directed to the house of Israel, a prophecy;
— for ye are not my people; though he had chosen them to be his people; but they offered back the calves at Dan and Bethel; and therefore did not deserve the designation of God’s people;
— the Targum says, “for ye are not my people; because ye do not confirm the words of my law, my word shall not be your help,”
— this time lap to the next verse is so huge that some Orthodox Bibles (including the Chabad Bible) end Chapter 1 here and pushes the next few verses into chapter 2.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ‘Ye are not My people,’ there it shall be said unto them, ‘Ye are the sons of the living God.’
— according to the promise made to Abraham, the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, and the stars of heaven; which, as the one cannot be measured in the place where they have been carried captive;
— there seems a great time gap of over two thousand years, from “Ye are not My people,” to “Ye are the sons of the living God,” and like every Bollywood movies, they end with lots of high notes – HOOPLALA!
11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
— this is time flashing forward, into the Millennium, to the appearance of “My servant David,” in the “valley full of dry bones” scenario (Ezekiel 37) where the full house of Israel would dwell securely rather than in captivity;
— the Targum paraphrases it as: “one head of the house of David;” or “And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together as one;”
— “the day of Jezreel;” it has been a great and long day of trouble and affliction to them, signified by Jezreel; but now by the arm of God, by his power and mercy, and that in large numbers, of great comfort, joy, and happiness; so great will be on that day;
— so the Targum ended it: “for great will be the day of their [re]gathering.”
Hosea 2
1 “Say ye unto your brethren, ‘Ammi’ [that is, My people], and to your sisters, ‘Ruhamah’ [that is, Having obtained mercy].
— these words are to be considered either in connection with the latter part of the preceding chapter, and as directed to the sons of the living God, who had not been, but now were, “Ammi,” the Lord’s people; and who had not, but now have, “Ruhamah,” obtained mercy.
2 “Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not My wife, neither am I her Husband. Let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts,
— let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, namely, the shameless idolatry which was practiced throughout Israel at the time, and her adulteries from between her breasts, for Israel, in her shamelessness like a public harlot, who displays her profession with her bare breasts.
3 lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
— lest God would strip her naked as a punishment for her shameless exposure of herself in the practice of her spiritual wantonness, and set her as in the day that she was born.
4 And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they are the children of whoredoms.
— the above verse (and probably until verse 13) is best read:
(a) as a flashback before their repentance; or
(b) in context of the first word of the previous verse, “lest,” — lest I will not have any mercy upon her children, for they are children of whoredoms, all of them being guilty of the same shameless idolatry.
5 For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then shall she say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.’
— I will go and return to my first husband; the God of Israel, whom the ten tribes departed from by worshipping the calves Jeroboam set up;
— but in the latter day will seek the Lord their God again, who was a husband to them, and shall cleave to him again, and all Israel shall be saved:
— so the Targum says, “I will go and return to the service of my first master, for it was well with me when I served him; henceforth I will not serve idols.”
8 For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
9 Therefore will I return and take away My corn at the harvest thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness.
10 And now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. — “mirth” amusements, especially as expressed with laughters; her feast days; which “Christians” understand and practice are:
(a) Christmas, which honors Mithraism – a form of pagan nature worship based on the Persian bull-slaying Sun-Goddess Mithra who on the darkest night of the year (December 20/21), gives birth to “Light” causing each day thereafter to grow longer until the Summer solstice; and Sunday was especially sacred; and
Outside the cavern, top left, is Sol the sun, with his flaming crown.
(b) Easters, a celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex; “the Queen of Heaven.” Her symbols (like the egg and bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols; and to those who actually think eggs and bunnies have something to do with the resurrection; and
(c) her sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original keepers were the Samaritans, brought from Assyria: And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof, II Kings 17:24.
12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, ‘These are my rewards that my lovers have given me’; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
— a parallel Scripture in Jeremiah: “The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20
13 And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot Me,” saith the Lord.
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortingly unto her.
— parallel verses in Scripture are:
“And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken, and be snared and be taken” Isaiah 8:15.
“And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against Me” Ezekiel 17:20.
15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the Valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be at that day,” saith the Lord, “that thou shalt call Me ‘Ishi’ [that is, My husband], and shalt call Me no more ‘Baali’ [that is, My Lord].
17 For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
— the sense is, that idolatry shall be utterly abolished, even of every kind; not the worship of Baalim only, but of all other idols, Exodus 23:13,
— and so the Targum says, “and I will remove the name of any idols of the nations from their mouths.”
18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground; and I will break the bow and the sword and warfare out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
— and I will break their bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth; all the instruments of war shall be no more, these mentioned being put for all the rest; the Pentagon and West Point will be demolished, swords shall be beat into ploughshares,
— and spears into pruning hooks; people will enjoy being farmers, and lots of them; some go on learning folk songs, dancing away, like Tibetan and Mongolian folk songs and dances, practicing their vocal cords praising God;
19 And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord.
21 “And it shall come to pass in that day I will hear,” saith the Lord, “I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.
22 And the earth shall hear the corn and the wine and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.
— see, people will enjoy being farmers, and even herders, lots of them; and with plenty of good wine and time, many will go on learning folk songs, dancing away into the clouds.
23 And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to those who were not My people, ‘Thou art My people’; and they shall say, ‘Thou art my God.’”
~~~~~
— as said in v18,22 above, people will enjoy being farmers and herders, lots of them; and with plenty of time on hand and during in-between breaks along their open fields, they will go on learning and perfecting their folk songs, of their ethnic groups that had been accumulated over hundreds and even thousands of years, now singing and dancing away, like Mongolian, Pashtuni, Kashmiri among numerous other ethnic groups hills and valleys;
— and especially the Tibetan, among their shangri la idyllic hideaway mountains, and with good wine, their vocal cords moist and loosen further, singing and praising God with sweeter songs: “Thou art our God, too,” beaming with an even higher pitch from the roof of the world, like this Tibetan;
— and during the annual Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem: Zechariah 14, these ethnic groups singing and dancing with their finest ethnic colorful silk costumes from the enlarged outer court of a new Temple could pose a challenge to those Levites singing from inside the confine of the inner court; “Don’t be so loud,” some annoyed-looking officials appears from the inner court admonishing those singing too loud outside;
— but the loudest and most uncontrollable cheers comes upon the appearance of the dancing and singing Gypsies: “Beyond Our Wildest Dream” whose fortunes had greatly fallen since the great days of the great Pharaohs of Egypt; now their honor restored, displaying much renew joy and restraint cool pride than others, which greatly enlighten the whole world following some surrealistic chills running down their spines flooding their face with socking tears and more applause in response;
“At that time they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart” Jeremiah 3:17
— and of course, the Shekinah has returned, filling the much bigger Ezekiel Temple and its precinct with nice smell incense (five hundred cubits in length with five hundred in breadth: Ezekiel 45:2 – “875 by 875 feet”); the whole idyllic atmosphere permeanting all our five senses with surreal clouds rolling overhead and moving continuously along with the Glory of God.
China is developing a new rare earth licensing system that could speed up exports, though it’s unlikely to fully reverse restrictions as hoped by Washington, according to industry sources cited by Reuters on Friday. It’s a headline that furthers growing doubts about China’s trade deal with the US that we have been writing about for days.
Friday it was reported that the Ministry of Commerce has told some exporters they will eventually be able to apply for streamlined, one-year permits allowing higher export volumes. Companies are preparing documentation, but officials say the process could take months, and many firms have yet to receive formal notice.
Reuters writes that the new regime would simplify approvals compared to the rules introduced in April and expanded in October, which require a license for each shipment and have caused significant delays and shortages. Beijing’s curbs—covering over 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and magnets—have become a key point of leverage in its trade dispute with Washington.
Despite a recent US-China agreement pausing some restrictions for a year, insiders say broader export controls remain in place. General licenses are expected to be harder to obtain for buyers linked to defense or sensitive sectors. Since April, EU firms have filed roughly 2,000 applications, with just over half approved.
Yesterday, Nikkei reported that not only is China making inroads with new export controls, but the question over the old ones still hasn’t been accurately resolved.
Recall, we had speculated about how close the deal could be to collapse as recently as yesterday, and earlier this week we said that it felt like “‘the cracks in this latest trade deal are already starting to show, whether it is Beijing ordering Trump what he can’t talk about, or quietly ring-fencing its domestic data center by banning US Al chips” and further said that “while China granted Trump a 1 year reprieve on rare earths, it is quietly tightening the export noose on other, just as important minerals. According to the Global Times, China has introduced new export controls on silver, antimony, and tungsten.”
We concluded that “the game of export whack-a-mole in the second World Trade War continues: today the US is getting rare earths (at least until Trump has another Truth Social meltdown), but just got stopped out on other, just as important materials. This export control rotation will continue until the day the US is self-sufficient, which however due to the abovementioned environmental limitations, will take a very long time…”
Rabobank added to the skepticism Friday morning: “The China-US deal to ease rare-earth export controls for a year may have hit a snag. China’s regional authorities have reportedly said export controls from April remain in place so there is still a need for special export licenses and intrusive questions.”
They continued: “That’s a week into the one-year Trump-Xi deal. The US also added silver and copper to its critical minerals list, as Trump hosted Central Asian leaders, aiming for their rare earths, as Japan and the US announced they would mine deep-sea rare earths together. Does any of this read like they expect the deal to hold long-term?”
“The Financial Times reported recent US trade deals with ASEAN countries contain ‘poison pills’ which mean they can be cancelled by the White House if any action signatories take with China threatens “essential US interests” or “poses a material threat” to it. Do you think this kind of logic will only apply to those particular counterparties? No: it will apply to everyone who struck a deal,” the note continued.
China has revealed the ‘world’s largest’ nuclear-powered container ship; and this thorium breakthrough could power ships for ten years on a single charge.
China has unveiled critical details of a revolutionary cargo ship under development: a nuclear-powered vessel that can carry 24,000 standard shipping containers.
But what makes this ship truly groundbreaking is that it will be powered by a thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR) with a thermal output of 200 megawatts – matching the power level of the S6W pressurised water reactor used in the US Navy’s most advanced Seawolf-class nuclear attack submarines.
Unlike traditional nuclear reactors that rely on uranium and require massive cooling systems and high-pressure containment, this new Chinese reactor uses thorium, a safer, more abundant and proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel.
China’s thorium breakthrough could power ships for ten years on a single charge
Military applications and secrecy surrounding the project
While the potential military applications of the technology remain undisclosed, unveiling China’s first thorium-powered reactor earlier this year sparked speculation. The reactor in the Gobi Desert is part of China’s ambitious efforts to develop advanced nuclear technologies, with scientists claiming its adaptability for various applications, including maritime use.
The design has already received international certification from the DNV Classification Society, instilling confidence in potential global buyers. Jiangnan Shipyard‘s initiative aligns with growing concerns about climate change and energy conservation in the shipping industry, as highlighted by Maritime China: “The proposed design of super-large nuclear container ships will truly achieve ‘zero emissions’ during the operation cycle of this type of ship.”
While China is not the first to explore nuclear-powered container ships, its design dwarfs previous attempts by shipbuilders in Japan, the United States, South Korea, and Europe; China’s rapidly advancing shipbuilding industry is responsible for over 60 percent of global new ship orders this year, positions the nation as a leader in maritime technology, including advanced naval capabilities.
Thorium-based molten salt reactor: A technical breakthrough
The KUN-24AP’s thorium-based molten salt reactor, developed independently by China, claims to introduce innovation that surpasses previous nuclear-powered cargo ships like the United States’ NS Savannah. The reactor’s design offers advantages such as lower circuit pressures, enhanced safety features, and the ability to be swiftly stopped in case of an accident, minimizing potential risks.
One notable design aspect is the nuclear ‘battery,’ a replaceable component that addresses concerns related to fuel costs and refueling challenges. However, challenges, including the use of fluorinated salt as a medium and potential environmental impacts, must be addressed for successful implementation.
A test ship for nuclear aircraft carriers?
The unveiling of the KUN-24AP has sparked discussions among military enthusiasts, with some speculating on its potential role as a precursor to nuclear-powered military vessels. However, the maintenance interval of the thorium-based molten salt reactor presents challenges for military applications, raising questions about the feasibility of adapting the design for combat ships.
China’s unveiling of the KUN-24AP marks a pioneering step toward sustainable shipping, aligning with global efforts to reduce emissions in the maritime industry. While challenges and speculations surround its military applications, the innovative design positions China at the forefront of maritime technology, paving the way for a new, clean, and efficient transportation era.
In chapter 3 of 66 verses, Jeremiah proposes his own experience under afflictions, as an example as to how the Jews should behave under theirs, so as to have hope of a restoration; hence the change from singular to plural (Lamentations 3:22, 40-47). The stanzas consist of three lines, each of which begins with the same Hebrew letter א Aleph.
Lamentations 3
1I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
2 He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.
3 Surely against me is He turned; He turneth His hand against me all the day.
1 I am that man who has seen affliction by the rod that chastises in his anger. 2 He has led and brought me to darkness, and not to light. 3 Indeed, against me he will turn, heaping upon me his blows all day.
4 My flesh and my skin hath He made old; He hath broken my bones.
5 He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
6 He hath set me in dark places, as they that are dead of old.
4 My flesh is worn out from beatings, my skin from the blow. He has shattered my bones. 5 He has built siege works and surrounded the city. He has uprooted the heads of the people and wearied them. 6 He has caused me to dwell in a dark prison like the dead who have gone to the other world.
7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out; He hath made my chain heavy.
8 Also when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer.
9 He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone; He hath made my paths crooked.
7 He has locked me in so that I cannot go out from the prison. He has put heavy brass fetters on my feet. 8 Even when I cry out and pray the house of my prayer is blocked. 9 He has closed my paths with hewn marble stones. He has confounded my paths.
10 He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.
11 He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; He hath made me desolate.
12 He hath bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
10 He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion hiding in a hallow. 11 He has confounded my path and rent me. He has made me desolate. 12 He draws his bow and has set me as a target for the arrow.
13 He hath caused the arrows of His quiver to enter into my reins.
14 I was a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
15 He hath filled me with bitterness; He hath made me drunken with wormwood.
13 He made the arrows of his quiver enter my vitals. 14 I have become a laughing stock to all the degenerate of my people; they mock me in song all day. 15 He has sated me with gall of snakes and made me drunk with wormwood.
16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; He hath covered me with ashes.
17 And Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
18 And I said, “My strength and my hope are perished from the Lord,”
16 And he crushed my teeth with gravel; he has pressed me into ashes. 17 And my soul shrinks from asking for peace; I have forgotten goodness. 18 And I said, “My strength is destroyed and the goodness which I had longed for from before the Lord.
19 remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
20 My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
21 This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope:
19 “Remember the affliction of my soul and how my foes embittered me and caused me to drink wormwood and the poison of snakes.” 20 My soul surely will remember and bow down within me due to affliction. 21 This consolation I call to mind, therefore I have hope:
22 It is through the Lord’S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” saith my soul, “Therefore will I hope in Him.”
22 The goodness of the Lord, for his mercies do not end nor have they ceased. 23 He brings forth new wonders in the mornings; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul; therefore I will hope in him.
25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
25 The Lord is good to those who hope for his salvation; to the soul who seeks his instruction. 26 It is good to wait and be silent until the salvation of the Lord comes. 27 It is good for a man to train his soul to bear the yoke of the commandments in his youth.
28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so it be, there may be hope.
30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent, bearing the corrections which have come upon him, for the sake of the unity of the name of the Lord, which have been sent to punish him for the minor sins which he has committed in this world, until he have mercy upon him and lift them from him so that he may receive him perfected in the world to come. 29 Let him put his mouth to the dust and prostrate himself before his master perhaps there is hope. 30 Let him turn his cheek to the one that smites, for the sake of the fear of the Lord, let him be filled with insult.
31 For the Lord will not cast off for ever.
32 But though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.
33 For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
31 For the Lord will not neglect his servants forever, giving them over into the hand of their enemy. 32 But first he breaks and afterwards he repents and has mercy on the righteous in the abundance of his goodness. 33 For since man did not afflict his soul nor removed arrogance from his heart, therefore he caused destruction to come upon the sons of men.
34 To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth,
35 to turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
36 to subvert a man in his cause—the Lord approveth not.
34 Humbling and subduing all the prisoners of the earth under his feet, 35 And perverting the justice of a poor man in the presence of the Most High, 36 Confounding a poor man in his quarrels; is it possible that this will not be revealed before the Lord?
37 Who is he that saith and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good?
39 Why then doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
37 Who is the man who has spoken and an evil thing had been done in the world, unless because they did that which they were not commanded by the mouth of the Lord? 38 From the mouth of God Most High there does not issue evil, rather by the hint of a whisper, because of the violence with which the land is filled. But when he desires to decree good in the world it issues from the holy mouth. 39 What profit shall a man find who sins all the days of his life; a wicked man for his sins?
40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; Thou hast not pardoned.
40 Let us search and examine our ways; and turn in repentance before the Lord. 41 Let us lift our cleansed hearts and cast away theft and robbery from our hands. And let us repent before God the dwelling of whose Shekinah is in heaven above. 42 We have rebelled and been disobedient and since we did not return to you, you have not forgiven.
43 Thou hast covered Thyself with anger and persecuted us; Thou hast slain, Thou hast not pitied.
44 Thou hast covered Thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.
45 Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.
43 You have covered us in anger and pursued us in exile. You have killed and have not pitied. 44 You have covered the heavens with your clouds of glory so that our prayers cannot cross to you. 45 You have made us like wanderers and vagabonds among the nations.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
47 Fear and a snare have come upon us, desolation and destruction.
48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us, to announce evil decrees against us. 47 Panic and fear have come upon us because of them, trembling and destruction have seized us. 48 Like streams of water my eyes flowed with tears because of the destruction of the Congregation of my people.
49 Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not, without any intermission,
50 till the Lord look down and behold from heaven.
51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.
49 My eye weeps tears and does not cease from crying. There is no respite from my anguish or anyone to comfort me; 50 Until the Lord looks out and sees my humiliation from heaven. 51 The weeping of my eyes is the cause of the affliction of my soul over the destruction of the districts of my people and the humiliation of the daughters of Jerusalem, my city.
52 Mine enemies chased me sorely like a bird, without cause.
53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, “I am cut off!”
52 My enemies, without cause, laid a trap for me like a bird. 53 They caused my life to pass in the pit and cast stones at me. 54 Waters flowed over my head. I said in my word, “I am cut off from the world.”
55 I called upon Thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
56 Thou hast heard my voice: “Hide not Thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.”
57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon Thee; Thou saidst, “Fear not.”
55 I prayed to your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. 56 You received my prayer at that time, and now do not cover your ears from receiving my prayer to give me relief because of my plea. 57 You brought the angel near to save me, in the day that I prayed to you. You said by your Memra, “Do not fear.”
58 O Lord, Thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; Thou hast redeemed my life.
59 O Lord, Thou hast seen my wrong; judge Thou my cause.
60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginings against me.
58 You have fought, O Lord, against those who made a quarrel with my soul. You delivered my life from their hands. 59 You have seen, O Lord, the wrong by which they wronged me. Judge my case. 60 All their vengeance has been revealed before you, all their evil plans against me.
61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginings against me,
62 the lips of those that rose up against me, and their devices against me all the day.
63 Behold their sitting down and their rising up; I am their — music.
61 Their taunts were heard before you, O Lord, all their evil plans against me. 62 The lips of the enemies are against me and their mutterings are against me all day. 63 Look at their sitting and rising! I am [the object of] their taunt-songs.
64 Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.
65 Give them sorrow of heart, Thy curse unto them.
66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.
64 May you return to them evil recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands. 65 May you give them brokenness of heart and may your weariness wear them out. 66 Pursue them in anger and destroy them from under the high heaven of the Lord.
Lamentations 4
Lamentations 4:1-22. The sad capture of Jerusalem, the hope of Restoration, and the retribution awaiting Edom and Idumea for joining Babylon against Judea.
1How the gold hath become dim! How the most fine gold hath changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion which were comparable in their appearance to that of fine gold, how the unclean people brought them down near to their beds and stare at them, so that their wives might bear sons as beautiful as they and they are considered as [clay] vessels the work of the hands of the potter.
3 Even the seamonsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
3 Even the pampered daughters of Israel untie their breasts to the nations who are like the basilisk. And the young men of the Congregation of my people are handed over to cruel men and their mothers mourn over them like ostriches in the desert.
4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.
4 The tongue of the youth clings to his palate from thirst. Children ask for bread, but there is no one who offers it to them.
5 They that fed on delicacies are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
The Targum: ה
5 Those who used to eat delicacies were desolate in the markets. Those who were reared in the color crimson embrace dunghills.
6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.
The Targum: ו
6 The sin of the Congregation of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom that was overthrown in a moment. And no prophets were left in her to prophesy, to turn her back in repentance.
7 Her Nazirites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire.
The Targum: ז
7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, smoother than milk. Their appearance was ruddier than crimson and their faces like sapphires.
8 Now their visage is blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, it is withered, it has become like a stick.
The Targum: ח
8 Their appearance was darker than the blackness of the exile; they were not recognized in the markets. Their skin clung to their bones; brittle as a twig.
9 They that are slain with the sword are better than they that are slain with hunger; for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.
The Targum: ט
9 Better were those who were slain by the sword than those who were slain by hunger, for those slain by the sword perished when pierced in their bellies because they ate of the gleanings of the field; and those who were bloated from hunger; their bellies burst from food.
10 The hands of the pitying women have sodden their own children; they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
The Targum: י
10 The hands of women who were merciful towards the poor boiled their young, they became sustenance for them when the day of famine broke, when the Congregation of my people was destroyed.
11 The Lord hath accomplished His fury; He hath poured out His fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.
The Targum: כ
11 The Lord has finished his anger; he has poured out his fierce wrath upon Jerusalem and he has brought up a raging fire in Zion, and it consumed her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.
The Targum: ל
12 The kingdoms of the earth did not believe, nor did those who dwell in the world, that the wicked Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan the enemy would enter to slaughter the people of the House of Israel in the gates of Jerusalem.
13 For the sins of her prophets and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,
The Targum: מ
13 The Attribute of Justice spoke up and said, “All this would not have happened but for the sins of her prophets who prophesied to her false prophesies and the iniquity of her priests who offered up burning incense to idols. They themselves caused the blood of the innocent to be shed in her midst.”
14 they have wandered as blind men in the streets; they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.
The Targum: נ
14 The blind wandered about in the markets, defiled with the blood of those slain by the sword and since they could not see they touched their clothes.
15 They cried unto them, “Depart ye; it is unclean! Depart, depart, touch not!” When they fled away and wandered, it was said among the heathen, “They shall no more sojourn there.”
The Targum: ס
15 “Turn away from the unclean!” cried the nations, “Turn away, turn away! Do not touch them!” For they quarreled, indeed they wandered. They said, when they were peacefully established among the nations, “They shall not continue to dwell [here].”
16 The anger of the Lord hath divided them; He will no more regard them; they respected not the persons of the priests, they favored not the elders.
The Targum: ע
16 They were dispersed from before the face of the Lord, he no longer regarded them. Therefore the wicked peoples did not respect the priests nor did they spare the elders.
17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.
The Targum: פ
17 Our eyes still fail to see our help which we expected to come from the Romans, but which turned to naught for us. In hope we watched for the Edomites who were a nation that could not save.
18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets; our end is near, our days are fulfilled, for our end has come.
The Targum: צ
18 They prowled our paths so that we could not walk safely in our open places. We said, “Our end is near; our days are fulfilled,” for our end had come.
19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heavens; they pursued us upon the mountains, they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
The Targum: ק
19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the heavens; unto the mountains they chased us, in the desert they lay in wait for us.
20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, “Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.”
The Targum: ר
20 King Josiah, who was as dear to us as the breath of the spirit of life in our nostrils and was anointed with the anointing oil of the Lord, was entrapped in Egypt’s snare of corruption. It was he of whom we said, “In the shadow of his merit we will live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz. The cup also shall pass through unto thee; thou shalt be drunken and shalt make thyself naked.
The Targum: ש
21 Rejoice and be of good cheer Constantinople, city of wicked Edom, which is built in the land of Armenia with crowds from the people of Edom. Retribution is about to come upon even you, and the Parkevi will destroy you and the accursed cup shall pass to you and you shall become drunk and exposed.
22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; He will no more carry thee away into captivity. He will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; He will uncover thy sins.
The Targum: ת
22 And after this your iniquity will be finished, O Congregation of Zion and you will be freed by the hands of the King Messiah and Elijah the High Priest and the Lord will no longer exile you. And at that time I will punish your iniquities, wicked Rome, built in Italy and filled with crowds of Edomites. And the Persians will come and oppress you and destroy you because your sins have been made known before the Lord.
The end of chapter 4 seems like a supplement to The Flaming Sword and Fire from the South! in Ezekiel 20:45 to 21:7! It seems to offer the connection and reasons why events are to go off the way they would. Here again it is the children of Edom that shall be upon the neck of the children of Israel, “He will uncover thy sins.” If so, could this also tie in with Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline?
Lamentations 5
The coloured light blue is from the Targum:
1Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us; consider, and behold our reproach.
א Remember, [O Lord], what was decreed to befall us; look from heaven and see our disgrace.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
ב Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers; our house to foreign peoples.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
ג We have become like orphans who have no father, our mothers like widows whose husbands have gone into the cities of the sea and it is uncertain if they are alive.
4 We have paid money for water we drink; our wood is sold unto us.
ד We drink our water for money and our wood comes at a price.
5 Our necks are under persecution; we labor and have no rest.
ה Upon the bone of our necks we were laden when we went into exile. The wicked Nebuchadnezzar saw that the commanders of the Israelites were going without any load [and] he ordered that they sew Torah scrolls and make sacks out of them. And they filled them with pebbles from the edge of the Euphrates and they loaded them upon their necks. At that time we were tired and there was no rest for us.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians to be provided with bread.
ו We gave support to Egypt so that we might be sustained there and to Assyria so that we might have enough bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are no more; and we have borne their iniquities.
ז Our fathers sinned and are no longer in the world, but we have borne their iniquities after them.
8 Servants have ruled over us; there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
ח The sons of Ham, who were given as slaves to the sons of Shem, ruled over us and there was no one to deliver us from their hands.
9 We got our bread with the peril of our lives, because of the sword of the wilderness.
ט At the risk of our lives we gather bread to sustain us from before the slaying sword that comes from across the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
י Our skin has become black like an oven, because of the exhaustion of starvation.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
כ Women who were married to men in Zion were raped by Romans and virgins in the cities of Judah by Chaldeans.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand; the faces of elders were not honored.
ל Princes were impaled by their hands and the faces of the elders they did not respect.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
מ The young men carried millstones; and the boys staggered under the beam of wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.
נ The elders ceased from the gates of the Sanhedrin; and the young men from their houses of music.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
ס The joy of our hearts has ceased; our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head. Woe unto us that we have sinned!
ע The crown of our head has fallen; Woe to us! for we have sinned.
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
פ Because of our Temple, which is desolate, our heart was weak. And because of these people of the House of Israel who went into exile from there our eyes have become dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
צ Because of Mount Zion which is desolate; foxes prowled on it.
19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever, Thy throne from generation to generation.
ק You are the Lord. Forever your dwelling place is in the heavenly heights. Your glorious throne is from generation to generation.
20 Why dost Thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long a time?
ר Will you forget us forever and forsake us for a long time?
21 Turn Thou us unto Thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned! Renew our days as of old!
ש Restore us, O Lord, to yourself and we will return in complete repentance. May you renew our days for good as the festival days of old.
22 But Thou hast utterly rejected us; Thou art very wroth against us.
ת For you have utterly loathed us; you have been extremely angry with us.
The colonial Monroe Doctrine covers not only South America but to Australia as well. The dramatic Dismissal of Gough Whitlam in 1975 demonstrated this Doctrine in Australian politics. It was really a coup.
“Well may we say, ‘God save the Queen,’ because nothing will save the governor-general,” Gough Whitlam refers to Sir John Kerr
I was familiar with many of the events leading to the Dismissal on 11 November 1975. That knowledge was greatly increased by Professor Jenny Hocking with her long and successful campaign to have the Palace letters released.
Then, in Pearls and Irritations in May this year, articles by Jon Stanford, particularly on the role of the CIA and MI6, were very helpful. And Brian Toohey added to our knowledge in shining a light in the dark world of spies. I am indebted to them all.
The revelation that came latest to me was the role of the CIA and MI6.
I was conscious of governor-general Sir John Kerr’s great interest in security matters. That was clear in the many meetings I had with him. But I discounted direct CIA/MI6 involvement.
I have changed my mind on that as more information has become available and security reports declassified. The CIA was involved, not by supporting a military coup as in Iran or Chile, but by backing a constitutional coup by Kerr in co-operation with the Palace and MI6.
I knew the CIA was in the background. I am now confident that it was very much in the foreground together with MI6.
At the time of the Cold War and its aftermath, both major parties had differing views about security/intelligence services.
During the Cold War, the Liberal Party was supportive of the political role of the US and allied intelligence/security services. The misuse of these services for political ends was revealed to me not long after the 1975 election when Malcolm Fraser instructed foreign minister Andrew Peacock to open an embassy in Baghdad so ASIS could operate under cover to investigate Gough Whitlam’s abortive attempt before the 1975 election to raise campaign funds in Iraq.
On the other political side, the ALP had been a long-term critic of ASIO, ASIS and the CIA for their partisan political behaviour. Menzies’ politicisation of the Petrov Royal Commission rankled. Although not specific about Pine Gap, Whitlam mentioned to me many times that foreign bases were unacceptable in any country unless in an emergency or under strict United Nations mandate. I also knew of Whitlam’s reservations about ASIS. As deputy leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party, he learned about ASIS not through any Australian briefing, but from the Malaysian prime minister when he visited Malaysia in 1963.That was a real shock. I was present.
In the Cold War, the US/CIA had attempted to overthrow 72 foreign governments who refused to do what they were told. Venezuela may be the next.
Both president Nixon and Kissinger, and later president Ford, had concerns about Whitlam. His comments in December 1972 about the US bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong upset them greatly, leading to their conclusion that “Australia should be regarded as a North Vietnamese collaborator.” Australia was number 2 on Nixon’s shit list, headed only by Sweden.
At the briefing before he was appointed ambassador to Australia, Nixon told Marshall Green, “Marshall I can’t stand that c**t.” Nixon contended that Whitlam was a peacenik and was setting Australia on a very dangerous course.
The Americans were also worried about Dr Jim Cairns. To assist the selective media pressure being applied to the Whitlam Government, Cairn’s ASIO dossier was leaked to The Bulletin in 1974. That confirmed in many minds that ASIO’s loyalty was not to the Australian Government.
The Pine Gap facilities consist of a massive computer complex with 38 radomes protecting radio dishes and operates with over 800 employees
The key US concern was Pine Gap which, in company with its sister station in the UK, could intercept almost all the world’s electronic communications. After the 1972 election, the secretary of Defence, Sir Arthur Tange, briefed Whitlam about Pine Gap and told him that the base was operated by the Pentagon in association with our Defence Department in monitoring compliance with strategic arms limitation agreements. Sir Arthur did not tell his Prime Minister that, in fact, Pine Gap was run by the CIA. On one occasion, Tange told the US ambassador that Whitlam had not followed the brief he had provided to him on Pine Gap. Full marks for disloyalty on that. Heads of departments have been sacked for far less improper behaviour.
In Parliament, in April 1974, just before the May election, Whitlam announced that “there should not be foreign military bases, stations, installations in Australia. We will honour agreements covering existing stations. We do not favour extensions or prolongation of any of those existing ones”. The lease on Pine Gap was due to expire in December 1975. The US was appalled by that.
Pine Gap was the beginning of a string of US bases around Australia, over which Australia has little or no control. Use of our real estate is of more value to the US than AUKUS submarines. Pine Gap has supported Israeli precision bombings and assassinations of Palestinians in Gaza.
The announcement in April 1974 by Whitlam did not surprise me as some loss of judgment. It was not an off the cuff comment. It was consistent with what Whitlam often told me about foreign bases in Australia. But Whitlam never specifically mentioned Pine Gap to me. However, he did focus on Pine Gap when he discovered that the CIA operated the base.
Before Nixon was forced out in August 1974, he commissioned National Security Study Memorandum 204. It was not declassified until 2014.
As set out by James Curran in his book Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War, published in 2015, US defence secretary James Schlesinger a former CIA head, in Option 1 in the National Security Study Memorandum 204 took the “hardest line” on Whitlam, Curran said. Option 1 recommended that the White House,
“begin immediately to attenuate certain ties in the US-Australia relationship on the assumption that this will induce the Whitlam Government to reverse those major elements of its foreign policy which are inimical to US interests.” Option 1 continued that if this was unsuccessful (the US) “could undermine (the Labor Government) with the Australian people, setting the stage for opposition victory.”
That could hardly be more specific. The former head of the CIA and then defence secretary was proposing “setting the stage for Opposition victory.”
Option 1 was ultimately rejected. Curran says the White House then decided to persevere with the Labor Government, to “test and clarify Whitlam’s intentions over the remainder of 1974” and make “selective use of pressure on Whitlam, if necessary.”
Toohey, in advice from a former station CIA chief in Canberra, wrote, “the pressure suddenly increased, with a new CIA station chief Milton Wonus in charge in the latter half of 1975, as well as being head of Pine Gap. He had never held a job in the covert action side of the CIA before he had been assigned the task of bringing Whitlam down.”
On 16 October 1975, Sir Michael Palliser, permanent secretary of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, arrived in Australia to meet the governor-general. He also saw the NSW governor Sir Rodan Cutler As Hocking relates from a study of FCO records, by October 1975, [the FCO] was actively considering possible intervention in Australian politics. The very limited nature of this visit to Australia was revealed in the fact that Sir Michael did not see either the foreign minister Don Willesee, the secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Renouf or the secretary of PM&C – me!
The Pine Gap location is strategically significant because it controls United States spy satellites as they pass over one-third of the globe, including China, North Korea, the Asian parts of Russia, and the Middle East
What an unusual visit! A meeting with Kerr, Cutler and no one else. It seems unlikely that Sir Michael was acting on behalf of MI6, although it operated within the Foreign Office portfolio. It is more likely that he was acting to safeguard the interests of the Queen with plausible deniability.
After the May 1974 election, Justice Hope was commissioned by the Whitlam Government to lead a review of intelligence services. As part of that review Whitlam signalled to Justice Hope that he wanted the Australian intelligence agencies to distance themselves from the CIA and MI6.
Whitlam did not know that Hope was improperly passing this information on to the Five Eyes.
Hope and Robertson, the head of ASIS and Oldfield of MI6 became pivotal players in undermining the Whitlam Government. Jon Stanford describes ASIS as a branch office of MI6, sharing office accommodation and training facilities around the world.
Both ASIS and MI6 were, and are, dependent on the CIA for about 95% of their source material. So, there is no surprise that advice to our ministers is mainly recycled material from the CIA. Imperialism takes many forms!
When Hope was later conducting an inquiry into our intelligence services for the Fraser Government, he interviewed me. I outlined the ASIS/Iraqi political collaboration. In anger, Hope told me that he did not want to hear about it. I was then secretary of Trade. Hope had a love affair with ASIS.
Having been introduced by ASIS head Bill Robertson, Oldfield, chief of MI6, had developed a close working relationship with Hope. This contact with MI6 would be useful for the CIA because it needed to be careful in acting against a Commonwealth country that was a member of the Five Eyes. MI6 guidance would be helpful.
Significantly, Oldfield had previously worked in military intelligence with Martin Charteris, the Queen’s principal private secretary, who was a critical player in advising the Queen and Kerr on the Dismissal. MI6 regularly briefed the Palace on sensitive matters.
When on 21 October 1975, Whitlam dismissed Bill Robertson, the head of ASIS, over alleged activities in East Timor, he also threatened to abolish ASIS. Whitlam was very angry with Robertson. This would have been seen by Oldfield and Hope as an attack on the Five Eyes.
Whitlam advised Fraser of Robertson’s dismissal. When Fraser was later justifying his unprecedented actions in deferring supply, the main circumstance he cited was not the Loans Affair, but the dismissal of Robertson.
Robertson’s sacking also concerned the governor-general, who requested advice from the solicitor-general before he would sign the notice of dismissal. Robertson had regularly briefed Kerr on intelligence issues.
The security services in both the US and the UK were getting primed for action and to apply pressure on Kerr.
Whitlam’s speech at Port Augusta on 2 November 1975 brought out all the spooky spiders from under the rocks.
As Hocking, in Gough Whitlam, His Time Vol 2, p 293, put it:
“… Whitlam accused the CIA of channelling funds into domestic Australian political matters specifically funding the National Country Party.”
He knew of two instances, he said, where the CIA had provided money for domestic political influence. Most recently the leader of the NCP, Doug Anthony, had received money — Whitlam claimed — from a CIA operative who rented Anthony’s house. While Whitlam did not name the CIA employee, Anthony soon did so. In a personal statement to Parliament, Anthony acknowledged his friendship with the former CIA operative, Richard Stallings, that he had rented his house to him and that their two families had taken holidays together, but denied any knowledge of Stallings working for the CIA.
In Washington, the US secretary of state Henry Kissinger fired off a furious telegram to the ambassador in Canberra: “Such a charge against the NCP leader Anthony could have damaging fallout on other aspects of US-Australia relations.”
Stallings, who had helped establish and was the first head of the American base at Pine Gap, had indeed worked for the CIA, but his name had not been included on the official department of foreign affairs list of declared CIA officials provided to Whitlam at his request.
“…Furious that the department had placed him in the position of potentially misleading Parliament, … he would continue to restate the allegation until the correct response was given …
“As Whitlam repeated his claims, Anthony challenged him to prove that Starlings was a former CIA operative. Whitlam prepared to do just that using the information previously provided to him by the Department of Defence … Despite the most concerted efforts of [Sir Arthur] Tange to convince both Anthony and Whitlam that they must withdraw on the grounds of national security, neither would yield.
“Tange could see no way of preventing what seemed certain to unfold over the next few days …the prime minister would answer the leader of the National Party’s question, confirming that the former head of Pine Gap had worked for the CIA and, by implication, revealing Pine Gap to be a CIA operation. The flinty Tange was horrified. This is the greatest breach of security ever, he told John Menadue. “The country will be cut adrift.”
Following Kissinger’s fury about Whitlam, which he expressed to his US ambassador, Ted Shackley, chief of the CIA East Asia Division, who had been deeply involved with Kissinger in the overthrow of the Allende Government in Chile, sent a demarche to ASIO on 8 November. He had Kissinger’s permission, he told Toohey. It said the US could not see how the issues raised by Whitlam could do other than blow the lid off installations in Australia and unless the problems could be resolved, the Americans could not see how its mutually beneficial relationships could continue.
The demarche from Shackley was sent via intermediaries to Kerr. I never saw it. I was excluded. I was not one of the Austral American club, even though I was head of the Prime Minister’s Department.
Tange received it and interpreted it as an ultimatum with the alliance at risk.
He instructed John Farrands to deliver the message to Kerr immediately, three days before the Dismissal. Farrands was Defence’s chief scientist and the Australian official most associated with, and knowledgeable about, Pine Gap. He advised Toohey of the meeting, but told Toohey that he would deny it.
The pressures were building on both the domestic and foreign fronts to sack the Whitlam Government. Kerr was ready to strike. With CIA and MI6 encouragement, he pushed Whitlam over the cliff.
Interestingly Government House guestbooks for the period went missing.
Whitlam’s ASIO file, as well as mine, have also been “culled.”
I have found intelligence agencies are prone to believe that they are better informed and more patriotic, even than prime ministers. These agencies handle a lot of material, but in my experience have poor judgment.
There is little effective oversight and accountability. There is a Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, but members are invariably seduced by “secret” and recycled CIA material. They join the insiders club that they should be supervising. It is known as regulatory capture.
I have been grievously deceived by these agencies on several occasions.
In the House of Representatives in 1977, Gough Whitlam said,
“There is profoundly increasing evidence that foreign espionage and intelligence activities are being practised in Australia on a wide scale… I believe the evidence is so grave and so alarming in its implications that it demands the fullest explanation. The deception over the CIA and the activities of foreign installations on our soil… are an onslaught on Australia’s sovereignty.”
In July 1977, Warren Christopher, deputy secretary of state under the new Democrat president, Jimmy Carter, flew into Sydney exclusively for a brief meeting at the airport with the leader of the Opposition, Gough Whitlam. As Whitlam records in his memoirs, Christopher told me that President Carter had instructed him to say that:
“The Democratic Party and the ALP were fraternal parties. He respected deeply the democratic rights of the allies of the United States. The US administration would never again interfere in the domestic political processes of Australia. He would work with whatever government the people of Australia elected.”
Could anything be clearer than that?
On becoming prime minister, one of the first things Fraser did was to renew the Pine Gap lease.
For a Biblical understanding of these endtime prophecies, see
The Donald Trump administration seeks to forcibly impose the US empire’s hegemony in Latin America. While hypocritically using “war on drugs/terror” rhetoric, it is reviving the colonial Monroe Doctrine, which top officials now call the Donroe Doctrine.
The Donald Trump administration is waging war on Venezuela, but this is part of a larger political war on Latin America.
In the first year of Trump’s second term as president, the US government has:
killed dozens of people without charges and trial in US military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific, executing humble fishermen from not only Venezuela but also Colombia and Trinidad and Tobago;
imposed sanctions on the democratically elected left-wing president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro;
hit Brazil with 50% tariffs, one of the highest rates on Earth, to try to destabilize democratically elected left-wing President Lula da Silva;
threatened to forcibly “take over” and colonize the Panama Canal, in violation of the Central American nation’s sovereignty;
tightened the illegal, six-decade blockade of Cuba; and
waged a regime-change war aimed at overthrowing the government of Venezuela, and ordered the CIA to kidnap or even assassinate its President Nicolás Maduro.
Those are the sticks of Trump’s new Big Stick Policy, aimed at Latin America’s left-wing leaders.
As for the carrots, Trump has pledged to economically bail out right-wing US allies in the region.
For instance, the Trump administration offered $40 billion to try to save Argentina’s libertarian President Javier Milei, a close Trump ally who has overseen a severe economic crisis.
The US empire’s goals in Latin America
The US government has always meddled in Latin America’s internal affairs. This is far from new.
The United States overthrew at least 41 governments in Latin America from 1898 to 1994, according to research by Columbia University historian John Coatsworth.
In the past three decades, Washington has backed dozens more coups, coup attempts, regime-change operations, and “color revolutions” in the region.
The US military has intervened in every single country in Latin America, according to data from the Congressional Research Service. (The only exception is French Guiana, which is a colony of France.)
US imperialism has always been bipartisan in Washington, and has continued under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
However, Donald Trump has brought back the most overt, aggressive form of interventionism.
In its flagrant attacks on the sovereignty of Latin America, the US empire has three main goals.
Exploit the region’s resources
One, the US wants to exploit Latin America’s plentiful natural resources, including oil and natural gas; gold, iron ore, lithium, copper, and other minerals; agricultural products; and fresh water. (As the climate crisis worsens, water will become increasingly important geopolitically.)
Trump has been very open about the fact that he wants US corporations to take over and profit from the region’s natural resources.
At a 2023 rally, Trump boasted that he wanted to “take over” Venezuela, and “we would have gotten all that oil.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote, Trump is “treating the hemisphere as an extension of the US homeland, where Washington will act unilaterally to root out perceived enemies. Loyalty is rewarded, and defiance can carry a price.”
Cut off relations with China
The second goal of the US empire is to prevent all governments in Latin America from having close ties with China. Washington would like to cut off regional relations with Russia and Iran as well, but China is the top priority.
China is already the number one trading partner of South America, and economic exchange is growing more and more by the year.
The United States is waging a Second Cold War, or Cold War Two, which seeks to isolate China. US strategists want to turn not only Latin America but all of the western hemisphere into an imperial “sphere of influence.”
It is not a coincidence that, in the first trip that Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio took abroad, he went to Panama, where he successfully pressured the country to withdraw from China’s global infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
And below is a Prophecy between the rivarly between Esau and Jacob:
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
In the Hebrew Bible these elegies (a poem of serious reflection) of Jeremiah, five in number, are placed among the Chetuvim, or “Holy Writings” between Ruth and Ecclesiastes. But though in classification of compositions it belongs to the Chetuvim, it probably followed the prophecies of Jeremiah originally. For this reason alone we can account this book inclusive of the minor prophetical books as enumerated by Josephus [Against Apion, 1.1.8] as thirteen.
The Jews read it in their synagogues on the ninth of the month Ab, which is a fast for the destruction of their holy city. As in II Chronicles 35:25, “lamentations” are said to have been “written” by Jeremiah on the death of Josiah, besides it having been made “an ordinance in Israel” that “singing women” should “speak” of that king in lamentations.
Lamentations 1
1How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people! How she has become as a widow! She that was great among the nations and princess among the provinces, how she has become tributary! — these are the words of Jeremiah; so the Targum introduces them, “Jeremiah the prophet and high priest said,” How doth the city sit solitary;
— Jerusalem is here represented as a weeping female, sitting solitary on the ground without any attendant or comforter, the multitude of her inhabitants being dispersed or destroyed;
— the description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a captive and a slave, by reason of the greatness of her sins; and had no rest from suffering.
Jeremiah the Prophet and High Priest said, “How was it decreed that Jerusalem and her people should be punished with banishment and that they should be mourned with ´ekah (lamentations).
Just as when Adam and Eve were punished and expelled from the Garden of Eden and the Master of the Universe mourned them with ´ekah?” The Attribute of Justice replied and said, “Because of the greatness of her rebellious sin that was within her, thus she will dwell alone as a man plagued with leprosy upon his skin who sits alone.
And the city that was full of crowds and many peoples has been emptied of them and she has become like a widow. She who was great among the nations and a ruler over provinces that had brought her tribute has become lowly again and gives head tax to them from thereafter.”
2 She weepeth sorely in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her. All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
— the prophet Jeremiah sometimes speaks on his own; at other times Jerusalem as a distressed female, is the speaker, or some of the Jews. The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation. Jerusalem became a captive and a slave, by reason of the greatness of her sins; and had no rest from suffering;
— all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies; those who pretended great friendship to her, and were in strict alliance with her, acted the treacherous part, and withdrew from her, leaving her to the common enemy; and not only so, but behaved towards her in a hostile manner themselves.
When Moses the Prophet sent messengers to spy out the land, the messengers returned and gave forth a bad report concerning the land of Israel. This was the night of the ninth of Ab. When the people of the House of Israel heard this bad report which they had received concerning the land of Israel, the people lifted up their voice and the people of the House of Israel wept that night.
Immediately the anger of the LORD was kindled against them and he decreed that it should be so in that night throughout their generations over the destruction of the Temple.
When it was told through prophecy to Jeremiah the High Priest that Jerusalem would be destroyed at the hand of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar unless they repented, he immediately entered and rebuked the people of the House of Israel, but they refused to accept it. Therefore the wicked Nebuchadnezzar came and razed Jerusalem and set fire to the Temple on the ninth day in the month of Ab.
On that night, the Congregation of Israel wept bitterly and her tears flowed down her cheeks. There was no one to speak comfortingly to her heart from among all her idols after whom she loved to follow. As a result, all her friends were wicked to her; they turned against her and became her enemies.
— Remember, the Targum, whose origin in the Aramaic language, could be traced to the work of Ezra, and hence has prominence and enlightenment in giving us further understanding of biblical concepts which, oftentimes, where the message in the Masoretic Text are vague, uncertain, indefinite or unclear, the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect;
— The revelation of the ninth of Ab as the date the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and set fire to God’s Temple is one such example where the Targum provides greater clarity, wider insight and deeper intellect here.
3 Judah has gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude. She dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest; all her persecutors overtook her in her straits.
— Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction; her miseries have received their finishing stroke in a total captivity among, and bondage to, heathen and infidels, because of the oppression exercised by her rulers and others, and the servitude to which they obliged their subjects and inferiors;
— and retaining them in a state of bondage after their seven years’ servitude, contrary to the law of God; for which they were threatened with captivity, Jeremiah 34:13; including keeping their servants beyond the year of jubilee, when they ought to have set them at liberty;
The House of Judah went into exile because they were oppressing the orphans and the widows and because of the great servitude to which they were subjecting their brothers, the sons of Israel, who had been sold to them. And they did not declare freedom to their servants and handmaids who were of the seed of Israel.
As a result they themselves were delivered into the hand of the nations. And the Congregation of the House of Judah dwells among the nations and finds no rest from the hard labor to which they subject her. All who pursued her overtook her as she was hiding in the border regions and they persecuted her.
4 The highways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts; all her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. — because none come to the solemn feasts; this of the sanctuary itself, because all Israel were supposed to convene there; and the Targum interprets it of the feasts, the three solemn feasts of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles at which all the males in Israel were obliged to appear;
— all her gates are desolate; the gates of the temple; none passing through them into it to worship God, pray unto him, praise him or offer sacrifice; or the gates of the city, none going to and fro in them; nor the elders sitting there in council as in courts of judicature to try causes and do justice and judgement;
All the while that Jerusalem was built, the sons of Israel refused to go up to be seen before the LORD three times a year. Because of Israel’s sins Jerusalem was destroyed and the roads to Zion are made mournful, for there is no one entering her at the time of the festivals.
All the gates are desolate and her priests groan because the sacrifices have ceased. Her virgins mourn because they have stopped going out on the fifteenth of Ab and on the Day of Atonement (which is on the tenth day of Tishri) to dance the dances. Therefore she too is very bitter in her heart.
— The revelation as to why the House of Judah went into Captiviry is another example above where the Targum provides greater clarity and wider insight where the Masoretic Text is less precise.
5 Her adversaries are the master, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her. For the multitude of her transgressions, her children have gone into captivity before the enemy. — her adversaries are their chief; or “for the head” or are the head as was threatened, Deuteronomy 28:44; and now fulfilled; the Chaldeans having got the dominion over the Jews, and obliged them to be subject to them:
— for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judea were carried captive by the enemy, and drove before them as a flock of sheep, and that for the sins of the nation; and these not a few, but were very numerous, as Mordecai and Ezekiel, and others, who were carried captive young with Jeconiah, as well as many now;
Those who oppress her were appointed over her as leaders and her enemies were dwelling at ease since the LORD had broken her due to her great rebelliousness. Her children go before the oppressor into captivity.
6 And from the daughter of Zion, all her beauty is departed; her princes have become like harts that find no pasture, and they have gone without strength before the pursuer. — and from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed; the kingdom removed; the priesthood ceased; the temple, their beautiful house, burnt; the palaces of their king and nobles demolished; and everything in church and state that was glorious were now no more:
— her princes are become like harts that find no pasture; that are heartless and without courage, fearful and timorous, as harts are, especially when destitute of food. The Targum says, “Her nobles were wandering for food, like stags who wander in the desert and find no suitable place for their pasture.”
— and they are gone without strength before the pursuer; having no spirit nor courage to oppose the enemy, nor strength to flee from him, they fell into his hands, and so were carried captive; see Jeremiah 52:8.
All the glory of the Congregation of Zion has gone out from her. Her nobles were wandering for food, like stags who wander in the desert and find no suitable place for their pasture. They went out in great weakness and they had no strength to flee to safety (from) before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old. When her people fell into the hand of the enemy and none did help her, the adversaries saw her, and mocked at her Sabbaths. — remembered, or rather “remembers” now in her afflicted state. In the days of her prosperity she did not appreciate, as she ought the favors of God to her. Now, awakening out of her past lethargy, she feels from what high privileges she has fallen;
— they have mocked at her sabbath-keepings; or sabbath-keepings, the cessation from labor every seventh day struck foreigners as something strange, mocked and provoked their ridicule by way of derision; Sabbaths, plural, including the three solemn feasts of the Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles at which all the males in Israel were obliged to appear.
Jerusalem remembered the days of old, when she was surrounded by walled cities and strong open towns, rebelling and reigning over all the earth, and all her lovely things which she had in earlier times. But because of her sins, her people fell into the hands of the wicked Nebuchadnezzar and he oppressed them and there was no one to save her. The persecutors watched her go into captivity and they laughed because her good fortune had ceased from her.
8 Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she has become a wanderer. All that honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness; yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward. — Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; in sinning hath sinned or hath sinned sin: that is, sinned wilfully and deliberately; hath sinned that sin which of all others is the abominable thing which the Lord hates, the sin of idolatry.
— because they have seen her nakedness; being stripped of all her good things she before enjoyed; and both her weakness and her wickedness being exposed to public view. The allusion is either to harlots, or to modest women when taken captive whose nakedness is uncovered by the brutish and inhuman soldiers: yea, she sighs and turns backward; being covered with shame because of the ill usage of her, as modest women would.
Jerusalem sinned a great sin, therefore she has become a wanderer. All the nations that had honored her in earlier times treat her with contempt for they have seen her nakedness. But she groans and shrinks back.
9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end. Therefore she came down wondrously; she had no comforter. “O Lord, behold my affliction, for the enemy hath magnified himself!” — her filthiness is in her skirts; her sin is manifest to all, being to be seen in her punishment. The allusion is to a menstruous woman, to whom she is compared, both before and after; whose blood flows down to the skirts of her garments, and there seen; by which it is known that she is in her separation;
— she remembers not her last end; she did not consider in the time of her prosperity what her sins would bring her to; what would be the issue of them; nay, though she was warned by the prophets and was told what things would come to at last, yet she laid it not to heart, nor did she lay it up in her mind or reflect upon it, but went on in her sinful courses;
The impurity of the menstrual blood in her skirts has not been cleansed from her. And she did not regret her sins, nor did she think of what would befall her in the end of days. And she went down and fell and was set aside. And there was no one to speak comfortingly to her. Look, O Lord and see for my enemies have exalted themselves over me.
10 The adversary hath spread out his hand upon all her pleasant things; for she hath seen that the heathen entered into her sanctuary, whom Thou didst command that they should not enter into Thy congregation. — the enemy hath spread out his hands on all her pleasant things; not the wealth and riches or the rich furniture in their own houses,
— but the precious things in the house of God: the ark, the table, the altar, the priests garments and vessels of the sanctuary, and the gifts of the temple and everything valuable in it; these the enemy stretched out his hands and seized upon, and claimed them as his own; took them as a booty, prey, and plunder;
— for she hath seen that the heathens entered into her sanctuary; not into the land of Israel only, the holy land, but into the temple, the sanctuary of the Lord; but called hers, because it was built for her use, that the congregation of Israel might worship the Lord in it; into this with her own eyes, though forced to it, and sore against her will, and to her great grief and trouble, she saw the Chaldeans enter, and ravage and spoil it:
The Targum
The wicked Nebuchadnezzar stretched out his hand and drew forth his sword and cut off all her lovely things. Indeed, the Congregation of Israel began to howl for she saw foreign nations go into her Temple; those about whom you commanded by Moses the prophet concerning Ammon and Moab, that they were not worthy to enter your assembly.
11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul. “See, O Lord, and consider, for I have become vile.” — all her people sigh, not her priests only, Lamentations 1:4; but all the common people, because of their affliction, particularly for want of bread. So the Targum says, “all the people of Jerusalem groan because of the famine;”
— they have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve the soul: or, “to cause the soul to return” to fetch it back when fainting and swooning away through famine; and therefore would give anything for food; part with their rich clothes, jewels and precious stones; with whatsoever they had that was valuable in their cabinets or coffers that they might have meat to keep from fainting and dying;
The Targum
All the people of Jerusalem groan from hunger and search for bread to eat. They gave their precious things for the sustenance of bread in order to stay alive. Look O Lord and see for I have become voracious.
12 “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. — Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? O ye strangers and travellers that pass by and see my distress, does it not at all concern you? does it not in the least affect you? can you look upon it, and have no commiseration?
— or is there nothing to be learned from hence by you, that may be instructive and useful to you? Some consider the words as deprecating; may the like things never befall you that have befallen me, O ye passengers; be ye who ye will; I can never wish the greatest stranger, much less a friend to suffer what I do; nay, I pray God they never may: others, as adjuring.
The Targum
I adjure you, all who pass by on the road, turn around here. Look and see. Is there any pain like my pain, that which has been visited upon me because the Lord shattered me in the day of his great anger?
13 From above hath He sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. He hath spread a net for my feet, He hath turned me back; He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. — from above; these words are probably figurative: the judgements that had fallen on Jerusalem were as a fire from heaven, piercing even to “the joints and marrow,” the innermost recesses of life;
— He hath spread a net for my feet; that is, God had brought me into a condition wherein I am entangled, and could not get out; to be the first cause of all the evil we suffered, and entitles God to our various kinds of afflictions, for the benefits of repentance;
The Targum
From heaven he sent fire into my strong cities and conquered them. He spread a net for my feet. He caused me to shrink back before my enemies. He caused me to be desolate all day, unclean and weak.
14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound up by His hand; they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall; the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up. — bound by his hand; as the plowman binds the yoke upon the neck of oxen so God compels Judah to bear the punishment of her sins;
— he hath made my strength to fall; by the weight of punishment laid upon her, which she could not stand up under, but sunk and fell: this may be understood of her strong and mighty men; her men of valour and courage, who yet stumbled and fell;
— the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up; meaning the Chaldeans; nor were the Jews at last delivered from them by their own strength, but by the means of Cyrus the Persian conquering Babylon.
The Targum
The yoke of my rebellion was heavy in his hand. Intertwined like the tendrils of a vine, they climbed upon my neck. My strength is weakened. The Lord has given me into the hands of one whom I cannot withstand.
15 The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; He hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a wine press. — the Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me; as a causeway is trodden; or as mire is trodden under foot in the streets; so were the mighty and valiant men, the soldiers and men of war, trodden under foot and destroyed by the Chaldeans in the streets of Jerusalem, and in the midst of Judea; the Lord so permitting it:
— he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men; the army of the Chaldeans, which were brought against Jerusalem by a divine appointment and call; against whom the choicest and stoutest of them, even their young men, could not stand; but were crushed and broken to pieces by them. The word for “assembly” sometimes signifies an appointed time; a time fixed for solemn festivals, and for calling the people to them;
The Targum
The Lord has crushed all my mighty ones within me; he has established a time against me to shatter the strength of my young men. The nations entered by the decree of the Memra of the Lord and defiled the virgins of the House of Judah until their blood of their virginity was caused to flow like wine from a wine press when a man is treading grapes and the wine of his grapes flows.
16 For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.” — for these things I weep; the congregation of Judah, the godly among them, particularly Jeremiah, who represented them wept for the sins the people had been guilty of and for the punishment inflicted on them, or the sore calamities that were brought upon them;
— my children are desolate: those which should help and relieve her and be a comfort to her were destitute themselves: or were “destroyed” and were not and which was the cause of her disconsolate state, as was Rachel’s, Jeremiah 31:15;
The Targum
Because of the infants who were smashed and the pregnant mothers whose bellies were ripped open, the Congregation of Israel said, “I weep and my eyes flow with tears, a spring of water, for far from me is any comforter to revive me and speak words of comfort for my soul. My sons are desolate for the enemy has become master over them.”
17 Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her. The Lord hath commanded concerning Jacob, that his adversaries should be round about him; Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman among them. — Zion spreads forth her hands, either as submitting to the conqueror and imploring mercy; or rather as calling to her friends to help and relieve her. The Targum is, “Zion spreadeth out her hands through distress, as a woman spreads out her hands upon the seat to bring forth;”
— like a woman in labor-throes; menstruous woman, held unclean and shunned by all; separated from her husband and from the temple.
The Targum
Zion spreads out her hands from anguish like a woman spread upon the birth stool. She screams but there is no one to speak comfortingly to her heart. The Lord commanded the House of Jacob to keep the commandments and Torah, but they transgressed the decree of his Memra. Therefore his oppressors completely encircle Jacob. Jerusalem is like an unclean woman amongst them.
18 “The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled against His commandment. Hear, I pray you, all people, and behold my sorrow; my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity. — for I have rebelled against his commandment; or “his mouth” – the word of his mouth which he delivered by word of mouth at Mount Sinai or by his prophets since; and therefore was righteously dealt with and justly chastised;
— my virgins and my young men are gone into captivity; in Babylon; being taken and carried thither by the Chaldeans; had it been only her ancient men and women, persons worn out with age that could have been of little use, and at most but of a short continuance, the affliction had not been so great; but her virgins and young men, the flower of the nation and by whom it might have been supported and increased; for these to be carried away into a strange land must be matter of grief and sorrow;
The Lord told the people of the House of Israel that they should not allow those who kill by the sword to pass through their land. Josiah the king went forth and drew his sword against Pharaoh the Lame on the plain of Megiddo, which he had not been commanded [to do] and he had not sought instruction from before the Lord.
Therefore archers shot arrows at King Josiah and he died there. Before his spirit left him he moved his lips and said, “The Lord is blameless for I have transgressed against his Memra.” Hear now all peoples, the lamentations that Jeremiah made over Josiah and see my affliction that has come upon me after his death. My virgins and young men have gone into exile.
19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city, while they sought their meat to relieve their souls. — I called for my lovers, but they deceived me, either her idols with whom she had committed spiritual adultery, that is, idolatry; but these could not answer her expectations and help her: or the Egyptians that courted her friendship and with whom she was in alliance and in whom she trusted; and these in the times of her distress she called upon to make good their engagements, but they disappointed her and stood not to their covenant and promises, but left her to stand and fall by herself;
— my priests and mine elders gave up the ghost in the city; or died in the city of Jerusalem; not by the sword of the enemy but through famine; and so in the Arabic language, the word signifies to labour under famine and want of food and perish through it; and if this was the case of their priests that officiated in holy things and of their elders or civil magistrates, what must be the case of the common people?
Jerusalem said, when she was delivered into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, “I called to my friends, the sons of the nations, with whom I had made treaties to come to my aid. But they deceived me and turned to destroy me. (These are the Romans who entered with Titus and the wicked Vespasian and they built siege works against Jerusalem.)
My priests and my elders within the city perish from hunger, because they searched for the sustenance of bread for themselves to eat, in order to preserve their souls.
20 “Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress; my bowels are troubled. Mine heart is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the sword bereaveth; at home there is as death. — behold, O Lord, for I am in distress, thus she turns from one to another; sometimes she addresses strangers, people that pass by; sometimes she calls to her lovers; and at other times to God which is best of all to have pity and compassion on her in her distress; and from whom it may be most expected, who is a God of grace and mercy:
— my bowels are troubled; as the sea agitated by winds which casts up mire and dirt; or as any waters moved by anything whatsoever, become thick and muddy; or like wine in fermentation; it signifies expressive of great disturbance, confusion and uneasiness:
“Look, O Lord, for I am in anguish. Therefore my bowels are piled up and my heart turns within me, for I have surely transgressed the decree of the Memra of the Lord. Consequently, outside the sword bereaves and inside the agony of starvation, like the Destroying Angel who is appointed over death.
21 They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me. All mine enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that Thou hast done it! Thou wilt bring the day that Thou hast proclaimed, and they shall then be like unto me. — they have heard that I sigh; the nations contiguous to me, Egypt and others that before pretended to be my friends and allies have been no strangers to my bitter afflictions which have forced sighs from me;
— but there is none to comfort me, none of them can or will relieve my distress, but abandon me as in a desperate situation. They are glad that thou hast done it; they have even expressed gladness at the calamities that have befallen me; and they please themselves with the thought that thou our God, of whose favour and protection we used to boast, should forsake us and give us up as a prey to our enemies.
“The nations heard that I am groaning and there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies heard of the evil that overcame me and were glad. For you Lord are the one who has done it. You have caused them to bring upon me a day of retribution. You have summoned against me a coalition to destroy me. May you summon against them that they may be made desolate like me.
22 Let all their wickedness come before Thee, and do unto them as Thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions; for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.” — let all their wickedness come before thee; the Targum adds, “in the day of the great judgement;”
— for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint; her sighs were many because of her afflictions, and her heart faint because of her sighing.
“May there enter before you on the great judgement day all their evil deeds which they have done to me. May you turn against them as you have turned against me because of my many rebellions, for my groans are many and my heart is weak.”
Lamentations 2
1How the Lord hath covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in His anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not His footstool in the day of His anger! — how hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, by a pillar of cloud by day and a column of fire by night, as he did the Israelites at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, which he blots out as a thick cloud;
— and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel; all its glory, both in sanctuary and state; this was brought down from the highest pitch of its excellency and dignity to the lowest degree of infamy and reproach; particularly this was true of the temple which was the beauty and glory of the nation, but now utterly demolished: and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger; again referring to the house of the sanctuary or the temple itself;
How the Lord has detested the Congregation of Zion in his fierce anger. He threw down from the heavens to the earth the glory of Israel and he did not remember the Temple that was his footstool nor did he spare it in the day of his fierce anger.
2 The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied; He hath thrown down in His wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He hath brought them down to the ground; He hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof. — the Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied; as he regarded not his own habitation the temple nor the ark his footstool;
— it is no wonder he should be unconcerned about the habitations of the land of Judea and of Jerusalem, particularly of the king, his nobles and the great men; these the Lord swallowed up in an earthquake, or by invasion so as to be seen no more;
The Lord destroyed and did not spare any of the choice dwellings of the House of Jacob. In his anger he destroyed the Congregation of the House of Judah and brought them to the ground. He broke the kingdom, crushed her leaders.
3 He hath cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He hath drawn back His right hand from before the enemy, and He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. — all the horn of Israel; the horn here as in elsewhere is the symbol of strength, aggressive or defensive and may therefore stand here for every element of strength, warriors, rulers, fortresses; the cutting off of every horn means the depriving Israel of all power of defence or warfare;
— he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy; either his own right hand, with which he had used to fight for his people, and protect them, but now withdrawing it, left them to the mercy of their enemies; or Israel’s right hand, which he so weakened, that they had no power to resist the enemy, and defend themselves:
In his fierce anger he cut off all the glory of Israel. He drew back his right [hand] and did not help his people from before the enemy and he burned in the House of Jacob like a searing fire which consumes on all sides.
— Note: if these lamentations were restricted to Jeremiah’s warnings against the house of Judah, then this verse shouldn’t have reference to JACOB; thus the reference to Jacob means it is a prophetic message to both the house of Israel and the house of Judah in the latter days, our days!
— Parallel Scriptures in
Isaiah 28:1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! — that is, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, the proud state and kingdom of the ten tribes. This pride is about Ephraim, the United States: “But if we have to use force, it is because we are America; we are the indispensable nation. We stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future, and we see the danger here to all of us,” Madeleine Albright; and the many and excellent vines among them, showing that the prophet’s work was not limited to Judah and Jerusalem, but extended to the northern kingdom, Israel;
— parallel Scriptures in Ezekiel 36, “the mountain of Israel” this prophecy is concerning the desolations of the United States, UK and France; “and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys” these are the hills: Ireland, Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, Finland and Iceland; and the valleys, the low countries: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg;
— shoot forth your branches; that is, the trees that grew upon them should; the vines, and the olive trees, planted on hills and mountains; these are their colonies: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa; American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands (US); Anguilla, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Virgin Islands (UK); Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, Mayotte, Réunion (France).
— is a fading flower; beauty (Isaiah 28:1) “whose glorious beauty or ornament is a fading flower” – the image of “drunkards” it was the custom at feasts to wreathe with flowers; so this indispensable Ephraim stood upon the head of the fertile valley,” that is, situated on a hill surrounded with the rich valleys as the best of a garland; but that garland is “fading,” and this intoxicated Ephraim is now close to ruin, not to be depended upon, soon to be destroyed and discarded away quickly.
— this maybe where Judah shall bear his iniquity for forty days: I have appointed thee a day for a year. Ezekiel 4:4-6 Septuagint. — after the start of the 10 tribes house of Israel and last for 150 years, the house of Judah shall join in for 40 years. (for more, see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years Timeline)
4 He hath bent His bow like an enemy; He stood with His right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion; He poured out His fury like fire. — He hath bent his bow like an enemy; God sometimes appears as if he was an enemy to his people, when he is not, by his conduct and behaviour; by his providence they take him to be so; he bends his bow, or treads it, for the bending or stretching the bow was done by the foot;
— he stood with his right hand as an adversary; with arrows in it, to put into his bow or with his sword drawn, as an adversary does. The Targum says, “he stood at the right hand of Nebuchadnezzar and helped him, when he distressed his people Israel:”
— and slew all that were pleasant to the eye; princes and priests, husbands and wives, parents and children, young men and maids; desirable to their friends and relations, both the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and even of the daughter of Zion;
The Targum
He drew his bow and shot arrows at me like an enemy. He stood ready at the right of Nebuchadnezzar and aided him as if he were oppressing his people, the House of Israel. And he killed every young man and everything that was beautiful to see. In the tent of the Congregation of Zion he poured out his anger like a burning fire.
5 The Lord was as an enemy; He hath swallowed up Israel, He hath swallowed up all her palaces. He hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation. — the Lord was as an enemy; who formerly was on their side, their God and guardian, their protector and deliverer, but now against them; and a terrible thing it is to have God for an enemy, or even to be as one; this is repeated, as being exceeding distressing, and even intolerable;
— God had use Nebuchadnezzar to do his will as he was described as “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant,” Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10; and so was Cyrus, His anointed Isaiah 45:1; ‘He is My shepherd and shall perform all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 44:28.
The Targum
The Lord has become like an enemy. He destroyed Israel. He destroyed all her forts and razed all her open cities. He has increased in the Congregation of the House of Judah mourning and grief.
6 And He hath violently taken away His tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; He hath destroyed His places of the assembly. The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and Sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of His anger the king and the priest. — and he hath violently taken away his tabernacle as if it were of a garden; the house of the sanctuary or the temple, which was demolished at once with great force and violence and no more account made of it than of a cottage or lodge in a vineyard or garden, set up while the fruit was, either to shelter from the heat of the sun in the day, or to lodge in at night;
— the Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion; there being neither places to keep them in, nor people to observe them: the weekly and annual Sabbaths: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words,” Isaiah 58:13.
The Targum
He uprooted his Temple like a garden. He razed the place appointed for the atonement of his people. The Lord has caused the joy of the festival and the Sabbath to be forgotten and in his fierce anger he hates the king and high priest.
He (God) hates their kings and high priests:
— a) and the house of Israel is still indulging in idolatry; worshipping Easter, which is another form of worshipping Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon;
— b) and Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th which they christianised as Christmas), Zeus and others; called “gods of the earth” in distinction from the god of heaven; and men shall worship these earthly gods, acknowledging their supremacy, everyone from his place today, Protestants or Catholics alike;
7 The Lord hath cast off His altar; He hath abhorred His sanctuary. He hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the Lord, as in the day of a solemn feast. — the Lord hath cast off his altar; whether of incense or of burnt offerings, the sacrifices of which used to be acceptable to him, but now the altar being cast down and demolished, there were no more offerings; nor did he show any desire of them, but the reverse:
— he hath abhorred his sanctuary; the temple, by suffering it to be profaned, pulled down and burnt, it looked as if he had an abhorrence of it, and the service in it;
The Targum
The Lord has abandoned the house of his altar. He has trampled his Temple. He has handed over the walls of the forts to the enemy. They raised a shout in the Temple of the Lord like the shout of the people of the House of Israel praying in it on the day of Passover.
8 The Lord hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He hath stretched out a line, He hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying. Therefore He made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together. — He hath stretched out a line; the phrase implies the systematic thoroughness of the work of destruction;
— He made the rampart; even the very stones of the walls of Zion are thought of as “crying out” and wailing over their own downfall;
The Targum
The Lord resolved to destroy the wall of the Congregation of Zion. He swung the plummet and did not turn back his hand from destroying it. He caused the rampart and the wall to mourn; they were destroyed together.
9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; He hath destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the Gentiles; the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the Lord. — her gates are sunk into the ground; so completely destroyed that one might suppose they had been swallowed up in an abyss;
— her king and her princes are among the Gentiles; Zedekiah, and the princes that were not slain by the king of Babylon, were carried captive thither; and there they lived, even among the heathens that knew not God, and despised his worship:
The Targum
Her gates have sunk into the earth because they slaughtered a pig and brought its blood over them. He has destroyed and shattered her doorposts. Her king and rulers were exiled among the nations because they did not keep the decrees of Torah, as if they had not received it on Mount Sinai. Even her prophets had the holy spirit of prophecy withheld from them and they were not told a word of prophecy from before the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence; they have cast up dust upon their heads. They have girded themselves with sackcloth; the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground. — the elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, and keep silence; who used to sit in the gate on thrones of judgement, and passed sentence in causes tried before them; or were to give advice and counsel, and were regarded as oracles, now sit on the ground, and dumb, as mourners; see Job 2:13;
— they have cast up dust upon their heads; on their white hairs and gray locks, which bespoke wisdom, and made them grave and venerable: they have girded themselves with sackcloth: after the manner of mourners; who used to be clothed in scarlet and rich apparel, in robes suitable to their office as civil magistrates:
— the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground: through shame and sorrow; who used to look brisk and gay, and walk with outstretched necks, and carried their heads high, but now low enough.
The Targum
The Elders of the Congregation of Zion sit on the ground in silence. They throw wood ashes upon their heads. They gird sackcloth upon their bodies. The virgins of Jerusalem bow their heads to the dust of the earth.
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled; my liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city. — my bowels are troubled; all his inward parts were distressed: my liver is poured upon the earth; his gall bladder, which lay at the bottom of his liver, broke, and he cast it up, and poured it on the earth;
— because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets of the city; through famine, for want of bread, with those that could eat it; and for want of the milk of their mothers and nurses, who being starved themselves could not give it; and hence the poor infants fainted and swooned away; which was a dismal sight, and heart melting to the prophet.
The Targum
My eyes are spent with tears, my bowels are piled up, my liver is spilt onto the ground because of the destruction of the Congregation of my people as youths and infants cried out in the open places of the cities.
12 They say to their mothers, “Where is corn and wine?” when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers’ bosom. — they say to their mothers, where is corn and wine? Not the sucklings who could not speak, nor were used to corn and wine, but the children more grown;
— both are before spoken of, but these are meant, even the young men of Israel, as the Targum says; and such as had been brought up in the best manner, had been used to wine, and not water, and therefore ask for that as well as corn; both take in all the necessaries of life; and which they ask of their mothers, who had been used to feed them, and not knowing what was the reason of it, inquire after them, being pressed with hunger:
The Targum
The young men of Israel ask their mother, “Where is the bread and wine?” as they thirst in the same way as one wounded by the sword [suffers] from thirst in the open places of the cities, as their life is poured out from hunger into their mother’s bosom.
13 What thing shall I take to witness for thee? What thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? For thy breach is great like the sea. Who can heal thee? — what thing shall I take to witness for thee? what can I bring forward as a witness to prove that others have sustained as grievous ills as thou? what can be called to convince thee, and make it a clear case to time that ever any people or nation was in such distress and calamity, what with sword, famine, pestilence, and captivity, as thou art?
— what thing shall I liken thee to, O daughter of Jerusalem? what kingdom or nation ever suffered the like? no example can be given, no instance that comes up to it; not the Egyptians, when the ten plagues were inflicted on them; not the Canaanites, when conquered and drove out by Joshua; not the Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Syrians, when subdued by David; or any other people;
— for thy breach is great like the sea; as large and as wide as that: Zion’s troubles were a sea of trouble; her afflictions as numerous and as boisterous as the waves of the sea; and as salt, as disagreeable, and as intolerable, as the waters of it: or her breach was great, like the breach of the sea; when it overflows its banks, or breaks through its bounds, there is no stopping it, but it grows wider and wider:
The Targum
What can I bring to bear witness to you? Or to what can I compare you, O Congregation of Jerusalem? How shall I befriend you that I may console you, O Virgin of the Congregation of Zion? For great is your breaking, as great as the breaking of the waves of the Great Sea during the season of their gales. And who is the doctor who can heal you of your affliction?
14 Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee; and they have not exposed thine iniquity, to return you from captivity, but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment. — thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things; the words are eminently characteristic of Jeremiah, whose whole life had been spent in conflict with the false prophets (Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 5:13; Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 8:10; Jeremiah 14:14; Jeremiah 28:9, and elsewhere), who spoke smooth things, and prophesied deceit. They did not call men to repent of their iniquity;
— and they have not exposed thine iniquities: they did not tell them of their sins; they took no pains to convince them of them, but connived at them; instead of reproving them for them, they soothed them in them; they did not “remove” the covering that was “over their iniquity” as it might be rendered;
Example of not exposing their iniquities are:
— a) indulging in idolatry; worshipping Easter, which is worshipping Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven, the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility and sex;
— b) worshipping Mithra or Mitra (the Sun-God whose birthday many drunks honor and celebrate on December 25th which they christianised as Christmas), everyone from his place today, Protestants or Catholics alike;
— c) more than 98.5 percent of Christians are worshipping the Sun by observing Sunday, worshipping on a pagan sabbath. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east; whose Godly judgement is to be stoned to death (Deuteronomy 17:3-5) – ’till they die.
The false prophets within you, they have seen falsehood for you and there is no substance to their prophecies. Nor did they make known the punishment that would overtake you as a result of your sin, in order to make you turn back in repentance. Rather, they prophesied to you vain prophecies and erring words.
15 All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men call ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?” — all that pass by clap their hands at thee; strangers and travellers (Gypsies included) that passed by, and saw Jerusalem in ruins, clapped their hands at it by way of rejoicing as well pleased at the sight;
— they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem; by way of scorn and derision; hereby expressing their contempt of her, and the pleasure and satisfaction they took in seeing her in this condition;
The Targum
All those who passed by the way clapped their hands at you. They hissed with their lips and wagged their heads at the Congregation of Jerusalem. They said with their mouths, “Is this the city which our fathers and elders of old called the perfection of beauty and loveliness; the joy of all the earth’s inhabitants?”
16 All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee; they hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.” — all thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee; or “widened” them; stretched them out as far as they could, to reproach, blaspheme and insult; or like gaping beasts, to swallow up and devour:
— they hiss and gnash their teeth; hiss like serpents, and gnash their teeth in wrath and fury; all expressing their extreme hatred and abhorrence of the Jews, and the delight they took in their ruin and destruction;
— they say, we have swallowed her up; all her wealth and riches were corns into their hands, and were all their own; as well as they thought these were all their own doings, owing to their wisdom and skill, courage and strength; not seeing and knowing the hand of God in all this. These words seem to be the words of the Chaldeans particularly;
— certainly this is the day that we have looked for; we have found, we have seen it: this day of Jerusalem’s destruction, which they had long looked for, and earnestly desired; and now it was come; and they had what they so much wished for; and express it with the utmost pleasure.
The Targum
All your enemies open their mouths at you. They hissed with their lips and gnashed their teeth and say, “We have destroyed! Surely this is the day we have waited for. We have found it; we have seen it.”
17 The Lord hath done that which He had devised; He hath fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old. He hath thrown down, and hath not pitied; and He hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee; He hath set up the horn of thine adversaries. — the Lord hath done that which he had devised; it was not so much the Chaldeans that did it, though they ascribed it to themselves; but it was the Lord’s doing, and what he had deliberately thought of, purposed and designed within himself; all whose purposes and devices certainly come to pass;
— God’s will was to use Nebuchadnezzar to do his will and three times he was described as “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant,” Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10; and so was Cyrus, His anointed Isaiah 45:1; ‘He is My shepherd and shall perform all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 44:28.
The Targum
The Lord has done what he planned. He completed the Memra of his mouth that he commanded to Moses the prophet long ago: that if the children of Israel did not keep the commandments of the Lord he was going to punish them. He destroyed and had no mercy. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you for he has exalted your oppressors.
18 Their heart cried unto the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease. — their heart cried unto the Lord; the heart of the Jews in their distress, when they saw the walls of the city breaking down, they cried unto the Lord for help and protection;
— O wall of the daughter of Zion! this is an address of the prophet to the people of Jerusalem carried captive, which was now without houses and inhabitants, only a broken wall standing, some remains and ruins of that; which is mentioned to excite their sorrow and lamentation: let tears run down like a river, day and night; incessantly, for the destruction and desolation made;
The Targum
The heart of Israel cried out before the Lord, to have mercy on them. O wall of the city of Zion, weep tears like a torrent day and night. Give no comfort to your sorrows, to slacken in the prayer that is yours. May your eyes not cease from weeping.
19 Arise, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up thy hands toward Him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger on top of every street. — arise, cry out in the night; that is, O daughter of Zion, or congregation of Israel, as the Targum; who are addressed and called upon by the prophet to arise from their beds, and shake off their sleep, and sloth, and stupidity, and cry to God in the night season; and be earnest and importunate with him for help and assistance;
— pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord; use the utmost freedom with him; tell him, in the fullest manner thy whole case, fit thy complaints; unbosom thyself to him; keep nothing from him; speak out freely all lily soul needs; do all this publicly and in the most affectionate way and manner, thy soul melted in floods of tears, under a sense of sin, and pressing evils for it.
The Targum
Arise, O Congregation of Israel dwelling in exile. Busy yourself with Mishnah in the night, for the Shekinah of the Lord is dwelling before you, and with the words of Torah at the beginning of the morning watch. Pour out like water the crookedness of your heart and turn in repentance. And pray in the synagogue before the face of the Lord. Raise your hands to him in prayer for the life of your children who thirst with hunger at the head of every open market.
20 Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom Thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, their children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? — behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this; on whom thou hast brought these calamities of famine and sword; not upon thine enemies but upon thine own people, that are called by thy name and upon theirs, their young ones who had not sinned as their fathers had;
— shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? as very probably some were, who fled for safety when the city was broken up; but were not spared by the merciless Chaldeans who had no regard to their office and character; nor is it any wonder they should not, when the Jews themselves slew Zechariah, a priest and prophet, between the porch and the altar;
The Targum
See, O Lord, and observe from heaven against whom you have turned. Thus is it right for the daughters of Israel to eat the fruit of their wombs due to starvation, the lovely boys wrapped in fine linen? The Attribute of Justice replied, and said, “Is it right to kill priest and prophet in the Temple of the LORD, as when you killed Zechariah son of Iddo, the High Priest and faithful prophet in the Temple of the Lord on the Day of Atonement because he admonished you not to do evil before the Lord?”
21 The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword. Thou hast slain them in the day of Thine anger; Thou hast killed and not pitied. — the young and the old lie on the ground in the streets; young men and old men, virgins and aged women; these promiscuously lay on the ground in the public streets, fainting and dying for want of food; or lay killed there by the sword of the enemy; the Chaldeans sparing neither age nor sex;
— my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; by the sword of the Chaldeans, when they entered the city: thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger: thou hast killed, and not pitied; the Chaldeans were only instruments; it was the Lord’s doing; it was according to his will; it was what he had purposed and decreed;
The Targum
The young and the old who were accustomed to recline on pillows of fine wool and upon ivory couches were prostrate on the earth of the open markets. My virgins and youths have fallen, killed by the sword. You have killed in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered and shown no pity.
22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’S anger none escaped nor remained; those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed. — thou hast called, as in a solemn day, my terrors round about; terrible enemies, as the Chaldeans were; these came at the call of God, as soldiers at the command of their general; and in as great numbers as men from all parts of Judea flocked to Jerusalem on the solemn feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles;
— so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped or remained in the city of Jerusalem and in the land of Judea; either they were put to death, or were carried captive; so that there was scarce an inhabitant to be found, especially after Gedaliah was slain, and the Jews left in the land were carried into Egypt:
The Targum
You will declare freedom to your people, the House of Israel, by the hand of King Messiah just as you did by the hand of Moses and Aaron on the day when you brought Israel up from Egypt. My children will gather all around, from every place to which they had been scattered in the day of your fierce anger, O Lord, and there was no escape for them nor any survivors of those whom I had wrapped in fine linen. And my enemies destroyed those whom I had raised in royal comfort.
Russia could provide its most advanced hypersonic missiles to Venezuela, amid frayed relations with the United States.
The Kremlin claims the Oreshnik missile is impossible to intercept and can carry conventional and nuclear warheads.
Alexei Zhuravlyov, the deputy chairman of Russia’s parliamentary defence committee, warned that “the Americans may be in for some surprises” as he opened the door to a weapons transfer to Venezuela.
“I see no obstacles to supplying a friendly country with new developments such as the Oreshnik or, let’s say, the well-proven Kalibr missiles,” Mr Zhuravlyov told the Russian news website Gazeta.Ru.
The Oreshnik missile, translating as “hazel tree,” is capable of striking any target across the European continent in under an hour if launched from Russia or Belarus, according to Moscow.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has insisted that the missiles are so mighty that using several of them in a strike with conventional warheads would be just as catastrophic as a nuclear attack.
The Oreshnik was first used in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro in November 2024 in what Putin said was a reprisal to Ukraine’s use of long-range weaponry hailing from the US and UK, including Storm Shadow missiles, to hit targets inside Russia.
It is understood Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president, reached out to Putin personally to plead for military assistance amid increased US military presence in the Caribbean.
Mr Maduro asked for Russia to boost air defences, including restoring Russian Sukhoi Su-30MK2 aircraft already in Venezuela’s possession and acquiring 14 sets of missiles, The Washington Post reported last week.
In a letter to the Russian president, Mr Maduro reportedly said that the Sukhoi fighters were “the most important deterrent the Venezuelan national government had when facing the threat of war.”
Caracas also reached out to China and Iran to upgrade its military capabilities and expand defensive ties, according to the paper.
The US deployment in the Caribbean Sea has been swelling for months as Washington dispatched fighter jets, warships, bombers, marines, drones and spy planes in a move that the US president claimed was necessary to sever the flow of drugs into the US.
More than a dozen US strikes on alleged drug traffickers, most of whom departed from Venezuelan shores, have killed more than 60 people since September.
On Saturday, Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokesman, said that Moscow condemns “the use of excessive military force in carrying out anti-drug tasks” by the US, reiterating its “firm support” for Venezuela’s leadership.
Russia and Venezuela have celebrated close ties over the past two decades and signed a strategic partnership treaty in Moscow last year.
Mr Zhuravlyov, describing Russia on Tuesday as “one of Venezuela’s key military-technical partners,” said that it “supplies the country with almost the full range of weaponry.”
On Tuesday, Putin announced that the Sarmat intercontinental heavy missile will enter Russia’s combat service from next year.
The nuclear missile, nicknamed Satan II, has been touted as the “world’s deadliest weapon.”
In the Study, we’ll find Jeremiah’s prophecies were not solely meant for the house of Judah; although some of them were, but the prime focus of God’s warnings were for the house of Israel as well, and is relevant for a latter time, our time; so be vigil.
Jeremiah, a Prophet to the house of Judah and Israel
A Study Index of Jeremiah
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
— calling of Jeremiah before he was born — “I have put my words in thy mouth” — to root out and to plant the royal family — out of the North an evil shall break forth — prophecy of a Sword coming from the North
~ Chapter 2
— the Lord brought them out through a land of deserts — from shadow of death, scorpions and fiery serpents — a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates — and olives, a land flowing with milk and honey — the way of going to Assyria or going to Egypt
— Judah played the harlot with many lovers — “Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done?” — “Her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned to Me” — “We lie down in our shame”
~ Chapter 4
— “If thou wilt return, O Israel” — “Declare ye in Judah and publish in Jerusalem” — “The whole land shall be desolate” — “Woe is me now, for my soul is wearied”
— “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem” — “How shall I pardon thee for this?” — they lie in wait as he that setteth snares — as a cage full of birds so are houses full of deceits — “justice” on Epstein: Ghislaine, HRH Andrew
~ Chapter 6
— “Prepare ye war against her! Arise” — “Hew trees, cast a mound against Jerusalem” — ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace — “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable” — “Behold, a people cometh from the North”
— “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house” — women knead cakes for the Queen of heaven — “Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem and cast it away” — from Queen of heaven, Astarte; to Easter today
~ Chapter 8
— worshipping of heavenly bodies are forbidden — but My people know not God’s judgement — wise men ashamed; they are dismayed and taken — over 98.5% of Christians honouring the Sun
— they bend their tongues like their bow for lies — “Behold, I will melt them and try them” — Who is the wise man that may understand this? — “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom”
~ Chapter 10
— “Learn not the way of the heathens” — the palm tree proliferates during Christmas — “At His wrath the earth shall tremble” — Ephraim is a chronic liar, full of deceits
— “Proclaim these words in the cities of Judah” — “Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof” — behold, thy young men shall die by the Sword — their sons and daughters shall die by famine — and there shall be no remnant of them
~ Chapter 12
— why doth the way of the wicked prosper? — “If thou run with footmen and have wearied thee — then how canst thou contend with horses?” — “but if all mine evil neighbours will not obey — I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation”
— “Go and get thee a linen girdle” — every bottle shall be filled with wine — and I will dash them one against another — Can the Ethiopian change his skin — or the leopard his spots?
~ Chapter 14
— “Judah mourneth and its gates languish” — “Pray not for this people for their good” — “The prophets prophesy lies in My name” — “Sword and famine shall not be in this land — by Sword and famine shall they be consumed”
— “Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me” — “And I will appoint over them four kinds” — “Verily it shall be well with thy remnant” — I sat not in the assembly of mockers
~ Chapter 16
— “Thou shalt not take thee a wife” — “Enter not into the house of mourning” — there shall ye serve other gods day and night — “Surely our fathers have inherited lies”
— “The sins of Judah is written with an iron pen” — “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man” — let them be confounded that persecute me — “Hallow the Sabbath day and do no work”
~ Chapter 18
— “O house of Israel, what do I do with this potter?” — a kingdom, to build and to plant it — I will scatter them as with an east wind — let wives bereaved their children and be widows — more about keeping the Sabbaths
— “Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle” — “Hear the word of the Lord at the East Gate” — this place shall no more be called Tophet — but the Valley of Slaughter — your carcasses shall be meat for the fowls — and for the beasts of the earth
~ Chapter 20
— Pashhur the son of Immer the priest — he smote Jeremiah and put him in stocks — “Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself” — O Lord, Thou deceived me and I was deceived — cursed be the day wherein I was born
— King Zedekiah sent Pashhur unto Jeremiah — Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Behold — I will turn back the weapons of war in your hands — weapons that recoil like a boomerang — “And I myself will fight against you — with an outstretched hand and in great wrath”
~ Chapter 22
— “Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah” — spare them not, neither have pity nor mercy — King Jehoahaz, taken into Egypt and died there — King Jehoiakim carried to Babylon and died there — Coniah son of Jehoiakim with signet but childless
— “Woe be unto the shepherds of Israel — that destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” — I will bring evil upon them, even a year of visitation — in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly — prophets who prophesy lies in My name — saying, “I have dreamed, I have dreamed”
~ Chapter 24
— and behold, two baskets of figs — one basket the figs that are good and ripe — the other basket that are bad and evil — more on God’s name, Yehovah יהוה YHVH
— Jeremiah spoke unto all the people of Judah — and this land be a desolation and an astonishment — and shall serve Babylon for seventy years — “Take the wine cup of this fury at My hand — all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it — evil shall go forth from nation to nation — howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes”
~ Chapter 26
— “Speak unto all the cities of Judah — I will make this house like Shiloh” — the priests, prophets and people took Jeremiah — saying, “Thou shalt surely die!” — “This man is not worthy to die”
— to kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon — all these shall serve Nebuchadnezzar, My servant — hearken not to your prophets, nor your dreamers — the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord — they shall also be carried to Babylon
~ Chapter 28
— false prophet Hananiah the Gibeonite — within two years the vessels of the Lord’s house — will be restored back to Jerusalem — within a year Hananiah died (two months) — according to the word of Jeremiah
— to the captives Nebuchadnezzar carried away — build ye houses and dwell in them — and plant gardens and eat the fruit of them — take ye wives and beget sons and daughters — take wives for sons; daughters to husbands — false prophet Shemaiah shall not have seed
~ Chapter 30
— write these words that I have into a book — it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble — “in destroying I will not destroy thee” — all thy lovers have forgotten thee — all thy lovers will turned against thee
— O virgin of Israel; Oh house of Joseph — “Rachel, weeping for her children” — but planters shall plant and shall not eat them — the watchmen upon Mount Ephraim shall cry — “Arise, let us go to Zion unto the Lord our God” — Ephraim a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke
~ Chapter 32
— Jeremiah the prophet thrown into the prison — Zedekiah king of Judah caught trying to flee — Jeremiah obliged Hanameel’s request to buy a field — the fear of the Lord is not in the house of Israel — Israel turns his back and not his face unto Me
— Yehovah, not the Lord, is his name — “They come to fight with the Chaldeans — but it is to fill them with dead bodies — whom I slain in Mine anger and fury — and for all whose wickedness — I have hid My face from this city”
~ Chapter 34
— “Thus saith the Lord: I will give this city — into the hand of the king of Babylon — and he shall burn it with fire” — every seven years man let go his bond servant free — they agreed but having cold feet, they relented
— “Go to the Rechabites and speak unto them — and give them wine to drink” — “But we will drink no wine, nor our sons forever — nor build a house, sow seed nor plant a vineyard” — “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man — to stand before Me forever”
~ Chapter 36
— “Take thee a scroll of a book — write the words that I’ve spoken unto thee — against Israel and against Judah — against all the nations I’ve spoken unto thee — from the days of Josiah even unto this day”
— Zedekiah petitions false prophets to pray for him — “The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us” — the princes smote Jeremiah and put him in prison — Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah be at court — that they should give him daily a piece of bread
~ Chapter 38
— “He that remaineth in this city shall die by the Sword — by the famine and by the pestilence — but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live” — “I’m afraid of the Jews who are fallen to the Chaldeans — lest they deliver me into their hand and mock me”
— Nebuchadnezzar and his army against Jerusalem — came and besieged it — Zedekiah tried to escape — the Chaldeans army pursued and overtook Zedekiah — the sons of Zedekiah were slewed before his eyes — and bound him with chains to Babylon
~ Chapter 40
— Jeremiah given protection by Nebuzaradan — and was freed from his chains — Gedaliah, made governor of Judea — but Ishmael the son of Nethaniah plan to kill him — won’t listen to Johanan the son of Kareah
— Ishmael the son of Nethaniah came — and smote Gedaliah, the governor of Judea — carried away captives, even the king’s daughters — and plan to go over to the Ammonites — but Johanan the son of Kareah rescued them
~ Chapter 42
— but Johanan were bent on going to Egypt — they obey not the voice of the Lord their God — then shall the Sword which ye feared — shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt — shall die by the Swords, famines and pestilences
— Jeremiah speaks to all the people of Judea — “Thou speakest falsely,” says Johanan, son of Kareah — so they came into the land of Egypt — the obelisks of Bethshemesh, the temple of the Sun — “And I will kindle a fire to the gods of Egypt”
~ Chapter 44
— they hearkened me not, nor inclined their ears to me — but their wives burned incense unto other gods — and the burning incense to the Queen of heaven — “I will punish by the Sword, famine and pestilence” — but they vow to burn incense to the Queen of heaven — more on the Queen of heaven: Astarte, Easter
— Jeremiah spoke unto Baruch the scribe — “Woe is me now! — for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow — that I have built will I break down — that which I have planted I will pluck up — even this whole land”
~ Chapter 46
— the word came to Jeremiah against the nations — against Egypt, the Ethiopians and the Libyans — against the Pharaoh king of Egypt — against the daughters dwelling in Egypt — against their gods
— the word of the Lord against the Philistines — the noise of stamping hoofs by horses — and at the rushing of his chariots — against Gaza; against Ashkelon — O thou Sword of the Lord
~ Chapter 48
— against Moab, saith the Lord of hosts — every head shall be bald and beard clipped — “Behold, Nebuchadnezzar shall fly as an eagle — and he shall spread his wings over Moab” — Moab shall be destroyed from being a people
— the Targun; Edom, Esau “land of the South” — prophecy on Esau: drunken, bare and despised — the Targun; the Southland, Sepharad, is Spain — of Teman, Dedan, Bozrah of Idumea — of Damascus, Kedarenes or Arabians — of Elamites or Persians “land of the East”
~ Chapter 50
— the Lord spoke against Babylon — “Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded” — an assembly of great nations from the North — “A Sword is upon the Chaldeans” the liars — a snare and archers against Babylon
— “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon” — Babylon is a golden cup in the Lord’s hand — “I am against thee, O destroying mountain — thus saith the Lord: Set up the watchmen! — thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise”
~ Chapter 52
— Zedekiah rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar — who slewed the sons of Zedekiah before his eye — and slewed also all the princes of Judah — then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah — and he burned the house of the Lord
Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia is at the heart of a standoff between the European Union, the U.S. and China that has triggered a near-crisis for global automakers.
Meetings are underway in Europe on Saturday to try to defuse the issue.
Chinese and U.S. authorities appear to be opening up a pathway for Nexperia’s China-based operations to resume exporting critical chips.
For now, the auto industry’s supply chain hangs in the balance, threatening vehicle production worldwide as companies warn of looming shortages of the chipmaker’s components.
Netherlands-based chipmaker Nexperia is at the heart of a standoff between the European Union, the US and China that has triggered a near-crisis for global automakers.
The Dutch government seized control of Nexperia, owned by the Chinese company Wingtech, in October, citing national security concerns. The move prompted Beijing to block Nexperia products from leaving China.
Meetings are underway in Europe Saturday to attempt to defuse the escalating issue, and Chinese and U.S. authorities appear to be opening up a pathway for Nexperia’s China-based operations to resume exporting critical automotive chips.
The dispute is threatening vehicle production worldwide as automakers warn of looming shortages of the chipmaker’s components, which are critical to basic electrical functions in cars and challenging to replace on short notice.
The battle has unfolded amid heightened scrutiny of Chinese-linked tech firms from Western governments, including the US, which recently tightened export-control rules to limit technology transfers to Chinese-owned entities.
Nexperia’s owner, Wingtech, was put on a US blacklist in December 2024 for its alleged role “in aiding China’s government’s efforts to acquire entities with sensitive semiconductor manufacturing capability.”
Why are Nexperia chips so important?
Nexperia manufactures billions of so-called foundation chips — transistors, diodes and power management components — that are produced in Europe, assembled and tested in China, and then re-exported to customers in Europe and elsewhere. Around 70% of chips made in the Netherlands are sent to China to be completed and re-exported to other countries.
The chips are basic and inexpensive, but are needed in almost every device that uses electricity. In cars, those chips are used to connect the battery to motors, for lights and sensors, for braking systems, airbag controllers, entertainment systems and electric windows.
Nexperia had sales of $2 billion last year.
In late October, automakers, such as Volkswagen, Nissan Motor and Mercedes-Benz, sounded the alarm about potential production cuts if Nexperia’s chip exports are curtailed for long.
While automakers typically have some stockpiles and alternative suppliers, it is difficult to switch supply sources overnight.
What happened and where do things stand?
In September, the Dutch government invoked a Cold War-era law to effectively take control of Nexperia, amid concerns that its Chinese owner was planning to shift intellectual property to another company it owned. A Dutch court also suspended Nexperia CEO, Wingtech founder Zhang Xuezhen, citing mismanagement.
Beijing retaliated weeks later by imposing export controls on certain Nexperia products made in China, escalating tensions and fueling fears of a broader supply chain shock. That prompted the company to tell carmakers it could no longer guarantee supplies.
But signs of a breakthrough have started to emerge.
On Friday, reports said the US plans to announce that Nexperia will resume sending chips under a framework agreement reached during talks between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, citing sources familiar with the matter. And on Saturday, China said it will exempt some Nexperia chips from its export ban. Chinese officials did not specify what those exemptions could entail.
“We will comprehensively consider the actual situation of the enterprise and exempt eligible exports,” The Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement.
If finalized, the exemptions could ease immediate pressure on automakers. But the broader dispute over ownership, technology control and security oversight remains unresolved.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony for spiritual inspiration and understanding, as virtually all the endtime Churches do, is an absolute disgrace.
The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. That is, the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us today from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
False shepherds and false teachings abound everywhere so much so that, if possible, even the elect are deceived! Thus for correction, it is with certainty that when it is spewed out of God’s mouth, it is into the Fire! Selah!
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20
That is, we wouldn’t be able to understand these prophecies until the “latter days.” In the latter days could be our time, the endtime, or soon to be, then we shall understand these prophecies clearly: a foretaste of which is that the calamities which will have come upon us are the divine judgement upon our sins. We are all trying, but only in the endtime would we be able to appreciate these prophecies perfectly.
Jeremiah 51
The Chaldeans, especially under Nebuchadnezzar their king, has been described by God as “the king of Babylon, My servant” in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 43:10). So this and the previous chapter contain a long prophecy concerning the destruction of Babylon following their judgement as well.
1 Thus saith the Lord: “Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against Me, a destroying wind.
— thus saith the Lord, behold, I will raise up against Babylon; the Babylonians being the last and most notorious enemies of the Jews, yet Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant, his horsewhip, but as they were against the Lord’s people the Lord was against them;
— the Targum renders it, “against the inhabitants of the land of the Chaldeans;” a destroying wind; a northern one by the army of the Medes and Persians, which should sweep away all before it.
Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant, his horsewhip, but as they were against the Lord’s people, the Lord was against them
2 And will send unto Babylon winnowers that shall fan her, and shall empty her land; for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.
— and God will send unto Babylon farmers that shall fan her, and shall empty her land; or “strangers that shall fan her” meaning the Medes and Persians, who should be like a strong wind upon the mountains, where corn, having been threshed was fanned and the chaff carried away by the wind;
—and such would the Chaldeans be in the hand of the Persians, scattered and dispersed among the nations as chaff with the wind and their cities be emptied of inhabitants and of their wealth and riches; the Targum says, “I will send against Babylon spoilers, that shall spoil and exhaust the land.”
3 Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that lifteth himself up in his brigandine; and spare ye not her young men; destroy ye utterly all her host.
— against him let the archer bend his bow; these are either the words of the Lord to the Medes and Persians, to the archers among them, to bend their bows and level their arrows against the Chaldeans who had bent their bows and shot their arrows against others; or of the Medes and Persians stirring up one another to draw their bows and fight manfully against the enemy;
— and spare ye not her young men; because of their youth, beauty and strength: destroy ye utterly all her host; her whole army, whether officers or common soldiers; or let them be accoutred in what manner they will. The Targum says “destroy all her possessions completely.”
4 Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are thrust through in her streets. — thus the slain shall fall by the Sword or by Arrows and Darts of the Medes and Persians; and they that are thrust through in her streets.
5 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah by his God, by the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.”
— though their land was filled with wickedness and sin, rather, but the land of the Israelites is filled with sins; therefore the Lord addresses himself to his people living in Babylon, urging the proper behavior at the time of Babylon’s downfall.
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord’S vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense.
— flee out of Babylon and deliver every man his soul; be not cut off in her iniquity, by taking part in the idolatry which brought destruction upon her; for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’S hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. — Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, a nation noted for power and glory;
— gold, the grandeur, splendour and riches of the empire, all is due to the Lord’s blessing that made all the earth drunken, drawn the nations of the earth into idolatry; drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad, intoxicated and deprived of a sound mind, are bound for destruction.
8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: Howl for her! Take balm for her pain; if so be she may be healed. — Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed; or “broken” even into shivers, as a cup is;
— for when it had been used to answer the purposes designed by the Lord, he let it fall cut of his hands at once and it was broken; or rather he dashed it in pieces as a potter’s vessel.
9 We woud have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country, for her judgement reacheth unto heaven and is lifted up even to the skies.
10 The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness; come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Make bright the arrows! Gather the shields! The Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; for His device is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple.
12 Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon! Make the watch strong! Set up the watchmen! Prepare the ambushes! For the Lord hath both devised and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
— get ready the watchmen! God would set up numerous watchmen at the endtime! thus this chapter must be prophetic instead of historical, although there is always some elements of them being historical;
“Surely the Lord God will do nothing, unless He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets,” Amos 3:7
— prepare the ambushes; or “lies in wait” to second or relieve those on the walls upon occasion; or seize unawares the besiegers, should they attempt to scale the walls and enter the city.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness. — O thou that dwellest upon many waters; here Babylon is addressed as dwelling in many waters, that is, in numerous coastlines, island and land, perhaps indication of numerous nations;
— who, by the great river Euphrates; being branched out into several canals or rivers, both ran through it and encompassed it; hence mention is made of the rivers of Babylon, Psalms 137:1; and a fit emblem this city was of mystical Babylon, which is also said to sit on many waters, interpreted as of many people and nations, Revelation 17:1;
— thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness; this flourishing city was now near its end and with it the whole Babylonish monarchy; the Targum says, “the day of thy destruction is come, and the time of the visitation of thy wickedness.”
14 The Lord of hosts hath sworn by Himself, saying, “Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillars, and they shall lift up a shout against thee.”
15 He hath made the earth by His power; He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by His understanding. — the Lord and Creator of the whole world will destroy the idols of Babylon, and break the mighty kingdom that rules the world.
16 When He uttereth His voice there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures.
— through thunders, he makes a roaring sound of water in the heavens, he causes clouds to ascend from the end of the earth, makes lightnings for rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasures.
17 Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. — he brings ruin on the whole earth by subjugation of the nations and devastation of their molten inages.
18 They are vanity, the work of errors; in the time of their visitation they shall perish. — all idols will be destroyed before the almighty power of the Creator and Ruler of the whole world on the day of judgement,
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of His inheritance; the Lord of Hosts is His name. — and Israel shall then learn that he who formed the universe will show himself by the fall of Babylon.
20 “Thou art My battleax and weapons of war; for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms. — for with thee will I break the nations into pieces and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; or “with thee I have broke in pieces” as the nations surrounding the kingdom of Judea: Tyre, Egypt, Edom, Moab, Ammon and others.
21 And with thee will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in pieces the chariot and his rider.
22 With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid.
23 I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight,” saith the Lord.
— all their evil that they have done in Zion, in your sight, saith the Lord; for all the evil the Chaldeans had done in Judea; the ravages they had made there, the blood they had shed and the desolation they had made; and particularly for what they had done in Jerusalem and especially in the Temple, burning, spoiling and profaning;
— God would now righteously punish them and retaliate all this evil on them; and which should be done publicly before all the nations of the world and particularly in the sight of God’s own people: for this phrase, “in your sight” does not refer to the evils done in Zion but to the recompense that should be made for them.
25 “Behold, I am against thee, O destroying mountain,” saith the Lord, who destroyest all the earth; “and I will stretch out Mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
— behold, God is against thee, O destroying mountain; Babylon was situated in a plain, but is called a mountain here; because a mountain being a strong nation, even an empire; a hill being a smaller nation;
— and God will stretch out his hand upon thee: in a way of vindictive wrath, pouring it out upon her and inflicting his judgements on her; laying hold on and seizing her in a furious manner as a man does his enemy when he has found him.
26 And they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever,” saith the Lord. — God threateneth to Babylon an utter ruin and desolation, so as they should not have a stone left fit to lay a foundation,
— or to make a corner-stone; or, as some others interpret it, that city should never be rebuilt, there should never from the rubbish of it be taken a stone to lay the foundation.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations against her; call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars.
— kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz; these were countries under the dominion of the Medes.
28 Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. — prepare the nations against her: animate them, stir up their spirits against her, and furnish them with armour to engage with her.
29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow; for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without an inhabitant.
— and the land shall tremble with sorrow; the land of Chaldea, the inhabitants of it, should tremble; to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have remained in their strongholds; their might hath failed, they have become as women; they have burned her dwelling places, her bars are broken.
— her bars are broken; the bars of the gates of the city, or of the palaces of the king and nobles and of the houses of the people, by the soldiers to get the plunder; see Isaiah 45:1.
31 One courier shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, — one post should be after another, and one messenger after another, post upon post, and messenger upon messenger, as fast as they could run;
— when one had been with his message and delivered it, and returned, he meets another; or they met one another, coming from different places: to show the king of Babylon his city is taken.
32 and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. — the reeds; literally, the marshes or pools, which formed an important part of the defenses of Babylon, were dried up as completely as a piece of wood would be consumed by fire.
33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor; it is time to thresh her; yet a little while and the time of her harvest shall come.” — the daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor; God’s people have been sorely bruised and trodden under foot by the Babylonians,
34 “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me; he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel. He hath swallowed me up like a dragon; he hath filled his belly with my delicacies, he hath cast me out.
— Nebuchadnezzar hath swallowed God’s people like a dragon; or “whale” or any large fish which swallow the lesser ones whole.
35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” shall the inhabitant of Zion say; “and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!” shall Jerusalem say. — the violence done to me, and to my flesh, be upon Babylon; that is, let the injuries done to Zion and her children, be avenged on Babylon;
— the Targum says, “the sin of the innocent blood which is shed in me;” let that be imputed to them, and vengeance come upon them for it.
36 Therefore thus saith the Lord: “Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions; they shall yell as lions’ whelps.
39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,” saith the Lord.
40 “I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with hegoats. — God will bring Babylon down like lambs to the slaughter; to the place of slaughter; who shall be able to make no more resistance than lambs; this explains what is meant by being made drunk, both the Chaldeans, or Israelites;
— like Boris Johnson, intoxicated and deprived of a sound mind, purposely flew over to Kyiv to sabotage the Peace Deal between Ukraine and Russia way back in April, 2022; and as a result, over three year on, Ukraine is being ravaged and destroyed! and the UK is sleeping a perpetual sleep, with high inflation; even destruction and a slow death.
41 “How Sheshach is taken! And how the praise of the whole earth is surprised! How Babylon has become an astonishment among the nations! — how is Sheshach taken! Not the city Shushan but Babylon as is plain from a following clause; and so the Targum says, “how is Babylon subdued!”
— how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! or “a desolation” and indeed it had being a desolation was the reason of its being an astonishment among the nations; who were amazed to see so strong, rich and splendid a city brought to ruin in a very short time
— same as the Israelites:
“And I will persecute them with the Sword, with the Famine, and with the Pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse and an astonishment and a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven them,” Jeremiah 29:18
42 The sea has come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof. — by a grand metaphor the invading army is compared to the sea; the image is appropriately taken from the Euphrates.
43 Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. — Babylon is abundant in treasures, yet neither her waters nor her wealth shall secure her; destruction comes when they least think of it.
44 And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him. Yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall.
— and I will punish Bel in Babylon, the chief deity of the Babylonians, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up, taking away from him what he had robbed and devoured through the hands of those who worshiped him;
— and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him, flocking to Babylon in streams to consecrate their treasures to him; yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall so that the city would be open to all enemies.
45 “My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. — my people, go ye out of the midst of her; this is a call of the Jews to go out of Babylon, not before the taking of the city by Cyrus;
— but when he should issue out a proclamation, giving them liberty to return to their own land; which many of them, being well settled in Babylon, would not be ready to accept the offer, but choose to continue to live there;
— wherefore they are urged to depart from thence, because of the danger they would be exposed unto their idols; for though the city was not destroyed by Cyrus upon his taking it, yet it was by Darius Hystaspes sometimes after. The same call is given to the people of God to come out of mystical Babylon, Revelation 18:4.
46 And lest your heart faint and ye fear for the rumor that shall be heard in the land—a rumor shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumor and violence in the land, ruler against ruler” — for rumours after rumours shall come; the war, then, will last some time, and all kinds of rumours will be in the air.
47 therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgement upon the graven images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. — and the whole land of Chaldea shall be confounded, when they shall see that their idols will do them no more service.
48 Then the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for Babylon, for the despoilers shall come unto her from the north,” saith the Lord.
— then the heaven and the earth and all that is therein shall sing for Babylon, rejoicing over her fall; for the spoilers shall come unto her from the North, saith the Lord, and the sentence executed by him is the cause of their jubilation.
49 As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. — as Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel; in Jerusalem, when that city was taken the Chaldeans, and destroyed;
— so at Babylon shall all the slain of all the earth; or “land” that is, the land of Chaldea; the inhabitants of which fled to Babylon upon the invasion of the Medes and Persians, both for their own safety, and the defence of that city; and where being slain they fell; and this was a just judgement for what they had done to Israel.
50 Ye that have escaped the sword, go away; stand not still. Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. — let those in exile in Babylon, who have escaped death, hasten their return to Jerusalem, while there is still time.
51 We are confounded because we have heard reproach; shame hath covered our faces, for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’S house. — for strangers; the “reproach” which has stung us, came when they taunted us with the fact that they had burned the Temple.
52 “Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that I will do judgement upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. — for which profanation of my holy place, I will revenge their graven images.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall despoilers come unto her,” saith the Lord.
— though Babylon should mount up to heaven; could their walls, which were very high, two hundred cubits high, as Herodotus says, be carried up as high as heaven; or their towers, which were exceeding high,
— the Targum says, “if Babylon should be built with buildings as high as heaven, and should fortify the strong holds on high:” yet from me shall spoilers come, saith the Lord; the Medes and Persians.
54 A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, — the cry of the distressed was then heard upon the great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans;
55 because the Lord hath despoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great voice. When her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is uttered, — the prophet Jeremiah heard the cry of the captured city like great running waters.
56 because the despoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken; every one of their bows is broken. For the Lord God of recompenses shall surely requite. — the prophet Jeremiah in the spirit sees these destroyers as already come.
57 “And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her captains and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not wake,” saith the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.
— and God will make her princes and wise men drunk, the counselors of the kingdom, her captains and her rulers and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, namely, the sleep of death, saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the folk in the fire; and they shall be weary.”
— thickness of the walls of Nineveh and Babylon shall be utterly broken; nor are we to be astonished, that no remains, not the least traces of these prodigious works are to be found today.
59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
— the word which Jeremiah commanded Seraiah; the order the prophet gave this prince to take a copy of it with him to Babylon and read it there and cast it into the river Euphrates, with a stone bound it. Of this Seraiah: he is further described as:
— the son of Neriah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign; Zedekiah, in the fourth year of his reign, went to Babylon, to reconcile himself to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and took Seraiah with him.
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon, even all these words that are written against Babylon. — so Jeremiah wrote all the evil that should come upon Babylon; the punishment prophecised by God:
— this Jeremiah delivered, not by word of mouth to Seraiah to relate when he came to Babylon; but he wrote it in a book for him to read and reread; and he wrote it himself; Baruch, his scribe, not one who transcripted for him here;
— even all these words that are written against Babylon; in this and the preceding chapter: this book written by Jeremiah was a copy of them.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When thou comest to Babylon and shalt see, and shalt read all these words, — thou shalt see to it and read, or see to it and read; who is to read it to his countrymen in captivity; not in public, but in private, for the Chaldeans would not have understood Hebrew.
62 then shalt thou say, ‘O Lord, Thou hast spoken against this place to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.’ —
63 And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.
— that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates; the book being read was to be rolled up again and then a stone tied to it and cast into the middle of the river, from whence it could not be taken up;
— and this was a sign confirming the above prophecy; compare with this what was done by a mighty angel concerning mystical Babylon, in which there is an allusion to this, Revelation 18:21.
64 And thou shalt say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her; and they shall be weary.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.
— thus shall Babylon sink and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her; as this book, with the stone bound to it does, and shall no more rise than that can;
— the evil of punishment brought on Babylon will sink her to such a degree that she will never be able to bear up under it; but be so depressed by it as never to rise to her former state and grandeur any more.
Jeremiah 52
The list of kings of Judah towards the end; in successive reigns, as Josiah (reign 640–609 BC), Jehoahaz (reign 609 BC), Jehoiakim (reign 609–598 BC), Jehoiachin or Jechonias (reign 598–597 BC), and Zedekiah (reign 597–586 BC)
1 Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
— and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; so that he was thirty two years of age when he was taken and carried captive into Babylon.
2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. — and he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord; though we do not read of any idolatry he was guilty of;
— yet he was disobedient to the word of the Lord, and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet; and particularly he rebelled against the king of Babylon and violated the oath he made to him, II Chronicles 36:12.
3 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah, till He had cast them out from His presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
— for through the anger of the Lord against Jerusalem and Judah, his wrath over their disobedience causing him to cast them from his presence and to permit the rebellion of Zedekiah, which resulted in the final overthrow of the southern kingdom, till he had cast them out from his presence, (the Shekinah left the Temple, out of Jerusalem and finally out of the land of Judea).
4 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came — he and all his army — against Jerusalem, and encamped against it and built forts against it round about. — this would be around 588 BC.
5 So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. — the siege continued about eighteen months; from the tenth day of the tenth month, in the ninth of Zedekiah’s reign to the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of his reign; from 588 to 586 BC.
6 And in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. — the month Tammuz, which is part of June and part of July; hence the fast of the fourth month, for the taking of the city, Zechariah 8:19; in the year 586 BC.
7 Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about), and they went by the way of the plain.
8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him. — not finding him in his palace, and being informed of his flight, and which way he took, they overtook him in the plains of Jericho.
9 Then they took the king and carried him up unto the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgement upon him. — and carried him up unto Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath; which is Antioch in Syria;
10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; he slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. — and the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes; or, however, ordered them to be slain;
— Nebuchadnezzar slew also all the princes of Judah in Riblah; who together with the king’s sons were taken with him; or, however, were taken in Jerusalem and brought to Riblah; which of them is not certain, very probably the former.
11 Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. And the king of Babylon bound him in chains and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death. — and for his treason, Nebuchadnezzar put out the eyes of Zedekiah;
12 Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem. — came Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, or chief marshal; which served the king of Babylon,
13 And he burned the house of the Lord, and the king’s house; and all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men burned he with fire. — and burnt the house of the Lord; the Temple built by Solomon, after it had stood four hundred and seventy years, six months and ten days, according to Josephus: but the Jews say it stood but four hundred ten years;
— and all the houses of the great men burnt he with fire; of the princes and nobles in Jerusalem; it is in the singular number, “and every house of the great one” or “every great house.” Rashi interprets it of the synagogue, where prayer was magnified; but others, understood it of the schools, where the law was magnified.
14 And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. — a picture is worth a thousand words!
The Fall of Jerusalem: a picture is worth a thousand words!
15 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive certain of the poor of the people and the residue of the people who remained in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude. — some of the poor people he carried as captives, but some of them he left behind.
16 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen. — but Nebuzaradan left certain of the poor of the land there; of the land of Judea who lived in the country and had not been concerned in defending the city against the Chaldeans;
— for vinedressers and for husbandmen; to look after the vineyards and fields and dress and manure them, that the king of Babylon might receive some tributes in return by the conquest he had made.
17 Also the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke, and carried all their brass to Babylon.
— also the pillars of brass that were in the Tenple; on either aide of the main entrance of the Sanctuary, 1 Kings 7:15, and the bases and the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke, in order to make all these pieces fit for transportation and carried all the brass to Babylon.
18 The cauldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, took they away.
— the cauldrons are large pots made of bright brass used for sacrificial worship and the shovels and the snuffers and the bowls and the spoons, vessels for incense and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered, they took away all those used for the altar of burnt offerings in the Court of the Priests.
19 And the basins, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the cauldrons, and the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups — that which was of gold in gold and that which was of silver in silver — took the captain of the guard away.
— and the basins and the firepans and the bowls and the cauldrons and the candlesticks and the spoons and the cups, all these used chiefly in the ministrations of the Temple; that which was of gold in gold and that which was of silver in silver, in either case of solid metal, not of some cheap alloy or merely plated, took the captain of the guard away.
20 The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord — the brass of all these vessels was beyond weighing.
— the two pillars, one sea and twelve brazen bulls that were under the bases, 1 Kings 7:23:, which King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord. The brass of all these vessels was without weight, its mass beyond calculation.
21 And concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it, and the thickness thereof was four fingers; it was hollow.
— and concerning the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass it, that in round numbers, being the circumference of either of the pillars and the thickness thereof was four fingers; it was hollow. The thirty-five cubits of II Chronicles 3:15 either refer to a different cubit, or they give the sum total of both pillars less the bases.
22 And a capital of brass was upon it; and the height of one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of brass. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these.
— and a capital or column of brass was upon it and the height of its upper part, where it curved away from the shaft, was five cubits, with network and pomegranates upon the capitals round about, all of brass, in the nature of ornaments in chains or festoons. The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these;
— the bases (1 Kings 7:27), and the brazen sea (1 Kings 7:23), which were too vast in their proportions to be easily carried away to Babylon, were broken to pieces by the Chaldeans, who carried off the brass of which they were made.
23 And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates upon the network were a hundred round about. — to the four winds; towards every corner or wind twenty four, which make up ninety six;
— and all the pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about; four, standing upon the four winds, added to the ninety six to make a hundred;
24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door. — the three keepers of the door; these were not the ordinary porters, who were taken from among the Levites, but were priests who stood at the door to receive the offerings of the people, and thus were keepers of the sacred treasury.
25 He took also out of the city a eunuch who had the charge of the men of war, and seven men from those who were near the king’s person who were found in the city, and the principal scribe of the host who mustered the people of the land, and threescore men of the people of the land who were found in the midst of the city.
— and threescore men of the people of the land; persons of prime note, who, upon the invasion, betook themselves from the country to the city of Jerusalem with their effects, and to defend it. Josephus calls them rulers or governors.
26 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. — and brought them to Nebuchadnezzar in Riblah; to knew his thought concerning them; how they should be disposed of; and for him to pass sentence on them,
27 And the king of Babylon smote them and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land. — but Nebuchadnezzar smote them and put them to death: and according to Josephus, by having them smitten with the sword; to have their heads cut off.
28 These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, three thousand Jews and three and twenty; — in the seventh year, at the first captivity under Jehoiachin, three thousand Jews and three and twenty, these being of the tribe of Judah only, those from other tribes being more than twice as many;
29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons; — in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, after his actual accession to the throne, but nineteen years after he had gotten into power, II Kings 25:8, he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two persons;
30 in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
— in the three and twentieth year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away captive seven hundred forty and five persons; evidently Jews only, were four thousand and six hundred, not including the general multitude and the women and children.
31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him forth out of prison;
— and it came to pass in the seven-and-thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, the decree being issued, II Kings 25:27, that Evilmerodach, king of Babylon (or during Nebuchadnezzar’s exclusion from men among beasts), son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin, king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, in which he had been held all these years,
32 and he spoke kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, — and spoke kindly unto him, treated him with great respect, and set his throne above the throne of the king’s that were with him in Babylon, captive monarchs of other conquered nations,
33 and changed his prison garments. And Jehoiachin continually ate bread before him all the days of his life. — giving the captive king new garments, more suitable to his royal dignity than those he wore in prison, filthy and of ill smell.
34 And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life. — every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life; that is, of Jeconiah’s; how long he lived after this is not known;
— he was now fifty five years of age and cannot be thought to have lived a great while after, having been imprisoned so many years; and it is certain he did not live to the return from the captivity. Of the death of Zedekiah we have no account, only that he died in prison. The Jews say he died at this very time, when Jeconiah was advanced;
— the account here given of Jeconiah has led some to conclude that this chapter was not written by Jeremiah; since it cannot be well thought he should live so long as to the death of this prince; and besides had given an account of the destruction of Jerusalem in the thirty ninth chapter, which he would hardly repeat: though that he might do, partly for the sake of new circumstances here added; and partly as an introduction to the book of the Lamentations, which follows the book of Jeremiah. Amen!
Last thought!
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
That is, we wouldn’t be able to understand all these prophecies until the “latter days.” In the latter days could be our time, the endtime, or soon to be, then we shall understand these prophecies clearly: a foretaste of which is that the calamities which will have come upon us are the divine judgement upon our sins. We are all trying, but only in the endtime would we be able to understand these things perfectly. Amen!
China solves ‘century-old problem’ with new analog chip that is 1,000 times faster than high-end Nvidia GPUs. This explains why President Xi couldn’t be bothered to ask President Trump to ease restrictions on selling Nvidia’s most advanced chip, the state-of-the-art Blackwell chips, to Chinese companies.
Designed by Chinese scientists at Peking University, the analogue chip utilises resistive memory materials that may enable faster and more efficient data handling.
China’s new chip is 1,000 times faster than high-end Nvidia GPUs
Scientists in Peking University have developed a new chip, with a twist: it’s analog, meaning it performs calculations on its own physical circuits rather than via the binary 1s and 0s of standard digital processors.
What’s more, its creators say the new chip is capable of outperforming top-end graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia and AMD by as much as 1,000 times.
In a new study published Oct. 13 in the journal Nature Electronics, researchers from Peking University said their device tackled two key bottlenecks: the energy and data constraints digital chips face in emerging fields like artificial intelligence (AI) and 6G, and the “century-old problem” of poor precision and impracticality that has limited analog computing.
Assistant Professor Sun Zhong, a co-author of the study, said in a university release that achieving both precision and scalability in analogue systems has been a “century-old problem” for scientists worldwide.
When put to work on complex communications problems — including matrix inversion problems used in massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems (a wireless technological system) — the chip matched the accuracy of standard digital processors while using about 100 times less energy.
By making adjustments, the researchers said the device then trounced the performance of top-end GPUs like the Nvidia H100 and AMD Vega 20 by as much as 1,000 times. Both chips are major players in AI model training; Nvidia’s H100, for instance, is the newer version of the A100 graphics cards, which OpenAI used to train ChatGPT.
The new device is built from arrays of resistive random-access memory (RRAM) cells that store and process data by adjusting how easily electricity flows through each cell.
Unlike digital processors that compute in binary 1s and 0s, the analog design processes information as continuous electrical currents across its network of RRAM cells. By processing data directly within its own hardware, the chip avoids the energy-intensive task of shuttling information between itself and an external memory source.
“With the rise of applications using vast amounts of data, this creates a challenge for digital computers, particularly as traditional device scaling becomes increasingly challenging,” the researchers said in the study. “Benchmarking shows that our analogue computing approach could offer a 1,000 times higher throughput and 100 times better energy efficiency than state-of-the-art digital processors for the same precision.”
“Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” Isaiah 28:1
“The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle” Psalm 78:9
Chapter 49 contains prophecies concerning the judgements of God on several nations and kingdoms, chiefly bordering on the land of Israel; on the Ammonites; which lies to the east of the Jordan; and of Edomites, Edom, which lay south to the land of Israel; the kingdom of Damascus, or the Syrians, the Kedarenes or Arabians, and on the Elamites or Persians.
The fate of the modern state of Jordan lies in this prophecy!
Of particular interest is a prophecy of Esau, Edom: the Targum identifies the Southland, Sepharad, as Spain, Obadiah 1:20; south of both houses of Israel.
A prophecy of Esau, Edom: the Targum identifies the Southland, Sepharad, as Spain, Obadiah 1:20. This prophecy is now playing a critical role in world affairs today.
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
That is, we wouldn’t be able to understand these prophecies until the “latter days.” In the latter days could be our time, the endtime, or soon to be, then we shall understand these prophecies clearly: a foretaste of which is that the calamities which will have come upon all mankind are the divine judgement upon our sins. We are all trying to understand, but only in the endtime would we be able to appreciate all these things perfectly.
Jeremiah 49
1 Concerning the Ammonites, thus saith the Lord: “Hath Israel no sons? Hath he no heir? Why then doth their king inherit Gad, and his people dwell in his cities? — hath Israel no sons? hath he no heir? certainly he has, and who ought to possess the land east of the Jordan;
— is there no posterity of Israel that the king of the Ammonites hath taken possession of Gad, as if he had a right to it, and his people dwell in the cities of it? or, why did Gad lost their land to the children of Ammon?
— this is speaking retrospectively of the ten tribes, for these had been long ago carried captive, and left no heirs of their tribes to inherit their land there; except for the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; who would be their next in blood, the lawful heirs of their lands;
— 1 Kings 11:5; the Ammonites having got possession of the land set up their idol, Milcom, in it where their temples were built for him and altars erected and sacrifices offered to him, and must be very offensive to and highly resented by the God of Israel;
— from the Message Bible
“God’s Message on the Ammonites: “Doesn’t Israel have any children, no one to step into her inheritance? So why is the god Milcom taking over Gad’s land, his followers moving into its towns? But not for long! The time’s coming” MSG
2 Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire; then shall Israel be heir unto them that were his heirs,” saith the Lord.
— therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord; or “are coming” as in many translations, indicating the latter days; this being their case, its timing could be as well meant for the endtime; thus a prophecy;
— that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites; the metropolis of the Ammonites; it was their royal city in the times of David; this the Lord threatens with the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war or the noise of warriors as the Targum says;
— the Chaldean army under Nebuchadnezzar, who, about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem subdued the Ammonites; and it shall be a desolate heap; be utterly destroyed; its walls broken down, and houses demolished, and made a heap of rubbish:
— her daughters shall be burnt with fire: Rabbah was the mother city, and the other cities of the Ammonites were her daughters, which are threatened to be destroyed with fire; or it may mean the villages round Rabbah, it being usual in Scripture for villages to be called the daughters of cities; so the Targum paraphrases it, “the inhabitants of her villages shall be burnt with fire,”
— then shall Israel be heirs unto them that were his heirs: that is, shall inherit their land again which the Ammonites pretended to be theirs; yea, not only possess their own land but the land of Israel too: this was fulfilled not immediately upon the destruction of Ammon, but in part upon the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity when they repossessed their own country; and will against today’s Jordan when the full ten tribes return from their Second Exodus;
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause the sound of battle to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon. It shall become a desolate heap, and its villages shall be burned with fire. Then Israel shall take possession of the property of those nations who had dispossessed them, says the Lord” the Tagum
3 “Howl, O Heshbon, for Ai is despoiled! Cry, ye daughters of Rabbah; gird you with sackcloth! Lament, and run to and fro by the hedges; for their king shall go into captivity, and his priests and his princes together.
— howl, O Heshbon, at that time occupied by the Ammonites; for Ai is spoiled, had already been subdued by the invaders; cry, ye daughters of Rabbah, the towns and villages near the capital, gird you with sackcloth, in token of deep mourning;
— lament and run to and fro by the hedges in the fenced encampment, such as were quickly erected out in the open fields, since the cities no longer offered any protection; for their king shall go into captivity, in this case their idol Melchom with whom the heathen king was pleased to identify himself and his priests and princes together.
4 Why gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, O backsliding daughter, that trusted in her treasures, saying, ‘Who shall come unto me?’ — wherefore gloriest thou in the valleys, thy flowing valley, flowing with abundance, with milk and honey,
— O backsliding daughter? so called because the children of Ammon had denied their descent from Lot and had turned to idolatry;
— that trusted in her treasures, in her wealth of resources and goods, saying, Who shall come unto me? namely, in a hostile attack. Today’s Jordan could well boast that no enemy could successfully launch a campaign against their land.
5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee,” saith the Lord God of hosts, “from all those that be about thee; and ye shall be driven out, every man straight forth, and none shall gather up him that wandereth.
— behold, God will bring a fear upon today’s Jordan, whose misfortune and overthrow would bring terror upon them; and ye shall be driven out, every man, right forth, straight ahead, without turning; this is the fate of modern Jordan!
6 And afterward I will bring back the captives of the children of Ammon,” saith the Lord. — and afterwards God will bring again the captivity of the children of Ammon, perhaps by another Cyrus;
— for, in the times of Judas Maccabeus, the children of Ammon were again a large and mighty people, “Afterward he passed over to the children of Ammon, where he found a mighty power and much people, with Timotheus their captain” (1 Maccabees 5:6).
7 Concerning Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts: “Is wisdom no more in Teman? Is counsel perished from the prudent? Is their wisdom vanished? — concerning a subtle shift from the Ammonites to Edom, thus saith the Lord of hosts; or “unto Edom;”
— or “against Edom” all which also true, the Idumeans, the posterity of Esau, who was called Edom; Herod the Great, an Idumean, king over Judea; was an example of the Idumean cruelty over the Jews; which could be as yet future, points at the destruction of Rome and the Romans, who with the Jews frequently go by the name of Edom;
— is wisdom no more in Teman? a city in Edom which had its name from Teman, a grandson of Esau, Genesis 36:11; whose descendants were called Temanites; one of which was Eliphaz, a friend of Job’s, Job 2:11; it was a principal city, famous for men of wisdom.
— the Targum says, “is there no more wisdom in the south?” but Rashi interprets it as Edom, which lay south to the land of Israel; “And your south side shall be from the desert of Zin close by the side of Edom” (Numbers 34:3).
— one other theory is that the Ottoman Turks (or today’s Turkey) are the sons of Teman. Perhaps, from Chief Teman, they could be another branch of the numerous sons or grandson of Esau.
8 Flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him, at the time that I will visit him. — flee ye, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; another city in Idumea; though some take it to be a country in Arabia, bordering on Edom, and subdued by the Edomites: the inhabitants of this place are advised to “flee” for their lives;
— since the enemy was just upon them; and “turn back” lest they should fall into his hands; and hide themselves in some deep caverns, in holes, and dens of rocks and such like places. It is a prophecy that they should flee from and turn their backs on their enemies to some very secret places for safety;
— for I will bring the calamity of Esau upon him; which was determined concerning him, threatened to utter destruction of the whole land: the time of his visitation; the time fixed to visit him in a way of wrath and punishment to come.
9 If grape-gatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough. — the Targum renders it, “if thy spoilers, as grape gatherers, should come to thee,” would not they leave some for the poor to glean? certainly they would and not take every cluster;
— if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough who break into houses, these will eat and drink as much as is sufficient, and carry off what serves their turn; but they seldom take away everything they find in a house; but it is suggested that the Chaldeans should take away all from the Edomites and leave them nothing; see Obadiah 1:5.
10 But I have made Esau bare; I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself; his seed is despoiled, and his brethren and his neighbors, and he is no more. — but I have made Esau bare; by the hand of the Chaldeans;
— stripped him of everything that is valuable; of his cities, castles, villages, people, wealth and treasure; I have uncovered his secret places; where either his substance was hid, or his people; these were made known to their enemies, who seized on both;
— and he shall not be able to hide himself; even in his deep places in the caves and dens of the earth, but his enemy shall find him out:
— his seed is spoiled and his brethren and his neighbours, his children, as the Targum says; and his brethren, the Ammonites and Moabites; and his neighbours, the Philistines; or as many as were with him and belonged unto him:
— and he is not: his kingdom is not; he is no more a people and nation, but all destroyed by the sword or carried captive; or there should be none left of his brethren, and neighbours, and friends to say to him what follows: “leave thy fatherless children.”
11 Leave thy fatherless children; I will preserve them alive; and let thy widows trust in Me.” — the Targum takes them to be an address to the people of Israel, paraphrasing them thus: “you, O house of Israel, your orphans shall not be left, I will sustain them and your widows shall trust in my word.”
12 For thus saith the Lord: “Behold, they whose judgement was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunk. And art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? Thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.
— they whose judgement was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; meaning some of the other nations, who had not dealt so ill with the Jews as the Edomites had, at least their sins were not so aggravated as theirs were in a comparative sense; for otherwise it was but just that they should be treated in the manner they were; since they were not so guilty as these were;
— and art thou he that shalt altogether go unpunished? if lesser sinners are not let go free, how should it be thought that greater ones should? and especially if judgement had begun at God’s own people, the wicked Edomite could not expect to escape.
13 For I have sworn by Myself,” saith the Lord, “that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.” — but Bozrah of Idumea is the royal city of Edom, Isaiah 63:1; shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste and a curse.
14 I have heard a word from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent unto the heathen, saying, “Gather ye together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle!”
15 “For lo, I will make thee small among the heathen and despised among men. — for, lo, I will make thee small among the nations; Or “I have given thee” or “made thee”
— as if Edom was a people few in number, and their country not large, and which was the reason of gathering the Chaldeans against them, to reduce their number, weaken their strength, and destroy their substance and so make them a small, feeble and contemptible people;
— and despised among men: for the fewness of their men, the desolation of their country, the consumption of their wealth and riches, their poverty and meanness; see Obadiah 1:2 “Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised (“Behold, I have made thee small among the nations; thou art greatly despised.
— thou art greatly despised; a parallel here in Jeremiah 49:15 “For lo, I will make thee small among the heathen and despised among men,” as the term beaners (Latinx or Latinos?) could allude to); the Targum identifies the Southland, Sepharad, as Spain (more at the end).
16 Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill; though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence,” saith the Lord.
— thy arrogance has misled you, the fact that other nations seemed to stand in awe of Edom had caused him to think that he was really formidable, and the pride of thine heart, insolence usually having this influence upon the heart of the proud to deceive them, wherefore the Lord now calls out;
— O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that boldest the height of the hill, some of the forts of Idumea being situated on almost inaccessible cliffs, though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, showing that before Him no stronghold is impregnable;
— one Report by McKinsey & Company says of the 60 millions Latinos in US, they often live in ‘deserts’ where adequate housing, groceries are hard to find. “Nearly 9 in 10 of the Latino residents in such communities lived in five states: California, Florida, New Jersey, New York and Texas.”
McKinsey & Company: Latinos are projected to make up 22.4 percent of the US labor force by 2030 and more than 30 percent by 2060 (Latinos population to 111.2 million by ’60).
17 “Also Edom shall be a desolation; every one that goeth by it shall be astonished and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. — also Edom shall be a desolation; not only Bozrah, its principal city, before spoken of, but the whole country of Idumea should be laid waste;
— its fortified cities destroyed; its riches plundered; and its inhabitants slain with the sword; every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, filled with horrified surprise at the total overthrow of the country and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof with a sound expressing derision and mockery.
18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof,” saith the Lord, “no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. — as in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah; which was so sudden and general, that nothing was left, or any spared; so should it be with Edom;
— no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it; it would be an uninhabited desert;
— the Lord was asked to remember in Psalms 137 against the Edomites who had asked that Jerusalem be razed to its foundations:
Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem’s fall, who said, “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” Psalms 137:7
— to call for the razing of the Temple of God “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” is a abomination and heavy disrespect against the Most High. The Most High God dwelled there and these Edomites cheered the Babylonians to burn it down? Madness! Just Madness!!!
19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan against the habitation of the strong; but I will suddenly make him run away from her. And who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? And who will appoint Me a time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before Me?”
— behold, a king shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan; the Targum interprets it of a king and his army, paraphrasing the words thus, “behold, a king with his army shall come up against them, as a lion comes up from the height of Jordan”
— as Nebuchadnezzar and his army that should come up against the Edomites from the land of Judea, where Jordan was; against the habitation of the strong the land of Edom, a country well fortified in which mighty men dwelt; particularly Mount Seir, where their king was and which was “the fold of the mighty”
— and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? or king, as the Targum says, any king, prince or potentate, who are often called shepherds; the king of Edom is particularly pointed at whose habitation or fold is before observed: alas! what could such a shepherd do? or how could he stand before the almighty God or any lion he should send?
20 Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He hath taken against Edom, and His purposes that He hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely He shall make their habitations desolate with them.
— surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them; or “their folds” the sheep shall be destroyed and their folds shall be demolished; that is, the inhabitants of Edom shall be slain with the sword, and their cities, towns and villages, shall be laid waste;
— who is Edom/Esau today? The answer lies in the book of Obadiah; and Jonathan Targum identifies Esau (Sepharad of the Southland identified) as Spain! Obadiah 1:20; the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain, hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim;
— Wikipedia: Sepharad (/sɛfəræd/or səˈfɛərəd/ Hebrew: סְפָרַד Sp̄āraḏ; also Sefarad, Sephared, Sfard) is the Hebrew name for the Iberian peninsula. A place called Sepharad, probably referring to Sardis in Lydia (‘Sfard’ in Lydian), in the Book of Obadiah (Obadiah 1:20, 6th century BC) of the Hebrew Bible. The name was later applied to Spain and is analogous to Tzarfat or Ashkenaz.
21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall; at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red Sea. — the earth is moved at the noise of their fall, quaking with its intensity, at the cry the noise thereof was heard in the Red Sea, or, as the Targum says, “a crying the noise of it is heard at the Red Sea.”
22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah; and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
— behold, he, the conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar; was a great eagle with his famed cruelty over the Jews as king over Judea; shall come up and fly and spread his wings as the eagle over Bozrah, to pounce down upon the whole country;
— and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. No matter how impregnable the position of God’s enemies may seem in the eyes of human beings, they will quickly fall before the attack of the Lord.
23 Concerning Damascus: “Hamath is confounded, and Arpad, for they have heard evil tidings; they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet. — concerning Damascus. Hamath, a powerful city on the Orontes, is confounded, and Arpad, another mighty city, both of them now within the confines of Syria;
— for they have heard evil tidings; they are faint-hearted, full of concern on account of the reports which they have heard; there is sorrow on the sea, terror among the inhabitants along its shores; it cannot be quiet, there is no rest for worry over the outlook.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her; anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. — Damascus is waxed feeble, utterly discouraged and enfeebled; and turneth herself to flee, anguish and sorrows have taken her as a woman in travail, the terror of utter despair.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of My joy! — how is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy? How was it that the place of delight as Damascus was called of old, was not abandoned by its inhabitants, so that they might have saved their lives by a speedy flight?
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day,” saith the Lord of hosts. — her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off, saith the Lord of hosts;
27 “And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.” — and I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad, the royal dwellings and therewith at least a part.
28 Concerning Kedar and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the Lord: “Arise ye, go up to Kedar, and despoil the men of the East. — the kingdoms of Hazor; a new prophecy concerning the Arabians; for Kedar was a son of Ishmael;
— which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon shall smite, thus saith the Lord: that is, “thus saith the Lord “against Kedar” as in Jeremiah 49:1 which the king of Babylon “hath smitten” the past for the future, common in prophetic language;
— and spoil the men of the east; the Arabians, which lay east of Judea and Babylon: or “the children of Kedem” the same with Kedemah, another son of Ishmael, Genesis 25:15; whose posterity dwelt still more to the east; the Targum renders it “the children of the east.”
29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take away; they shall take for themselves their curtains and all their vessels and their camels; and they shall cry unto them, ‘Fear is on every side!’ — their tents and their flocks, shall they take away; their curtains, the costly woven goods and the hangings of their tents;
— and all their vessels, household utensils as well as such pieces of furniture and adornment as comprised their wealth and their camels; and they, the invading forces, shall cry unto them, in a shout of war; Fear is on every side.
30 Flee, get you far off! Dwell deep, O ye inhabitants of Hazor,” saith the Lord. “For Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you. — flee, get you far off, run apace, dwell deep, hide themselves in remote places;
— O ye inhabitants of Hazor! saith the Lord; for Nebuchadnezzar hath taken counsel against you. This warning is addressed to the wilderness dwellers, since no conqueror would venture to follow them into the trackless wastes of the desert.
31 “Arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without cares,” saith the Lord, “which have neither gates nor bars, which dwell alone. — arise, get you up unto the wealthy nation, a tranquil tribe, having no presentiment of evil that dwelleth without care in calm security, saith the Lord;
— which have neither gates nor bars, not dwelling in fenced and fortified cities; which dwell alone with little or no intercourse with other nations or tribes from which they might expect assistance in case of an attack.
32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil; and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof,” saith the Lord. — and their camels shall be a booty and the multitude of their cattle a spoil, a welcome bit of plunder for the enemies;
— and God will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners, those who have the edges of their hair trimmed; for these tribes had the custom of clipping the hair of head and beard in a peculiar angle; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord.
33 “And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, and a desolation for ever; there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it.” — and Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, the habitation of jackals and a desolation forever;
— there shall no man abide there nor any son of man dwell in it. This prophecy was fulfilled when the Chaldeans on their way to the West and South, sent detachments of troops to bring these nomadic tribes into subjection.
34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, — the word of the Lord that came unto Jeremiah the prophet against Elam; the Persians, as it is commonly understood, who descended from Elam the son of Shem, Genesis 10:22;
— according to Josephus; but rather the country of Elymais is here designed; which though in the times of Cyrus was added to and made a part of the Persian empire, yet was a country distinct both from Persia and Media; and as though as near unto Persia and bordering on Media, a country that belonged to the Assyrians; and so it seems that Elam served under Sennacherib, king of Assyria, when he besieged Jerusalem.
35 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. — thus saith the Lord of hosts, I will break the bow of Elam; the inhabitants of this country were famous for their skill in archery; this the Lord threatens to break so that it should be useless and of no more service to them to defend themselves or annoy others;
— their strength, as the Targum says; that in which their great strength and security lay; in which they put their trust and confidence; the chief of their might;
— or may design their mighty men, the archers themselves, who should be destroyed, even Elam itself, and all the inhabitants of it especially their warriors, who should be slain or carried captive.
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
— and upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven; the Targum interprets it the four kingdoms; see Daniel 7:2. Some think this had its accomplishment in the times of Alexander; or else after his death in the times of his four successors;
— and will scatter them towards all those winds; those four winds, east, west, north and south.
37 For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before them that seek their life; and I will bring evil upon them, even My fierce anger,’ saith the Lord; ‘and I will send the sword after them till I have consumed them.
— for I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies; frightened; thrown into the utmost consternation so that they shall have no heart nor spirit to go out against them and meet them and defend themselves; but make all haste imaginable to flee from them, such a panic would seize them;
— and before them that seek their life; a further description of their enemies; they being such, who, not content with their substance sought to take away their lives; nothing less would satisfy them; being cruel and blood thirsty:
— and I will bring evil upon them even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and a greater evil than that cannot be; signifying that the destruction that should be made among them would be the effect of the wrath of God upon them for their sins:
— and I will send the sword after them till I have consumed them; that is, those that slay with the sword, as the Targum says; these should go after those that fled and destroy them till the greater part of them were consumed; for all of them that were taken were not destroyed.
38 And I will set My throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes,’ saith the Lord. — my throne in Elam; this is called the Lord’s throne, because he gave it to him; his conquest of Elam, and his dominion over it, were from him;
— and will destroy from thence the king and the princes; either when Alexander subdued it, or Cyrus, or rather Nebuchadnezzar, whose palace probably was, or his successors was, in Shushan in Elam, as observed from Daniel 8:2; Jeremiah 25:25;
— though that is observed in the first year of his reign, some have thought that it is best to understand it or Cyrus, the Lord’s servant and anointed; and whose throne might well be called the throne of God, and when this country of Elam, or Elymais, became at part of the Persian empire.
39 “‘But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring back the captives of Elam,’ saith the Lord.” — and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the Lord; so that there should be no more kings of Elam, and princes and nobles of their own, after this time; and because mention is made of the kings of Elam in the times of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah 25:25;
— though that is observed in the first year of his reign, some have thought that it is best to understand it or Cyrus, the Lord’s servant and anointed; and whose throne might well be called the throne of God, which he gave him, and set him on in an eminent manner, not only there, but elsewhere; see Ezra 1:2;
— and when this country of Elam, or Elymais, became at part of the Persian empire, and never had any more kings to reign over it separately. Some of the Jewish Rabbins interpret the possibility of the fulfilment of the king and princes of Vashti of Haman and his sons.
And the captives of this host of the children of Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad (בִּסְפָרַ֑ד Hebrew 5614) shall possess the cities of the south. Obadiah 1:20
And the exiles of this nation of the Children of Israel that is in the land of the Canaanites (shall inherit) until Zerapahath. And the exiles of Jerusalem that are in Ispamiah will inherit the villages of the south land. Obadiah 1:20 (Targum: Jonathan)
— Rashi: And this exiled host: Heb. הַחֵל. Jonathan renders: This people. הַחֵל, An expression of a host. Cf. (Isa. 36:2) “And he came to Jerusalem with an army (חֵיל) of a great multitude,” which deals with Rabshakeh, only that this one is missing a “yud.” It is also possible to explain גָלֻת הַחֵל as “the exile of this valley.”
— and the exile of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad: who are of the people of Judah who were exiled to Sepharad – they shall inherit the cities of the southland, which are in the Southern part of Eretz Israel. The exegetes [a person who interprets text, especially the Scriptures] claim that Zarephath is the kingdom called France in French.
— Jonathan renders: Spain (Rashi quoting the Targum: Sepharad shall inherit the cities of the Southland rendering it as Spain); the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain (Ispamia or Ispania), hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim;
— Peshitta (Lamsa): The first exiles, that is, of the children of Israel, shall possess the land from Canaan as far as Zarephath; and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Spain shall possess the cities of the south (hard copy).
— Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges: Sepharad is the name of a place; the modern Jews understand it of Spain, and accordingly, “at the present day the Spanish Jews, who form the chief of the two great sections into which the Jewish nation is divided, are called by the Jews themselves the Sephardim, German Jews being known as the Ashkenazim.”
Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, has been described by God as “the king of Babylon, My servant,” in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, 27:6, 43:10). So this and the following chapter contains a long prophecy concerning the destruction of Babylon following their judgement as well.
The term, my servant, its intended meaning might be mistook in our society today, and thus not many of God’s shepherd understand this concept properly; what God really means and for all practically being prophecised to mean, actually is “my horsewhip.”
A horsewhip made of tan leather: Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, has been described by God as “the king of Babylon, My servant.”
1 The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet: — the word that the Lord spoke against Babylon; or the city of Babylon, the metropolis of the Chaldean empire; sometimes it signifies the whole country, here the city appears only as follows:
— and against the land of the Chaldeans; these people are mentioned last, because the rest of the nations were to drink the cup of God’s wrath at their hands, and then the Chaldeans were to drink it after them, Jeremiah 25:9;
— this is to be understood not only of Babylon and its empire, literally taken, but of mystical Babylon and its dependencies; of Rome and its jurisdiction; the last enemies of the church and people of God, who will be destroyed by the pouring out of the seven vials; Revelation 15:1.
2 “Declare ye among the nations, and proclaim and set up a standard; proclaim and conceal not. Say, ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces! Her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces!’
— declare ye among the nations and publish and to call the attention of all men to the importance and the significance of this announcement; declare and conceal not; say, Babylon is taken; Bel, the chief deity of the Chaldeans, thought by some to be Baal by contraction; is confounded;
— Merodach, another name for the same idol is broken in pieces. Her idols are confounded, covered with shame and confusion, her images are broken in pieces, powerless before the almighty power of Yehovah.
3 For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein; they shall be removed, they shall depart, both man and beast.
— for out of the North there cometh up a nation against the Chaldeans; (1) the Medes and Persians, under Cyrus were one nation; and not only lay North of Judea where this prophecy came, but of Babylon, against which they were to come; and besides, Cyrus came through Assyria to Babylon which lay North of it; Isaiah 41:25;
— or (2) is this a prophecy for the endtime? Notice the triple “shall;” nar, it is a a quadruplet or quadruple: thus very much indicative of a prophecy; North of Babylon, the Chaldeans, lays Russia, Gog and Magog? Others, like Joel Richardson, says it is Turkey.
4 “In those days and in that time,” saith the Lord, “the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping; they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.
— in those days, and at that time, saith the Lord; when Babylon shall be taken and destroyed, then what follows shall be accomplished; which, as it respects the conversion of Israel, shows that this prophecy is not to be restrained to literal Babylon;
— the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together: this is prophetic, parallel to Ezekiel 37 where the whole house of Jacob will be joined together.
5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces turned thitherward, saying, ‘Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.’ — they shall ask the way to Zion, the habitation of God, their Lord, Yehovah, their faces toward Jerusalem;
— saying, Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten as the first covenant had been act aside by an apostate nation.
6 My people hath been lost sheep; their shepherds have caused them to go astray. They have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
— my people have been lost sheep; their shepherds, the very men who were entrusted with their care being guilty of this gross neglect; have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains, the places of idolatry;
— they have gone from mountain to hill, from one altar of idolatrous worship to the next; they have forgotten their resting-place, in the care of the Most High where they could lie down in safety.
7 All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, ‘We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.’
— all that found them have devoured them; as lost and wandering sheep are liable to be found, and to be devoured, by every beast of prey, lions, wolves and bears; so the house of Jacobs were found by their neighbours,
— their enemies and especially by their endtime “Chaldeans” or “Assyrians” having forsaken God, and being forsaken by him; and which is their case now and are often found and seized upon by their enemies and made a prey of under one pretence or another.
8 “Depart out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the hegoats before the flocks. — remove out of the midst of Babylon,
— so all Israelites are now warned to go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans where they were as yet held in captivity and be as the he-goats before the flocks, the leaders of all oppressed nations as they now turned to flee.
9 For lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall set themselves in array against her. From thence she shall be taken. Their arrows shall be as of a mighty destroyer; none shall return in vain. — against Rome, or mystical Babylon;
— the Medo-Persian kingdom lies the great monarchies of the east, not north; for, lo, God will raise and cause to come up, against Babylon an assembly of great nations from a North Conglomerate, an army composed of many nations; and they shall set themselves in array against her with full equipment for warfare;
— north of Babylon could most probably be Russia; others, like Joel Richardson, says Turkey: the land of Gog and Magog, and many nations with him; hence this would be a prophetic endtime prophecy; where the hostile nations have assembled themselves; their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man.
10 And Chaldea shall be a spoil; all that despoil her shall be satisfied,” saith the Lord. — and Chaldea shall be a spoil, a prey ready for the invaders; all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord,
— since they were getting all that their heart desired in the way of rich booty. In this sense the Lord now turns directly to Babylon in pronouncing sentence upon the Chaldean Empire.
11 “Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of Mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls,
— because ye were glad, rejoicing, O ye destroyers of Mine heritage, the Chaldeans were rejoicing destroying Judah, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, skipping like a threshing calf or heifer, with proud insolence and bellow as bulls, or “neigh as steeds,” in overweening, challenging pride.
12 your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert.
— your mother shall be sore confounded; the monarchy of the Chaldeans; or rather their metropolis, their mother city, the city of Babylon; which would be confounded when taken, none of her sons being able to defend her: the same will be true of mystical Babylon, the mother of harlots, Revelation 17:5.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be inhabited, but it shall be wholly desolate; every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues.
— because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited; that is, Babylon; which the Targum expresses, “because thou, Babylon, hast provoked the Lord” by their idolatry, luxury, ill usage of his people and profanation of the vessels of the sanctuary; therefore it should be destroyed and left without an inhabitant in it.
14 Put yourselves in array against Babylon round about; all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she hath sinned against the Lord. — position yourselves around Babylon, surrounding the city to launch an attack from all sides at once;
— all who draw the bow, the archers symbolizing the entire opposing army, prepare for battle; shoot at her, spare no arrows; for she hath sinned against the Lord, she has fully deserved the punishment being meted out to her.
15 Shout against her round about; she hath given her hand. Her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her.
— shout all round about against her, encouraging one another with loud and fierce battle-cries; she hath given her hand, thereby submitting to the conquerors; her foundations are fallen, the fortifications in which she trusted for safety;
— her walls are thrown down, so that she is now helpless before the invaders; for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the destruction of Babylon was a punishment determined by him; take vengeance upon her, retaliation being permitted in this instance; as she hath done to others.
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest; for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they shall flee every one to his own land.
— cut off the sower from Babylon and him that handleth the sickle, or scythe in the time of harvest so that both sowers and reapers would be destroyed and there could be no harvesting in the entire country;
— for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people and they shall flee every one to his own land, the strangers in the country getting ready to preserve their lives before the threatening catastrophe comes.
17 “Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria hath devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.”
— a scattered sheep; or Israel is like a sheep that is frightened and drove from the fold and is dispersed and wanders about here and there; Israel in this context includes all the twelve tribes:
— the lions have driven him away; from his own land and carried him captive and scattered him among the nations; these lions are afterwards interpreted of the kings of Assyria and Babylon: so the Targum says. “Israel is a scattered people;”
— first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; eaten up his flesh; meaning Shalmaneser king of Assyria, who carried captive the ten tribes that never returned and therefore said to be devoured:
— and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones; or “boned him” took out his bones, all his strength and substance; or took the flesh off of them, stripped him of all his wealth and riches, reduced him to his bones, made a mere skeleton of him.
18 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.
— as God have punished the king of Assyria; not Shalmaneser, that carried the tribes captive; but a successor of his, Chynilidanus, the last king of Assyria; who was killed when Nineveh was taken, the metropolis of Assyria and which was done before this prophecy was delivered; and the return to their own land; which is prophesied in Jeremiah 50:19.
19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation; and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead.
— and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead; and as they were all fruitful places and had good pasturage, so they belonged to the ten tribes; which shows that it respects the return of them and the fulness of blessings, they shall then enjoy.
20 In those days and in that time,” saith the Lord, “the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.
— in those days and in that time, saith the Lord, the prophecy now again turning to the endtime, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, no longer any guilt would be charged against it;
— and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found; granting them forgiveness and pardon; if enemies of the Lord, whom he, for any reason whatever, has used as his instruments to carry out his plans, become overbearing and insolent as a consequence, he readily plunges them from the height of their pride to the depths of humiliation and confusion.
21 “Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod. Waste and utterly destroy after them,” saith the Lord, “and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
— go up against the land of Merathaim; which a part lay in Assyria, and part of it in Armenia; Cyrus, with his army of Medes and Persians, who according to Herodotus, passed through Assyria to Babylon: and so it may be agreeably rendered, “go by the land of Merathaim” the Targum says, “the land of a rebellious people.”
22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken! How Babylon hath become a desolation among the nations! — how is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! The Targum says, “how is Babylon the king cut down and broken that moved the whole earth!”
— the king of Babylon or the kingdom of Babylon, like a hammer for its hardness and strength; and being an instrument like a whrsewhip in the hand of God of beating to pieces and destroying kingdoms and nations; but is itself now destroyed;
— how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! this explains who and what is meant by the hammer of the earth and by its being cut asunder and broken; even the utter destruction of the city and kingdom of Babylon.
24 I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware; thou art found and also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord.
— God have laid a snare for them, and O Babylon shall be taken, retorting to the strategy that Cyrus used, in draining the river Euphrates, and marching his army up through it into the midst of the city of Babylon and took it by surprise while the inhabitants were feasting and revelling all night;
— this is said to be a snare laid by the Lord because it was according to the counsel of his will and through his directing and overruling providence: and thou wast not aware of what the enemy had done of his march into the city and taking it;
— for one part of the city was seized and taken before the other knew anything of it; thou art found, and also caught; as wild beasts in a net or birds in a snare. The Targum reaffirms this, “You were ensnared, Babylon, and also caught, though you did not know it. You were found and seized because you provoked the people of the Lord.”
25 The Lord hath opened His armory and hath brought forth the weapons of His indignation; for this is the work of the Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
— and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation; as a king, when he goes to war, opens his armoury and takes out armour of every kind, both offensive and defensive: swords, spears, shields, so the Lord would now bring the Medes and Persians, well armed, to be the instruments of his wrath and vengeance on Babylon:
— or “the vessels of his treasury” having some view to the vessels of the sanctuary, the king of Babylon had taken away and profaned them; these may well be applied to the vials of wrath poured out on them by the angels, called forth out of the Temple.
26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses. Cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left. — come against her from the utmost border, from the most remote corner of the earth,
— or “all men, down to the very last,” open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, that is, all the plunder of the city and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left, the city with all its possessions and treasures was to be burned with fire.
27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them! For their day has come, the time of their visitation. — slay all the bullocks of the Chaldeans, her entire population; let them go down to the slaughter. Woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation, their punishment at the hands of Yehovah.
28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of His temple.
— the voice of the Chaldeans of the land of Babylon, the fugitives saving their lives in the midst of their destruction to the vengeance of the Lord our God, and the vengeance of his Temple.
29 “Call together the archers against Babylon. All ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about; let none thereof escape. Recompense her according to her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her. For she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel.
— call together the archers against Babylon for the siege of the city; all ye that bend the bow, camp against it round about, leaving no loophole for escape; let none thereof escape. Recompense her according to her work;
— according to all that she hath done, do unto her, paying her back in her own coin; for she hath been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel, this pride being the fundamental transgression and fault of Babylon, a form of blasphemy challenging the Lord’s honor.
30 Therefore shall her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day,” saith the Lord. — therefore shall her young men fall in the streets of Babylon; or “surely” it is the form of an oath,
— according to Rashi, Cyrus, when he took Babylon, ordered proclamation to be made that the inhabitants should stay indoors; and that whoever were found in the streets should be put to death as doubtless many were: and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord; as Belshazzar and his guards were; see Daniel 5:30.
31 “Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud,” saith the Lord God of hosts; “for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. — behold, I am against thee, O Babylon; O thou art the most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts, coming to teach her humility;
— for thy day has come, the time that I will visit thee to bring His punishment upon her in full measure.
32 And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.”
— and the most proud shall stumble and fall, literally, “Then pride totters and falls,” the abstract being used to emphasize Babylon’s guilt, and none shall raise him up; and God will kindle a fire in his cities and it shall devour all round about him, the smaller cities sharing the fate of the metropolis.
33 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: “The children of Israel and the children of Judah were oppressed together, and all that took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them go.
— not counting their captivity in Egypt, when God was revealing this prophecy to Jeremiah, the children of Israel and the children of Judah were never oppressed together, so this prophecy could only be futuristic of another Babylonian captivity, and another Babylonian exile;
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, the children of Israel and the children of Judah would be oppressed together in another captivity and exile, and all that took them captives held them fast, would be holding them at some future date time when this prophecy was given; they refused to let them go;
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He shall thoroughly plead their cause, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. — their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Commander of all the heavenly armies; he shall thoroughly plead their cause, taking their part with all needed energy;
— that he may give their land a Sabbath rest to the land so that Judah would once more enjoy peace and security and, on the contrary, disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon who thought that they were altogether secure against all enemies. In order to take the part of his people with the proper zeal, the Lord now calls upon the sword to perform its work against the Chaldeans.
35 “A sword is upon the Chaldeans,” saith the Lord, “and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men! — a sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord; or, “shall be” or “O sword, be thou on the Chaldeans” that is, the sword of the Medes and Persians; those that kill with the sword, as the Targum says;
— and upon the inhabitants of Babylon; the metropolis of Chaldea; the common people in it as distinguished from those of high rank and degree following: and upon her princes; Belshazzar and his nobles who were slain the night Babylon was taken;
— and upon her wise men; prime ministers, politicians, and counsellors of state; neither high birth nor great wisdom can secure from the sword of the enemy when it has a commission from God as it had here.
36 A sword is upon the liars, and they shall dote! A sword is upon her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed!
— a sword is upon their liars; the Targum renders it “diviners” who were a lying set of men, false shepherd, who imposed upon and deceived the people; these with their divinations and soothsayings could not save the land, nor themselves from the devouring sword; nay, their sorceries and divinations were the cause of their ruin.
37 A sword is upon their horses and upon their chariots, and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, and they shall become as women! A sword is upon her treasures, and they shall be robbed!
— a Sword is upon their horses and upon their chariots which were her boast in warfare and upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her, her mercenaries and allies;
— and they shall become as women, weak and utterly unable for effective resistance; a Sword is upon her treasures, the wealth which she had accumulated in the course of her campaigns and they shall be robbed.
38 A drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up! For it is the land of graven images, and they are mad over their idols. — a drought is upon her waters, and they shall be dried up, the dams and irrigation canals being destroyed by the invading army;
— for it is the land of graven images and they are mad upon their idols, literally, “their objects of horror or terror,” for the images which are usually found in heathen sanctuaries are really more likely to frighten than to attract. They have indulged in gross and revolting idolatry and must therefore bear their iniquity.
39 Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein; and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
— therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands, the jackals shall dwell there and the owls, literally, “daughters of crying,” that is, the female ostriches shall dwell therein and it shall be no more inhabited forever, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities thereof,” saith the Lord, “so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
— like the judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah so shall no man abide in Babylon; neither shall any son of man dwell therein; the same is said concerning Edom.
41 “Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the borders of the earth. — behold, a people shall come from the North and a great nation; not the Medes and Persians, whose country lay east of Babylon;
— more probably Gog and Magog and many nations with them. Are they Russians or others, like Joel Richardson, says Turkey?
42 They shall hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel and will not show mercy; their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in array like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
— they shall hold the bow and the lance; or “spear” the Targum interprets it, “shields” as many like Cyrus’s army had them; the one an offensive, the other a defensive weapon; or if bow and lance, the one is used at a distance, the other when near;
— they would be skilled in handling the bow, the armour with large bows and short spears; they would also have javelins or lances, one of which they cast, and the other they held and used in their hands as they found necessary;
— they are cruel, and will not show mercy: not even to infants but dash them against the stones.
43 The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed feeble; anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. — the king of Babylon hath heard the report of the Persians;
— Belshazzar had the report brought to him of an invasion of his land; of their approach to Babylon and design upon it and of their number, character and force;
— and his hands waxed feeble as they did when he saw the handwriting upon the wall, Daniel 5:6; anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail; a sudden panic seized him and he was quite dispirited at once as a woman in childbirth, when her pains come upon her and there is no avoiding them.
44 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan unto the habitation of the strong; but I will make them suddenly run away from her. And who is a chosen man that I may appoint over her? For who is like Me? And who will appoint Me the time? And who is that shepherd that will stand before Me?”
— behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan; what is said of Nebuchadnezzar coming up against Edom is here said of Cyrus coming up against Babylon; for of a king it is to be understood; as the Targum says, “behold, a king with his army shall come up against them, as a lion from the height of Jordan;”
— and who is that shepherd that will stand before me? or king? not Belshazzar, he could not stand before the Lord: so the Targum says “there is no king that hath strength before me” that is, to withstand him or hinder what he has appointed and ordered to be done.
45 Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord that He hath taken against Babylon, and His purposes that He hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; surely He shall make their habitation desolate with them.
— surely the least of the flock shall draw them out; the weakest and most feeble in the army of Cyrus (or the Russians / Turkey for the endtime) should be more than a match for any in Babylon and should draw them out and devour them as dogs and wolves the sheep out of the flock.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations. — at the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved; it being so sudden and unexpected and so very astonishing:
— and the cry is heard among the nations that Babylon is fallen; which, as applied to mystical Babylon, will be matter of joy to some and of lamentation to others; see Revelation 14:8.
Weird, two US Navy aircraft clashed mysteriously within 30 minutes during a routine operations from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, the Pacific Fleet around the Spratly Islands in the congested South China Bermuda Triangle.
Informed of the lost, Trump stated that the back-to-back crashes were “very unusual,” yet he reassured his listeners by expressing doubt that there was any foul play involved.
Two US Navy aircraft have gone down in the South China Sea in separate incidents within 30 minutes of each other, according to the US Pacific Fleet.
President Donald Trump described the back-to-back crashes as “very unusual” and suggested a possible fuel issue while speaking to reporters on board Air Force One Monday, during his flight from Malaysia to Japan. “They think it might be bad fuel. We’re gonna find out. Nothing to hide, sir,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question.
US Navy helicopter and fighter jet crash in South China Bermuda Triangle in separate incidents dubbed ‘very unusual’ by Donald Trump
The two aircraft were conducting routine operations over disputed waters, which China claims to own. Five crew members were involved, all of whom have been safely rescued. Both aircraft were deployed from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.
The US Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter went down in the waters of the South China Sea at around 2:45 pm local time Sunday. All three crew members were recovered safely.
Just 30 minutes later, at 3:15 pm., a $60m F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet also crashed while conducting routine operations from the USS Nimitz. Two crew members ejected from the plane and were later recovered.
The Sea Hawk is assigned to the “Battle Cats” in Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73. The Super Hornet was part of the “Fighting Redcocks” of Strike Fighter Squadron 22.
China’s foreign ministry said Beijing would be willing to assist in any rescue and recovery operations.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a Monday press conference that China “will provide necessary aid from a humanitarian perspective if the US asks.”
This is the F/A-18 that the navy has lost this year in China’s Bermuda Triangle
He also took the opportunity to criticize U.S. operations in the region, accusing Washington of carrying out regular displays of military force in the South China Sea, increasing the risk to maritime activity, and undermining regional peace.
“All personnel involved are safe and in stable condition,” the Pacific Fleet, the world’s largest fleet command, said in a statement. They added that an investigation had been launched into both incidents.
This is the fourth F/A-18 that the navy has lost this year.
At the time of the incident, the USS Nimitz was returning to its home port in Naval Base Kitsap in Washington after being deployed to the Middle East for most of the summer as part of the US response to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on commercial shipping. The carrier was on its final deployment before being decommissioned.
First commissioned in 1975, the Nimitz is the US Navy’s oldest serving aircraft carrier, and is slated for retirement in 2026.
Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are the biggest ships in the navy, measuring almost 1,100 feet from bow to stern. They can operate continuously for 20 years without refueling because they are nuclear powered.
The incidents occurred amid Trump’s tour of Asia, during which he is expected to meet a host of Asian leaders, including President Xi Jinping of China.
Navy loses two aircraft from the USS Nimitz Aircraft Carrier within 30 minutes
China has been ramping up efforts to bolster its territorial claims in the South China Sea amid ongoing disputes over numerous islands and waterways with other Southeast Asian nations. Beijing has been asserting its ownership over almost all of the strategic waterway.
US forces maintain a presence in the region to support regional allies and push back on Chinese sovereignty claims.
Another Vietnam in the making as the United States had moved in a carrier and warships in a major escalation of tension in the Caribbean. And Trump Admin has Decided to Strike inside Venezuela; Attacks Could come at any Time now.
The strikes seek to “decapitate the hierarchy” of the Cartel de los Soles, the Miami Herald claimed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is the architect of the strategy
The Trump administration has already made the decision to strike military facilities inside Venezuela and attacks could take place at any time now, according to a new report.
The strikes seek to “decapitate the hierarchy” of the Cartel de los Soles, which U.S. officials claim is ran by top members of the Maduro regime, the Miami Herald claimed. The outlet cited officials saying they believe cartel exports amount to 500 tons of cocaine every year.
Sources didn’t tell the outlet whether Maduro is a target, but warned that his time is running out. “Maduro is about to find himself trapped and might soon discover that he cannot flee the country even if he decided to,” one of them said.
“What’s worse for him, there is now more than one general willing to capture and hand him over, fully aware that one thing is to talk about death, and another to see it coming.”
The Wall Street Journal also reported on Friday that President Donald Trump has been presented with a list of potential strikes inside Venezuela.
US plans to BOMB Venezuela as Trump’s war hawks brand Maduro ‘al-Qaeda of the West’
The outlet detailed that the targets are considered nexus between the Nicolas Maduro regime and drug-trafficking organizations, including the Cartel de los Soles. They include military ports and airports, as well as naval facilities and airstrips.
The outlet noted that Trump hasn’t made a final decision yet, but he has publicly suggested the current military campaign would go from conducting strikes against alleged drug boats in the ocean to others in land.
The focus of the escalation, it added, would be to convince Maduro to step down. “The President is prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our homeland,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the WSJ in a statement.
And below is a Prophecy between the rivarly between Esau and Jacob
And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother; but it will be that when his sons become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck. Genesis 27:40 Jonathan
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
Chapter 47 contains chiefly a prophecy of the destruction of the Philistines; and also of the Tyrians and Zidonians; Chapter 48 is a prophecy about Moab; but there is also a subtle change of theme, from immediate historic to prophetic.
“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” saith the Lord, indicating during the latter days; this being their case, this prophecy could be as well meant for the endtime.
Jeremiah 47
1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh smote Gaza. — Gaza; one of the five cities of ancient Philistines, a very strong and fortified place, but now it is considered a region of the Palestinians;
— before Pharaoh struck Gaza: Rashi: when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in the tenth year of Zedekiah, Pharaoh’s army came forth from Egypt, and the Chaldeans withdrew from Jerusalem. Pharaoh heard about the Chaldeans withdrawal and invaded Gaza, then returned to Egypt.
2 Thus saith the Lord: “Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein, the city, and them that dwell therein; then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
— thus saith the Lord, behold, waters rise up out of the north; meaning an army of men which should come in great numbers and with great force and rapidity like an overflowing flood. So the Targum says, “behold, people shall come from the north” that is, from Chaldea, which lay north of Palestine.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands,
— the noise of the stamping of horses; the noise of the cavalry of Nebuchadnezzar’s army as they marched towards the Philistines; as they came along and were heard at a distance;
— the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands; they would be so frightened and terrified as not to be able to lift up their hands to defend themselves and protect their children.
4 because of the day that cometh to despoil all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remaineth; for the Lord will despoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
— to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon any that remaineth; but now, being wasted and could give themselves no help when Nebuchadnezzar attacked them; as did Tyre in particular, which he besieged thirteen years, and at last destroyed it and Zidon with it.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza; Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley. How long wilt thou cut thyself?” — baldness is come upon Gaza; the Targum says, “vengeance is come to the inhabitants of Gaza” it’s like a man whose hair is fallen from his head, or is clean shaved off;
— that is, its houses demolished; its inhabitants slain, their wealth plundered; a pillaged and depopulated place. Some understand this of shaving or tearing off the hair for grief and mourning because of their calamities.
6 O thou sword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? Put up thyself into thy scabbard; rest and be still. — O thou sword of the Lord; for though it was through the sword of the Chaldeans, yet being appointed and sent by the Lord, and thus it is called his sword;
— and because, in multiple places (Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 43:10), God describes the one with his sword, Nebuchadnezzar, as “the king of Babylon, My servant,” three times actually;
God’s Sword, describing Nebuchadnezzar, “the king of Babylon, My servant.”
7 How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? There hath He appointed it.
— seeing the Lord hath given it a charge against Ashkelon and against the seashore? for it (the sword of the Chaldeans) had a commission from the Lord to destroy the inhabitants of Ashkelon and other places, which lay still more towards the sea as Joppa and Jamne; and indeed all Palestine lay on the coast of the Mediterranean sea.
Jeremiah 48
Heshbon was the capital city of the Moabites: when the Chaldeans made themselves masters of Heshbon, a place of great importance, they consulted how to carry on their conquests over the rest of the country.
Ancient Heshbon was beyond, that is, east of the Jordan. The city was where the Israelites passed by on their entry to the Promised Land and was assigned to the tribe of Reuben; afterwards it was given to the Tribe of Gad and became a Levitical city for the Merarites.
Heshbon is mentioned in the Books of Numbers and Deuteronomy as the capital of Amorite king, Sihon (or Sehon). The biblical narrative records the story of the Israelite victory over Sihon during the time of Moses.
Heshbon is highlighted due to its importance as the capital of Sihon, King of the Amorites:
“For Heshbon was the city of Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land out of his hand, as far as Arnon.”
Similar passages appear in Deuteronomy and Joshua, with the primary emphasis being the victory of the Israelites over King Sihon at the site of Heshbon. Moses died soon after the victory, after viewing the “promised land” from the top of Mount Nebo.
Following the death of Moses, Heshbon became a town at the border between the lands allocated to the Tribe of Reuben and the Tribe of Gad. Further biblical evidence suggests that the town later came under Moabite control, as mentioned by Isaiah and Jeremiah in their denunciations of Moab, and later under Ammonite occupation as Jeremiah 49:3 strongly suggests.
Who are the Moabites? The descendants of Moab also known as the Moabites had an extensive history dealing with the Israelites. Moab’s beginning was part of Israel’s story but most of the time wasn’t in a good way and is today identified as modern-day Jordan.
1 Against Moab, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Woe unto Nebo! For it is despoiled; Kiriathaim is confounded and taken; Misgab is confounded and dismayed.
— against Moab; thus saith the Lord of hosts, Woe unto Nebo! and Kiriathaim, another ancient city of the country, is confounded and taken; Misgab, literally, “the citadel,” probably Kir-Moab, the strongest fort of the Moabites, or a general expression denoting the overthrow of Moab’s power, is confounded and dismayed.
2 There shall be no more praise of Moab; in Heshbon they have devised evil against it; ‘Come, and let us cut it off from being a nation.’ Also thou shalt be cut down, O Madmen; the sword shall pursue thee.
— come, and let us cut it off from being a nation: this is what the Babylonians consulted together against Heshbon; and not only against that, a principal city; but against the whole country of Moab, that which the Moabites with others devised against the people of Israel is now devised against them; a just retaliation perhaps; see Psalms 83:4.
3 “A voice of crying shall be from Horonaim: ‘Despoiling and great destruction!’ — a voice from Horonaim; another city of Moab. The word Horonaim is a dual number; as there were two Horons, the upper and the lower; of this place should also be destroyed; and so a cry of its inhabitants should be heard out of it.
4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard. — the Chaldeans are to destroy the Moabites; perhaps the whole nation in general; so the Targum, “the kingdom of Moab is broken,” but is this also a prophecy for today’s Jordan?
5 For in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; for in the going down of Horonaim the enemies have heard a cry of destruction. — for in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up; this is another city, which was built on a high hill which had a considerable ascent to it,
— where those that escaped from Horonaim might flee for safety; but as they went up the hill would weep bitterly and all the way they went, because of the loss of friends and sustenance; of this place came the Chaldeans and they heard the cries of those that fled from Horonaim and went up from thence to Luhith, and the cries continues.
6 Flee, save your lives, and be like a naked tree in the wilderness. — flee, save your lives; these are either the words of the Moabites; or that of Jeremiah;
— their cry of destruction mentioned above, who seeing nothing but ruin before their eyes, advise one another to flee in all haste and save their lives if possible since nothing else could be saved.
7 For because thou hast trusted in thy works and in thy treasures, thou shalt also be taken; and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity with his priests and his princes together.
— and Chemosh shall go forth in captivity with his priests and his princes together; this was the god of the Ammonites, Judges 11:24; and of the Moabites, 1 Kings 11:7; hence the Moabites are called the people of Chemosh, Numbers 21:29.
8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken. — and the spoiler shall come upon every city; that is, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his army;
— the Targum says, the spoilers, who came against and took every city of Moab and wasted them; this being known that Nebuchadnezzar subduing the Ammonites and Moabites: and no city shall escape; the spoiler and destruction by him;
— the valley also shall perish and the plain destroyed, as the Lord hath spoken; as the Targum paraphrases it should be destroyed; and also the corn that grew upon them and the flocks and herds that grazed there, exactly as the Lord had foretold.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint. The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. Hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
9 “Give wings unto Moab, that it may flee and get away; for the cities thereof shall be desolate, without any to dwell therein. — give wings unto Moab that it may flee and get away; that is, give wings to the inhabitants of Moab;
— signifying that they were in great danger and no probability of escape unless they had the wings of a swift bird; and passing away with wings may signify not their fleeing from danger and their attempt to escape; but their swift and sudden destruction;
— the Targum says, “Give wings to Moab, for she shall surely flee, and her cities shall become desolate, without anyone dwelling in them.”
10 “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood. — cursed be anyone that doeth the work of the Lord deceitfully; which is said with respect to the Chaldeans, who were enjoined to destroy the Moabites;
— which is called the work of the Lord because he had given them a commission to do; and which was to be done by them, and be fully and faithfully; they were not to spare them, as Saul did the Amalekites; all should be done in uprightness and sincerity with all faithfulness and integrity;
— it is done deceitfully when men play the hypocrite; and negligently when they are backward to it, lukewarm in it, and infrequent in its performance which brings upon them the curse of God;
— and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood; from shedding the blood of the Moabites, when God had given command to do it. The curse is repeated to confirm the matter that it might be most assuredly expected; since it would certainly come if the Lord’s work was not done aright.
11 “Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity; therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. — the Moabites have not gone into exile or moved from place to place; unliked the Israelites;
12 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” saith the Lord, “that I will send unto him wanderers, who shall cause him to wander, and shall empty his vessels and break their bottles.
— a change would be made, and that in a very short time, as according to Josephus, it was about five years after the destruction of Jerusalem that the Moabites were subdued by the king of Babylon;
— but there is also a subtle change of theme, from immediate historic to prophetic; behold, the days are coming, indicating during the latter days; this being their case, this prophecy could be as well meant for the endtime;
— the Targum says, “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will send upon them plunderers, and they shall plunder them, and they shall empty their possessions, and they shall consume the goodness of their land.”
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. — and Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh; Moab’s god; Jeremiah 48:7; of Moab’s worship of Chemosh, prayers to him, and confidence in him; but Chemosh not being able to save Moab from the destruction of the Chaldeans and being carried captive by them;
— as the house of Israel were ashamed of Bethel their confidence; that is, of the golden calf that was set up in Bethel by Jeroboam and which the ten tribes of Israel worshipped; but that could not save them from being carried captive by the Assyrians; and so were ashamed of their idolatrous worship.
Moab’s Chemosh: Moabites shall be ashamed of their idol worship; but soon, the house of Israel were to follow suit
14 “How say ye, ‘We are mighty and strong men for the war’? — how say ye, we are mighty and strong men for war? the Moabites were proud, haughty and arrogant; boasted much of their strength and valour;
— of the strength of their bodies and fitness for war, and their fortified cities; and secure from all danger: so for their pride, vanity and self-confidence, they are reproved here since their destruction was at hand.
15 Moab is despoiled and gone up out of her cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter,” saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. — Moab is spoiled, the whole country is ruined; which is spoken of as present though a future scenario, too, after the manner of prophecy;
— the inhabitants of Moab were gone up out of their cities, either through fear and flight; or through force, being made to go out of them and were carried captive. The Targum says, “the Moabites are spoiled, and their cities are desolate, the finest of their youth are delivered to slaughter.”
16 “The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hasteneth fast. — the calamity of Moab is to come; as it did come within five years after the destruction of Jerusalem, as observed on Jeremiah 48:12; and from Josephus: and his affliction hasteth fast; or “his evil” the evil of punishment for his sin is utter destruction.
17 All ye that are about him, bemoan him; and all ye that know his name, say, ‘How is the strong staff broken, and the beautiful rod!’
— all ye that are about him; the neighbouring nations such as the Ammonites and others are called upon to condole the sad case of Moab; all upon the borders of the country of Moab, either within them or without them.
18 Thou daughter that dost inhabit Dibon, come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst; for the despoiler of Moab shall come upon thee, and he shall destroy thy strongholds.
— thou daughter that inhabit Dibon; a city in Moab; the Targum says, “O kingdom of the congregation of Dibon” but this was not a kingdom of itself, though a principal city in the kingdom of Moab.
19 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and espy; ask him that fleeth and her that escapeth, and say, ‘What is done?’ — O inhabitant of Aroer, another city that belonged to Moab situated on the border towards Ammon, near the river Arnon.
20 Moab is confounded, for it is broken down. Howl and cry! Tell ye it in Arnon that Moab is despoiled! — tell ye in Arnon, that Moab is spoiled; the country of Arnon,
— so called from the banks of which the river Aroer was situated; the inhabitants of which are desired to spread it all over that part of the country that Moab was utterly ruined by the Chaldean army.
21 “And judgement has come upon the plain country: upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
— and judgement has come upon the plain country, upon the plateau; north of the river Arnon, cities which had been in the possession of the tribe of Reuben for some centuries after the conquest, upon Holon, and upon Jahazah, and upon Mephaath,
22 and upon Dibon, and upon Nebo, and upon Bethdiblathaim,
23 and upon Kiriathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmeon,
24 and upon Kerioth, and upon Bozrah, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,” saith the Lord. — the horn of Moab, emblem of strength and sovereignty, is cut off, and his arm is broken, he has lost all his former great power, his mighty position is shattered.
26 “Make ye him drunken, for he magnified himself against the Lord. Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision. — make him drunken; not with wine, but with the cup of divine wrath; with the vengeance of God;
— with sore judgements, afflictions and calamities; give him his fill of them till he is quite intoxicated and has lost his senses and is brought to madness and distraction and reels, staggers and falls to the ground like a drunken man; and his state and kingdom ruined;
— the Targum interprets it of the people of God, paraphrasing; “bring distress upon them, that they may be like to drunken men; for against the people of the Lord have they magnified themselves.”
27 For was not Israel a derision unto thee? Was he found among thieves? For since thou spokest of him, thou skipped for joy. — for was not Israel a derision unto thee?
— in the time of his calamity when the ten tribes were carried captive by the Assyrians some years ago; and of late the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin by the Chaldeans; the Moabites rejoiced at this, which they ought not to have done;
— for since thou spoke of him, thou skipped for joy; or, “shookedst thyself” whenever the Moabites spoke of the distresses and calamities of Israel and of their captivity they laughed till they shook themselves; not only shook their heads but their whole bodies;
— the Targum says, “and because you mocked the brokenness of Israel, though they had not sinned against you—as if they were found like thieves—and because you multiplied words against them, therefore you shall [also] go into captivity.”
28 “O ye that dwell in Moab, leave the cities and dwell in the rock, and be like the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole’s mouth. — and be like the dove; that is, be humble; which, for fear of birds of prey, makes her nest in a hole or cleft of a rock.
29 We have heard the pride of Moab (he is exceeding proud)— his loftiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. — we have heard the pride of Moab; Israel and all the nations around had heard of this, and seen or heard of his arrogancy, pride and haughtiness;
30 I know his wrath,” saith the Lord, “but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it. — God know his wrath against the Jews and other nations; what he has threatened to do unto them and would do if not restrained.
31 Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I will cry out for all Moab; Mine heart shall mourn for the men of Kirheres.
32 O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer; thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer. The spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage,
— O vine of Sibmah; Sibmah was a city in the land of Moab abounding with vines, but now should be destroyed; and Jazer another city in the same country, which was destroyed before the other; and therefore its destruction should be lamented and wept over, as that had been: or “from” or “after the weeping of Jazer,”
— the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage: the king of Babylon, who came upon them with his army in the summer season and at the time of their vintage and devoured the fruits of their vines and fig trees with which this country abounded; and so impoverished and ruined them;
— the Targum says, “therefore as I have brought an army against Jazer, so I will bring slayers against Sibmah; they that carry them captive have waded; they have passed through the sea; they are come to the sea of Jazer; upon thy harvest, and upon thy vintage, the spoilers are fallen.”
33 and joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field and from the land of Moab. And I have caused wine to fail from the wine presses; none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.
— the land of Moab, where there were good pasture, corn and fruit bearing trees, which produced great plenty of food and caused joy to their owners: but now all being destroyed by the enemy; joy and gladness would cease.
34 “From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, as a heifer of three years old; for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate.
— from the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh; two cities in the land of Moab; also see Isaiah 15:4. Heshbon being destroyed, a cry was made by its inhabitants which either reached Elealeh; or the destruction being carried on to that city, the cry continued there.
35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab,” saith the Lord, “him that offereth in the high places and him that burneth incense to his gods.
— moreover God will cause him that offereth in the high places to cease in Moab; a burnt offering there; that is, the priest, who shall be taken and carried captives;
— and him that burneth incense to his gods: Chemosh, and others, the Moabites worshipped: and as all places and all sorts of persons should suffer in this calamity, so likewise idolatrous places, priests and worshippers.
36 Therefore Mine heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and Mine heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kirheres, because the riches that he hath gotten have perished.
— therefore my heart shall sound like pipes; that are sounded as at funerals; the inhabitants of Moab, whose hearts would yearn and sound for the calamities of their country like the doleful sound of minstrels. So the Targum says, “therefore the Moabites shall sound in their hearts like a harp;”
— because the riches that he hath gotten is perished; either Moab or Kirheres; the abundance of goods they had got together were now lost, falling into the hands of their enemy.
37 “For every head shall be bald and every beard clipped; upon all the hands shall be cuts and upon the loins sackcloth. — for every head shall be bald and every beard clipped; men, in times of mournin;
— upon all the hands shall be cuttings: it was usual with the heathens to make incisions in several parts of their bodies, particularly in their hands and arms with their nails or with knives, in token of mourning; which are forbidden by the Israelites, Deuteronomy 14:1;
— and upon the loins sackcloth; this is a well known custom for mourners to put off their clothes and put on sackcloth; all these things are mentioned to show how great was the mourning of Moab for its calamities.
38 There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab and in the streets thereof; for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure,” saith the Lord.
— for God have broken Moab like a vessel; as an earthen vessel which the potter does not like and which is useless and unprofitable to any, and which he takes and dashes into pieces; into a thousand shivers and can never be put together again;
— or as a filthy unclean vessel a man cannot bear in his sight: Moab is by the Lord called his wash pot, Psalms 60:8. The Moabites were vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction by their own this; and now its time has come.
39 “They shall howl, saying, ‘How it is broken down! How hath Moab turned the back with shame!’ So shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all those about him.”
— they shall howl, saying, how is it broken down? that is, they howl out these words, or while they are howling, say, how is Kirheres or Moab broken all to pieces; their strength, power and glory; their cities and their mighty men; and are in the utmost fright and confusion?
— Rashi: Wail about her and asks, “How was she dismayed?”
40 For thus saith the Lord: “Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab. — for thus saith the Lord, behold, he shall fly as an eagle; the enemy, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, with his army; who is compared to an eagle for his strength, swiftness and greediness after the prey:
— and shall spread his wings over Moab as an eagle spreads its wings, which are very large over the little birds it seizes upon as its prey; so the king of Babylon would bring a numerous army against Moab and spread it over his country.
— the Targum says ,”behold, as all eagle which flies, so a king shall come up with his army, and encamp against Moab.”
— speaking against Israel: “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth, a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand,” Deuteronomy 28:44,49; also one eagle, but differs being a lender; and “he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.”
— and of Edom: “Behold, He shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread His wings over Bozrah; and at that day shall the heart of the mighty men of Edom be as the heart of a woman in her pangs,” Jeremiah 49:22
41 Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are surprised; and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. — and the mighty men’s hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs;
— even the hearts of the soldiers and the most courageous generals shall sink within them; and they be not only as timorous as women in common but as low spirited as a woman when she finds her pains are coming upon her and the time of her delivery is at hand.
42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord. — and Moab shall be destroyed from being a people; for some time, not always; since the captivity of Moab is promised to be returned “in the latter days,” Jeremiah 48:47;
— or from being such a people as they had been, enjoying so much ease, wealth, power and prosperity. Some Rabbi take it to be a comparative and renders it, “more than a people”; that is, shall be destroyed more than any other people;
— because he hath magnified himself against the Lord; the Targum says, against the people of the Lord; this is the cause of his destruction.
43 Fear and the pit and the snare shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab,” saith the Lord. — fear and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee; that if they escaped one danger or sore judgement, they should fall into another and greater: the words seem to be taken from Isaiah 24:17.
44 “He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit, and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation,” saith the Lord.
— he that fleeth from fear, shall fall into the pit, and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare, one or the other of the calamities will be sure to catch him; for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of his visitation, saith the Lord.
45 “They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force; but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
— they that fled, the fugitives who escaped the slaughter, stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force, powerless in the face of the danger confronting them;
— but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, the city in which they hoped to find refuge and a flame from the midst of Sihon, the ancient king of the Amorites, and shall devour the corner of Moab so that it would be totally destroyed.
46 Woe be unto thee, O Moab! The people of Chemosh perisheth! For thy sons are taken captive and thy daughters captive. — woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth; the inhabitants of Moab, who worshipped the idol Chemosh; Jeremiah 48:7;
— and so called his people, as Israel were called the people of the Lord; now these, notwithstanding their idol, whom they worshipped and in whom they trusted, should perish; and sad and deplorable would be their condition and circumstances;
— for thy sons and daughters are taken captives; this explains the woe that should come upon them and in what sense they should perish; since their sons and daughters who they hoped would have continued their name and nation, were taken and would be carried captives into Babylon; Numbers 21:29.
47 “Yet will I bring back the captives of Moab in the latter days,” saith the Lord. Thus far is the judgement of Moab. — yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter day, saith the Lord;
— “in the latter days” thus this is a prophecy, not only of Moab, but also of the Jews to assure them of their return from captivity as had been promised them, since this would be the case even of Moab. It had historically a literal accomplishment under Cyrus, the Persian, when they were restored to their land.
Nexperia crisis: Sino-Dutch dispute over chipmaker puts car industry supply chain at risk. As a result, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis and even Toyota warn workers of potential stoppages as chip crunch looms, making it a significant risk to worldwide automotive production chains.
A bird’s-eye view of chipmaker Nexperia’s headquarters in Nijmegen, Holland
Semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia’s homebase in Nijmegen – the biggest city in Gelderland, the Netherlands’ largest province – offers few clues that it sits in the eye of a storm that threatens to disrupt the global car industry’s supply chain.
Dutch daily newspaper De Gelderlander, for example, featured more local stories including an explosion at a neighbourhood cannabis store, referred to as “coffeeshop.”
There were no banner headlines to be found about talks in Brussels on Tuesday between China’s Minister of Commerce, Wang Wentao, and his counterparts in the European Union to defuse a row over Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia, which the Dutch government seized control of on September 30 by invoking an obscure 1952 law known as the Goods Availability Act.
“I know that it’s happening … but I don’t think it’s the talk of the town,” said a local resident by the name of Lisa in Nijmegen, with an estimated population of 189,007 in 2025.
The superficial calmness in the city masks an intense dispute over the control of Nexperia – a supplier of essential semiconductors used in automotive, industrial, mobile and consumer applications – weeks after Dutch authorities ousted CEO Zhang Xuezheng, the founder of Wingtech Technology, which is the chipmaker’s Chinese owner.
The Netherlands’ action on Nexperia came a day after the US government extended export control restrictions to entities at least 50 per cent owned by companies on Washington’s trade blacklist. Being wholly owned by blacklisted Wingtech, Nexperia became subject to US sanctions.
Beijing on October 4 responded by issuing a ban on Nexperia China and its subcontractors from exporting finished components produced in the country. About 70 per cent of all Nexperia products are assembled in its factory in Dongguan, in southern Guangdong province.
The facade of Nexperia China’s production facility in Dongguan, southern China
Subsidiary Nexperia China on Thursday rejected the Dutch headquarters’ decision to remove John Chang as vice-president of global sales and marketing, declaring the dismissal legally ineffective in the country. This came on the same day when the Chinese unit accused the Dutch head office of spreading misinformation to customers.
That reflected Nexperia China’s firm position that local managers were in charge of its operations and that instructions from the Dutch head office would be ignored, according to a letter issued to employees the previous weekend.
The heated dispute between the Chinese unit, which controls the largest downstream assembly plant, and the head office in the Netherlands, which controls the upstream chip foundry in Germany and the UK, has raised questions about potential chip supply disruptions.
Nexperia had already informed Japanese car component makers that it may not be able to guarantee chip deliveries, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Thursday. Volkswagen, meanwhile, warned that disruptions to Nexperia’s chip supply could affect its production.
In China, a number of Nexperia clients have started to closely watch operations at the chipmaker’s Dongguan factory amid concerns about production continuity, according to a report by local Chinese magazine Caixin.
“At this stage, this would likely mean some degree of compromise for Nexperia,” Ng said. “But it may also mark the beginning of tighter tensions.”
Heightened tensions between the Dutch head office and the China unit could potentially lead to further disruptions and even trade restrictions, according to Gary Ng, a senior economist at Natixis.
Still, there are signs that Dutch authorities are keen to de-escalate the situation.
Seen as an useful idiot for the United States, German Foreign Minister Johann couldn’t have his opportunity to present his car industry’s plea to Beijing
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on Thursday that the Netherlands’ seizure of Nexperia was not a “measure against China,” but a response to mismanagement by the CEO. Zhang has kept mum about the matter over the past few weeks.
While it remains to be seen whether the meeting of China’s Wang with the EU in Brussels would lead to a resolution, Nexperia’s head office was confident in the firm’s business in China.
The company was not “stepping away from our Chinese activities,” a representative from Nexperia’s Dutch headquarters said. “Our operations, people, customers and partners remain very important to us and we hope to come to a solution soon.”
Meanwhile, the local government of Nijmegen was closely monitoring the developments at Nexperia.
“Nexperia is important to Nijmegen and the region,” Hubert Bruls, the city’s mayor since 2012, told the Post in an interview. He added that Nijmegen was confident that its semiconductor sector would survive this turbulence.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony, as many Churches do, is a disgrace.
The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. That is, the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us today from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
Hence, for ignoring the Targum as an authority for Understanding and Truth, the endtime Churches of God is being discribed as wretches, blind and naked; and would be thus justifiably destined to be spewed out of God’s mouth!
False shepherds and false teachings abound everywhere so much so that, if possible, even the elect are deceived! Thus for correction when one is spewed out of God’s mouth, it is with certainty that the spewing is into the Fire! Selah!
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; that is, in the latter days, in our time, shall ye understand it clearly. Only in the endtime would we be able to understand this book of Jeremiah perfectly.
Jeremiah 45
The list of kings of Judah towards the end; in successive reigns, as Josiah (reign 640–609 BC), Jehoahaz (reign 609 BC), Jehoiakim (reign 609–598 BC), Jehoiachin or Jechonias (reign 598–597 BC), and Zedekiah (reign 597–586 BC)
1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book out of the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
— the fourth year of Jehoiakim would be 606 BC or whereabout (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon); having the same beginning as chapter 25;
— in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; which was eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem; which followed the 36th chapter; where Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah in a roll, and read to the people and to the princes; exposed him to danger and caused him much grief.
2 “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch:
3 Thou didst say, ‘Woe is me now! For the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.’ — thou didst say, woe is me now; what will become of me?
— I am ruined; this Baruch said in his heart, if not with his lips, perhaps both ways; and when the king gave orders to apprehend him and the prophet, being provoked at the roll which he had wrote and read, Jeremiah 36:26;
— for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; caused Baruch grief upon grief, sorrow upon sorrow; the trouble of his office as a scribe to the prophet; the grievous things contained in the prophecies he transcribed, concerning the ruin of his people and nation; the king’s displeasure at the roll and his burning it;
— Baruch fainted in his sighing; he sighed and groaned at what he saw coming upon his country, which overcame his spirits; he sunk and swooned away: or “I laboured in my sighing” amidst his sighs and groans, he prayed to the Lord, and laboured in prayer, that he might be delivered from the evils he feared were coming upon him.
4 Thus shalt thou say unto him, ‘The Lord saith thus: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.
— the Lord said, behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; even the Jewish nation which the Lord had built up as a spacious and beautiful house to dwell in, and had planted as a vineyard and set it with pleasant plants; but now would demolish this building and destroy his estate;
— even this whole land; not a few cities only, or only Jerusalem the metropolis but the whole land of Judea; no part of it but what should be left desolate. The Targum says, “even the whole land of Israel, is mine.”
5 And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.’”
— seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; riches and wealth honour and esteem, peace and prosperity; these were not to be sought after and expected, when the whole nation would be involved in such a general calamity;
— for, behold, God will bring evil upon all flesh; not only upon every individual person of Judea, but upon all the inhabitants in the world; perhaps following the patten of Judea: who should either die by the Sword or by Famine, Pestilence or be carried as Captives;
— but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey wherever thou goest; after the destruction of Jerusalem, along with the prophet; and even into Egypt that the Jews that went there; where his life would be in danger, and yet the Scriptures are silent here, but elsewhere in Ezekiel 17 most probably Jeremiah, Baruch and the king’s daughters would be taken by another great eagle to Ireland.
1 The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations. — the word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations;
— not all the nations of the world, but some hereafter mentioned: the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Syrians, Arabians, Chaldean and the Persians: though the prophecies delivered are all against them, none favourable.
2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon smote in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
— against Egypt; this is the title of the first prophecy against Egypt; which is first mentioned because the Jews were most familiar with and have placed great confidence in and much relied on the Egyptians for help:
— Wiki: Carchemish was the location of an important battle, about 605 BC, between the Babylonians and Egyptians, mentioned in the Bible (Jeremiah 46:2).
3 “Order ye the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!
4 Harness the horses; and get up, ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines!
5 Why have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? And their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace and look not back, for fear was round about,” saith the Lord.
— the Egyptians, they were seized with a panic: these are either the words of the prophet, who are led by a spirit of prophecy, foreseeing the consternation, confusion and flight of the Egyptian army; or of the Lord, who foresaw all this;
— and their mighty ones are beaten down and fled apace, and look not back; their best troops were broken, their ranks and files and thrown into the utmost disorder; and fled with the utmost horror and never stopped to look back upon their pursuers.
6 “Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; they shall stumble and fall toward the north by the River Euphrates. — let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape; those that were swift of foot, or carried but light armour, let not such trust to their swiftness;
— nor let the mighty man think to escape by reason of his great strength, to make his way through the enemy, and get out of his hands. Or the Targum renders as future, “Neither the swift shall flee nor the strong escape; in the northern land by the river Euphrates they stumbled and fell.”
— they shall stumble and fall toward the north, by the river Euphrates; which lay north of Judea, and also was to the north of Egypt, whose destruction is threatened: the place where this route and slaughter would be made was Carchemish, which was situated by that great river Euphrates.
7 “Who is this that cometh up as a flood, whose waters are moved as the rivers? — who is this that cometh up as a flood; these are either the words of the prophet, who having a vision in prophecy of the march of the Egyptian army from the south to the north;
— which God compares to a flood; an allusion of the river Nile, which used to overflow its banks; these are the words of God, who puts this question to Jeremiah in order to give an answer to it and thereby upbraid the Egyptians with their arrogance, pride and vanity; which would all come to nothing:
— whose waters are moved as the rivers? whose numerous armies came with a great noise and force like the openings of the Nile, with its seven gates; which were very boisterous, especially in hard gales of wind: it is usual for large armies to be compared to floods and rivers, which move forcibly and swiftly, and make a large spread; Isaiah 8:7;
— the Targum says, “who is this that comes up with his army as a cloud, and covers the earth, and as a fountain of water, whose waters are moved?”
8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, ‘I will go up, and will cover the earth; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof.’
— and he saith, I will go up; I, the Pharaoh king of Egypt, I will go up from my own land to the north to meet the king of Babylon: and will cover the earth with his Egyptian army: even all toward the north country, including the Babylonish empire;
— God will destroy the city, and the inhabitants thereof; which restrains to the city Carchemish, where his army was smitten: but it is better to interpret, the singular by the plural, as the Targum does, “I will destroy cities” since it was not a single city he came up to take, nor would this satisfy his ambition and temper.
9 Come up, ye horses, and rage, ye chariots! And let the mighty men come forth: the Ethiopians and the Libyans that handle the shield, and the Lydians that handle and bend the bow.
— come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots; these are either the words of Pharaoh, giving orders to his cavalry and charioteers to make haste and come up to battle, not doubting of victory: or rather of the Lord by the prophet, ironically calling upon the horsemen in the Egyptian army to come on and engage with the enemy, and behave gallantly; and those in the chariots to drive;
— the Ethiopians and the Libyans, that handle the shield; or Cush and Phut, both sons of Ham, and brethren of Mizraim, from whence Egypt had its name, Genesis 10:6; the posterity of these are meant. The Cushites or Ethiopians were near neighbours of the Egyptians, and their allies and confederates.
10 For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Him of His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be sated and made drunk with their blood; for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the River Euphrates.
— and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood; that is, the sword of the Chaldeans shall destroy the Egyptians in such vast numbers, that there shall be no more to be slain; or there shall be no desire in the enemy to slay any more; they shall be glutted with their blood;
— for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates near Carchemish, an allusion to the sacrifices of great warriors, which are many; the Lord of hosts had a sacrifice, or a great slaughter of men, his enemies; inflicted punishment on them, wherein his power and justice were displayed.
11 Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured. — and take balm, O virgin, daughter of Egypt; the kingdom of Egypt,
— as the Targum says; “Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt; in vain you have multiplied medicines—but there is no healing for you.”
12 The nations have heard of thy shame, and thy cry hath filled the land; for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and they are fallen both together.”
— the nations have heard of thy shame; their shameful defeat and overthrow by the Chaldean army; so after the manner of prophecy uttered, the warning fulfilled; the battle fought and the victory obtained; and the rumour and fame spread among the nations, to the great mortification of this proud people;
— and thy cry hath filled the land; the shrieks of the wounded; the cry of those pursued and taken; the whole land of Egypt; yea, all the countries round about them, in confederacy with them were filled with distress for the loss of their own; the calamity was large and spreading:
— for the mighty man hath stumbled against the mighty, and both were fallen together; either the mighty Egyptians against the mighty Chaldeans; and though the latter were the conquerors, yet lost abundance of men; so that there were mighty ones fell on both sides. The Targum says for warrior collided with warrior, and both were slain.
13 The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and smite the land of Egypt: — the word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet;
— this is a new prophecy from Jeremiah, though still concerning Egypt; but this differs; the former prophecy respects only the overthrow of the Egyptian army at a certain place; this latter the general destruction of the land; and was fulfilled some years, after the other;
— to smite the land of Egypt; who was to come, and did come, out of his country, into the land of Egypt, to smite the inhabitants with the sword, take their cities, plunder them of their substance, and make them tributary to him;
— Rashi says, according to their chronicles, this was a second blow, in the twenty seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign; around 579 BC.
14 “Declare ye in Egypt and publish in Migdol, and publish in Noph and in Tahpanhes; say ye, ‘Stand fast and prepare thee, for the sword shall devour round about thee.’ — declare ye in Egypt; the coming of the king of Babylon, and his intention to invade the land and subdue it:
— say ye, stand fast and prepare thee; O Egypt, and the several cities mentioned and all others; prepare for war and to meet the enemy, resist and repel him; present yourselves on the frontiers of your country; put yourselves in proper places and keep your ground;
— for the Sword shall devour round about thee; the Sword of the Chaldeans, into whose hands fell Jerusalem, Judea, Syria and other neighbouring countries; and therefore it was high time for them to bestir themselves and provide for their defence and safety.
Apis was a sacred bull worshiped in Memphis
15 Why are thy valiant [showing courage] men swept away? They stood not, because the Lord did drive them. — why are thy mighty men swept away? as with a mighty torrent; contrast this to a translation from MSG: “Why will your bull-god Apis run off?
— why are your bull-gods defeated? to which the Egyptian army may be compared; or “Why will your bull-god Apis run off? which the Chaldeans the came with such force as to drive the Egyptians (or their bull-god, Apis) from their posts, so that they could not stand their ground;
The Apis Bull of Memphis, Egypt, revered and worshipped
— (Gill) the Septuagint renders it, “why does Apis flee from thee? thy choice ox does not continue,” which was the god of the Egyptians, they worshipped in the form of an ox; this could not protect them, thought by them to be very mighty and powerful; their choice ox, Apis, of the Egyptians is believed to be a most powerful deity; yet could not save them;
— with LXX, it divides the Hebrew verb rendered “swept away” into two words, translating with them, “why does Apis flee from thee? thy choice ox does not continue.” The sacred bull Apis worshipped at Memphis is called the mighty one (the word in MT being often used of bulls), that is, the deity of Egypt, ‘just as Yehovah is named the Mighty One of Jacob or of Israel in Genesis 49:24; Isaiah 1:24; Isaiah 49:26.
Apis, the sacred bull in which the supreme god Osiris was believed by the Egyptians to be an incarnate
16 He made many to fall, yea, one fell upon another; and they said, ‘Arise, and let us go again to our own people and to the land of our nativity, from the oppressing sword.’
— and they said, arise: not those that fell; but either the strangers in the land of Egypt, such as the Jews were; who, perceiving the destruction that was coming on Egypt, exhort one another to arise, and get out of there; or rather the auxiliaries of the Egyptians, as the Ethiopians, Libyans and Lydians,
— and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our own country, where we were born, and where our friends and relations lived; so that we might be safe; from the oppressing sword; the Sword of the Chaldeans.
17 They did cry there, ‘Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise! He hath passed the time appointed.’ — Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he boasted and bragged of great things he would do, but does nothing;
— he promised to bring a large army and talked big of attacking the enemy with great ardour and fury, and was sure of victory; but it may be interpreted thus, “Pharaoh king of Egypt is a king of noise” a noisy, big and blusterous king in words, but in deeds nothing.
18 “As I live,” saith the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts, “surely as Tabor is among the mountains and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come. — Tabor, which is a mountain in Galilee; and Carmel is by the sea of Galilee.
19 O thou daughter dwelling in Egypt, furnish thyself to go into captivity; for Noph shall be waste and desolate, without an inhabitant. — furnish thyself to go into captivity; or “prepare for thyself vessels of captivity” or such things as are proper for captives, as suitable clothes to travel in, shoes to walk in, scrip and staff and the like; expect captivity and be prepared for it;
— for Noph shall be waste and desolate without an inhabitant; that not an inhabitant should be left in it: the devastation of this city is put for that of all the rest, and as a sure token of it and the whole nation going into captivity.
20 “Egypt is like a very fair heifer, but destruction cometh; it cometh out of the north. — the Targum says, “Egypt was a beautiful kingdom.”
— but destruction cometh, it cometh from the north; that is, the destruction of Egypt, which should come from Chaldea, which lay north of Egypt; and this threat is repeated.
21 Also her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; for they also are turned back, and have fled away together. They did not stand, because the day of their calamity had come upon them, and the time of their visitation.
— all her hired men are in the midst of her like fatted bullocks; or “bullocks of the stall” soldiers of other countries that were hired into the service of Egypt and lived so deliciously there, that they were unfit for war and were like fatted beasts prepared for the slaughter.
— the Targum interprets it, her princes; who had the care like fatted calves and of the feeding of this princeling; these themselves were like that, nourished for the day of slaughter.
22 The voice thereof shall go like a serpent; for they shall march with an army and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood. — the voice thereof shall go like a serpent; that is, the voice of Egypt as she flees away from the enemy shall be like the voice of a serpent hissing;
— like a serpent hissing impotently at the woodcutters who disturb its retreat through the thick underwood; signifying, that their voice should be low and submissive and should not speak one big or murmuring word to their conquerors;
— for they shall march with an army; the Targum adds against you; the meaning is that the Chaldeans should come with a great army, and march against the Egyptians with great strength, force and fury:
— and come against her with axes, as hewers of wood; with battle axes as if they came to cut down trees; nor would they spare the Egyptians any more than such hewers do the trees; nor would they be able any more to resist them than trees can resist hewers of wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest,” saith the Lord, “though it cannot be searched, because they are more than the grasshoppers, and are innumerable.
— they shall cut down her forest, saith the Lord; the land of Egypt compared to a forest for the multitude of its cities, towns and their inhabitants; which should be destroyed by the Chaldeans as a forest is cut down by hewers of wood;
— the metaphor is continued with the Targum interpreting this as the princes or nobles of Egypt and their destruction; because they are more like grasshoppers, are innumerable; which creatures come in large numbers, and eat up every green tree and herb; and so the Chaldean army, being alike numerous, would easily cut down the trees of this forest.
24 The daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.” — the daughter of Egypt shall be confounded; brought to shame before all the nations of the earth, being conquered by the Chaldeans; that is, the kingdom of Egypt, or its inhabitants, being subdued and carried captive:
— she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north; the Chaldeans, who dwelt northward of Egypt, as is manifest from what follows.
25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saith: “Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings, even Pharaoh and all them that trust in him.
— behold, God will punish the multitude of No; the inhabitants of it, which were many, called “populous No” in Nahum 3:8; a famous city in Egypt. Some take it to be Diospolis or Thebes; and others the same that is now called Alexandria; and so the Targum renders it;
— and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings; and all their numerous idols; and the several governors of the nomes or provinces into which the land was distributed; these should be punished and suffer in the general calamity.
26 And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of his servants; and afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,” saith the Lord.
— and afterwards it shall be inhabited as in the days of old, saith the Lord; after forty years, as Ezekiel prophesied, Ezekiel 29:11-13; not that it should rise to the same glory and dignity as before, for it would be a base kingdom; but whereas it was desolate and uninhabited after this destruction, it should now be inhabited again.
27 “But fear not thou, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel; for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
— I will save thee from afar off; these maybe the righteous in Egypt, who were carried there by Johanan against their will; and these small remnant should escape, Jeremiah 44:28; and these words are intended to comfort those in captivity, with a promise of their return, lest they should be discouraged, in hearing that the Egyptians should inhabit their own land again, and they not theirs;
— and a remnant from Jacob shall return initially, and be in rest, and at ease, and none shall make him afraid: but this will have its full accomplishment in the latter day; as Jacob includes the other ten tribes when all Israelites return to their own land and never be disturbed any more.
28 Fear thou not, O Jacob My servant,” saith the Lord, “for I am with thee. For I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure. Yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.”
— fear thou not, O Jacob, my servant, even Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the scribe, and the king’s daughters; saith the Lord, for I am with thee; though afar off in foreign lands and in captivity: this exhortation is repeated to strengthen their consolation and against their fears of being cast off forever by the Lord;
— but correct thee in measure for the full house of Jacob; with judgement and in mercy: yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.
Sobering thoughts, and below are a few Scriptures for reflections:
And He said unto me, “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this scroll that I give thee.” Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetnes,” Ezekiel 3:3 (good to read the whole chapter);
And I went unto the angel and said unto him, “Give me the little book.” And he said unto me, “Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
“And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter,” Revelation 10:9-10.
Breaking China’s rare earth dominance could take a decade, Goldman Sachs says, but Victor Gao, now a professor at Soochow University, says it would take twenty-five years.
Molten chloride salts, crystals and rare earth sediments in petri dishes
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang hopes Blackwell chips can be sold in China but says decision up to Trump; but earlier, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that semiconductors had been discussed and China was “going to be talking to Nvidia and others about taking chips.”
The West may need a decade to loosen China’s iron grip on rare earths, according to Goldman Sachs.
Beijing’s control of 92% of refining and 98% of magnet production gives it powerful leverage in global trade.
The West’s push to rebuild rare-earth supply chains is lagging despite the metals’ strategic importance.
China’s grip on rare earths is so strong that it could take the West a decade to challenge the East Asian giant’s dominance over the critical minerals, according to Goldman Sachs.
“China’s dominance is truly massive,” said Daan Struyven, Goldman’s co-head of global commodities research, in a podcast published Tuesday.
He pointed out that roughly 92% of global rare-earth refining and 98% of the magnets made from those materials take place in China. That gives Beijing enormous leverage in trade disputes and making the market highly sensitive to policy headlines.
Trump’s $550 Billion ‘New Golden Age’ Kabuki show in Japan
Struyven’s comments come as President Donald Trump continues his trip across Asia, where he has signed a series of rare-earth agreements with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations aimed at diversifying supply chains.
Rare earth elements — a group of 17 metals — have become one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive resources.
Their strategic importance has made them a persistent flash point in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
Despite their strategic value, the global rare earth market is minuscule — roughly 33 times smaller than copper by total production value — yet the minerals are crucial to defense systems and advanced semiconductors.
Western governments have pledged billions of dollars in recent years to rebuild domestic rare-earth capacity, but Goldman’s Struyven cautions that progress will be slow.
“It’s going to take years to build up independent supply chains in the West,” he said, adding that it would take about 10 years to build a mine and about five years to build a refinery.
Trump is expected to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday in South Korea, where rare earths could emerge as a key discussion point.
Trump and Albanese signing a $13 billion rare earths and critical minerals deal
Beijing expanded export controls on the minerals earlier this month, with new restrictions set to take effect on November 8 — just days before a 90-day trade truce with Washington expires.
“Ultimately, the final contours of any US-China trade deal still have to be signed off by the two respective presidents,” Struyven said.
“And I don’t think this issue is going to go away anytime soon,” he said.
ANNA NEWS agency investigated why the United States is preparing for a tough confrontation on the southern border.
The scale of the problem. Cartels in Mexico have transformed from smuggling gangs into powerful, militarized structures with international connections. According to estimates in the text, about 185,000 people serve in their ranks; the largest of them — the CNNG, the Sinaloa cartel and Nueva Familia — control significant territories and resources.
New business models and rising risks. Previously, marijuana and heroin were the main products in the United States, but now the main threat is related to the mass production and supply of fentanyl: the number of victims of the opioid epidemic in the United States reaches hundreds of thousands, and the volume of supplies has increased many times in recent years. The cartels have diversified their income (avocado, illegal resource extraction, counterfeit currency printing, human trafficking, etc.), making them economically stable and politically influential.
Militarization and access to a heavy arsenal. The cartels have created well—equipped, disciplined combat formations – really similar to private armies. Cases of the appearance of modern systems in the arsenals have been recorded (Javelin and Stinger are mentioned in the text), which increases the risk of serious military clashes and complicates retaliatory operations.
Domestic and regional impacts in Mexico. High level of violence: Thousands of police officers have been killed, mass kidnappings, political assassinations, and a significant number of missing persons. Cartels undermine government institutions, corrupt local officials, and partially control economic sectors, making many regions virtually beyond the control of the central state.
Threats to the United States and international expansion. The importation of fentanyl and other goods leads to an increase in deaths and crime in the United States; cartels also establish branches and seek markets in Europe, Africa and Asia. In partner countries, cartels are involved in human trafficking, resource extraction, and other transnational crimes.
US measures and the risk of escalation. The administration intends to act harshly: declaring cartels terrorist organizations, strengthening the border presence (in the text — up to 10,000 soldiers with a partial permanent contingent and reservation), special operations, training and coordination with Mexican forces, as well as reconnaissance using drones and aircraft. These measures can lead to local strikes, but striking a deep-rooted network requires much more resources and carries the risk of large-scale escalation.
The key dilemma and conclusion. A political and military confrontation with the cartels is fraught with a lengthy, costly and humanitarian campaign without any guarantee of success. An effective response requires a combination of force, deep international cooperation, fighting corruption, and strengthening economic and social institutions in the regions where the cartels draw their recruits and resources.
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
Chapter 43 sets the background that lead to Chapter 44, where the impudent and impious contempt which the remnants of the Jews put upon this admonition, and their declared resolution to persist in their allegiance to the Queen of heaven and other idolatries, in despite both being warned from God and his prophet Jeremiah.
God’s judgement upon them for their obstinacy are shift; that they should all be cut off and perish in Egypt, except a still smaller number of which will escape; because the Pharaoh of Egypt should shortly fall into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and wouldn’t be able to protect them any longer.
Jeremiah 43
1 And it came to pass that when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking unto all the people all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words,
2 then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying unto Jeremiah, “Thou speakest falsely. The Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, ‘Go not into Egypt to sojourn there.’
— and Johanan and all the proud men; Johanan who had saved them earlier, who are commonly proud of their greatness; of their descent, their family and blood; of their wealth and riches, and posts of honour; perhaps the captains of the forces are meant, who elsewhere are mentioned along with Johanan, Jeremiah 40:13;
— these were men having a high opinion of their own wisdom; and could not bear to be contradicted or advised by the prophet, nor even by the Lord himself; and are justly called by the Targum as wicked men; their pride was the cause of their rebellion against God;
— saying unto Jeremiah, thou speakest falsely: or “a lie” it being contrary to their minds: so the prophets of the Lord and even the word of God itself are charged with falsehoods; as liars;
— the Lord our God hath not sent thee to say, go not into Egypt to sojourn there; they did not care to own it was the word of the Lord; whatever convictions they had in their minds; they would not openly appear to be opponents against God; but deny that the prophet was sent by God.
3 But Baruch the son of Neriah setteth thee against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon.”
— but Baruch sets you against us to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they might put us to death and carry us away captives into Babylon; upon this suspicion and accusation, these men based their opposition to Jeremiah’s counsel which conveyed to them the warnings of the Lord.
4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah. — so Johanan, the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the Lord to dwell in the land of Judah.
5 But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all nations whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah
— these are those who had fled to other countries, but now were returned from thence, in order to settle in the land of Judah; having heard that a governor from among the Jews was appointed over it; as from Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries; Jeremiah 40:11;
6 even men, and women, and children, and the king’s daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah.
— men, women, children, even the king’s daughters, the princesses of the royal household, Jeremiah 41:10, and every person that Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah, the governor,
— and even Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the scribe; all of these people were obliged to join the caravan of refugees, but the Q is, why didn’t Jeremiah and Baruch resist? And go their own way?
Jeremiah, accompanied by men, women, children and the king’s daughters
7 So they came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord; thus came they even to Tahpanhes. — so the Jews and the king’s daughters came into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord, as made known by the mouth of Jeremiah; thus came they even to Tahpanhes, the city of Daphne on one of the eastern delta-arms of the Nile.
8 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, — so Jeremiah was among his fellow treacherous Israelites, also came into Egypt; did he not rebelled against God, or was he bound and lacked freedom?
9 “Take great stones in thine hand, and hide them in the clay in the brickkiln, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah; — Tahpanhes is the seat of the Pharaoh of Egypt where the Jewish refugee came for;
— the palace of Pharaoh included not only the buildings proper, but their entire enclosure as well, surrounded by a high wall. Opposite the entrance of this enclosure the bricks for the building or for the repairing of the royal palace were made, and it was in the clay of this kiln among the stones that Jeremiah and others were to be hidden;
— Tahpanhes is the same with “Hanes” in Jeremiah 2:16 and Tahpanhes, Jeremiah 43:7 as the Targum calls it; it is thought to be the same with Daphnae Pelusiae; here Pharaoh had a house or palace; Jeremiah 43:9 and this is the reason that the entourage from Judah and the king’s daughters had good refuge to go for protection.
10 and say unto them, ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them. — three times God describes Nebuchadnezzar as “my servant” Jeremiah 25:9,27:6,43:10;
— now God expounds his meaning in his former command: he ordered Jeremiah to take stones and hide themselves in a place near the king of Egypt’s palace; thus they most probably didn’t meet the Pharaoh’s entourage;
— thus saith the God of Israel, Behold, I will send Nebuchadnezzar in carrying out my purpose upon Egypt, and will set Nebuchadnezzar’s throne upon these stones that I have hidden the refugees; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them, namely, the rich tapestry which formed the curtains over the throne when the king sat to judge;
— God makes one wicked man or a wicked nation, a scourge and plague to another; he calls Nebuchadnezzar his servant, his horsewhip, because in this instance he should execute God’s will, accomplish his purposes, and be instrumental in carrying on his designs; Ezekiel 29:18-20;
— upon these stones that I have hidden the Prophet Jeremiah and his close ones, Baruch, and the king’s daughters; God inspired the stones to be laid by himself, because here the Scripture revealed they were laid at his command and even spread his royal pavilion over them, but put Nebuchadnezzar, his servant, to sit on that throne to judge!
11 And when he cometh, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.
— and when Nebuchadnezzar come to smite the land of Egypt and deliver such as are for death, principally by the Sword, rather than by Famine and Pestilence to death, and such as are from captivity to Captivity, and by the sword, that is, as if death in battle, to the Sword;
— in this way, as the scourge of the Lord, he would also act as the servant of the Most High; both the act of laying the stones and the words spoken of are significant; symbolical of the power and firmness of Nebuchadnezzar’s rule, while the clay of Pharaoh’s palace signifies the weakness of his power.
12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them and carry them away captives; and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
— and God will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; including the Queen of heaven, Astarte; and he, Nebuchadnezzar, shall burn them and carry them away captives, the very gods of Egypt who they serve; and he shall array himself in the land of Egypt as a shepherd putteth on his garment, and he shall go forth from thence in peace;
— the point of comparison is the freedom and the ease of the act; for just as easily and quickly as a shepherd takes up his mantle, practically his garment and wraps it about him, so will Nebuchadnezzar easily take hold upon Egypt and the whole country in his hand, leave without hindrance and none opposing him.
The Queen of heaven, Astarte; one of the gods of ancient Egypt
13 He shall break also the images of Bethshemesh [the House of the Sun] that are in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.’”
— Nebuchadnezzar shall also break the images of Bethshemesh that is in the land of Egypt, the renowned Temple of the Sun at Heliopolis. “The images of Bethshemesh are, above all, the obelisks, of which there was an unlimited number in the city. Of the oldest, however, were not the largest, one still remains in its place.”
— the images of the Bethshemesh; that is, the “city of the sun” as the Septuagint says; and so “Bethshemesh” signifies the “house of the sun” either it designs the temple of the sun, or the city where it was worshipped; as Heliopolis was famous for the worship of the sun, and for a magnificent temple in it; but is foretold of its destruction by Isaiah, Isaiah 19:18;
—where the Targum expressly calls it the city Bethshemesh, that is to be destroyed; in this manner would all the representatives of Egyptian idol-worship fall before the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and the hope and trust of the Jews who fled to Egypt would find themselves worshipping these gods of woods and stones in vain.
An ancient obelisk in Heliopolis (ancient Egypt)
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Another parallel on Sun worship in Ezekiel 8 by the house of Judah with comments embedded below:
15 Then said He unto me, “Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.”
16 And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’S house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the sun toward the east. Ezekiel 8:15-16
— the heads of the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, led by the high priest, making up the “twenty five men” they were not only worshipping the sun: they were doing so in the very Temple of God, with their backs turned upon the presence of God!
— the worship of heavenly bodies was against God’s will which Moses had warned the people (Deuteronomy 4:19, 17:3, whose penalty is to be stoned to death, Deuteronomy 17:5 ’till they die). These 25 men corrupted themselves by worshipping the sun; and so the Targum renders it, “and, lo, they corrupted themselves, worshipping facing the east the sun; their backs toward the temple of the Lord” — turned their backs to the most holy place; which is an aggravation of their impiety; casting the utmost contempt for God:
Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17
3 And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshiped them, either the sun or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, 4 and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, 5 then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5
— today, more than 98.5 percent of Christians are honoring the SUN by observing SUNday worship. They have “their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the SUN toward the east; whose penalty is to be stoned to death – ’till they die.
— also, following the SUN-worshipping Samaritans, most Church of God Communities are showing their contempt for God by having their “wavesheaf offering” and Pentecost on a SUNday; always on a SUNday. And these are supposedly in God’s Sanctuary, but God says He is a jealous God, so these pretentious Christians could be spewed out of His mouth! A death penalty – ’till they die!
Jeremiah 44
1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying,
— the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews which seeked refuge in Egypt, in spite of the earnest remonstrances of Jeremiah, which dwell at Migdol, on the northeastern boundary of Egypt,
— and at Tahpanhes, in the delta of the Nile, and at Noph, or Memphis, the capital of Lower Egypt, and in the country of Pathros, that is, Upper Egypt, for in the intervening years the Jews had selected different parts of Egypt for temporary omes;
— but if Jeremiah and Baruch were faithful servants of God WHY did they allowed themselves to come to Egypt with Johanan the son of Kareah? Jeremiah and Baruch were not in chains so why didn’t they remain in Judah?
Recent discoveries of Papyri in the ruins of Elephantine (an island in the Nile, opposite Assouan), dating from the fifth century BC, bear witness to two great facts:- (1) That Jews were then dwelling there (in 424-405 BC) (2) That they were observing the Feast of the Passover, “as it is written in the law of Moses.”
2 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwelleth therein,
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, Ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and of Judah, most of the Jews addressed having been witnesses of the terrible catastrophe; and behold this day they are a desolation and no man dwelleth there, the entire land, formerly so rich, fruitful and populous had become an uninhabited desert;
3 because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
— because of your wickedness to provoke me to anger in that you went leaving the path of God and duty set before them by the Word of God, to burn incense and to serve other gods, by such act of worship, whom they knew not, neither they, ye, nor your fathers.
4 Nevertheless, I sent unto you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, ‘Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.’
— however, I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, full of merciful eagerness to prevent the threatened catastrophe, saying, Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate, which filled him with loathing.
5 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense unto other gods. — but they hearkened not nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, they paid not the slightest attention to Yehovah’s admonitions and warnings, and not to burn incense to other gods.
6 Therefore My fury and Mine anger was poured forth and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as at this day.
— wherefore my fury and anger was poured forth, like an overturned vessel spilling all its contents at once, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and streets of Jerusalem, for the fire of destruction was a manifestation of divine anger; and they are wasted and desolate.
7 “Therefore, now thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why commit ye this great evil against your souls to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah to leave you none to remain,
— thus saith the God of Israel, Why commit ye this great evil to the destruction of their own lives, for they were not injuring the Lord, but merely themselves, to cut off from you man and woman, child and suckling, out of Judah, in a judgement of complete extermination, to leave you none to remain,
8 in that ye provoke Me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt whither ye have gone to dwell, that ye might cut yourselves off and that ye might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
— provoking me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt, having profited nothing by the example of Jerusalem’s destruction, that you might cut yourselves off, and that you might be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
— that they were looked upon as an accursed people of God, and their names were taken up for a proverb and a reproach everywhere; because of their dwelling there, Egypt was invaded; for if they hadn’t gone there, Egypt would have been left alone;
— whereas the manifestation of God’s glory was limited in the days of Egypt during the Exodus, the manifestation of God’s glory during the endtime would be unlimited; this comes as a result of our advancement in satelite communications, 4G, 5G and even 6G by then.
9 Have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives which they have committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
— have ye forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, their evil doings and wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, which they have committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
— the queens of Judah, together with the women throughout the country, had been the chief promoters of idolatry; for just as women may be the chief upholders of virtue, they may also be the chief agents for the spreading of wickedness.
10 They are not humbled even unto this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in My law, nor in My statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.
— they are not humbled even unto this day, they had not yet learned to turn to the Lord with contrite hearts, neither have they feared nor walked in my Law nor my Statutes that I set before them and before their fathers;
— they had deliberately ignored the norm and rule which the Lord had given them to follow, and the Lord speaks of them partly in the third person to give expression to the supreme disgust which filled his heart at their behavior;
— the Targum says, “they cease not unto this day;” that is, from committing the same things; which shows they had no true humiliation and contrition for them. This is to be understood not of the Jews in Babylon only, but chiefly of those in Egypt.
11 “Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, and to cut off all Judah. — and to cut off all Judah; not the whole tribe; but only those that were in Egypt.
12 And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt; they shall even be consumed by the sword and by the famine. They shall die, from the least even unto the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an execration and an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach.
— that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, despites all the warnings; and were now actually sojourners there: this describes such persons who wilfully go against God’s will and of their own accord;
— and they shall all be consumed in Egypt; not by natural death, one after another; but by the judgements of God, even be consumed by the Sword and by Famine; by a foreign army and sieges; by the Sword of the king of Babylon;
— they shall die; from the least even unto the greatest, by the Sword and by the Famine; to persons of every age, state and condition, rank and degree, young and old, high and low, rich and poor: and they shall be an execration, an astonishment and a curse.
— that they were looked upon as an accursed people of God by the Egyptians, and their names were taken up for a proverb and a reproach everywhere; because of their dwelling there, Egypt was invaded; for if they hadn’t gone there, Egypt would have been left alone
— such a scene would be repeated at the endtime, the Goyim (Gentiles) would be wondering why the house of Jacob is such a curse; surely they are the blessed people; collectively the birthright people, Ephraim the firstborn;
Below are a few Scriptures for reflections:
And He said unto me, “Son of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with this scroll that I give thee.” Then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth as honey for sweetnes,” Ezekiel 3:3 (good to read the whole chapter);
And I went unto the angel and said unto him, “Give me the little book.” And he said unto me, “Take it and eat it up, and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
“And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter,” Revelation 10:9-10
13 For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, — God ensures those that disobeyed wouldn’t be able to escape;
14 so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah to which they have a desire to return to dwell there; for none shall return but such as shall escape.”
— so that none of the remnant of Judah which are gone into the land of Egypt, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there, they were literally, “lifting up their souls with eagerness” and hoped to make Judea their home once more;
— for none shall return but such as shall escape; out of the hands of Johanan and the rest of the captains; nor should they get out of the land of Egypt before the Chaldeans came into it;
— perhaps Jeremiah and Baruch did escaped, together with the king’s daughters, whose mission was to build up and to plant; another commission of Jeremiah taken up by Ezekiel 17; of bringing down the high tree and exalting the low tree.
15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great multitude, even all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
— then all their wives that had burned incense unto other gods, a great multitude, from which many have concluded that the festival was to honor the Queen of Heaven, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, where this meeting was held,
16 “As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. — even the men, greatly influenced by the women, who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, rebelled against Jeremiah, saying, “we will not hearken unto thee.”
17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of bread, and were well and saw no evil.
— but we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, the vows which they had made when they embraced idolatry, to burn incense unto the Queen of heaven, that is, Ashtaroth or Astarte, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem;
— such statement amounts to revolting boastfulness; for then had we plenty of victuals, literally, “we were satisfied with bread,” having food of every kind in sufficient amounts, and were well and saw no evil; enjoying good fortune and happiness as they believed.
18 But since we left off burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings unto her, we have been wanting in all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”
— but since we stopped to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour drink offerings unto her, we have had scarceness of everything, and we have been consumed by the Sword and by the Famine.
19 “And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her without our men?” — “without our men” that is, without their husbands’ knowledge and consent;
— the Queen of heaven: that is, they sacrifice to the sun, moon and stars, which they called the queen of heaven;
— the Phœnicians called the moon Ashtoreth or Astarte: the wife of Baal or Moloch, the king of heaven; today the virgin Mary Queen of heaven and so out of the virgin and mother of Jesus Christ, made an idol; for here the prophet condemns their idolatry. (the Queen of heaven, that is, Ashtaroth or Astarte: more at the end)
Mary is called Queen of Heaven, the “Queen Mother of Israel”
20 Then Jeremiah said unto all the people — to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer, saying,
21 “The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them, and came it not into His mind?
— the incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah and in Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, of which they in their wickedness, did not the Lord remember them and came it not into his mind?
22 So the Lord could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which ye have committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, and an astonishment and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
— so that the Lord would bring judgement as he could no longer bear because of the evil of your doing’s and because of the abominations which ye have committed, with all his long-suffering he could no longer endure it;
23 Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, nor walked in His law nor in His statutes nor in His testimonies, therefore this evil has happened unto you, as at this day.”
— therefore is your land a desolation and an astonishment and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. The evidences of his wrath upon the Land of Promise were still evident and all on account of their idolatry, as the prophet now repeats once more, for the sake of emphasis.
24 Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people and to all the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt.
25 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her.’ Ye will surely accomplish your vows and surely perform your vows!
— thus saith the Lord of hosts, you and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her; ye will surely accomplish your vows and perform your vows;
— here is a bit of irony; for as Jeremiah states, no one could accuse them of unsteadiness in keeping their idolatrous promises. If they had only been as steadfast toward Yehovah, the God of the covenant, yet they vowed and burned incense to the Queen of heaven!
26 Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: ‘Behold, I have sworn by My great name,’ saith the Lord, ‘that My name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “The Lord God liveth.”
— that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah or in Egypt, saying, the Lord God liveth: or of their being called by his name, and reckoned his people; and intends their use of the divine name in an oath, of which this is a form, “the Lord God liveth”:
— or as sure as the Lord lives, or by the living God, especially as used in their vows to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, they vowing by the living God that they would do so, which must be very abominable to him; and therefore he solemnly swears there should not be a Jew in all Egypt that should use it; the reason is, because everyone of them that did should be cut off.
27 Behold, I will watch over them for evil and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
— and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the Sword, or by Famine until there be an end of them; that is, the greatest part of them, excepting a few that shall escape, hereafter mentioned, particularly Jeremiah, Baruch and the king’s daughters;
— but as for the main body of such, who went of their own accord to Egypt, and settled, and fell: into the idolatry of the country; these should all perish till there were none of them left; either by the sword of the king of Babylon; or by famine, which his army and sieges would produce; or by pestilence, though not here mentioned, yet is in Jeremiah 44:13.
28 Yet a small number that escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there shall know whose words shall stand, Mine, or theirs.
— yet a small number that escaped the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah; they shall make their escape out of the land of Egypt, where they did not go willingly; and by one providence or another, shall come back to their native country, the land of Judea, were the rest will not;
— and all the remnant of Judah that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know what words shall stand, mine or theirs; those that are left of the sword, famine and pestilence, shall know by facts before them, whose words have their effect and accomplishment; whether theirs, that promised impunity and safety, peace and prosperity in their idolatrous practices.
29 And this shall be a sign unto you,’ saith the Lord, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that ye may know that My words shall surely stand against you for evil.’
— and this shall be a sign unto you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place; in Egypt as before; and what follows is a confirming sign that so it would be; and which, when observed by some, gave the hint to them to make their escape; though others, being hardened in their idolatry, impenitence and unbelief, continued and perished.
30 Thus saith the Lord: ‘Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.’”
— as God gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar; and God puts the Jews in mind of what they had done to him; and might from hence conclude that this as a sign of their own ruin; and which they might know that it was indeed, the king of Egypt, in whom they trusted, being taken by his enemies, and his country wasted, they must in course fall prey to the conqueror.
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More on the Queen of heaven: Astarte, or Easter
Easter (which is how you pronounce Ishtar) is originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, in its entry “Easter,” states:
“The term ‘Easter’ is not of Christian origin. It is another form of Astarte, one of the titles of the Chaldean goddess, the queen of heaven. The festival of Pasch [Passover] held by Christians in post-apostolic times was a continuation of the Jewish feast . . . From this Pasch the pagan festival of ‘Easter’ was quite distinct and was introduced into the apostate Western religion, as part of the attempt to adapt pagan festivals to Christianity” (W.E. Vine, 1985).
Ishtar was an ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, fertility, and sex. She is featured in the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the “Ishtar Gate” was part of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Her worship involved animal sacrifices; objects made of her sacred stone, lapis lazuli; and temple prostitution.
Superimposed over an image of Ishtar are these words: “This is Ishtar: pronounced ‘Easter.’ From Ishtar the name Easter was derived. It’s well known that Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols (like the egg and the bunny) were and still are fertility and sex symbols.
Back at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, Constantine read out the letter that he would subsequently send to churches everywhere: “When the question arose concerning the most holy day of Easter it was decreed by common consent to be expedient, that this festival should be celebrated on the same day by all, in every place… Let us then have nothing in common with … the Jews” sums up one of the key movement for the establishment of Easter to be cerebrated in the Church today.
After Constantine decided to Christianize the Empire, Easter was changed to represent Jesus. And everything Jewish were understood to be totally incompatible with Christianity. But at its roots, Easter is outwardly all about celebrating fertility and sex but inwardly it’s paying homage to a Mesopotamian goddess, the Queen of heaven, Ishtar.
WASHINGTON (AP) — China likes to condemn the United States for extending its arm too far outside of its borders to make demands on non-American companies. But when it sought to hit back at the U.S. interests this month, Beijing did exactly the same.
In expanding export rules on rare earths, Beijing for the first time announced it will require foreign firms to obtain approval from the Chinese government to export magnets containing even tiny amounts of China-originated rare earth materials or produced with Chinese technology.
That means a South Korean smartphone maker must ask for Beijing’s permission to sell the devices to Australia if the phones contain China-originated rare earth materials, said Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative. “This rule gives China control over basically the entire global economy in the technology supply chain,” he said.
For anyone familiar with US trade practice, China is simply borrowing a decades-long US policy: the foreign direct product rule. It extends the reach of US law to foreign-made products, and it has been used regularly to restrict China’s access to certain US technologies made outside of the United States, even when they are in the hands of foreign companies.
It is the latest example of Beijing turning to US precedents for tools it needs to stare down Washington in what appears to be an extended trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
“China is learning from the best,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow on Chinese politics at Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. “Beijing is copying Washington’s playbook because it saw firsthand how effectively US export controls could constrain its own economic development and political choices.”
He added: “Game recognizes game.”
The idea goes back to at least 2018
It was in 2018, when President Donald Trump launched a trade war with China, that Beijing felt the urgency to adopt a set of laws and policies that it could readily deploy when new trade conflicts arise. And it looked to Washington for ideas.
Its Unreliable Entity List, established in 2020 by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, resembles the US Commerce Department’s “entity list” that restricts certain foreign companies from doing businesses with the US.
In 2021, Beijing adopted the anti-foreign sanction law, allowing agencies such as the Chinese Foreign Ministry to deny visas and freeze the assets of unwelcome individuals and businesses — similar to what the US State Department and the US Department of Treasury can do.
Calling it a toolkit against foreign sanctions, intervention and long-arm jurisdiction, the state-run news agency China News in a 2021 news report cited an ancient Chinese teaching, saying Beijing would be “hitting back with the enemy’s methods.”
The law “has combed through relevant foreign legislation and taken into consideration the international law and the basic principles of international relations,” said the Chinese scholar Li Qingming as quoted in the news report. He also said it could deter the other side from escalating.
Other formal measures Beijing has adopted in the past several years include expanded export controls and foreign investment review tools.
Jeremy Daum, a senior research scholar in law and senior fellow at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, said Beijing often draws from foreign models in developing its laws in non-trade, non foreign-related areas. As China seeks capabilities to retaliate in kind in trade and sanctions, the tools are often “very parallel” to those of the US, he said.
Both governments also have adopted a “holistic view of national security,” which expands the concept to justify restrictions on each other, Daum said.
Things accelerated this year
When Trump launched his trade war with China shortly after he returned to the White House earlier this year, Beijing readily deployed its new tools in addition to raising tariffs to match those imposed by the US president.
In February, in response to Trump’s first 10% tariff on China over allegations that Beijing failed to curb the flow of chemicals used to make fentanyl, the Chinese Commerce Ministry put PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger and the biotechnology company Illumina, on the unreliable entity list.
That barred them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments in the country. Beijing also announced export controls on tungsten, tellurium, bismuth, molybdenum and indium, which are elements critical to the production of modern high-tech products.
In March, when Trump imposed the second 10%, fentanyl-related tariff, Beijing placed 10 more US firms on its unreliable entity list and added 15 US companies to its export control list, including aerospace and defense companies like General Dynamics Land Systems and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, among others, asserting that they “endanger China’s national security and interests.”
Then came the so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs in April, when Beijing not only matched Trump’s sky-high tariff of 125% but also blacklisted more US companies and announced export controls on more rare earth minerals. That led to a pause in the shipment of magnets needed in manufacturing a wide range of products such as smartphones, electric vehicles, jet planes and missiles.
While the new tools have allowed China to stare down the United States, Daum said they are not without risks.
“The dangers in such a facially balanced and fair approach are, one, what one side sees as reciprocity the other might interpret as escalation,” he said. And second, “in a race to the bottom, nobody wins.”
“Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” Isaiah 28:1
“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head” Obadiah 1:15
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony, as many Churches do, is a disgrace.
The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. Hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
Hence, for ignoring the Targum as an authority for Understanding and Truth, the endtime Churches of God and others are being discribed as wretches, blind and naked; and would be thus justifiably destined to be spewed out of God’s mouth! Revelation 3:15-17
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20
In the “latter days” that is, in the distant future; in the latter days ye shall understand it clearly, viz. that the calamities which will have come upon you are the divine judgement upon your sins. Only in the endtime would you be able to understand this.
Jeremiah 41
The list of kings of Judah towards the end; in successive reigns, as Josiah (reign 640–609 BC), Jehoahaz (reign 609 BC), Jehoiakim (reign 609–598 BC), Jehoiachin or Jechonias (reign 598–597 BC), and Zedekiah (reign 597–586 BC)
1 Now it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed and the princes of the king, came with ten men unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah.
— Ishmael was not only a Jew but a royal seed of king David. Josephus says it was thirty days after Johanan had departed from Gedaliah, having given him information of the conspiracy against him;
— now it came to pass in the seventh month; the month Tisri; it was on the third day of this month, fifty two days after the destruction of the temple, that Gedaliah was slain; on which day a fast was kept by the Jews, after their return from captivity, on this occasion, called the fast of the seventh month, Zechariah 7:5;
“Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, ‘When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month even those seventy years, did ye fast at all unto Me, even to Me?” Zechariah 7:5 (for more, see The Unspoken Will of God)
“When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me? And when you held feasts, was that for me?” MSG
— this event happened on the first day of the month, the beginning of the new year; but the fast was kept the day following, because the first day was a festival.
2 Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him, and smote Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and slew him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
— and Ishmael slew Gedaliah; they all drew their swords and thrust at him; though it is probable that Ishmael gave him the mortal wound, since the phrase “and slew him” is singular. Josephus says that Gedaliah prepared a splendid table and made a sumptuous entertainment for them, and being drunk himself and all at table with him, took the opportunity and slew him;
— whom the king Babylon had made governor over the land; which mentioned; both to aggravate the crime they were guilty of, and to observe the reason of it and what it was that prompted them to it; for so the words may be rendered, “because the king of Babylon had made him governor over the land.”
The murder of Gedaliah, the governor of Judah, by Ishmael the son of Nethaniah
3 Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with him, even with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there and the men of war. — Ishmael also slew all the Jews that were with Gedaliah at Mizpah; not only those that were at table, but that were in the city also.
— Josephus says that having slain those that were at the feast with him, he went out in the night, and slew all the Jews in the city, and the soldiers that were left by the Babylonians there.
4 And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it.
5 that there came certain ones from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent and having cut themselves, with offerings and incense in their hand to bring them to the house of the Lord.
— that there came certain from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria; places of the ten tribes and which belonged to the northern house of Israel; so that it seems even at this distance of time, though the body of the ten tribes had been many years ago carried captive;
— yet there were still remnants (these could be of the house of Israel or even colonies of the Samaritans) remaining who had some regards to the Temple at Jerusalem.
6 And Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went; and it came to pass as he met them, he said unto them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam.” — weeping all along as he goes; pretending equal concern for the destruction of the land, city and Temple as they had;
— Ishmael said unto them, come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; as if he was alive, and as if he sympathized with them; and thought that this would be an inducement to come along with him: this he said perhaps to try them, whether they had heard anything upon the road of his death.
7 And it was so when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men who were with him. — and it was so, when they came into the midst of the city; there Gedaliah’s house was, to which he invited them; and as they went in, he shut up the court;
— as Josephus says, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit; when he had slain them, the fourscore men he had enticed into the city, except ten of them, he cast their dead bodies into a pit near at hand:
— he, and the men that were with him; that is, Ishmael and the ten princes, all royal blood, with what servants they brought with them; these were all involved in the killings of these men: the remnants from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria.
Ishmael slew Gedaliah and others and cast them into the midst of a pit
8 But ten men were found among them who said unto Ishmael, “Slay us not; for we have treasures in the field of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey.” So he forbore, and slew them not among their brethren. — thus arises wickedness accompanied with a game of lying and deceptions.
9 Now the pit wherein Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies of the men, whom he had slain because of Gedaliah, was that which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were slain.
— now, the pit where Ishmael had cast all the dead bodies slain because of Gedaliah, literally, “at the hand of Gedaliah,” that is, next to Gedaliah, whom he had first cast into this trench or cistern, was it which Asa, the king, had made for fear of Baasha, king of Israel, and Ishmael, a royal son of Nethaniah filled it with them that were slain, a gruesome heap of his victims.
10 Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; and Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the Ammonites.
— then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people that were in Mizpah, even the king’s daughters, all the princesses of the royal household, including the daughters of Zedekiah;
— and all the people that remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, putting them into his care as people who had professed their loyalty to the Babylonian rule; and Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, carried them away captive and departed to go over to the Ammonites;
— his intention being either to have his captives settle in the territory of the Ammonites, in the service of whose king he seems to have placed himself, or to sell them outright as slaves. Such is the way of men who yield to a life of wickedness: one crime leads to another, until they are fairly steeped in sins;
— even the king’s daughters; whether they were the daughters of Zedekiah, Jehoiakim or Jehoiakim, we know not; but it is most likely that they were the daughters of Zedekiah the last king, and who was just taken and carried captive;
— and so Josephus expressly calls them; these the king of Babylon regarded not, because they could neither fight, nor claim the kingdom; only the sons of the king, whom he slew before his eyes; though it may be these were not his daughters by his lawful wife, but by his concubines and so were not properly of the royal family and less regarded.
11 But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,
12 then they took all the men and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon. — and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon; taking this road to the country of Ammon,
— though it was not quite the direct road; either to avoid the forces of Johanan or rather for the sake of the hidden treasure at Shechem or Shiloh or Samaria, the ten men had promised him for their lives.
13 Now it came to pass, that when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were with him, then they were glad.
— saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, they were glad; looking upon them as their deliverers; hoping by their means to be preserved from being carried captives to the king of Ammon.
14 So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and returned, and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah.
— so all the people that Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah cast about; or turned about, and wheeled off from Ishmael and deserted him at once; not at all regarding his authority nor fearing his menaces or his power; being in sight of the captains and their forces,
— they were determined to join and put themselves under their protection, knowing them to be their friends and that they came to deliver them; and returned and went unto Johanan the son of Kareah; turned their backs on Ishmael and marched directly to Johanan and the captains of the forces under them.
15 But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
16 Then Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him, took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah after he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam — even mighty men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs whom he had brought again from Gibeon.
— then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces that were with him; after Ishmael had made his escape, whom they did not think fit to pursue, and the people had committed themselves to their care and protection; and having brought them to Mizpah again, they took them from thence;
— all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah from Mizpah, after that he had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam: those whom he had rescued from Ishmael and had returned to Mizpah be persuaded to go with him from thence;
— even mighty men of war and the women and the children and the eunuchs, whom he had brought again from Gibeon; or “men, [even] men of war” warlike men, soldiers; by which it appears that Ishmael must have more than ten men with him when he came to Mizpah,
— to do what he did there, to carry away such a number of captives, among which were mighty men, men of war, some of whom he had slain besides women and children, to which are added eunuchs not mentioned before, such as the king of Judah had in his court.
17 And they departed and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt, — and dwelt in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem: so called perhaps from Chimham, the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, to whom David or Solomon might give this place to dwell in, II Samuel 19:37;
— the Targum is express for the former, calling it “the habitation which David gave to Chimham, the son of Barzillai the Gileadite, which is near Bethlehem, to go and enter Egypt,” as it was near Bethlehem;
— to go into Egypt; where they had an inclination to do; having still a friendly regard to that people, and a confidence in them, as appears by some following chapters; and that they might be ready and at hand to flee thither, should the Chaldeans come against them, which they feared.
18 because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land. — because of the Chaldeans; which clause some think should have been joined to verse 17;
— this is a reason given why they departed from Mizpah, and dwelt at the habitation of Chimham in the way to Egypt; for they were afraid of them; at least this they pretended that the Chaldeans would come upon them and cut them off;
— because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah whom the king of Babylon made governor in the land; no doubt it was provoking to hear that the governor of the king of Babylon was slain in this manner; and still more so as there were many Chaldeans slain with him;
— but there was no reason to believe that the king of Babylon would carry his resentment against the Jews and Johanan or take vengeance on them, who had so bravely fought against the murderers, and had rescued the captives out of their hands:
— this excuse seems only a pretence for their going into Egypt; for though they were promised safety in Judah by Prophet Jeremiah, yet they were still opting for Egypt as the following chapters show.
Jeremiah 42
1 Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even unto the greatest, came near
— then all the forces of the captains; having taken up their residence at Chimham; and pretending of being afraid of the Chaldeans, because they were desirous of seeking refuge in Egypt;
2 and said unto Jeremiah the prophet, “Let, we beseech thee, our supplication be accepted before thee, and pray for us unto the Lord thy God, even for all this remnant (for we are left but a few of many, as thine eyes do behold us),
— for we are few in numbers as thine eyes could see; the number of the people had been very large, but by the judgements of the Sword, Famine, Pestilence and Captivity, they were greatly reduced; here was their whole number tiny before the prophet; his eyes beheld them;
— and the condition they were in: this they said to move Jeremiah’s compassion, and very likely to suggest to him how improbable it was that they should ever be able to continue in their own land; but that it would be better to live under the protection of Egypt; and hoped to have a word from the Lord to direct them there.
3 that the Lord thy God may show us the way wherein we may walk and the thing that we may do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said unto them, “I have heard you; behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words, and it shall come to pass that whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it unto you; I will keep nothing back from you.”
— behold, I will pray unto the Lord your God; be an intercessor for them; use his connection with his God and their God; and might expect to be heard; whom he would humbly entreat to direct what they should do as they desired.
5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “The Lord be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not do even according to all things for which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us.
— if we do not according to which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us; they promise to do everything the Lord should signify by the prophet as his will; and if they did not, wish the severest judgements of God might fall upon them.
6 Whether it be good or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we send thee, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”
— that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God; for so it was, that it was well or ill with those people as they obeyed or disobeyed the voice of the Lord; and yet they acted not according to it; and what was worse, did not intend to. What a wretched scene of hypocrisy here!
7 And it came to pass after ten days that the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah.
8 Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
— all the captains of the forces which were with him and all the people from the least even unto the greatest; they were all convened together as it was proper they should to hear the word of the Lord; since they all joined in a request to the prophet, Jeremiah 42:1.
9 and said unto them, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before Him:
10 ‘If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I repent of the evil that I have done unto you.
— thus saith the Lord, if ye will still abide in the land of Judea, their native country where they had always lived; and yet they thought of going out of it, which the Lord knew; and therefore to encourage them to abide in it and not think of departing into Egypt;
— and not pluck you up; that is, they should be firm and stable, happy and prosperous; and abound with all kind of blessings and increase in numbers, wealth and riches. The metaphors are taken from building houses and planting fields and vineyards:
— for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you; not that he had done any unjust thing to them; or that he changed his mind concerning them; but that he had compassion on them and would change his way and course of providence towards them according to his unchangeable will.
11 Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the Lord, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand.
— be not afraid of the king of Babylon of whom ye are afraid; lest he should revenge the death of Gedaliah upon them, which was a groundless fear; Jeremiah 41:18; or that they should be dealt hardly with by him and be cruelly oppressed and not able to live in subjection to him; Jeremiah 40:9;
— be not afraid of him, saith the Lord; being consistent: who being a greater King than the king of Babylon, the King of king? they had no reason to fear anything from him since they were under his protection;
— for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand; from his avenging and oppressing hand; though they were not to be delivered as yet from subjection to him, or being tributaries to him; which they might be and yet dwell in peace and safety.
12 And I will show mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own land.’ — and I will show mercies unto you, literally, “I will give you to experience mercies,” that he, the king of Babylon would have mercy upon you and cause you to return to your own land which they were now leaving in abject flight.
13 “But if ye say, ‘We will not dwell in this land,’ neither obey the voice of the Lord your God, — but if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the Lord your God, thereby once more becoming guilty of open rebellion against God;
14 saying, ‘No, but we will go into the land of Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger for bread, and there will we dwell’
— saying, No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, a rebellious plan which they had been discussing, if they had not yet decided upon it, where we will see no war nor hear the sound of the trumpet as it called the soldiers to the battle,
— nor have hunger of bread in the various unfortunate conditions accompanying war with which they had become so familiar in the last year and there will we dwell.
15 and now therefore hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Judah! Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there,
— if you wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt: are resolved upon it and are actually engaged in it; turning their faces from Judea towards Egypt and obstinately pursuing it; their posture expresses their resolution, impudence and obstinacy;
— and go to sojourn there: to be sojourners and strangers there as their fathers had been before; the remembrance of which should be enough to set them against going into Egypt any more.
16 then it shall come to pass that the sword which ye feared shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine whereof ye were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
— then it shall come to pass that the Sword which ye feared, contrary to the assurance of the Most High, Yehovah, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the Famine whereof ye were afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt, pursuing you with unrelenting fierceness; and there ye shall die.
17 So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.’
— so shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there, having definitely made up their mind to that effect: they shall die by the Sword, by the Famine and by the Pestilence, which by God’s punishment, could strike them in Egypt as well as in Judea; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
18 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As Mine anger and My fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall My fury be poured forth upon you when ye shall enter into Egypt. And ye shall be an execration and an astonishment, and a curse and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.’
— as mine anger and fury hath been poured upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; like a large hasty shower of rain; or rather like melted metal which suddenly and swiftly runs, and spreads itself and burns and consumes with a violent heat; such was the wrath of God on Jerusalem in its destruction by the Chaldeans:
— so shall my fury be poured forth upon you when ye shall enter into Egypt; as soon as they had well got there, quickly after they were settled there; for it was in the time of the then king of Egypt, Pharaohhophra, and by the then king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, that the destruction of Egypt was, in which these Jews suffered;
— and ye shall be an execration and an astonishment, a curse and a reproach; men should be astonished at the hand of God upon them;
— and ye shall see this place no more; and so their case would be worse than their brethren in Babylon; who after a term of years were expired, would return to their own land, but these they would never see any more.
19 “The Lord hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah: ‘Go ye not into Egypt!’ Know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
— the Lord hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah, so the prophet now elaborates upon the direct prophecy of Yehovah, Go ye not into Egypt; know certainly that I have admonished you this day, testifying against you and warning you.
20 For ye dissembled in your hearts when ye sent me unto the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us unto the Lord our God; and according unto all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.’
— and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare unto us and we will do it; they pressed him to a faithful declaration of the will of God to them, and promised they would act according to it. Now he had done all this; prayed unto him as they requested, and had brought them his mind and will, and yet they rebelled again against it; so that their sins and deceits were greatly magnified.
21 And now I have this day declared it to you, but ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, nor any thing for which He hath sent me unto you.
— and now I have this day declared it to you; that ye have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, your God, nor anything for the which He hath sent me unto you.
22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.”
— that ye shall die by the Sword, by the Famine and by the Pestilence; by one or another, or all of them; some by one, and some by another, as before threatened; evils they thought to escape by going thither, but which should surely follow them and overtake them;
— in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn; that is, in Egypt, to which they had a strong inclination where they greatly desired to be, pleased themselves with the thoughts of it and which they chose of their own will and pleasure for their own destruction;
— no mention was made of Jeremiah; did he go? was he kidnapped, held as ransom, perhaps, to go along? or had he managed to leave the group and found another way to obey God; the Scriptures are silent about this!
The Group of Seven nations (G7) and the European Union are reportedly working together to try to reduce rare earth reliance on China after the country tightened its export controls for key minerals and related refinery technologies on October 9.
Media reports said G7 countries and the EU are considering introducing price floors to guarantee profits for non-Chinese rare earth suppliers.
On October 17, Canada’s Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told the media that G7 nations can move “from dependence to resilience” in the rare earth supply chain, as it has the tools and resources to operationalize an alternative pipeline.
EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said last week that the bloc is coordinating with G7 members on a response to China’s export control on rare earths.
At the upcoming G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ Meeting in Toronto, Canada, on October 30 and 31, member nations are expected to advance their discussions on rare earth security and the proposed system of price floors for non-Chinese suppliers.
The consensus from the G7 Summit in Kananaskis in June, which called for greater coordination on critical mineral supply chains, will serve as a foundation for the Toronto meeting. Officials say the gathering could yield the first concrete framework for coordinated measures to reduce dependency on Chinese exports.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, where the two leaders signed a rare earths agreement making Australia a key supplier to the US critical minerals chain. The deal, signed at the White House, also reaffirmed the Aukus security pact and its shared goal of cutting dependence on China.
Costs for price floors
The price-floor concept already has a real-world precedent in the US.
MP Materials, a US rare earth producer, benefits from a government-backed agreement guaranteeing a minimum price of US$110 per kilogram for neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide, higher than China’s price of US$88 per kilogram. The premium helps offset higher production costs and signals Washington’s determination to build a self-sustaining rare earth supply chain.
Most Chinese commentators said the West’s price floor strategy will not succeed as China’s dominance is supported by deep investment, economies of scale, flexible environmental protection requirements and comprehensive processing capabilities that competitors cannot easily replicate.
“The G7’s price floor strategy is flawed and could backfire,” says a Hebei-based columnist writing under the pseudonym “Pianist under the Moonlight.”
“If the price floor is set too low, no one will invest; if it’s set too high, downstream industries cannot afford it.”
“Artificial price hikes will increase the cost of electric vehicles, wind turbines and consumer electronics, and consumers will ultimately pay the price. The G7 claims to fight inflation while driving up the cost of key materials. This is self-contradictory,” he says.
The writer says German automakers are expected to resist any aggressive price-floor policies, while their lobbying for exemptions or subsidies will eventually break the so-called G7 rare earth alliance.
“Those loudly calling for price floors are starting to back away when they are asked to pay the price,” says Shen Lunxin, a Shanxi-based columnist who specializes in the auto sector. “Mining rare earths requires labor, environmental safeguards and technology. The US couldn’t fully reopen its mines for decades and had to shut them down whenever oil prices surged. Australia, Canada and South Africa also experienced the same and had to rely on Chinese technical know-how.”
He adds that G7 nations should drop costly price-floor plans and work with China to build stable and balanced supply chains.
In 2010, China tightened rare earth exports to Japan, prompting the US, the EU and Japan to file a complaint against Beijing at the World Trade Organization. At the same time, US-based Molycorp restarted the long-closed Mountain Pass mine, while Australia’s Lynas secured Japanese investment to expand production.
However, after China lost the WTO case in 2014 and flooded the market with its rare earth supplies, prices dropped significantly and made global producers suffer heavy losses. Molycorp went bankrupt in 2015, and both Japanese and Australian ventures were left reeling.
A Shandong-based columnist notes that China “fortunately” lost the 2014 lawsuit, so it could gain market share, improve its refining know-how, and secure the power to shape global industry standards.
‘Wolf warrior’ dismissed
China has tried to de-escalate the situation since US President Donald Trump, on October 10, threatened to impose additional 100% tariffs on Chinese goods and cancel an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
On Monday, China removed veteran negotiator Li Chenggang, dubbed a “wolf warrior” in diplomacy, from his position as permanent representative to the World Trade Organization. Li was appointed as China’s lead international trade negotiator in April and played a key role in four successive rounds of US-China trade talks.
Li’s removal came after US Commerce Secretary Scott Bessent told the media on October 15 that Li had shown up uninvited in Washington on August 28 and used “very incendiary language,” warning that “China will cause global chaos if the port shipping fees go through.”
Bessent described Li’s remarks as both “disrespectful” and “unhinged.” He said China’s export curbs marked a decisive escalation in global economic tensions, describing the standoff as a defining moment for global trade.
“This is China versus the world,” he added. “We and our allies will neither be commanded nor controlled. We are not going to let a group of bureaucrats in Beijing try to manage the global supply chain.”
“The US has seriously misinterpreted and exaggerated China’s measures, deliberately creating misunderstanding and panic,” He Yongqian, spokesperson of the Chinese Commerce Ministry, said in a media briefing on October 16. “China’s new rare earth export restrictions are a legitimate step under national laws to prevent the illegal use of rare earths in weapons of mass destruction and to better safeguard both China’s and global security.”
She said before announcing the measures, China had informed the US, EU and Japan, and it is maintaining friendly communication to ensure their smooth implementation.
On October 17, Bessent said he expects Trump and Xi to meet in South Korea late this month.
“Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!” Isaiah 28:1
“For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head” Obadiah 1:15
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20;
In the “latter days” that is, in the distant future; in the latter days ye shall understand it clearly, viz. that the calamities which will have come upon you are the divine judgement upon your sins. Only in the endtime would you be able to understand this.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony, as many Churches do, is a disgrace.
The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. Hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
Hence, for ignoring the Targum as an authority for Understanding and Truth, the endtime Churches of God and other are being described as wretches, blind and naked; and would be thus justifiably destined to be spewed out of God’s mouth! Revelation 3:15-17
Jeremiah 39
1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah in the tenth month, came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it. — in the ninth year of Zedekiah would be around 588 BC; in the tenth month of Tebet; so that it was winter the siege of Jerusalem began;
— and they besieged the city, provoked by Zedekiah’s breaking the covenant with him, rebelled against him, who had set him upon his throne, so Nebuchadnezzar was determined to revenge; and came even in winter for a long siege;
— the king of Babylon came in person at first; then begun the siege, supposing it would be a long one, retired to Riblah in Syria, either for pleasure or other issues. The time of beginning the siege exactly agrees with the account in II Kings 25:1.
2 And in the eleventh year of Zedekiah in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into. — and in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month; the month Tammuz, which answers to part of June, and part of July: the ninth day of the month, the city was broken up; or taken by storm;
— the walls of Jeusalem were broken by engines and battering rams, so that the Chaldeans could enter and take the city. This was just a year and a half after it had been besieged, which would be around 586 BC; not being able to hold out any longer, because of the famine; Jeremiah 52:6.
3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat in the Middle Gate: even Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the residue of the princes of the king of Babylon.
4 And it came to pass that when Zedekiah the king of Judah saw them and all the men of war, then they fled and went forth out of the city by night, by the way of the king’s garden, by the gate betwixt the two walls; and he went out the way of the plain.
— Zedekiah disobeyed God to submit himself to the princes and king of Babylon; then at Riblah, Zedekiah had his eyes put out; so he was condemned to darkness who had shut his eyes against the clear light of God’s word.
5 But the Chaldeans’ army pursued after them, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he gave judgement upon him.
— but the Chaldean army pursued after Zedekiah, being informed of the flight by those surrendered to them, as Josephus says; or not finding the king, his family, nobles and guards at the palace, where they expected them, and knowing which way they must take, pursued after them; not the whole army, only a part of it; for some must remain at Jerusalem to demolish the city and take its spoil;
— and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; not far from it, as Josephus says; that when his friends and generals saw the enemy near, they deserted him and fled and only a few were with him when being surrounded:
— and when they had taken him they brought him to Nebuchadnezza to Riblah in Syria; perhaps he had retired from the siege of Jerusalem, having left it to his generals to refresh himself in this pleasant place; or that he might be nearer in his own kingdom; however, here he was, and here the army brought Zedekiah to him;
— where he passed sentence on him, which was to have his eyes put out: he severely chide him and upbraided him for the perfidy he had been guilty of in breaking his oath;
“after he came to him, Nebuchadnezzar began to call him a wicked man and a covenant breaker, unmindful of promises he had made to preserve the country for him; he reproached him with ingratitude, in receiving the kingdom from him he had taken from Jehoiakim, and given to him, who had used his power against the giver; but, says he, the great God that hates thy manners has put thee into our hands.”
6 Then the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes in Riblah; also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah. — all his sons were killed but nothing said about the daughters; these must be very young, at least some of them; since Zedekiah at this time was only thirty two years of age;
— this must be a dreadful spectacle for him and the pains must be cutting, that it was owing to his own obstinacy in not taking the advice of the prophet Jeremiah to surrender to the Chaldeans, whereby he and his family would have been saved, Jeremiah 38:17;
— also the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Judah; who did not come over to the Chaldean army and surrender themselves; as many of them as fell into the hands of the king of Babylon. Rashi says those “the nobles of Judah” were members of the Sanhedrin, who advised Zedekiah to annul his oath to Nebuchadnezzar.
7 Moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, and bound him with chains to carry him to Babylon. — moreover he put out Zedekiah’s eyes; hereby the prophecy of Jeremiah was fulfilled, that his eyes should see the king of Babylon, as they did, before they were put out, and that he should not die by the sword, Jeremiah 34:3;
— and also the prophecy of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 12:13; that he should be brought to Babylon, and yet should not see it; for his eyes were put out before he was carried there: a full proof of God’s foreknowledge of future events; of the certainty of prophecy and of divine revelation;
— and bound him with two brass or iron chains, or fetters, for both his legs; and thus bound and was carried to Babylon, where he remained to the day of his death.
Zedekiah Sees all his Sons Killed; but nothing were said of his Daughters!
8 And the Chaldeans burned the king’s house and the houses of the people with fire, and broke down the walls of Jerusalem. — and the houses of the people, burned down with fire; the houses of the common people, as distinct from the king’s palace and the houses of the nobles, Jeremiah 52:13; but a den of thieves;
— and broke down the walls of Jerusalem; all the fortifications were entirely dismantled, that it might be no more a city of force and strength as it had been before.
9 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city and those who fell away, who fell to him, with the rest of the people who remained.
— carried away into Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in Jerusalem; that were left of the Pestilence, Famine and Sword; and who were found in it when it was taken.
10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left the poor of the people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time. — but Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poor of the people which had nothing in the land of Judah;
— because they would have been of no service to the Chaldeans but a burden and because they had nothing to fear from them; they had no arms to rebel against them; and because it would be to their interest to have the land manured that they might have some tribute from it;
— and gave them vineyards and fields at the same time; as their own property to dress and cultivate, and receive the advantage though a tax laid upon them; or they were to pay tribute to the king of Babylon; they who before had nothing are now proprietors of vineyards and fields;
— when the former owners were carried away as captives: there might be much of the justice of God conspicuous in this affair; such who had been oppressed and ill used by the rich are now retaliated with their possessions.
11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, saying,
12 “Take him and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee.” — take him and look well to him; take him out of prison; take him under his immediate care; receive him kindly and use him humanely;
— provide everything necessary for him and let him not want for anything: or “set thine eyes upon him” look pleasantly at him, and let him be always under your view and inspection; do not treat him with neglect or contempt but see to it that nothing of needs are taken from him;
— and do him no harm; no injury to his person by beating, imprisoning or starving him; nor suffer any to be done to him by the common soldiers or by his own people: let him have whatever he asks for: this was great favour from a heathen prince indeed and more than he met with from his own countrymen.
13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the king of Babylon’s princes.
14 even they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, that he should carry him home. So he dwelt among the people.
— even they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison where he was, when Jerusalem was taken, Jeremiah 38:28; and where he remained until this order came;
— and committed him unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan; the father of this person seems to be the same who saved Jeremiah from being delivered into the hand of the people to be put to death by them in Jehoiakim’s reign, Jeremiah 26:24;
— and Gedaliah himself was doubtless a prince of Judah that deserted to the Chaldeans during the siege and was in esteem with them, and appointed a governor over those that were left in the land.
Gedaliah, made Governor of Judea by Nebuzaradan and Protector of Jeremiah
15 Now the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison, saying,
16 “Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring My words upon this city for evil and not for good; and they shall be accomplished in that day before thee.
17 But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord; and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid.
18 For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword; but thy life shall be as a prize unto thee, because thou hast put thy trust in Me, saith the Lord.’” — because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord;
— what he had done in serving the prophet sprung from a principle of faith and confidence in the Lord and his prophet; without which works are not right; and without which it is impossible to please God; and which faith may be and be true where fears are.
Jeremiah 40
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him bound in chains among all who were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, who were carried away captive unto Babylon.
— here Nebuzaradan had further duty to do with his captives as they fell into his hands, among whom were Jeremiah when he was taken out of prison and out of Jerusalem and brought him to Ramah:
— still bound in chains Jeremiah; but without the knowledge of Nebuzaradan and through the inadvertency of inferior officers, he was taken and bound and with other prisoners brought to Ramah in order to be transported to Babylon for Ramah was to the north of Jerusalem as Babylon was.
2 And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said unto him, “The Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place. — this heathen captain acknowledges the hand of the Lord in all this;
— and said unto Jeremiah, the Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil on this place; the city of Jerusalem; and now in ruins; the houses burnt; the walls broken and the inhabitants carried captive. This was the evil which the Lord, he says, had “decreed” as the Targum renders it.
3 Now the Lord hath brought it, and done according as He hath said: because ye have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed His voice, therefore this thing has come upon you.
— this heathen captain, Nebuzaradan, acknowledges the hand of the Lord and suggests, that the king of Babylon himself, and the rest of the generals were only instruments the Lord made use of; which is very piously as well as wise; and more is here acknowledged by him than by the Jews.
Nebuzaradan releasing Jeremiah from prison and let him go free
4 And now behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will look well after thee; but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear. Behold, all the land is before thee. Wherever it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go.”
— and now, this heathen captain wil loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hands; Or rather are; for when he said these words, it is highly probable they were on him, though now ordered to be taken off;
— whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go; he left him to take his own way and do as he thought fit; and this agrees with his master’s orders to him, Jeremiah 39:12.
5 Now while he had not yet gone back, he said, “Go back to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people; or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go.” So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward and let him go.
— according to the Targum, these are the words of Nebuzaradan; “if thou wilt not return (that is, with him to Babylon, or rather to Jerusalem, or best to his own native place), or if thou wilt not dwell (that is, in this place), go back to Gedaliah.”
— or go wherever it seemed convenient unto thee; though he gave him his advice, he did not press it, but left Jeremiah his full liberty to take his own way and go into what part of the land he pleased to settle in:
— so the captain of the guard gave him victuals (food or provisions), and money and let him go; the prophet was just out of prison and destitute for the necessaries of life, and the land was laid waste by the enemy; and therefore he could not have subsisted without a supply which was liberally given by the captain;
— not only food for sustenance sufficient for his journey, whichever way he took, but an amount of money and clothes which was very kind treatment of a prophet by a heathen victor.
6 Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, to Mizpah, and dwelt with him among the people who were left in the land. — Jeremiah might have been better with Nebuzaradan had he gone along with the captain to Babylon;
— but he chose rather to dwell in his own land, and suffer affliction with the people of God, or perhaps inwardly inspired by another mission as he was made custodian of the king’s daughters (Jeremiah 41:10, 43:6), than to dwell at ease in a foreign and idolatrous land.
7 Now when all the captains of the forces which were in the fields, even they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam governor in the land, and had committed unto him men and women and children, and the poor of the land of those who were not carried away captive to Babylon,
8 then they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah — even Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men;
— then they came to Gedaliah to Mizpah; having heard that the Chaldean army was gone and so were in no fear of that; and also that Gedaliah was made deputy governor, one of their own, a pious, prudent man, a man of integrity under which was much preferable to captivity in a foreign country though a tributary to Babylon.
9 And Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore unto them and to their men, saying, “Fear not to serve the Chaldeans. Dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
— saying, fear not to serve the Chaldeans, as if it was an evil to do it; or as if their yoke was hard and intolerable; or they should be always in danger of their lives:
— dwell in the land and serve the king of Babylon; pay your tributes and it shall he well with you; settle in the land and do not rove about from place to place; nor go out of the land through fear of the king of Babylon, but continue to live in subjection to him and they will live comfortably and safely.
10 As for me, behold, I will dwell at Mizpah to serve the Chaldeans, who will come unto us; but ye, gather ye wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your vessels, and dwell in your cities that ye have taken.” — as for Gedaliah, the governor, he will serve the Chaldeans;
11 Likewise when all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites and in Edom, and who were in all the countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, — these who were from Moab, and among the Ammonites and in Edom, started to plan an evil plan;
12 even all the Jews returned out of all places whither they were driven and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered wine and summer fruits in abundance. — at the taking of the city many escaped and fled to Moab, to Ammon, to Edom, some one way, some another, now they returned.
13 Moreover Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces that were in the fields came to Gedaliah at Mizpah
14 and said unto him, “Dost thou certainly know that Baalis the king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam believed them not.
— that Baalis the king of the Ammonites hath sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to slay thee? very probably Ishmael, a royal seed of king David (Jeremiah 41:1), with the forces under him, fled to the king of the Ammonites when Jerusalem was captured; who, out of ill will to the Jews, always bore them by the Ammonites, envying their reestablishment under Gedaliah;
— and hoping to make a prey of them if their governor was removed, also being displeased that Gedaliah should be governor, which he might think was an office he had a better right to, being of the seed royal; and therefore readily agreed to be sent to take away the governor’s life;
— but Gedaliah believed them not; and knowing he had done nothing to disoblige him, couldn’t believe a person of such birth and dignity would ever be guilty of such a crime; yet he ought to have inquired further into it and provided for his own safety against the worst that might happen.
Gedaliah, Governor of Judea, was killed by his own people, the Jews
15 Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke to Gedaliah in Mizpah secretly, saying, “Let me go, I pray thee, and I will slay Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and no man shall know it. Why should he slay thee, that all the Jews who are gathered unto thee should be scattered and the remnant in Judah perish?”
16 But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah, “Thou shalt not do this thing, for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael.” — but Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said unto Johanan the son of Kareah; in answer to his request, and the motion made by him: thou shalt not speak of Ishmael of scheming this thing;
— or “do not do this thing” dissuading him from it as being unlawful to take away a man’s life in such a secret manner, without any legal process against him; though it seems to carry more in it, that he laid his commands upon him not to do it and threatened him if he did:
— for thou speakest falsely of Ishmael; or a false accusation or a slander; which isn’t describing Johanan well. The events in the following chapter shows that the information was good and that it was no lie that was told; and it would have been well for Gedaliah if he had taken the warning seriously.
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; that is, in the distant future; or in the latter days ye shall consider and understand it clearly. Only in the endtime would we be able to understand this perfectly.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony, as many Churches do, is a disgrace. The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. Hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
Jeremiah 37
The list of kings of Judah towards the end; in successive reigns, as Josiah (reign 640–609 BC), Jehoahaz (reign 609 BC), Jehoiakim (reign 609–598 BC), Jehoiachin or Jechonias (reign 598–597 BC), and Zedekiah (reign 597–586 BC)
1 And King Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. — and King Zedekiah; the brother of Jehoiakim, whose untimely death, and want of burial, are prophesied in the preceding chapter;
— the name of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, was Mattaniah before he was king; his name was changed by the king of Babylon, who made him king, II Kings 24:17.
2 But neither he nor his servants, nor the people of the land hearkened unto the words of the Lord, which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah. — but neither he nor his servants, nor the king, his courtiers and subjects the royal family, nobility and common people;
— all were degenerate and corrupt; that Jehoiakim was wicked, and so with all his people wicked but Zedekiah seems to possess one single righteous action of taking Jeremiah out of prison; although according to this account, both king and people were wicked.
3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now unto the Lord our God for us.” — to the Prophet Jeremiah, saying, pray now unto the Lord our God for us. This message was sent either upon the rumour of the Chaldeans coming against Jerusalem;
— or rather when it had departed from the city, and was gone to meet the army of the king of Egypt; so that this petition to the prophet was to pray that the king of Egypt might get a victory over the Chaldean army.
4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not put him into prison. — now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people; he was free to go in and out of Jerusalem whenever he pleased;
— or go to any part of the city and prophesy unto them; which he could not do in the latter part of Jehoiakim’s reign, who sent officials after him and Baruch to take them, and they hide themselves, yea, the Lord hid them, Jeremiah 36:19; but now he was under no restraint, as least as yet:
— for they had not put him into prison; not yet; they afterwards did, Jeremiah 37:15.
5 Then Pharaoh’s army came forth out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem. — then Pharaoh’s army come forth out of Egypt; Zedekiah, though he had took an oath of homage to the king of Babylon, rebelled against him,
— and Zedekiah entered into a league with the king of Egypt; and who, according to agreement, sent his army out of Egypt to break up the siege of Jerusalem; after his defeat at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 46:2; yet he sent his army to the relief of Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of the Lord unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 “Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, who sent you unto Me to inquire of Me: ‘Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
— thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me, to inquire of me; to seek divine guidance from the Lord, confirming it to them, that the Chaldean army which was gone would not return any more; this they were willing to believe, to have a confirmation from the Lord;
— and so the Targum says “to seek an oracle from me;” or to ask instruction from me: now these messengers are bid to go back and tell the king, his nobles and all the people of the land what follows:
— behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt, into their own land; being afraid to face the Chaldean army. Josephus says there was a battle fought between the Egyptians and Chaldeans, in which the latter were conquerors, and put the former to flight, and drove them out of all Syria;
— Rashi relates what seems like a fable, that the Egyptian army came by ships and that at sea they saw strange appearances upon which they asked one another, what means this? they replied, these are our fathers, whom the fathers of those we are going to help drowned in the sea; and immediately [fear struck them so they] returned to their own land.
8 And the Chaldeans shall come again and fight against this city, and take it and burn it with fire.’ — and the Chaldeans shall come again; to Jerusalem, after they have defeated or drove back the Egyptian army:
— and fight against this city, Jerusalem; with rigour and resolution; being exasperated by the methods taken to oblige them to raise the siege: and take it and burn it to the ground; and they did, Jeremiah 39:8.
9 Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not yourselves, saying, ‘The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us,’ for they shall not depart. — the Targum says, “Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us,’ for they will not depart.”
10 For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire.”
— “Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof!” the children of Edom fanned the fire on the day of Jerusalem’s fall, Psalm 137:7
11 And it came to pass that when the army of the Chaldeans had broken off from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, — and it came to pass, that when the army of the Chaldeans were broken up from Jerusalem; when the siege of the city was broken up and raised: or when they “went up from Jerusalem” were gone from it;
— for fear of Pharaoh’s army; or rather “because of Pharaoh’s army” the word “fear” is not in the text; nor did they leave Jerusalem for fear of his army, but to meet it and give it battle as they did; however, by this means there was a freer passage to and from the city.
12 then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself from thence in the midst of the people.
13 And when he was in the Gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he took Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans!”
— whose name [was] Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah: the grandson as some think, of that Hananiah the false prophet, of whose death Jeremiah the prophet prophesied, Jeremiah 28:16;
— and the Jews have a tradition that Hananiah ordered his son Shelemiah that if he ever had an opportunity to bring Jeremiah to ruin, to do it; and the same charge Shelemiah gave to his son Irijah, who, having this opportunity, laid hold on him;
14 Then said Jeremiah, “It is false! I fall not away to the Chaldeans.” But he hearkened not to him; so Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. — Jeremiah said: I fall not away to the Chaldeans; for the Chaldean army was gone from the city;
— nor did Jeremiah wanted to be with an idolatrous people; for after the city was taken, when Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard gave him his choice, either to go with him to Babylon, where he promised to take care of him; or to go to Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judah; he chose rather to be with Gedaliah and his poor company:
— so Irijah took Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes; the princes of Zedekiah’s court, or the princes of the people, the civil magistrates; or it may be the great Sanhedrin, who he knew had no good disposition towards the prophet.
15 Thereupon the princes were wroth with Jeremiah, and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
— and put Jeremiah in prison, in the house of Jonathan the scribe; such an one as Elishama was in Jehoiakim’s time, who had a house or at surrounding court as he had, who was now dead or removed, Jeremiah 36:12.
16 When Jeremiah had entered into the dungeon and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,
17 then Zedekiah the king sent and took him out; and the king asked him secretly in his house, and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said, “There is; for, said He: Thou shalt be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon!” — then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah out; after he had been in prison for some time;
— and the Chaldean army returned, and having renewed their siege, the king becomes frightened; and knowing the prophet was in prison, sends a messenger to take him out from thence, and bring him to him; which was accordingly done:
— is there any word from the Lord? he means any particular word of prophecy, any late one; for prophecy did not come at all times, nor even according to the will of man, but always according to the will of God, and when he thought fit; this the king knew very well, and he wanted a comfortable word, some good news of the failure of the present attempt:
— for, Jeremiah said, thou shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon; which was boldly said to the face of the king himself, risking his life in so doing; or, at least, exposing himself to severer treatment, if severer could be used.
Zedekiah the king of Judah and the Fall of Jerusalem
18 Moreover Jeremiah said unto King Zedekiah, “How have I offended against thee or against thy servants or against this people, that ye have put me in prison? — what have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison? or “what have I sinned?” have I been guilty of treason against thee, O king?
— or of scandal and defamation of any of thy nobles and courtiers? have I done any injury to any of the king’s subjects? has there been any falsehood in my prophecies? has not everything appeared to be true that I have spoken, concerning the coming of the Chaldeans to invade the land and besiege the city? and concerning the return of the Chaldean army when broken up?
— why then should I be cast into prison, and detained there? is it not a clear case that what I have said comes from the Lord? and therefore ought not to be used in this manner.
19 Where are your prophets now who prophesied unto you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land’? — where your prophets now that prophesied unto you; your false prophets,
— what is become of their prophecies? where is the truth of them, to which general credit has been given? where are they? as the Targum says; “And where are your false prophets who prophesied to you, saying: ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’?”
20 Therefore hear now, I pray thee, O my lord the king. Let my supplication, I pray thee, be accepted before thee, that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.” — that thou cause me not to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe; but that he might be discharged from his confinement;
— or however be removed into another prison, not so uncomfortable and disagreeable as this man’s house or prison was; and which perhaps was still the worse through his cruel and ill natured carriage to him; and which all together endangered his life: wherefore he adds;
— lest I die there; for though he had continued there many days, yet the place was so exceedingly noisome, that he thought he could not long continue there, was he remanded back to it.
21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was spent. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison.
— then Zedekiah commanded that they should commit Jeremiah into the the prison; Zedekiah did not think fit to discharge him entirely, lest it should give offence to the princes; but he ordered him to be put in prison in the court belonging to where he might breathe in a freer air, and have liberty of walking to and fro;
— and that they should give him daily a piece of bread out of the bakers’ street; it seems there was a street in Jerusalem so called, where the bakers lived; and perhaps the king’s bakers; who had orders to deliver to the prophet every day a piece or loaf of bread, as much as was sufficient for a man;
— until all the bread in the city was spent; that is, these were the king’s orders: thus Jeremiah remained in prison in the king’s court; until the city was taken.
Jeremiah 38
1 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying, — these are the princes liked to king Zedekiak;
2 “Thus saith the Lord: ‘He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life as a prey, and shall live.’
— but those that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live: those throws down his arms, delivers himself up to the Chaldean army, and submits to their mercy, shall have quarters given him, and his life shall be spared.
3 Thus saith the Lord: ‘This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.’” — thus saith the Lord, this city shall surely be given into the king of Babylon’s army; when those found in it should be put to the sword, or carried captive;
4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, “We beseech thee, let this man be put to death; for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking such words unto them; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.”
— we beseech thee, let this man, Jeremiah, be put to death; or, “let this man now be put to death,” as the Targum says; this is in contrast to how king Hezekiah submitted himself and called for mercy upon the Most High: II Kings 19:
14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, “O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims, Thou art the God, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. Thou hast made heaven and earth. 16 Lord, bow down Thine ear, and hear; open, Lord, Thine eyes, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, who hath sent him to reproach the living God. 17 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they have destroyed them. 19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech Thee, save Thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that Thou art the Lord God, even Thou only.”
20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: ‘That which thou hast prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria I have heard.’
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. 37 And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead. II Kings 19:14-20, 35-37
5 Then Zedekiah the king said, “Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.” — in your power, to do with him as you please; this is a grant of the weak king, allowing them to do as they thought fit;
6 Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah, the son of Hammelech, which was in the court of the prison; and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; so Jeremiah sank in the mire.
7 Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin), — in the gate of Benjamin; this was on the northern wall of the city, the most exposed to the attack of the invading army,
8 Ebedmelech went forth out of the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying, — Ebedmelech, an Ethiopian Gentile went forth and spoke; not privately, but in public; a proof of fearless magnanimity; compare this to Yeshua’s time, where Simon of Cyrene, likely from north Africa or a Greek outpost, carried the Cross on Christ’s behalf!
9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is likely to die of hunger in the place where he is, for there is no more bread in the city.”
10 Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he dies.” — and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon before he die; the king speaks honourably of Jeremiah, giving him his title as a prophet, and expresses great concern for him;
11 So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from thence old castoff clothes and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.
12 And Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, “Put now these old castoff clothes and rotten rags under thine armpits, under the cords.” And Jeremiah did so. — even when Jeremiah had been drawn out in this way from the deep pit of mire, he remained in the court of the prison.
13 So they drew up Jeremiah with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. — Ebedmelech has no warrant to set Jeremiah full liberty;
14 Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the principal entry that is in the house of the Lord; and the king said unto Jeremiah, “I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.”
— the principal entry that is in the house of the Lord; in II Kings 16:18 we read of ”the king’s entry without,” an outside entrance, or covered gallery, both leading from the palace to the Temple.
15 Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, “If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? And if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me?” — “If I tell you, you will put me to death? And if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”
16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, “As the Lord liveth, who made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, neither will I give thee into the hand of these men who seek thy life.” — Zedekiah could still see that Jeremiah was God’s prophet!
17 Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, “Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you will surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then your soul will live and this city will not be burned with fire. Thus you and your household will live.’
— if thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes; the generals of his army; the king not being with his army at this time, that is, if he would open the gates of Jerusalem, and go forth from thence to the Chaldean army, and surrender himself themselves into the hands of the princes their general officers:
— then thy soul shall live; in thy body and not be separated from it; or live comfortably in peace and safety though not in so much splendour and glory as he had done; and thine house; not only himself, but his wives, children and servants.
— and this city shall not be burned with fire; as had been threatened; and as the Chaldeans would be provoked to do, should it hold out to the last extremity; but should preserve it upon a surrender; but Zedekiah rebelled and was captured at Riblah, Jeremiah 39:5;
18 But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.’”
— but if thou wilt not go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes; and surrender to them: then shall this city be given into the hands of the Chaldeans; if not willingly delivered up by the king of Judah, it shall be forcibly taken by the king of Babylon’s army.
19 And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who are fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.” — Zedekiah said he was afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans; who did go out of the city, and surrendered to the Chaldeans;
— lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me; that is, lest the Chaldeans should deliver him into the hands of the Jews, and they should jeer and scoff at him, for doing the same thing he had forbidden them on the severest penalty; or lest they should put him to death in the most revengeful and contemptuous manner, but all this was either a mere excuse, or showed great weakness.
20 But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver thee. Obey, I beseech thee, the voice of the Lord, which I speak unto thee; so it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live. — obey, Jeremiah beseech them, the voice of the Lord, which he spoke unto thee;
— the counsel Jeremiah had given Zedekiah to surrender to the Chaldeans was not from himself but from the Lord: and since it came from the Lord, it ought to be attended to, so he might be assured of the divine protection, should he act according to it:
— so it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live; that is, it would not only be much better with him than he feared, but than it would be with him should he obstinately stand out to the last; he should have more respect and honour from the king of Babylon; and not only have his life spared, but enjoy more of the comforts of life; particularly the sight of his eyes.
21 But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the Lord hath shown me:
22 And behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say, ‘Thy friends have set thee up and have prevailed against thee. Thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they have turned away back.’
— and, behold, all the women that are left in the royal palace when Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were carried captives; or which were left of the famine and pestilence in Zedekiah’s house; or would be left there when he should flee and make his escape; meaning his concubines, maids of honour, or court ladies;
— and those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: or “the men of thy peace” the false prophets and the princes that hearkened to them, and promised and flattered him with peace and prosperity, these deceived him; they set him on to hold out against the Chaldeans, and not believe the Prophet Jeremiah;
— and they are turned away back; meaning either his feet, which were distorted, and had turned aside from the right way; or now could go on no further against the enemy, but were obliged to turn back and flee;
23 So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans. And thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with fire.”
— so they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the Chaldeans; not the citizens of Jerusalem; but the Chaldeans that should enter the city shall bring them “thy wives and thy children” out to the Chaldeans: all their wives, concubines and children, or sons rather; for at the taking of the city no mention is made of daughters, only of sons, who were slain before his eyes, Jeremiah 39:6;
— and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; by his army, who having taken him, brought him to Nebuchadnezzar, and delivered Zedekiah into his hand, Jeremiah 39:5;
— and thou shalt cause this city to be burnt down; or “thou shall burn this city with fire” be the moral cause of it; through his sin and obstinacy, impenitence and unbelief, the burning of the city might be laid to his charge; his sin was the cause of it.
24 Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. — wanting it to be a secret, Zedekiah must be, by now, ashamed of his deeds; the princes never got to know what was the principal subject of the king’s conference with the prophet;
— “and thou shalt not die” shows that king Zedekiah has limited power, for if it were made known, Jeremiah would risk his life; because the princes would like to put the prophet to death.
25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee and say unto thee, ‘Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, also what the king said unto thee; hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death,’
— and say unto thee, declare unto us; hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death; the king knew how inquisitive they would be, to know both what the prophet said to the king, about the state of affairs respecting the Chaldeans and the surrender of the city to them.
26 then thou shalt say unto them, ‘I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house to die there.’” — then thou shalt say unto them; here the king puts words into the prophet’s mouth, what he should say to the princes, and so keep the matter a secret:
— that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there; this he had entreated of the king before, Jeremiah 37:20; and now, no doubt, renewed his request, having this fair opportunity with the king alone to do it;
— or it is probable he did it upon this hint of the king. This shows how much the king stood in fear of his princes in this time of distress; and that he had only the name of a king and had not courage and resolution enough to act of himself, according to the dictates of his mind; yea, that he, unlike Hezekiah, feared men more than he feared the Lord.
27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah and asked him, and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived.
— for the matter was not perceived; or “was not heard” though there were persons that saw the king and the prophet together, yet nobody heard anything that passed between them; and therefore Jeremiah could not be confronted in what he had said or be charged with concealing anything.
28 So Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken, and he was there when Jerusalem was taken. — the Targum, rendering it, “And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the prison until the day Jerusalem was captured; and it came to pass when Jerusalem was captured.”
According to Chinese government data, the number of Chinese students studying in the United States rose from fewer than 1 million in 2000 to more than 6 million in 2017. The number of these students who are returning home to China has grown at close to the same rate. In 2000, hardly any returned, but, by 2017, 4.8 million were returning.
Approximately 360,000 Chinese nationals are currently studying in the US, with many planning to stay in the US, if they can. More Chinese nationals, however, are shunning that route, choosing to return home after studying in the US. The “brain drain” for China is starting to reverse. Most of these students are in STEM fields and are known jokingly as “sea turtles.”
Returning STEM Graduates back to China have helped to bridge the large communication gap between China and the West
Why is this happening? Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, says that the return flow is because of “the ‘magnetic effect’ of China’s rise as a global power.” Signs of this magnetic effect include:
R&D expenditures in China are growing, reflecting financing trends in the US. China has become more prosperous with higher living standards.
China offers incentives to its nationals to return to China — housing allowances and health care benefits.
They want to be “home” and be better able to maintain family ties.
They perceive a “bamboo ceiling” in the US – Chinese graduates are not making it into the C suites. While they represent 27 percent of professions in large tech companies, they are only about 14 percent of executives.
It is becoming harder for Chinese nationals to receive US government funding because of increased scrutiny.
They fear that OPT may be eliminated and that this “would restrict the smooth flow of students from American schools to American companies. . . .”
Chinese students are not the only ones feeling unwelcome in the US these days. International student enrollment is down at US universities. That threatens not only some US universities, particularly those in the Midwest, but also threatens the US economy in general, which relies on immigrants as a driver of innovation. Despite the Administration’s desires, the “best and brightest” may be choosing to stay home, return home, or take their skills to other, currently more welcoming countries.
President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the US attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Deploying a carrier is a significant move for any White House, and often suggests larger scale military operations.
President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the US attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Deploying a carrier is a significant move for any White House, and often suggests larger scale military operations.
The arrival of the USS Gerald Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, alongside several destroyers and a submarine, will add to what is already the world’s largest naval deployment.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move on X, saying the deployment “will bolster US capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere.”
The warships, the USS Ford, which has five destroyers in its strike group, will add to the 10,000 troops and a dozen F-35 fighters which have been sent to the region over the last several weeks.
B-52 and B-1B Lancer bombers have flown close to Venezuela’s coast in recent days, as warplanes and drones sunk seven alleged drug-running boats. The actions, which expanded into the Pacific on Thursday with an eighth strike, have killed dozens of people the Pentagon has labeled as “narco-terrorists.”
The administration has said the killings are lawful but has not provided a legal rationale for the military’s use of force against civilians who are not engaged in war.
Trump said Thursday he is unlikely to go to Congress for authorization to conduct the strikes “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. ”We’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. … They’re going to be, like, dead.”
Maduro, the authoritarian leader who Trump accuses of enabling drug trafficking, said this week that his forces have deployed thousands of Russian-made Igla-S ground-to-air missiles around the country in preparation for any US airstrikes.
The deployment of the carrier strike group is a huge undertaking for the Navy, and is normally a sign that the administration is looking to show a presence in a region. The Ford’s F/A-18 fighter planes will add significant heft to the strikes taking place. And the group’s destroyers provide more long-range missile strike options for targets on land.
The Ford deployed from its home port in Virginia in June and has spent the last several months in the North Sea and Mediterranean training with NATO allies.
A prophecy of ancient Edom is playing a critical role in world affairs today
A prophecy of Esau, Edom: the Targum identifies the Southland, Sepharad, as Spain, Obadiah 1:20. This prophecy is now playing a critical role in world affairs today.
“And Esau harbored hatred in his heart against Jacob, his brother, because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
“And Esau said in his heart, ‘I will not do as Cain did, who killed Abel during their father’s lifetime and then their father had another son, Seth.
“Rather, I will wait until the days of mourning for my father have passed, and then I will kill Jacob my brother, and I will be the sole heir.’” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20.
“The anger of the Lord shall not return, until He has executed and till He has performed the thoughts of His heart; in the latter days ye shall understand it perfectly” Jeremiah 23:20; that is, in the latter days, in our time, shall ye understand it clearly. Only in the endtime would we be able to understand this book of Jeremiah perfectly.
The Targum is another source of the Bible, much like the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; and to dismiss it as another testimony, as many Churches do, is a disgrace. The Targum was started by Ezra for those returning from the Babylon exile and for these returnees they could only understand the Scriptures in Aramaic. Hence the Targum is as if Ezra is speaking to us from the Hebrew Bible quoted.
Jeremiah 35
1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, — the time indicated would be around 609-598 BC during Jehoiakim’s reign.
2 “Go unto the house of the Rechabites and speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.” — go unto the house of the Rechabites; or “family” these are the same with the Kenites, who descended from Hobab or Jethro, Moses’s father in law, Judges 1:16;
— these, as their ancestors were proselytes to Israel, and living among them, though a distinct people from them; these had their name from Rechab, a famous man in his time among those people.
The Rechabites: an Example of Vows and Faithfulness
3 Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brethren and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites, — this Jaazaniah must be the son of another Jeremiah, a Rechabite; because our Jeremiah the prophet wasn’t even allowed to get married (Jeremiah 16:2);
4 and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door.
5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups; and I said unto them, “Drink ye wine.”
6 But they said, “We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘Ye shall drink no wine, neither ye, nor your sons for ever. — for Jonadab the son of Rechab our father; not their immediate father, but their progenitor;
— perhaps the same Jonadab is meant who lived in the times of Jehu, and rode with him in his chariot; by which it appears he was a man of note and who lived near three hundred years before this time, II Kings 10:15; and is the father of the present Rechabites;
— commanded us, saying, ye shall drink no wine, nor your sons, for ever. What was the reason of this command; perhaps to prevent quarrels and contentions, luxury and sensuality; or to inure them to hardships in remembrance that they were strangers in the land in which they once lived;
— or to retain them in the original course of life their ancestors had lived in, feeding cattle; but whatever it may be, these sons thought themselves under obligations to observe; perhaps by experience, they found it good so to do.
7 Neither shall ye build a house, nor sow seed, nor plant a vineyard, nor have any; but all your days ye shall dwell in tents, that ye may live many days in the land where ye are strangers.’
— neither shall ye build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard; for themselves, for their own profit and advantage; nor possess either of these through purchase or gift: partly because they were strangers in the land of Israel;
— and partly because the pastoral life was what their ancestors had lived; and therefore it should be continued in his posterity; as well as because by this means they would live not envied by the Israelites; since they did not covet to get any part of their possessions.
8 Thus have we obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he hath charged us: to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters,
9 nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed.
10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
11 But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.’ So we dwell at Jerusalem.”
— so we dwell at Jerusalem, making use of the city as a temporary refuge, until they might return to their home-land. The Rechabites thus offered a fine example of willing obedience to the command of their tribal head.
12 Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying,
13 “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ‘Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to My words?’ saith the Lord.
14 ‘The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed; for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment. Notwithstanding I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, but ye hearkened not unto Me.
— the words of Jonadab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, has been carefully observed; which, though so agreeable to the nature of man, what cheers the heart of God and man, and was not prohibited by any law of God; yet, being forbidden by their father, they abstained from it:
— for unto this day they drink none, but obey their father’s commandment; though prescribed them three hundred years ago; during all which time they had punctually observed it, even to that very day; which might with great truth and strictness be said; since they had that very day refused to drink any:
— notwithstanding God have spoken unto you, rising early, and speaking; who am the eternal God; able to save and to destroy; given them laws as soon as they were a people, very early, in the times of Moses, on Mount Sinai and Horeb; and of which they had been reminded time after time;
— whereas the command of Jonadab was that of a mere man, not over three hundred years ago, and of which his posterity had never been put in mind, but as it was handed down from father to son; and this they observed: but ye hearkened not unto me; so that the house of Judah’s disobedience was greatly aggravated.
15 I have sent also unto you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Return ye now every man from his evil way and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers.” But ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto Me.
16 Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people hath not hearkened unto Me,
17 therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken unto them but they have not heard, and I have called unto them but they have not answered.’”
— behold, God himself will bring upon all the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem all the evil that he had pronounced against them: all the curses that God had pronounced upon them; namely, that the Chaldean army should come into their land, besiege Jerusalem and take it and to carry them away as captives:
— because God have spoken unto them, but they won’t listen; he spoke to them by his prophets, he called to them in his providences and took every method to warn them of their sin and danger and bring them to repentance; but all to no result;
— the Targum says, “because I sent to them all my servants the prophets, but they did not accept [them], and they prophesied to them, but they did not repent.”
18 And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according unto all that he hath commanded you,
19 therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack for a man to stand before Me for ever.’” — Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever;
— which may be understood of a long time, of ages to come; the posterity of this man should continue: or “a man shall not be cut off from Jonadab” his offspring shall never fail. It is certain that some of this family returned from the Babylon captivity, 1 Chronicles 2:55;
— the Targum says, “a man from Jonadab son of Rechab will never cease to stand before Me all the days;” for they were religious people; that is, in their own families, serving and worshipping God, carrying on religious worship among themselves, though not in the Temple, where they had no office, and did no service; though some think they had, some being called scribes.
Jeremiah 36
1 And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: — the fourth year of Jehoiakim would be around 606 BC; eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem.
2 “Take thee a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations from the day I spoke unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.
— and write therein all the words that Jeremiah have spoken against Israel and Judah; for though Israel was carried captive before the times of Jeremiah, and his prophecies were chiefly directed against Judah;
— and against all other nations; such as Egypt, Edom, Ammon and Moab, Jeremiah 9:26; now and all his discourses and prophecies he had delivered out one against the another;
— during this time must all be written in one roll or book, that that they might be read. This roll could probably be the book of Lamentations, and if so, the book of Lamentations should serve as a appendix to the book of Jeremiah.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which He had spoken unto him upon a scroll of a book.
— then Jeremiah called upon Baruch to write from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, upon a roll of a book; it seems that Jeremiah had not committed any of his prophecies to writing; but now he would readily repeat them to Baruch, who took them down in writing on a roll of parchment.
“Take thee a scroll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel and against Judah”
5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.
6 Therefore go thou, and read in the scroll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord in the ears of the people in the Lord’S house upon the fasting day; and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities.
— upon the fasting day; the day of atonement; on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; where it was a very proper time to read it in, when the people were fasting and humbling themselves before the Lord;
— but a different time comes from reading of another fast in Jeremiah 36:9; where some think this was a fast proclaimed by Jehoiakim, a shallow repentence to avert the vengeance threatened by the Chaldean army.
7 It may be they will present their supplication before the Lord, and will return every one from his evil way; for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord hath pronounced against this people.”
8 And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’S house. — that is, in the Temple;
9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem.
— and all the people that came from the cities of Judah unto Jerusalem: these proclaimed the fast; they applied to the government order for one, or however obeyed the king’s orders, and proclaimed a fast; not only the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but those who came from other cities on the king’s order.
10 Then read Baruch in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan, the scribe, in the higher court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’S house in the ears of all the people.
11 When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
12 then he went down into the king’s house into the scribe’s chamber; and lo, all the princes sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Achbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.
— and all the princes, who were either members of the great Sanhedrin, or other royals; it appears from hence that this court had became irreligious; for though they had proclaimed a fast; yet they did not attend Temple worship, but were all together in someone’s office, very probably about politics.
13 Then Michaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people.
14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi unto Baruch, saying, “Take in thine hand the scroll wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand, and came unto them.
15 And they said unto him, “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.” So Baruch read it in their ears. — so Baruch read it in their ears; without any fear or dread, though in the king’s palace, and before an assembly of princes;
— nor did he excuse himself on account of weariness, having just read it to the people; or upbraid the princes with not being in the Temple, where they should have heard it.
16 Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid both one and the other, and said unto Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.”
17 And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how didst thou write all these words from his mouth?” — that is, from Jeremiah’s mouth;
18 Then Baruch answered them, “He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”
19 Then said the princes unto Baruch, “Go, hide thee, thou and Jeremiah; and let no man know where ye be.” — go hide thee, thou and Jeremiah, and let no man know where ye be. Some of these princes at least seem to be good and had regards for the prophet and his scribe, and were concerned for their welfare;
— and knowing the furious temper of the king, provided against the worst; and in point of prudence advised Baruch and Jeremiah to abscond and not let anyone know where they were, lest they should be betrayed; nor did they, the princes, desire to know themselves.
20 And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king.
Jehoiakim king of Judah; around 606 BC; the fourth year of his reign, eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem, the Lord spoke to Jeremiah
21 So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll; and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes who stood beside the king. — literally, “over the king” for since they were standing in his presence, their heads were higher than his;
— and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the princes that stood by the king: as he doubtless was ordered; and which he did so loudly, clearly and distinctly, that the king and all the princes could hear.
22 Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
23 And it came to pass that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
— hence the fast proclaimed earlier by Jehoiakim was a shallow repentence to avert the vengeance threatened by the Chaldean army; not a real turn-around.
24 Yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. — yet they were not afraid, nor rent their garments; they were not struck with horror at such an impious action as the burning of the roll;
— nor afraid of the judgements and wrath of God; nor did they rend their garments in token of sorrow and mourning on account of either as used to be when anything blasphemous was said or done, or any bad news were brought.
25 Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he should not burn the scroll; but he would not hear them.
26 But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the Lord hid them.
— but the Lord hid them; the princes advised them to hide themselves and they did, very probably in a house of some of their friends; but this would not have been sufficient, had not the Lord took them under his protection.
27 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
28 “Take thee again another scroll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. — dishonoring God’s word, Jehoiakim did a wicked thing to burn the scroll; thus awaiting for judgement;
The king of Judah, Jehoiakim, burned the Scrolls that Baruch had written
29 And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast burned this scroll, saying, “Why hast thou written therein, saying: the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?”
30 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost.
— he, Jehoiakim, shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; that is, none of his seed that should reign on the throne of David and kingdom of Judah; for his son Jeconiah reigned but three months, which is reckoned as nothing, and could not be called sitting upon the throne;
— but Zedekiah, who followed, was not his lawful successor, not his seed but a brother to Jehoiakim, and was set up by the king of Babylon in contempt of the latter.
31 And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.’”
— and God will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, all the evil that he had pronounced against them; the Sword, Famine and Pestilence; the destruction of their land, city, and Temple; and their captivity in Babylon.
32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And there were added to them many like words.
— many like words of the same nature and argument were added; besides, the discourse delivered in the Temple court was revised and enlarged, dictated to Baruch as before;
— from hence we may infer that God did not always use the very form of words which the writers have set down, but directing them to express his sense with new dimensions, with a heavier denunciation of his wrath and vengeance.
A Supreme Court showdown looms for Trump’s tariffs. Will it limit presidential power?
On 5 November, the US Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments about the legality of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. As important as the tariff issue is, the stakes are much higher than that.
Trump has been claiming vast powers, at the expense of other branches of government, on the grounds of various “ emergencies.” He has used these claims to justify sending troops to US cities and deporting non-citizens without due process under a law dating from 1798.
Trump imposed sweeping global tariffs under the auspices of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Most legal experts agree, and so far three lower courts have ruled, that this act gives him no such power.
This case now presents an important test of the Supreme Court’s willingness to impose limits on Trump’s emergency powers.
The powers Trump is claiming
The US Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to set tariffs. Since the 1930s, Congress has passed a series of laws granting presidents the authority to adjust existing tariffs and deploy them to protect industries that are crucial to US national security.
The tariffs Trump has imposed this year go beyond the powers any previous president has had.
Some of Trump’s tariffs on goods in specific sectors, such as steel and aluminium, are authorised under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act because of their importance to military industries.
But to justify blanket tariff rates on entire countries, regardless of the goods involved, Trump has turned to the International Economic Emergency Powers Act.
This allows the president to block economic transactions and freeze assets after declaring an emergency. These actions usually target hostile powers or individuals. An emergency is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to the US, originating “in whole or substantial part outside the US.”
Trump originally claimed tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China were necessary to force those countries to stop the traffic in fentanyl, which causes more than 70,000 overdose deaths in the US every year. Yet less than 1% of the fentanyl that enters the US comes from Canada.
For the “ liberation day” tariffs affecting every other country in the world, Trump declared the annual US trade deficit in goods constituted “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States.”
This trade deficit has been running since 1976, and it widened during Trump’s first administration.
The court case
The Trump administration is being sued by a group of small businesses that have been hurt by the 2025 tariffs, and which claim Trump had no right to impose them. They are supported by a bipartisan group of legal scholars.
YouTube.CNN A small business owner suing Trump over tariffs explains his decision.
Two federal courts and the US Court of International Trade have so far ruled IEEPA does not give the president the power to set tariffs.
The IEEPA was an amendment to the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act, which the then president Richard Nixon used to impose 10% import tariffs during a trade crisis in 1971. The Trump administration has argued that because those tariffs were upheld by courts, Trump’s are also valid.
But the IEEPA, passed in 1977 following post-Watergate reforms of emergency powers, was intended to limit executive power, not expand it.
In the words of a report from the House Committee on International Relations that underpinned the reforms, “emergencies are by their nature rare and brief, and are not to be equated with normal ongoing problems.”
What will the Supreme Court do?
The weakness of the administration’s legal arguments is reflected in Trump’s public statements about why the Supreme Court must uphold his tariffs. These statements increasingly read like blackmail notes. He has said striking down the tariffs would “literally destroy the United States of America.”
As well as bringing in billions of dollars in revenue, Trump claims five of the eight wars he has supposedly ended were thanks to tariff leverage, and “if they took away tariffs, then they’ve taken away our national security.”
Striking down tariffs could be economically disruptive. It would weaken US leverage in trade negotiations and raise the possibility of large tariff refunds.
These threats may persuade conservative Supreme Court justices who already take an expansive view of executive power, and who have so far enabled Trump’s accumulation of it.
However, the one area where Supreme Court conservatives might be willing to limit Trump’s powers is where they interfere with economic orthodoxy.
In a ruling allowing Trump to fire commissioners of some small, independent agencies, the court also appeared to protect members of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, because of its “distinct historical tradition.”
The Supreme Court has since temporarily blocked Trump’s attempt to fire one of the Federal Reserve governors, Lisa Cook. The judges may also decide that allowing a president to impose unlimited new taxes is a step too far.
Even if the Supreme Court does strike down the IEEPA tariffs, Trump is unlikely to abandon tariffs as a policy tool. They are a core part of his identity.
The administration has already vowed that if it loses in the Supreme Court, it will find other ways to impose tariffs under different laws that “have the same effect.”
The significance of the Supreme Court’s decision may not be about the tariffs themselves, but about whether it recognises any limit to presidential power.
~ Come to my parlour ~ the spider says to the butterfly: “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see.”
"Who is blind, but My servant? Or deaf, as My messenger that I sent? Who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?” Isaiah 42:18-19
"Where two sit together to study the Torah, the Shekinah rests between them."
“Cry aloud, spare not; lift up thy voice like a trumpet! And show My people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins" Isaiah 58:1
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore hear the word out of My mouth, and give them warning from Me.
18 When I say unto the wicked, ‘Thou shalt surely die,’ and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul" Ezekiel 3:17-19
Now, consider this PROPHECY:
“And upon thy sword shalt thou depend, entering at every place: yet thou shalt be supple and credulous, and be in subjection to thy brother [Jacob]; but it will be that when his sons [the children of Israel] become evil, and fall from keeping the commandments of the law, thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck…. and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:41-42 the Targum of Jonathan
“Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord who doth sanctify you'" Exodus 31:13
ISRAEL, today as in the past, has many BLIND shepherd, for it was prophesied:
“His watchmen are BLIND; they are all ignorant; they are all DUMB dogs, they cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber” Isaiah 56:10
The mission here is to provide research ARTICLES that are ENLIGHTENING and EASY TO UNDERSTAND using SCRIPTURES to help improve our knowledge and make our life better.
“I have seen a horrible thing in the house of ISRAEL; there is the whoredom of EPHRAIM, Israel is defiled” Hosea 6:10
“Shall a TRUMPET be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?” Amos 3:6
“Hear, ye DEAF; and look, ye BLIND, that ye may see” Isaiah 42:18
Hence the RESEARCH produced here are to help us UNDERSTAND and hopefully WE all could learn together.
There's nothing special about me, except perhaps, since I was younger, I (L Siaw) had an inner struggle between my heart and my head, hence this blog.
I produce articles that I would understand and hopefully you could too.
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You may contact me on: eqlunn@gmail.com
Joel
A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob 