The Mystery of Ephraim

As Pascha (Passover) is coming soon, the Jews are still blind as to what the Lamb symbolised. The lamb for Pascha was/is symbol of the death of the Messiah, our Moshiach or Saviour, our Redeemer, but the Orthodox still regard it only as an act of defiance to the Egyptians who regarded lamb as the Egyptians’ deity, the Ram-god Khnum, the Lord of the First Cataract, who presided over the annual rise of the Nile.

The Scriptures nowhere say that the sacrifice of the lamb was a defiance of this pagan god, but to reject the Moshiach over time it developed further only as a figment of Jewish imagination.

In the Targum version of Isaiah 52:13 it identifies “My Servant” as the Messiah. Hence the Jews are not just blind but choose to be blind! “O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel . . who swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth!” Isaiah 48:1. Not in truth means a lie.

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 the second Moses, Ezra, is speaking to us from the Hebrew Sacred Text.

Isaiah 51

¹ “Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye are dug. — hearken unto me; that is to the God of their fathers, who now addresses them. They are regarded as in exile and bondage and as desponding in regard to their prospects. In this situation, God, or perhaps more properly the Messiah is introduced as addressing them with the assurances of deliverance.

² Look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him. — for I called him alone and blessed him and increased him; he was without issue when he was “called” out of Chaldea into another country and also the only one of the family;

— and the Lord “blessed” him not only with flocks and herds, and gold and silver, but with a son in his old age; and so “increased” him that there sprung from him as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand by the sea shore innumerable, Hebrews 11:12;

— the Septuagint version, between “blessed” and “increased” insert these words, “and I loved him” which are not in the Hebrew text. The Targum says, “and one was Abraham, alone in the world, and I brought him to my service, and I blessed him and multiplied him.”

³ For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

⁴ “Hearken unto Me, My people, and give ear unto Me, O My nation; for a law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgement to rest as a light of the people. — and give ear unto me, O my nation; not the nation of the Jews only but the Gentiles; a nation taken out of a nation even out of all nations; a chosen and a holy nation. The Septuagint version renders it “kings” such are made kings and priests unto God:

— and I will make my judgement to rest for a light; the word ‘judgement’ here is equivalent to law, or statute, or to the institutions of the true religion.

⁵ My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and Mine arms shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust. — My righteousness is near; these righteousness are either the words of God the Father, or his Son, which he calls his own because he approves and accepts of it and with it justifies them. The words may be rendered, “my righteous One” – God’s righteous One who was near to come in the flesh in order to work righteousness;

— Or these are the words of Christ, speaking of his own righteousness which was near being wrought out by him as it was when he became the Chief Justice of the law by obeying its precept and setting an example as revealed in his commandment in the Gospel;

— many pretenders err in understanding here; if there is no law and statute how could anyone judge? His arms shall judge the people; to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed, both the arms of Christ are ready to execute the laws and statutes and to protect and defend them; and judge, condemn and destroy those that despise them.

⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished. — for the heavens shall vanish away; the heavens shall glide away to disappear as smoke is dissipated and disappears in the air;

— the earth shall wax old; shall wax old like a garment; and be folded up and laid aside and shall decay and be destroyed. 

⁷ “Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. — Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; that is, the law to keep his Sabbath, weekly and annual, not idolatry like worshipping heavenly bodies;

— 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 judgement 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 in Deuteronomy 17:3-5 says ’till they die!

⁸ For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be for ever, and My salvation from generation to generation.” — and my salvation from generation to generation; it will abide through the endless ages of eternity.

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art Thou not It that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? — the Targum interprets the dragon as Pharaoh and his army who were strong as a dragon;

— and that same mighty arm that destroyed Egypt and its tyrannical king can and will destroy that great city, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt and the beast that has two horns like a lamb, but speaks like a dragon and to whom the dragon has given his seat, power and authority; or rather this may be believed, the great red dragon has been cast out, or Rome Pagan has been destroyed by him.

¹⁰ Art Thou not It which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? — art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that is the Red sea and the deep waters of it; by causing a strong east wind to blow which drove the sea back and made it a dry land and the same arm and mighty power can and will dry up the waters of the river Euphrates to prepare the way of the kings of the east, Revelation 16:12.

¹¹ Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

¹² “I, even I, am He that comforteth you. Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass, — I even I am he that comfort you; the word ‘I’ is repeated here to give emphasis to the passage and to impress deeply upon them the fact that their consolation came alone from God and God alone; and that since God was their protector and friend they had no occasion to fear anything that man could do.

¹³ and forgettest the Lord thy Maker, who hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor? — and where or “but where” is the fury of the oppressor? where’s the fury of Pharaoh, that great oppressor of God’s Israel formerly?

— it is gone and vanished like smoke: where’s the fury of Sennacherib king of Assyria and his army that threatened Jerusalem with ruin? it was over in a short time in one night the whole host, or the greater part of it were destroyed by an angel: and where is, or will be, the fury of the king of Babylon? it will not last always; nor the fury of the an oppressor at endtime.

¹⁴ The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. — speedily shall the crouching captives be set free that he shall not die (and go down) to the pit nor shall his bread fail.

¹⁵ But I am the Lord thy God, who divided the sea whose waves roared; The Lord of hosts is His name.

¹⁶ And I have put My words in thy mouth and I have covered thee in the shadow of Mine hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, ‘Thou art My people.’”

¹⁷ Awake, awake! Stand up, O Jerusalem, who hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury; thou hast drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out. — which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; the effect of divine wrath and this signifies that judgement would begin at the house and church of God.

¹⁸ There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. — following up the image in Isa 51:17, intoxicated and confused by the cup of God’s anger, she has none to guide her in her helpless state; she has not yet awakened out of the sleep caused by that draught;

— this cannot apply to the Babylonish captivity; for in it they had Ezekiel and Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, as “guides” and soon awoke out of that sleep; but it applies to the house of Jacob now, as all his posterity are infested by false shepherds everywhere; for examples:

— 1a) the house of Judah hasn’t come to term with what the Godhead is; it is composed of God the Father and God the Son, hence in Genesis, Elohim (God in the plural) created the heavens and the earth; but the Jews couldn’t identify the Son which is all over in the Scriptures, especially the Torah and later, the Prophets;

— 1b) the lamb for Pascha was/is symbol of the death of the Messiah, our Moshiach or Saviour, our Redeemer, but the Orthodox still regard it only as an act of defiance to the Egyptians who regarded lamb as the Egyptians’ deity. The Scriptures nowhere say this, but is only a figment of Jewish imagination;

— 2a) 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;

— 2b) 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;

— and those who persist in their blindness will be horsewhipped! Nar, those who resist would suffer Judgement by drinking at “the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury” Isaiah 51:17 – by the sword, by famine, by pestilence and spending years in captivity to reflect and repent there (for more see Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years and A Sword from the South!)

¹⁹ These two things are come unto thee—who shall be sorry for thee?” desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword” by whom shall I comfort thee? — see, those facing judgement by drinking at “the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury” shall suffer “desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword.”

— “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.” Ezekiel 5:11-12

²⁰ Thy sons have fainted; they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net; they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. — they lie at the head of all the streets; the head or top of the streets denotes the beginning and most important part of a street; the nation’s leaders, elders and princes, those who are in control or have influence where the nation is heading;

— and this “full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God” is reaffirmed in Hosea 11:12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. “I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel,” Hosea 6:10; “And I will cast you [Judah] out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim” Jeremiah 7:15; examples of “they lie at the head of all the streets”

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²¹ Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine. — but not with wine; with the cup of God’s fury; the Targum expresses it, with tribulation; with afflictions at the hand of God and persecutions from men.

²² Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people: “Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again. — thou shalt no more drink it again; or “any longer” – thou shalt no more be subject to similar trials and calamities.

²³ But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, who have said to thy soul, ‘Bow down, that we may go over.’ And thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.” — but God will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; the nations that have made war upon thee and that have reduced thee to bondage; the calamities which the elect had suffered, God would transfer to their foes.

Isaiah 52

¹ Awake, awake! Put on thy strength, O Zion! Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. — awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion; this prophecy is sure to be fulfilled: by Zion is meant the church before the Millenium in the latter days, our days which is described as “wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked,” Revelation 3:17;

— which is called upon to awake out of sleep; and this is repeated to show what a deep sleep had fallen on her, the danger she was in through it, and the forcefulness of the speaker, “Awake, awake!” or the great concern the Lord had for her; and this is the very state of the church now.

² Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem. Loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. — shake thyself from the dust; or “the dust from thee” in which she had sat, or rolled herself as a mourner; or where she had been trampled upon; but now being delivered from them as well as from all carnal shepherds and false teachers, of false doctrine, superstition and false worship;

— loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion; or loose thou “the bands off thy neck from thee” which seems to denote the people of God in mystical Babylon, a little before its destruction who will be called out of it; and to throw off the Romish yoke, or her daughter’s protesting yoke and release themselves from that captivity and bondage who should free themselves.

³ For thus saith the Lord: “Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” — ‘Ye have sold yourselves,’ and become authors of your own bondage; as they who had made them prisoners had done so without paying any price for them, it was equitable that they should be released in the same manner.

⁴ For thus saith the Lord God: “My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. — the Septuagint renders it, ‘And to the Assyrians they were carried by force.’ Some have supposed that this refers to the oppressions that they experienced in Egypt, and that the name ‘Assyrian’ – so called because of his power and cruelty – is here given to Pharaoh.

⁵ Now therefore, what have I here,” saith the Lord, “that My people are taken away for nought? They that rule over them make them to howl,” saith the Lord, “and My name continually every day is blasphemed. — and everyday my name is blasphemed continually; by ascribing their extent of power and authority, their dominions and conquests, not to the Lord but to their idols; opening their mouths in blasphemy against God, his name and tabernacle and his people, Revelation 13:5.

— the Targum says, “and always, all the day, because of the worship of my name, they provoke.” The Septuagint is, “for you always blasphemed my name among the Gentiles.”

⁶ Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak. Behold, it is I.” — My people shall know My name; 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)

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, “Thy God reigneth!” — “Thy God reigneth! – the Targum is, “the kingdom of thy God is revealed.”

⁸ Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. — for they shall see eye to eye; the sense may be either that they shall see face to face, that is, distinctly, clearly as when one is near another; or it may mean that they shall be united – they shall contemplate the same object, or look steadily at the same thing.

⁹ Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem. — the Lord shall return with his Shekinah and redeem Jerusalem.

¹⁰ The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. — all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God; all nations of the world shall with astonishment behold the wonderful work of God, first in bringing his people into captivity, then out of it in their redemption by the Messiah.

¹¹ Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord. — the sacrificial offerings with return in Jerusalem as prophesised in Ezekiel 40-48; the Levites and the priests would cleanse themselves before taking up the holy vessels as the Targum says. And for the populace, presenting themselves three times a year before the holy city are essential; else there wouldn’t be any rain. 

¹² For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward. — for ye shall not go out with haste; as if driven out or compelled to flee. You shall not go from captivity as your fathers went from Egypt in a rapid flight and in a confused and tumultuous manner.

Many theologians noted that the subject of the Suffering Servant starts here and onto the end of Chapter 53

¹³ “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. (הָא יַצְלַח עַבְדִי מְשִׁיחָא יְרוּם וְיִסְגֵי וְיִתְקוֹף לַחֲדָא:) — from Sefaria, the Targum interprets מְשִׁיחָא as the Messiah; He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high;

— “Behold, my servant the Messiah shall prosper, He shall be exalted and extolled, and He shall be very strong,” Targum Isaiah 52:13.

— 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. But the Jews today choose to be blind!

¹⁴ As many as were astonished at thee—His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men” — when the Messiah is revealed as stated in the previous verse, the whole world will be astonished to see He had been so marred – (משׁחת mishechath); so defaced, destroyed, disfigured; this was a disfiguration or defacement of his aspect, more than that of any man.

The Targum verse in full: “As the house of Israel anxiously hoped for Him many days, (which was poor among the nations; their appearance and their brightness being worse than that of the sons of men.)” — this phrase “the house of Israel anxiously hoped for Him” shows that the house of Israel and the Suffering Servant are two separate entities, hence the Suffering Servant could not be the house of Israel; Period!

Verse 15, which contains Messianic significance, is not in KJ21, but appear in the followings:

¹⁵ The Targum translated by Etheridge: Thus shall He scatter many nations; before Him kings shall keep silence: they shall put their hands upon their mouths, for that which had not been told them shall they see: and that which they had not heard shall they consider. — since King David, Israel (nor any ordinary man) had ever “scatter many nations.”

— Or as in Chabad Bible: So shall he cast down many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for, what had not been told them they saw, and [at] what they had not heard they gazed.

— The Septuagint (Brenton): Thus shall many nations wonder at him; and kings shall keep their mouths shut: for they to whom no report was brought concerning him, shall see; and they who have not heard, shall consider.

 — Young: So doth he sprinkle many nations. Concerning him kings shut their mouth, For that which was not recounted to them they have seen, And that which they had not heard they have understood! — the sprinkling of the blood of a sacrifice, which could mean the shedding of blood for our (Jews and Gentiles) sins; (He will cleanse many nations with his blood, GW).

— The JPS 1917:

So shall he startle many nations,
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
For that which had not been told them shall they see,
And that which they had not heard shall they perceive.

~~~

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. Even in 1611 when the English Bible the King James has our subject of study by the prophet Jeremiah, he was known as Ieremiah. So Jehovah is a very late comer.

The following verses with the LORD erred in translation. His name Yehovah should be used:
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.

~ by Joel Huan on April 8, 2022.

Posted in Isaiah