A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Trump plans to deport ‘millions’ – Axios

•February 17, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Trump plans to deport ‘millions’ – Axios; Could such an action spark a WAR?

But, first, understand this encrypted message:

“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 Jonathan

RT • February 13, 2024 // Axios

An immigration crackdown would use federal officials and obscure laws to deport undocumented migrants, a report has claimed.

Former US President Donald Trump will seek to impose a series of aggressive restrictions on immigration – including detention camps for migrants near the country’s southern border – should he be reelected to the White House later this year, according to a report by Axios.

Trump has made immigration reform and the strengthening of border security protocols key campaign pledges ahead of a likely rematch with incumbent President Joe Biden in November. Should he win the presidency, Trump will seek to harness a range of executive powers to deport “millions” of people as part of his immigration crackdown, the outlet said on Sunday.

Citing an anonymous source with knowledge of the plans, Axios reported that a second Trump administration would likely see the mobilization of US immigration officials, the FBI and various other executive arms of the government to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Additionally, fast-track deportations would be expanded to individuals found to have illegally crossed the border and who are unable to prove they have been living in the United States for at least two years, the report said.

Furthermore, Trump would make use of legislation which is more that two centuries old that would allow for the rounding up and immediate deportation of immigrants with criminal histories, the publication claims. Large sites would also be constructed to hold migrants awaiting deportation in areas close to its southern border with Mexico.

It was also previously noted by Axios that Trump would likely reimpose the so-called ‘Muslim ban’ that restricts the entry to the US of people from some Muslim-majority countries. US President Joe Biden had previously rescinded the legislation when he succeeded Trump in 2021.

In December, Trump said at a campaign stop in the state of New Hampshire that immigrants “are poisoning the lifeblood of our country” – rhetoric that was seized upon the Biden campaign, who claimed that he had “parroted Adolf Hitler” who had used similar language in Mein Kampf.

Axios also stated that Trump’s immigration agenda would likely receive pushback from Democratic lawmakers, as well as from Latino advocacy groups and ‘Sanctuary Cities’ – the title given to areas that obstruct federal immigration enforcement.

Financial analysts have also predicted that removing undocumented migrants from the workforce would harm the US economy, as well as stifle policies designed to ease inflation, Axios said.

Trump adopted a similarly aggressive approach to immigration during his four-year term in the White House between 2017 and 2021, although he managed to deport fewer people during his presidency than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Last month, a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll found that immigration is the key issue of concern for US voters, ahead of inflation and the economy.

The number of people arrested for crossing into the US from Mexico illegally reached an all-time high of 249,785 in December, US officials said last month. According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the number of non-detained illegal immigrants soared to 6.3 million last year – compared to just 3.7 million in 2021.

“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 Jonathan

But to understand the encrypted message above, see the followings:

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Esau, Latin Americas, Mexico, Southern Border, Trump, US

William J Burns: Spycraft and Statecraft

•February 16, 2024 • Leave a Comment

BLIND and NAKED: totally ignored by William J Burns in his accessment paper is 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 Jonathan

Foreign Affairs by William J Burns • March/April 2024

For as long as countries have kept secrets from one another, they have tried to steal them from one another. Espionage has been and will remain an integral part of statecraft, even as its techniques continually evolve. America’s first spies spent the Revolutionary War using ciphers, clandestine courier networks, and invisible ink to correspond with each other and their foreign allies.

In World War II, the emerging field of signals intelligence helped uncover Japanese war plans. During the early Cold War, the United States’ intelligence capabilities literally went into the stratosphere, with the advent of the U-2 and other high-altitude spy planes that could photograph Soviet military installations with impressive clarity.

William J Burns (chief spy and diplomat) CIA Director “While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat”

The simple stars etched on the memorial wall at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, honor the 140 agency officers who gave their lives serving their country. The memorial offers an enduring reminder of countless acts of courage. Yet those instances of heroism and the CIA’s many quiet successes remain far less well known to the American public than the mistakes that have sometimes marred the agency’s history.

The defining test for intelligence has always been to anticipate and help policymakers navigate profound shifts in the international landscape—the plastic moments that come along only a few times each century.

As President Joe Biden has reiterated, the United States faces one of those rare moments today, as consequential as the dawn of the Cold War or the post-9/11 period. China’s rise and Russia’s revanchism pose daunting geopolitical challenges in a world of intense strategic competition in which the United States no longer enjoys uncontested primacy and in which existential climate threats are mounting.

Complicating matters further is a revolution in technology even more sweeping than the Industrial Revolution or the beginning of the nuclear age. From microchips to artificial intelligence to quantum computing, emerging technologies are transforming the world, including the profession of intelligence. In many ways, these developments make the CIA’s job harder than ever, giving adversaries powerful new tools to confuse us, evade us, and spy on us.

And yet as much as the world is changing, espionage remains an interplay between humans and technology. There will continue to be secrets that only humans can collect and clandestine operations that only humans can conduct.

Technological advances, particularly in signals intelligence, have not made such human operations irrelevant, as some have predicted, but have instead revolutionized their practice. To be an effective twenty-first-century intelligence service, the CIA must blend a mastery of emerging technologies with the people-to-people skills and individual daring that have always been at the heart of our profession.

That means equipping operations officers with the tools and tradecraft to conduct espionage in a world of constant technological surveillance—and equipping analysts with sophisticated artificial intelligence models that can digest mammoth amounts of open-source and clandestinely acquired information so that they can make their best human judgments.

At the same time, what the CIA does with the intelligence it gathers is also changing. “Strategic declassification,” the intentional public disclosure of certain secrets to undercut rivals and rally allies, has become an even more powerful tool for policymakers.

Using it doesn’t mean recklessly jeopardizing the sources or methods used to collect the intelligence, but it does mean judiciously resisting the reflexive urge to keep everything classified. The US intelligence community is also learning the increasing value of intelligence diplomacy, gaining a new understanding of how its efforts to bolster allies and counter foes can support policymakers.

This is a time of historic challenges for the CIA and the entire intelligence profession, with geopolitical and technological shifts posing as big a test as we’ve ever faced. Success will depend on blending traditional human intelligence with emerging technologies in creative ways. It will require, in other words, adapting to a world where the only safe prediction about change is that it will accelerate.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cC2c4NaDeZw

PUTIN UNBOUND

The post–Cold War era came to a definitive end the moment Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. I have spent much of the past two decades trying to understand the combustible combination of grievance, ambition, and insecurity that Russian President Vladimir Putin embodies. One thing I have learned is that it is always a mistake to underestimate his fixation on controlling Ukraine and its choices.

Without that control, he believes it is impossible for Russia to be a great power or for him to be a great Russian leader. That tragic and brutish fixation has already brought shame to Russia and exposed its weaknesses, from its one-dimensional economy to its inflated military prowess to its corrupt political system.

Putin’s invasion has also prompted breathtaking determination and resolve from the Ukrainian people. I have seen their courage firsthand on frequent wartime trips to Ukraine, punctuated by Russian air raids and vivid images of Ukrainian battlefield tenacity and ingenuity.

Putin’s war has already been a failure for Russia on many levels. His original goal of seizing Kyiv and subjugating Ukraine proved foolish and illusory. His military has suffered immense damage. At least 315,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded, two-thirds of Russia’s prewar tank inventory has been destroyed, and Putin’s vaunted decades-long military modernization program has been hollowed out.

All this is a direct result of Ukrainian soldiers’ valor and skill, backed up by Western support. Meanwhile, Russia’s economy is suffering long-term setbacks, and the country is sealing its fate as China’s economic vassal. Putin’s overblown ambitions have backfired in another way, too: they have prompted NATO to grow larger and stronger.

Espionage remains an interplay between humans and technology.

Although Putin’s repressive grip does not seem likely to weaken anytime soon, his war in Ukraine is quietly corroding his power at home. The short-lived mutiny launched last June by the mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin offered a glimpse at some of the dysfunction lurking behind Putin’s carefully polished image of control.

For a leader who painstakingly crafted a reputation as the arbiter of order, Putin looked detached and indecisive as Prigozhin’s ragtag mutineers made their way up the road to Moscow. For many in the Russian elite, the question was not so much whether the emperor had no clothes as why he was taking so long to get dressed.

The ultimate apostle of payback, Putin eventually settled his score with Prigozhin, who was killed in a suspicious plane crash two months to the day after starting his rebellion. But Prigozhin’s biting critique of the lies and military misjudgments at the core of Putin’s war, and of the corruption at the heart of the Russian political system, will not soon disappear.

This year is likely to be a tough one on the battlefield in Ukraine, a test of staying power whose consequences will go well beyond the country’s heroic struggle to sustain its freedom and independence. As Putin regenerates Russia’s defense production—with critical components from China, as well as weaponry and munitions from Iran and North Korea—he continues to bet that time is on his side, that he can grind down Ukraine and wear down its Western supporters.

Ukraine’s challenge is to puncture Putin’s arrogance and demonstrate the high cost for Russia of continued conflict, not just by making progress on the frontlines but also by launching deeper strikes behind them and making steady gains in the Black Sea. In this environment, Putin might engage again in nuclear saber-rattling, and it would be foolish to dismiss escalatory risks entirely. But it would be equally foolish to be unnecessarily intimidated by them.

The key to success lies in preserving Western aid for Ukraine. At less than five percent of the US defense budget, it is a relatively modest investment with significant geopolitical returns for the United States and notable returns for American industry. Keeping the arms flowing will put Ukraine in a stronger position if an opportunity for serious negotiations emerges.

It offers a chance to ensure a long-term win for Ukraine and a strategic loss for Russia; Ukraine could safeguard its sovereignty and rebuild, while Russia would be left to deal with the enduring costs of Putin’s folly. For the United States to walk away from the conflict at this crucial moment and cut off support to Ukraine would be an own goal of historic proportions.

Biden and Burns speaking in front of the memorial wall at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, July 2022 Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

XI’S POWER PLAY

No one is watching US support for Ukraine more closely than Chinese leaders. China remains the only US rival with both the intent to reshape the international order and the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do so.

The country’s economic transformation over the past five decades has been extraordinary. It is one for which the Chinese people deserve great credit and one that the rest of the world has broadly supported in the belief that a prosperous China is a global good. The issue is not China’s rise in itself but the threatening actions that increasingly accompany it.

China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has begun his third presidential term with more power than any of his predecessors since Mao Zedong. Rather than use that power to reinforce and revitalize the international system that enabled China’s transformation, Xi is seeking to rewrite it. In the intelligence profession, we study carefully what leaders say. But we pay even more attention to what they do. Xi’s growing repression at home and his aggressiveness abroad, from his “no limits” partnership with Putin to his threats to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, are impossible to ignore.

So, too, however, is the impact of Western solidarity on Xi’s calculus about the risks of using force against Taiwan, which elected a new president, Lai Ching-te, in January. For Xi, a man inclined to see the United States as a fading power, American leadership on Ukraine has surely come as a surprise.

The United States’ willingness to inflict and absorb economic pain to counter Putin’s aggression—and its ability to rally its allies to do the same—powerfully contradicted Beijing’s belief that America was in terminal decline. Closer to Chinese shores, the resilience of the American network of allies and partners across the Indo-Pacific has had a sobering effect on Beijing’s thinking.

One of the surest ways to rekindle Chinese perceptions of American fecklessness and stoke Chinese aggressiveness would be to abandon support for Ukraine. Continued material backing for Ukraine doesn’t come at the expense of Taiwan; it sends an important message of US resolve that helps Taiwan.

Competition with China is taking place against the backdrop of thick economic interdependence and commercial ties between it and the United States. Such connections have served the two countries and the rest of the world remarkably well, but they have also created critical vulnerabilities and serious risks for American security and prosperity.

The COVID-19 pandemic made clear to every government the danger of being dependent on any one country for life-saving medical supplies, just as Russia’s war in Ukraine has made clear to Europe the risks of being dependent on one country for energy. In today’s world, no country wants to find itself at the mercy of a single supplier of critical minerals and technologies—especially if that supplier is intent on weaponizing those dependencies.

As American policymakers have argued, the best answer is to sensibly “de-risk” and diversify—securing the United States’ supply chains, protecting its technological edge, and investing in its industrial capacity.

In this volatile, divided world, the weight of the “hedging middle” is growing. Democracies and autocracies, developed economies and developing ones, and countries across the global South are increasingly intent on diversifying their relationships to maximize their options. They see little benefit and plenty of risk in sticking to monogamous geopolitical relationships with either the United States or China.

More countries are likely to be attracted to an “open” geopolitical relationship status (or at least an “it’s complicated” one), following the United States’ lead on some issues while cultivating relations with China. And if past is precedent, Washington ought to be attentive to rivalries between the growing number of middle powers, which have historically helped spark collisions between major ones.

A FAMILIAR ENTANGLEMENT

The crisis precipitated by Hamas’s butchery in Israel on October 7, 2023, is a painful reminder of the complexity of the choices that the Middle East continues to pose for the United States. Competition with China will remain Washington’s highest priority, but that doesn’t mean it can evade other challenges. It means only that the United States has to navigate with care and discipline, avoid overreach, and use its influence wisely.

I have spent much of the last four decades working in and on the Middle East, and I have rarely seen it more tangled or explosive. Winding down the intense Israeli ground operation in the Gaza Strip, meeting the deep humanitarian needs of suffering Palestinian civilians, freeing hostages, preventing the spread of conflict to other fronts in the region, and shaping a workable approach for the “day after” in Gaza are all incredibly difficult problems.

So is resurrecting hope for a durable peace that ensures Israel’s security as well as Palestinian statehood and takes advantage of historic opportunities for normalization with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. Hard as it may be to imagine those possibilities amid the current crisis, it is even harder to imagine getting out of the crisis without pursuing them seriously.

Key to Israel’s—and the region’s—security is dealing with Iran. The Iranian regime has been emboldened by the crisis and seems ready to fight to its last regional proxy, all while expanding its nuclear program and enabling Russian aggression. In the months after October 7, the Houthis, the Yemeni rebel group allied with Iran, began attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, and the risks of escalation on other fronts persist.

The United States is not exclusively responsible for resolving any of the Middle East’s vexing problems. But none of them can be managed, let alone solved, without active US leadership.

SPIES LIKE US

Geopolitical competition and uncertainty—not to mention shared challenges such as climate change and unprecedented technological advances such as artificial intelligence—make for a fiendishly complicated international landscape.

The imperative for the CIA is to transform its approach to intelligence to keep pace with this rapidly transforming world. The CIA and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community—led by Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence—are working hard to meet this moment with the urgency and creativity it requires.

This new landscape presents particular challenges for an organization focused on human intelligence. In a world in which the United States’ principal rivals—China and Russia—are led by personalistic autocrats operating within small and insular circles of advisers, gaining insight into leaders’ intentions is both more important and more difficult than ever.

Just as 9/11 ushered in a new era for the CIA, so did Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. I’m deeply proud of the work that the CIA and our intelligence partners have done to assist the president and senior U.S. policymakers—and especially the Ukrainians themselves—to thwart Putin. Together, we provided early and accurate warning of the coming invasion.

That knowledge also enabled the president to decide to send me to Moscow to warn Putin and his advisers in November 2021 about the consequences of the attack we knew they were planning. Convinced that their window for dominating Ukraine was closing and that the upcoming winter offered a favorable opportunity, they were unmoved and unapologetic—badly overestimating their own position and underestimating Ukrainian resistance and Western resolve.

Good intelligence has since helped the president mobilize and sustain a strong coalition of countries in support of Ukraine. It has also helped Ukraine defend itself with remarkable bravery and perseverance. The president has also made creative use of strategic declassification.

Before the invasion, the administration, along with the British government, exposed Russian plans for “false flag” operations that were designed to pin blame on Ukrainians and provide a pretext for Russian military action. These and subsequent disclosures have denied Putin the false narratives that I have watched him so often weaponize in the past.

They have put him in the uncomfortable and unaccustomed position of being on the back foot. And they have bolstered both Ukraine and the coalition supporting it.

Meanwhile, disaffection with the war is continuing to gnaw away at the Russian leadership and the Russian people, beneath the thick surface of state propaganda and repression. That undercurrent of disaffection is creating a once-in-a-generation recruiting opportunity for the CIA. We’re not letting it go to waste.

While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat, and over the past two years, the CIA has been reorganizing itself to reflect that priority. We have started by acknowledging an organizational fact I learned long ago: priorities aren’t real unless budgets reflect them.

Accordingly, the CIA has committed substantially more resources toward China-related intelligence collection, operations, and analysis around the world—more than doubling the percentage of our overall budget focused on China over just the last two years.

We’re hiring and training more Mandarin speakers while stepping up efforts across the world to compete with China, from Latin America to Africa to the Indo-Pacific.

The CIA has a dozen or so “mission centers,” issue-specific groups that bring together officers from across the agencies’ various directorates.

In 2021, we set up a new mission center focused exclusively on China. The only single-country mission center, it provides a central mechanism for coordinating work on China, a job that extends today to every corner of the CIA.

And we’re also quietly strengthening intelligence channels to our counterparts in Beijing, an important means of helping policymakers avoid unnecessary misunderstandings and inadvertent collisions between the United States and China.

Even as China and Russia consume much of the CIA’s attention, the agency can’t afford to neglect other challenges, from counterterrorism to regional instability. The successful US strike in Afghanistan in July 2022 against Ayman al-Zawahiri, the co-founder and former leader of al Qaeda, demonstrated that the CIA remains sharply focused on—and retains significant capabilities to combat—terrorist threats.

The CIA is also devoting substantial resources to help fight the invasion of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. And familiar regional challenges loom, not just in places long considered strategically important, such as North Korea and the South China Sea, but also in parts of the world whose geopolitical significance will only grow in the years ahead, such as Latin America and Africa.

SMARTER SPIES

Meanwhile, we’re transforming our approach to emerging technology. The CIA has been working to blend high-tech tools with age-old techniques for collecting intelligence from individuals—human intelligence, or HUMINT. Technology is, of course, making many aspects of spycraft harder than ever.

In an era of smart cities, with video cameras on every street and facial recognition technology increasingly ubiquitous, spying has become much harder. For a CIA officer working overseas in a hostile country, meeting sources who are risking their own safety to offer valuable information, constant surveillance poses an acute threat.

But the same technology that sometimes works against the CIA—whether it’s the mining of big data to expose patterns in the agency’s activities or massive camera networks that can track an operative’s every move—can also be made to work for it and against others.

The CIA is racing against its rivals to put emerging technologies to use. The agency has appointed its first chief technology officer. And it has established another new mission center focused on building better partnerships with the private sector, where American innovation offers a significant competitive advantage.

The CIA’s in-house scientific and technological talent remains superb. The agency has developed warehouses’ worth of spy gadgetry over the years, my favorite being the Cold War camera designed to look and hover like a dragonfly. The revolution in artificial intelligence, and the avalanche of open-source information alongside what we collect clandestinely, creates historic new opportunities for the CIA’s analysts.

We’re developing new AI tools to help digest all that material faster and more efficiently, freeing officers to focus on what they do best: providing reasoned judgments and insights on what matters most to policymakers and what means most for American interests. AI won’t replace human analysts, but it is already empowering them.

Another priority in this new era is to deepen the CIA’s unmatched network of intelligence partnerships around the world, an asset the United States’ lonelier rivals currently lack. The CIA’s ability to benefit from its partners—from their collection, their expertise, their perspectives, and their capacity to operate more easily in many places than the agency can—is critical to its success.

Just as diplomacy depends on revitalizing these old and new partnerships, so does intelligence. At its core, the intelligence profession is about human interactions, and there is no substitute for direct contact to strengthen ties with our closest allies, communicate with our fiercest adversaries, and cultivate everyone in between. In more than 50 overseas trips in nearly three years as director, I’ve run the gamut of those relationships.

Sometimes, it’s more convenient for intelligence officers to deal with historic enemies in situations in which diplomatic contact might connote formal recognition. That’s why the president sent me to Kabul in late August of 2021 to engage with the Taliban leadership just before the final withdrawal of US troops.

Sometimes, the CIA’s relationships in complicated parts of the world can offer practical possibilities, as in the ongoing negotiations with Egypt, Israel, Qatar, and Hamas over a humanitarian cease-fire and the release of hostages from Gaza.

Sometimes, such ties can provide discreet ballast in relationships full of political ups and downs. And sometimes, intelligence diplomacy can encourage a convergence of interests and quietly support the efforts of US diplomats and policymakers.

IN THE SHADOWS

Every day, as I read through cables from stations around the world, travel to foreign capitals, or speak with colleagues at headquarters, I’m reminded of the skill and courage of CIA officers, as well as the unrelenting challenges they face.

They are doing hard jobs in hard places. Especially since 9/11, they have been operating at an incredibly fast tempo. Indeed, taking care of the CIA’s mission in this new and daunting era depends on taking care of our people.

That’s why the CIA has strengthened its medical resources at headquarters and in the field; improved programs for families, remote workers, and two-career couples; and explored more flexible career paths, especially for technologists, so that officers can move into the private sector and later return to the agency.

We’ve streamlined our recruiting process for new officers. It now takes a quarter of the time it took two years ago to move from application to final offer and security clearance. These improvements have contributed to a surge of interest in the CIA.

In 2023, we had more applicants than in any year since the immediate aftermath of 9/11. We’re also working hard to diversify our workforce, reaching historic highs in 2023 in terms of the number of women and minority officers hired, as well as the number promoted into the agency’s most senior ranks.

By necessity, CIA officers operate in the shadows, usually out of sight and out of mind; the risks they take and the sacrifices they make are rarely well understood. At a moment when trust in the United States’ public institutions is often in short supply, the CIA remains a resolutely apolitical institution, bound by the oath I and everyone else at the agency have taken to defend the Constitution and by our obligations under the law.

CIA officers are also bound together by a sense of community, and by a deep, shared commitment to public service at this crucial moment in American history.

They know the truth in the advice I got many years ago from my father, who had a distinguished military career. As I was wrestling with what to do with my professional life, he sent me a handwritten note: “Nothing can make you prouder than to serve your country with honor.”

That helped launch me into a long and fortunate career in government, first in the Foreign Service and now at the CIA. I’ve never regretted the choice I made. I take enormous pride in serving with thousands of other CIA officers who feel the same about theirs—and are rising to the challenge of a new era.

Posted in China, Russia, US

CIA director: China is the biggest ‘threat’

•February 15, 2024 • Leave a Comment

CIA director calls China biggest ‘threat,’ says Ukraine war benefits US geopolitically and economically

CIA Director William J Burns published an article demonizing China as the biggest long-term threat, boasting that the spy agency has doubled its budget for anti-China operations. He also said the Ukraine war helps the US economically and geopolitically, and warned Taiwan could be next.

But totally ignored by William J Burns in this accessment paper is 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 Jonathan

G/E by Ben Norton • February 8, 2024

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William J Burns, published an article in which he referred to “the United States’ principal rivals—China and Russia,” while emphasizing that “China is the bigger long-term threat.”

Strongly implying that we are in the early stages of a new cold war, he wrote that “China and Russia consume much of the CIA’s attention.”

Burns revealed that “the CIA has been reorganizing itself” in order to counter China. The notorious US spy agency has created a special “mission center” focusing exclusively on Beijing, and has doubled its budget for anti-China operations.

He also boasted that the war in Ukraine has helped the United States geopolitically and economically, and he argued that, by supporting Kiev, Washington is sending a threatening message to Beijing over Taiwan.

The CIA director wrote this article for Foreign Affairs, the official publication of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). One of the most powerful US think tanks, the New York City-based CFR has a virtual revolving door with the State Department, acting as a kind of umbilical cord between Wall Street and the State Department, coordinating economic and foreign policy.

In the January 30 piece, titled “Spycraft and Statecraft: Transforming the CIA for an Age of Competition,” Burns acknowledged that China’s “economic transformation over the past five decades has been extraordinary.”

China’s rapid economic and technological advances have weakened US hegemony, the CIA director lamented, writing that “China’s rise and Russia’s revanchism pose daunting geopolitical challenges in a world of intense strategic competition in which the United States no longer enjoys uncontested primacy.”

Many top officials in Washington, including President Joe Biden, have claimed that the United States only seeks “competition” with China, not a new cold war. But in his article, Burns wrote that the “post–Cold War era came to a definitive end the moment Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.”

By stating that the “post-Cold War era” is over, and by frequently speaking of China and Russia together in the same breath, the US spy chief strongly implied that Washington is indeed waging Cold War Two.

Nevertheless, it is not Moscow, but rather Beijing that Washington considers to be its main “threat.”

“China remains the only US rival with both the intent to reshape the international order and the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do so,” Burns warned.

The CIA director wrote (emphasis added):

While Russia may pose the most immediate challenge, China is the bigger long-term threat, and over the past two years, the CIA has been reorganizing itself to reflect that priority. We have started by acknowledging an organizational fact I learned long ago: priorities aren’t real unless budgets reflect them.

Accordingly, the CIA has committed substantially more resources toward China-related intelligence collection, operations, and analysis around the world—more than doubling the percentage of our overall budget focused on China over just the last two years. We’re hiring and training more Mandarin speakers while stepping up efforts across the world to compete with China, from Latin America to Africa to the Indo-Pacific.

The CIA has a dozen or so “mission centers,” issue-specific groups that bring together officers from across the agencies’ various directorates. In 2021, we set up a new mission center focused exclusively on China. The only single-country mission center, it provides a central mechanism for coordinating work on China, a job that extends today to every corner of the CIA.

Burns also used the Foreign Affairs article to call for Washington to continue supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.

The CIA director referred to US military assistance to Ukraine as “a relatively modest investment with significant geopolitical returns for the United States and notable returns for American industry.”

In other words, the spy chief was acknowledging that the Ukraine war has benefited the Military-Industrial Complex, enriching US arms corporations.

The Biden administration has used similar “military Keynesian” talking points. Politico reported in October that the “White House has been quietly urging lawmakers in both parties to sell the [Ukraine] war efforts abroad as a potential economic boom at home.”

Burns likewise argued that US support for Ukraine could intimidate China.

“The United States’ willingness to inflict and absorb economic pain to counter Putin’s aggression—and its ability to rally its allies to do the same—powerfully contradicted Beijing’s belief that America was in terminal decline,” the CIA director wrote.

“Continued material backing for Ukraine doesn’t come at the expense of Taiwan; it sends an important message of U.S. resolve that helps Taiwan,” he added.

As US ambassador to Russia in 2008, Burns predicted Ukraine war. Now he targets Taiwan

On the issue of the Ukraine war, William Burns has a disturbing track record.

Before being appointed CIA director, he served for decades as a senior US diplomat. His career reflects the revolving door between the CIA and State Department.

In the Barack Obama administration, Burns was deputy secretary of state, making him second-in-command of the State Department, reporting directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Before that, in the George W Bush administration, Burns served as US ambassador to Russia.

At the NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania in 2008, President Bush pledged that Ukraine and Georgia were going to join the US-led military alliance. This upset several top NATO allies, including Germany and France, who worried that the promise would exacerbate tensions with Russia.

In his capacity as US ambassador to Russia, Burns responded to this controversy by penning a 2008 confidential State Department cable titled “Nyet Means Nyet: Russia’s NATO Enlargement Redlines” (“nyet” means “no” in Russian).

In the document, which was made public by the whistle-blowing journalism organization WikiLeaks, Burns wrote:

Ukraine and Georgia’s NATO aspirations not only touch a raw nerve in Russia, they engender serious concerns about the consequences for stability in the region. Not only does Russia perceive encirclement, and efforts to undermine Russia’s influence in the region, but it also fears unpredictable and uncontrolled consequences which would seriously affect Russian security interests.

Experts tell us that Russia is particularly worried that the strong divisions in Ukraine over NATO membership, with much of the ethnic-Russian community against membership, could lead to a major split, involving violence or at worst, civil war. In that eventuality, Russia would have to decide whether to intervene; a decision Russia does not want to have to face.

Virtually everything Burns warned about potential conflict in Ukraine eventually came true, as the United States pushed Kiev into war with its neighbor Russia.

This precedent makes the CIA director’s current threats against China over Taiwan even more striking.

Posted in China, Russia, US

How the CIA Destabilizes the World

•February 14, 2024 • Leave a Comment

How the CIA Destabilizes the World

Common Dreams by Jeffery Sachs • February 12, 2024 // ZeroHedge

There are three basic problems with the CIA: its objectives, methods, and unaccountability. Its operational objectives are whatever the CIA or the President of the United States defines to be in the U.S. interest at a given time, irrespective of international law or US law. Its methods are secretive and duplicitous. Its unaccountability means that the CIA and president run foreign policy without any public scrutiny. Congress is a doormat, a sideshow.

As a recent CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, said of his time at the CIA: “I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.”

The CIA was established in 1947 as the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS had performed two distinct roles in World War II, intelligence and subversion. The CIA took over both roles. On the one hand, the CIA was to provide intelligence to the US Government. On the other, the CIA was to subvert the “enemy,” that is, whomever the president or CIA defined as the enemy, using a wide range of measures: assassinations, coups, staged unrest, arming of insurgents, and other means.

It is the latter role that has proved devastating to global stability and the US rule of law. It is a role that the CIA continues to pursue today. In effect, the CIA is a secret army of the US, capable of creating mayhem across the world with no accountability whatsoever.

When President Dwight Eisenhower decided that Africa’s rising political star, democratically elected Patrice Lumumba of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), was the “enemy,” the CIA conspired in his 1961 assassination, thus undermining the democratic hopes for Africa. He would hardly be the last African president brought down by the CIA.

The extent of the continuing mayhem resulting from CIA operations gone awry is astounding.

In its 77-year history, the CIA has been held to serious public account just once, in 1975. In that year, Idaho Senator Frank Church led a Senate investigation that exposed the CIA’s shocking rampage of assassinations, coups, destabilization, surveillance, and Mengele-style torture and medical “experiments.”

The expose by the Church Committee of the CIA’s shocking malfeasance has recently been chronicled in a superb book by the investigative reporter James Risen, The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator’s Fight to Save Democracy.

That single episode of oversight occurred because of a rare confluence of events.

In the year before the Church Committee, the Watergate scandal had toppled Richard Nixon and weakened the White House. As successor to Nixon, Gerald Ford was unelected, a former Congressman, and reluctant to oppose the oversight prerogatives of the Congress.

The Watergate scandal, investigated by the Senate Ervin Committee, had also empowered the Senate and demonstrated the value of Senate oversight of Executive Branch abuses of power. Crucially, the CIA was newly led by Director William Colby, who wanted to clean up the CIA operations. Also, FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, author of pervasive illegalities also exposed by the Church committee, had died in 1972.

In December 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, then as now a great reporter with sources inside the CIA, published an account of illegal CIA intelligence operations against the US antiwar movement. The Senate Majority Leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, a leader of character, then appointed Church to investigate the CIA. Church himself was a brave, honest, intelligent, independent-minded, and intrepid Senator, characteristics chronically in short supply in US politics.

If only the CIA’s rogue operations had been consigned to history as a result of the crimes exposed by the Church Committee, or at the least had brought the CIA under the rule of law and public accountability. But that was not to be. The CIA has had the last laugh —or better said, has brought the world to tears—by maintaining its preeminent role in US foreign policy, including overseas subversion.

Since 1975, the CIA has run secretive operations backing Islamic jihadists in Afghanistan that utterly wrecked Afghanistan while giving rise to al-Qaeda. The CIA has likely run secretive operations in the Balkans against Serbia, in the Caucuses against Russia, and in Central Asia targeting China, all deploying CIA-backed jihadists.

In the 2010s, the CIA ran deadly operations to topple Syria’s Bashir al-Assad, again with Islamic jihadists. For at least 20 years, the CIA has been deeply involved in fomenting the growing catastrophe in Ukraine, including the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 that triggered the devastating war now engulfing Ukraine.

What do we know of these operations? Only the parts that whistleblowers, a few intrepid investigative reporters, a handful of brave scholars, and some foreign governments have been willing or able to tell us, with all of these potential witnesses knowing that they might face severe retribution from the US government.

There has been little to no accountability by the US government itself, or meaningful oversight or restraint imposed by Congress. On the contrary, the government has become ever-more obsessively secretive, pursuing aggressive legal actions against disclosures of classified information, even when, or especially when, that information describes the illegal actions by the government itself.

Once in a while, a former US official spills the beans, such as when Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed that he had induced Jimmy Carter to assign the CIA to train Islamic jihadists to destabilize the government of Afghanistan, with the aim of inducing the Soviet Union to invade that country.

In the case of Syria, we learned from a few stories in the New York Times in 2016 and 2017 of the CIA’s subversive operations to destabilize Syria and overthrow Assad, as ordered by President Barack Obama. Here is the case of a dreadfully misguided CIA operation, blatantly in violation of international law, that has led to a decade of mayhem, an escalating regional war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions of displaced people, and yet there has not been a single honest acknowledgment of this CIA-led disaster by the White House or Congress.

In the case of Ukraine, we know that the US played a major covert role in the violent coup that brought down Yanukovych and that swept Ukraine into a decade of bloodshed but to this day, we don’t know the details. Russia offered the world a window into the coup by intercepting and then posting a call between Victoria Nuland, then US Assistant Secretary of State (now Under-Secretary of State) and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt (now Assistant Secretary of State), in which they plot the post-coup government.

Following the coup, the CIA covertly trained special operations forces of the post-coup regime the US had helped bring to power. The US government has been mum about the CIA’s covert operations in Ukraine.

We have good reason to believe that CIA operatives carried out the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, as per Seymour Hersh, who is now an independent reporter. Unlike in 1975, when Hersh was with the New York Times at a time when the paper still tried to hold the government to account, the Times does not even deign to look into Hersh’s account.

Holding the CIA to public account is of course a steep uphill struggle. Presidents and the Congress don’t even try. The mainstream media don’t investigate the CIA, preferring instead to quote “senior unnamed officials” and the official cover-up. Are the mainstream media outlets lazy, suborned, afraid of advertising revenues from the military-industrial complex, threatened, ignorant, or all of the above? Who knows.

There is a tiny glimmer of hope. Back in 1975, the CIA was led by a reformer. Today, the CIA is led by William Burns, one of America’s long-standing leading diplomats. Burns knows the truth about Ukraine, since he served as Ambassador to Russia in 2008 and cabled Washington about the grave error of pushing NATO enlargement to Ukraine. Given Burns’ stature and diplomatic accomplishments, perhaps he would support the urgently needed accountability.

The extent of the continuing mayhem resulting from CIA operations gone awry is astounding. In Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Kosovo, Ukraine, and far beyond, the needless deaths, instability, and destruction unleashed by CIA subversion continues to this day. The mainstream media, academic institutions, and Congress should be investigating these operations to the best of their ability and demanding the release of documents to enable democratic accountability.

Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Church Committee hearings. Fifty years on, with the precedent, inspiration, and guidance of the Church Committee itself, it’s urgently time to open the blinds, expose the truth about the US-led mayhem, and begin a new era in which US foreign policy becomes transparent, accountable, subject to the rule of law both domestic and international, and directed towards global peace rather than subversion of supposed enemies.

“I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled” Hosea 6:10

“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” Obadiah 1:15

Posted in Esau, Latin Americas, US

China is world’s sole manufacturing superpower

•February 14, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China is the world’s sole manufacturing superpower: A line sketch of the rise

CEPR by Richard Baldwin • 17 Jan 2024

Richard Baldwin is Professor of International Economics IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland; VoxEU Founder & Editor-in-Chief

The US is the world’s sole military superpower. It spends more on its military than the ten next highest spending countries combined. China is now the world’s sole manufacturing superpower. Its production exceeds that of the nine next largest manufacturers combined. This column uses the recently released 2023 update of the OECD TiVA database to paint an eight-chart portrait of China’s journey to superpower status and the asymmetric impact that its dominance has had on global supply chains.

I’m not an expert on China, but during ongoing work on global supply chain disruptions with my co-authors Rebecca Freeman and Angelos Theodorakopoulos, I’ve noticed a stark fact that I don’t think is as widely known as it should be. China is the now world’s sole manufacturing superpower.

This column uses the OECD’s recently released 2023 update of their invaluable TiVA database to show, in eight charts, how this came to be. I will skip the historical Chinese reform narrative as that has been well covered by real China experts (e.g. Wang 2023, World Bank 2013, Ranganathan 2023).

The world’s big players in manufacturing

The charts in Figure 1 show two views of global manufacturing shares in 2020 (the latest year in the database). The left panel displays world shares in terms of gross production; in the right panel, the same is shown in terms of value added. The distinction is in intermediate inputs: Chinese gross production equals the total sales of Chinese manufacturers; Chinese value added is their gross production minus the purchased intermediates.

Figure 1 Slicing the global manufacturing pie, 2020, gross production basis

Six nations manufacture at least 3% of the world total. China is followed by the US, Japan, Germany, India, and South Korea. Note how the world has changed. Only three of these are long-established industrial economies; the other three are newly industrialised economies. Four of the G7 don’t make the cut. The chart separately identifies nations with shares of at least 2%, and on the left, this includes Italy, France, and Taiwan (two of the G7, the UK and Canada, don’t make the cut). In the right panel (value-added basis), the UK makes an appearance with a share just above 2%.

When it comes to gross production, China’s share is three times the US’ share, six times Japan’s, and nine times Germany’s. Taiwan, Mexico, Russia, and Brazil now have higher gross output than the UK. Canada is further down the ranking, in 15th place.

Unprecedented industrialisation

China’s industrialisation is unprecedented. The last time the ‘king of the manufacturing hill’ got knocked off the throne was when the US surpassed the UK just before WW1. It took the US the better part of a century to rise to the top; the China-US switch took about 15 or 20 years. China’s industrialisation, in short, defies comparison.

Figure 2 portrays how China dethroned the king of the hill. If we think of this as a 25-lap horserace – one lap per year – all the excitement was in the first 13 laps. Since data only go back to 1995, China started the race a bit ahead of Canada, Britain, France, and Italy. China passed Germany in 1998, Japan in 2005, and the US in 2008. Since then, China has more than doubled its world share while the US’s share has fallen by another three percentage points. If this were a live horserace, boredom would have driven most of the audience away years ago.

The right panel shows that China’s share now exceeds that of the next largest manufacturers combined. This remarkable fact helps us to understand current US-China trade tensions, and the magnitude of supply chain disruptions that occurred when China dialled down its production during Covid. India (not shown separately) was the second fastest share gainer: its global share of manufacturing production rose by two percentage points since 1995.

China’s rise has slowed and looks to have stagnated at about a third of world output. To confirm this, however, we will need more recent data since the last two years in the sample are muddled by events related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The World Bank’s World Development Indicators (WDI) has data to 2022 for value added, and these conform to the flattening narrative, but the WDI do not report gross production data.

Figure 2 China’s meteoric rise in manufacturing, 1995-2020 (world gross production shares)

China’s dominance is less stark in exports (Figure 3), though the rise is equally amazing. In 1995 China had just 3% of world manufacturing exports, By 2020, its share had risen to 20%. The corresponding fall in the G7 share was less dramatic than for its share of production. This is explained by the meteoric rise in Chinese domestic consumption, which has absorbed an increasing share of its manufacturing production since 2004. Not shown in the charts is that China’s export to production ratio, having peaked at 18% in 2004, is 13% in 2020 – almost back to its 1995 level of 11%. The same diagrams in the Annex are shown for a value-added basis.

Figure 3 China’s share of world manufacturing exports, 1995-2020

Asymmetric supply chain exposure: G7 and China

The global supply chain indicators that Rebecca Freeman, Angelos Theodorakopoulos and I developed last year (Baldwin et al. 2022) provide a convenient way of identifying foreign production exposure in supply chains (eight of our new indicators can be found in the TiVA 2023 update). Two of our new indicators are particularly intuitive when it comes to portraying global supply chain exposure.

Foreign Production Exposure: iMport side (FPEM). This shows the share of all industrial inputs (including domestically sourced inputs) that one nation sources from another on a scale of 0 to 100. FPEM accounts for exposure on a look-through basis in the sense that it looks through the suppliers-to-suppliers veil to discover the purchasing nation’s reliance on production in the selling nation.

Figure 4, left panel, shows that the US relies far more on Chinese manufacturing production than vice versa. While shocking at first sight, this should not be unexpected. It is natural that a country with 11% of the world output buys more from a country that produces 35% than vice versa, but the numbers are astounding. China was more exposed to US inputs before 2002, but the US has had greater exposure since then. In 2020, the US was about three times more exposed to Chinese manufacturing production than vice versa.

Foreign Production Exposure: eXport side (FPEX). This indicator reflects the share of a nation’s gross output of intermediate goods that is exported to a particular partner. It is a measure of exposure on the sales side.

Figure 4, right panel, shows the expected result: China is and always has been more reliant on sales to the US than the other way round. In the mid-2000s, China’s dependence on the US was ten times the reverse dependence, but the asymmetry has narrowed substantially.

Putting together the pieces, this shows a remarkable, historical, world-shaping asymmetry in supply chain reliance between China and other major manufacturing countries. Politicians may wish to decouple their economies from China. These data suggest that decoupling would be difficult, slow, expensive, and disruptive – especially to G7 manufacturers. For explicit estimates, see the simulation studies by Felbermayr et al. (2023) and Goes and Bekkers (2022).

Before closing this chapter on the China rise story, it is important to say that the massive asymmetry has nothing really to do with China. It has to do with China’s superpower standing in manufacturing. To see this, imagine what the charts would look like if they displayed the facts for OPEC and the G7 in the petroleum sector. We would see that the G7 is massively more dependent on OPEC supplies than vice versa. The next chapter of the story redirects the spotlight to the China level.

Figure 4 China and US bilateral FPEM and FPEX, 1995-2020

China’s balance of trade by sector, supply chain engagement, and openness

What does the rise to superpower status look like from the shores of China? One convenient, if simplistic, yardstick of a country’s competitive profile is its balance of trade by sector.

The left panel of Figure 5 shows the balance of exports less imports in the major sectors: manufactures, agriculture, mining, and services. The overall trade balance, which is just the sum of the sectoral balances, is shown with the thin black line. The pattern is as clear as it is unsurprising. China is a net exporter of manufactured goods and a net importer of everything else – agriculture goods, mining goods and fuels, and services. Both the positive and negative net balances have been growing quickly. Plainly, China is a big importer and a big exporter. Overall, it ran surpluses in the late 2000s, which then decreased and turned negative in 2018 and 2019 (black line).

The right panel provides important hints about the evolution of China’s manufacturing. It charts the evolution of the country’s net exports of intermediate inputs and final goods. Until the mid-2000s, China was a typical offshore destination: a net importer of intermediate inputs and a net exporter of final goods that embodied the imported inputs. From about 2002, China became a large net exporter of intermediate goods as well as final goods.

Figure 5 Net exports by sector, China, 1995 to 2020

Aggregate balance-of-trade numbers like those in Figure 5 can hide the evolution of the constituent parts. Figure 6, which focuses on manufactured goods, shows exports and imports separately. In the left panel, we can observe that China’s engagement with global supply chains was extremely vigorous until the mid-2000s. Imports and exports of industrial parts and components were growing rapidly, and imports and exports were growing in tandem. Afterward that, exports grew faster, and this difference has produced the positive balance in manufactured goods..

The right panel shows a different picture for final manufactured goods. Here, exports have always exceeded imports, with the imbalance growing rapidly in the 2010s.

Figure 6 Trade in intermediates versus final goods, China, 1995 to 2020

The next pair of charts shows the change in the sectoral composition of China’s exports.

Figure 7 presents the sectoral shares for 1995 (first year in the database) and 2020. It shows that China has moved from being relatively reliant on simple manufacturing sectors like textiles and clothing to more sophisticated sectors like electronics, basic and fabricated metal products, and chemicals and pharmaceuticals. A telling factoid is that textiles accounted for the biggest share in 1995, but electronics did so in 2020.

Figure 7 China’s export basket, 1995 versus 2020

Globalisation ratio

Finally, consider China’s globalisation ratios (Figure 8). The right panel exhibits the country’s gross globalisation ratio (GGR) in manufacturing. This is the share of manufactured production that is sold abroad, where production is measured as the total sales of all China-based manufacturers. It differs from manufacturing GDP since it includes all sales, not just final good sales.

Turning to the facts, we see that during its rise to manufacturing superpower status, China’s GGR rocketed up – almost doubling – in the first decade of the data. Indeed, most of the action came between 1999 and 2004. That period was an extraordinary feat of globalisation, and it is probably why so many think of China as an economy that is incredibly dependent on exports. But the story doesn’t end in 2004.

Since 2004, China’s GGR has been falling steadily. And don’t miss the fact that it is, in 2020, not far above where it started in 1995. Chinese manufacturing, in short, is no longer as dependent on exports as many might believe. True, the first part of the rapid growth period involved exports growing faster than production (so the GGR rises). But then production grows faster than exports, implying that domestic sales were becoming relatively more important, compared to export sales – even though domestic and foreign sales were both booming throughout the high-growth episode. This dispels the myth that China’s success can be entirely attributed to exports. From around 2004, China increasingly became its own best customer.

The takeaway is simple: China’s openness, as measured by the GGR, has fallen rapidly. By 2020 it was only slightly more dependent on export sales than it was 1995.

Figure 8 China’s manufacturing growth and Gross Globalisation Ratio (GGR)

Concluding remarks

China is now the world’s sole manufacturing giant. As its recent success in electric vehicles demonstrates, its wide and deep industrial base can help it gain a competitive edge in virtually all sectors. The exceptions are the most advanced sectors, where the G7 countries still dominate.

Politicians who indulge in loose talk about decoupling from China need a clear-eyed look at the facts. As we have shown (Baldwin et al. 2023), all the major manufacturers in the world source at least 2% of all their industrial inputs from China. Decoupling would be difficult, to say the least.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

Posted in China

The SDA’s Investigative Judgement

•February 14, 2024 • Leave a Comment

First Great Disappointment Mar 21, 1843 – Mar 21, 1844; then April 18, 1844
Second Great Disappointment October 22, 1844

The doctrine of the Investigative Judgement, which ended on October 22, 1844, after admitting the error of their First Disappointment of March 21, 1843 to April 18, 1844; and their Second Disappointment of October 22, 1844, is an integral part of the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, teaching that a judgement had begun on that year’s Day of Atonement, when Christ entered the Most Holy Place in heaven to start an “investigative judgement.”

One of the revealing fact is that according to Jewish reckoning, there is no way Yum Kippur could be so late as October 22 of any year; and in the year 1844, the real Yum Kippur was on September 23 of Jewish Year 5605; some four weeks earlier. However in the year 1844, October 22, in Hebrew year is the 5605; Cheshvan 9 which is in the eight month following the seventh month, Tishrei, where Yum Kippur is.

The only people who has Yum Kippur a month late would be the Samaritans; which is in the month Cheshvana; that is, on the eight month.

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel; and he offered upon the altar and burned incense. I KIng 12:32-33

Jeroboam, who re-established calves for worship, also made priests from the lowest of the people; and for his idolatry and rebellion against the true worship of God, his kingdom was rent away from him and given to another dynasty under king Baasha.

Since the Investigative Judgement is a central doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventist teaching, we’ll make a study here. Their SDA Derivation of this 1844 date is as follows:

Seventy “week” period (Daniel 9:24-27) is held to begin in 457 BC, the seventh year of Artaxerxes I.

The “2300 evenings and mornings” period (Daniel 8:13-14) is held to commence in the same year.

2300 days are held to correspond to 2300 years. Hence from 457 BC plus 2300 years gives 1844 AD. — more specifically the date given in their historical statements hold October 22, 1844 as the Second Coming of Christ, resulting in a disillusion known as the Great Disappointment.

Years later, and reluctant to acceptiong a defeat of their prior “understanding” the Adventist movement reinterprets October 22, 1844 as the starting date for the pre-Advent Judgement when Christ entered the Holy of Holies to clean the heavenly Sanctuary.

This perceived revelation of an investigative judgement was greatly encouraging by their prophetess for the Seventh-day Adventist movement. Quoting Daniel 8:14, Ellen G White wrote:

“The scripture which above all others had been both the foundation and the central pillar of the advent faith, was the declaration, ‘Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed . . . pointed to Christ’s ministration in the most holy place, to the investigative judgement, and not to the coming of Christ for the redemption of His people'” (White, The Great Controversy, 1888, p 409).

First we should make a Study of Daniel 8:13-14

Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint who spoke, “How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?”

And he said unto me, “Until two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed” Daniel 8:13-14

A key to this mysterious time period was hidden from Daniel’s understanding — was not to be revealed until the latter days! It is a prophecy for our time — this climactic 21st Century!

Seventh-day Adventists try to explain this prophecy by assuming the “sanctuary” is in heaven and claim that this vision of “2300 days” commenced in 457 BC and ended in 1844, (using a day for a year principle, hence the “2300 days” represent 2300 years).

During this time of 2300 years the “sanctuary” that was cast down, trodden under foot — the Holy of Holies in heaven itself — God’s very throne — was to be “cleansed” beginning on October 22, 1844.

How could “the little horn” cast down the Holy of Holies, trodden under foot, in heaven? Such thinking are just Nonsense! Oh Goodness! Insanity asides, how could well over 20 million Adventists believe such balderdash today? Unless, of course, they were deceived by a Phoenician princess, Jezebel, not a true Prophetess!

“O Blind Guides! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” The first thing that these believers need to clean is to clean their own brains. God the Almighty is well capable of looking after his Holy of Holies in heaven! Or, is he not so Almighty?

Ellen G White, described rays of lights from the throne as she received her visions, revelations and as she later transcripted them into her numerous books, that Professor Walter Veith and other Adventists idolize to this day

Whatever the answer is, it has to do with an earthly event concerning the Sanctuary or the Temple in Jerusalem. But notice the little horn takes away the daily sacrifice for “2300 days.” Were there any daily sacrifices taken away since the writing of Daniel?

One possible answer is that this prophecy of the taking away of the evening and morning sacrifice has already been fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes. This is rather possible! Notice why: what happened to the daily sacrifice in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes (168-165 BC).

The wicked deeds of Antiochus Epiphanes are recorded in Daniel 11:31. He polluted the ancient sanctuary. He took away the daily sacrifice, and the 1150 days is one possibility; or perhaps it could be a preamble.

Now consider who the “little horn” in this prophecy is. It spring out from the King of the North; which originally was Syria, the Seleucid Empire — north of Palestine. But Syria was soon swallowed by ROME. The Roman system of government became the “King of the North.”

Later the “little horn” became the papal Roman Church, which persecutes the true Church — the “holy people” shall shine in the resurrection like the stars of heaven (compare Daniel 8:10, 24 with Daniel 12:3).

The papal Roman Church had existed to our time in Europe, Asia and now all over the world. In the Middle Ages it was called the Holy Roman Empire, and the church ever since was and is the Roman Catholic Church.

The SDA’s Phoenician Princess, Jezebel, masquerading as a true Prophetess!

Notice Daniel 8:26: “And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true….” The vision of “2300 days” is actually called in the Scripture “the vision of the evening and the morning”

The word “days” this note reveals that the original Hebrew of the word “days” is “evening morning” (the original “days” in Hebrew is “bō·qer e·reḇ” which is morning and evening). This prophecy is NOT referring to 24-hour days but to evenings/mornings; that is, the evening and the morning sacrifice!

According to verse 11 the little horn takes away the DAILY SACRIFICE. The daily sacrifice was offered in the evening and in the morning. In Exodus 29:39, “The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening.”

Verse 14 in other versions “two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings.” In other words, here is a prophecy that two thousand three hundred evening and morning sacrifices would cease to be offered.

Since the daily sacrifice was offered TWICE A DAY, this prophecy is actually speaking of one thousand one hundred fifty (1150) days. In 1150 days there would be exactly two thousand three hundred sacrifices offered at evening and morning.

Here are some excerpts from Wikipedia (Hanukkah)

When the Second Temple in Jerusalem was looted and services stopped, Judaism was outlawed. In 167 BCE, Antiochus ordered an altar to Zeus erected in the Temple. He banned brit milah (circumcision) and ordered pigs to be sacrificed at the altar of the temple.

By 164 BCE, the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid monarchy was successful. The Temple was liberated and rededicated. The festival of Hanukkah was instituted to celebrate this event. Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made.

We may not be sure of the exact dates, but one account says the abomination took place on the 15th of Kislev (1 Maccabees 1:54) in 167 BC, and at the end of this 1150-day period the sanctuary is to be “cleansed” or “justified.”

And on another account this cleansing was established on the 25th of Kislev in 164 BC to celebrate this liberation: Hanukkah; which would be roughly 1105 days, short of 1150 days by 45 days, or 90 “evening morning, bō·qer e·reḇ.” Thus this prophecy of “2300 days” could have been or partially fulfilled by the abomination set up by Antiochus Epiphanes until its liberation.

And finally, such a prophecy could be dual, that is, another possibility could reoccur if the third Temple is to be built in Jerusalem in the future and another transgression of desolation causing the daily sacrifices to cease. This final time, it could be fulfilled exactly “2300 days.”

And skipping forward to Daniel 12:11 “And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.”

And in Matthew 24:15 “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand).” There we are, another transgression of desolation yet in the future. How will all these play out, well, we’ll have to wait and see.

(For more, see Endtime Churches: the SDA’s Thyatira Era of Revelation 2)

Posted in Daniel, Doctrines, Revelation, Sects & Cults

Marcos, Duterte at Each Other’s Throats

•February 13, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Marcos, Duterte at Each Other’s Throats

Asia Sentinel by Viswa Nathan • February 7, 2024 // Asia Times

The rift between President Ferdianand Marcos Jr and his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte has widened to an unbridgeable abyss, with both accusing the other of drug use.

“We have a drug addict for president; that son of a whore!”

On January 28, while Marcos was launching in Manila a national movement called Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) to solidify national unity and drive an economic development program, with Duterte’s daughter Vice President Sara Duterte in attendance, Duterte addressed a rally in his hometown Davao, in the southern island of Mindanao, telling his audience: “We have a drug addict for president; that son of a whore!”

Duterte then warned Marcos that he could be overthrown if he supported the House of Representatives’ move to revise the country’s Constitution and switch from the present presidential form of government to a parliamentary system with no term limit for lawmakers and ministers, and he called on the army and the police to protect the constitution.

He also called on the island of Mindanao, with 27 provinces and 26 million people – about 20 percent of the country’s population – to break away from the nation.

Marcos, who seeks only to revise the Constitution’s economic provisions to encourage foreign direct investment, but isn’t keen on a parliamentary system, waved it off as the effect of the highly addictive fentanyl, which Duterte has been using as a painkiller, muddling his mind.

The island of Mindanao, with 27 provinces and 26 million people – about 20 percent of the country’s population – to break away from the nation?

This spat is rooted in a four-letter word. Fear. Fear on both sides. Marcos while taking over the presidency at the end of Duterte’s six-year term in mid-2022, was worried about Duterte’s overarching popularity across the nation and influence over the military and the police.

When Marcos declared his candidacy, Duterte publicly disparaged him as a weak leader, a spoiled child with the baggage of his family, who is credited with having stolen billions of dollars from the country before being deposed in the 1980s.

When he was leaving office, opinion surveys claimed that in this country where machoistic behavior is applauded, the unpredictable Duterte commanded a 75 percent popularity rating, which had risen to 79 percent in December 2023, as opposed to 68 percent for Marcos according to Pulse Asia.

Therefore, also recognizing Duterte’s cantankerous ways, Marcos had to tread a tricky path in his first year in office. So he chose to keep Duterte at ease by keeping the International Criminal Court investigating Duterte for his alleged human rights violation away from the country.

Now, however, Duterte has good reason to be very afraid. As a former lawmaker explained, he is now “obsessed with fear and in a state of panic” that Marcos could let the ICC grab him and prosecute him for the so-called Davao Death Squad when he was mayor of Davao, and Operation Double Barrel during his presidency that killed thousands in the name of cleansing the country of dangerous drugs.

“Look at it: he is calling the army and the police to protect the Constitution, and at the same time calling for Mindanao to secede! He is off his rocker.”

In his self-interested effort to shield Duterte from the ICC’s reach, Marcos first figuratively stuck his neck out.

In January 2023, when Marcos was just six months in office and the ICC authorized reopening the investigation into Duterte’s drug war, which had remained suspended since November 2021 at Manila’s request, Marcos’s justice secretary, Jesus Crispin Remulla, denounced the ICC move, calling it an “irritant” and saying that ICC “cannot enter our country.”

Six months later, when the ICC was about to decide on sending prosecutors to the Philippines to collect information about Duterte’s drug war, Remulla asserted again: “They are to do nothing of the sort here. They have no relevance here…We’re a free country with its justice system.”

This strategy helped Marcos to keep Duterte appeased while he reorganized command lines and took a good grip of the nation’s reins. As his administration completed its first six months, the secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Benhur Abalos, asked full police colonels and generals to file their courtesy resignations while a five-person team investigated officers to cleanse the force.

As a part of it, 49 members of the drug enforcement group that included 12 high-ranking officers were also ordered to surrender their firearms as they were found liable for drug-related irregularities.

Marcos was now well in the saddle with European leaders acknowledging that human rights are upheld better under Marcos than under Duterte, although extrajudicial killings continue, albeit at a slower pace, according to Human Rights Watch.

Still, there remained a long way to go to realize the objective Marcos declared in his inaugural address: raising per capita GNP to the equivalent of US$4,256, uplifting the country to upper middle-income status by the time his administration reached mid-term. It called for expanding foreign trade and attracting foreign direct investment. In both, Duterte loomed large.

During election campaign Philippine frontrunner Marcos favors China over the US

Some of Manila’s trade partners, particularly the European Union, which granted more than 6,200 Philippine products duty-free access under its GSP+ scheme, which helped Philippines exports to the 27-nation market rise from a minuscule US$7.2 million in 2014 to $11.17 billion in 2022, is determined that whoever seeks preferential access to the EU market must uphold human rights standards.

Allowing ICC investigators access to the Philippines falls within that framework. Hannah Neumann, a member of the European Parliament who led a delegation to the Philippines early last year, reminded Manila that this condition of the European Parliament is “not going to go away.”

In the meantime, just over two months ago, the EU agreed to let Manila continue enjoying the privilege while it worked towards fulfilling human rights conditions.

Just as it happened, the Marcos administration’s solicitor general, Menardo Guevarra, who was justice secretary with the Duterte administration, clarified that ICC investigators are free to visit the Philippines like any visitor with proper travel documents, and gather the information they want. “You can investigate in whatever way you want; you can talk to any person…interview any person,” but do not expect cooperation from the government.

Since then, matters have moved swiftly, and according to former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a Duterte nemesis, ICC investigators entered the country, conducted interviews, and gathered the information they needed. The ICC, said Trillanes, could soon issue arrest warrants against Duterte and his aides.

Duterte and his associates then saw what was imminent. Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s first chief of police (now a senator), who is included in the ICC investigation for carrying out Duterte’s shoot-to-kill order in the drug war, demanded the president to be “man enough” to admit if he has allowed ICC investigators enter the country.

The credibility of Trillanes’s claim aside, the important question now is how the ICC would execute its arrest warrant. The court has no enforcement team.

The Reagans dance with the Marcos during a state visit to Manila in 1969

The Marcos administration, which refuses to cooperate with the ICC because of national sovereignty, can hardly be expected to execute the warrant. So the warrant will become as unworkable as the one the ICC issued against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It should have let Duterte continue to remain relaxed. But he panicked.

Now, Duterte’s roar to have Marcos overthrown or for Mindanao to break away from the Philippines could go like a cry in the wilderness as leaders of the autonomous Muslim region in Mindanao have denounced his call to secede while the chief of the armed forces, Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said the armed forces would remain with its duty to protect the state against threats, whether external or internal.

Thus Duterte has a right to be afraid.

“Remember the father Marcos was a complete and total tin-pot US puppet. He did everything that the US did until they got tired of him and then they got rid of him. And this is the son. The son who does not fall far from the tree,” one writer observes. “He did what these client politicians do — they signal left but turn right.”

For more, see

Why the Philippines Out of China’s BRI?

Posted in Philippines

Putin debunks Tucker Carlson’s propaganda

•February 12, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Putin debunks Tucker Carlson’s warmongering anti-China propaganda, mocks his CIA ties

A failed CIA applicant interviewing a successful former KGB agent!

“We should thank God they didn’t let you in.”

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin condemned the “boogeyman” anti-China propaganda that Trump ally Tucker Carlson spewed in his interview in Moscow, while mocking the ex Fox News host for applying to join the CIA.

G/E by Ben Norton • February 11, 2024

The US TV host Tucker Carlson set off a political scandal by traveling to Moscow this February to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin.

This provoked a debate in the media, which – as is so often the case in partisan US politics – completely missed the forest for the trees.

Liberal war hawks like Hillary Clinton portrayed Tucker Carlson as a traitor and “useful idiot” of Putin.

Democrats have been blinded by their obsessive hatred of Russia, and are utterly incapable of seeing what is happening geopolitically.

In reality, Carlson and other Donald Trump allies in the Republican Party have tried for years to drive a wedge in between Russia and China, while maniacally pushing for war on Beijing.

Trump’s former top advisor Steve Bannon, who ran the far-right leader’s 2016 presidential campaign, stated openly in 2018: “We’re at war with China.”

Bannon called to “unite the West against the rise of a totalitarian China”. And he considers Russia to be part of the “West.”

This strategy was also adopted by France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who stated in 2022 that she wanted to improve relations with Russia in order to prevent it from allying with China.

The Trumpist Republicans and their far-right counterparts in Europe see Russia as white, European, Christian, and capitalist, and a potential ally against China, which they demonize as an non-white, Asiatic, atheistic, and communist threat to so-called “Judeo-Christian Western civilization.”

Carlson has played a key role in this warmongering campaign against China.

When he had his prime-time show on Fox News, Carlson declared, “Russia is not America’s main enemy. Obviously, no sane person thinks it is. Our main enemy, of course, is China. And the United States ought to be in a relationship with Russia, aligned against China.”

The narrative that Carlson is “anti-war” is totally false. The reason that he opposes the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is simply because he wants all resources focused on war with China.

Carlson insisted on his Fox program, “The biggest threat to this country is not Vladimir Putin; that’s ludicrous. The biggest threat, obviously, is China.”

The far-right TV host is afraid that a China-Russia alliance would end US hegemony over the planet, which the close Trump ally wants to preserve.

“If Russia ever joins forces with China, American global hegemony, its power, would end instantly”, Carlson lamented. “If Russia and China ever got together, it would be a brand new world, and the United States would be greatly diminished. Most Americans agree that would be bad.”

Since he was fired from Fox News in 2023, Carlson has continued pushing this same warmongering narrative: that the US should ally with Russia against China.

In his February interview with Putin, however, the Russian leader could clearly see that Carlson is a political operative acting on behalf of the Republican Party and Trump, and that they hope to encourage division between Moscow and its most important ally.

Putin pushed back against Carlson’s hysterical anti-China narratives, which he referred to as mere “boogeyman stories.”

The Russian president emphasized that China wants peaceful cooperation, and that “China’s foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive.”

The following is a transcript of the February 6 exchange:

TUCKER CARLSON: The question is what comes next? And maybe you trade one colonial power for another, much less sentimental and forgiving colonial power. I mean, is the BRICS, for example, in danger of being completely dominated by the Chinese, the Chinese economy, in a way that’s not good for their sovereignty? Do you worry about that?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: We have heard those boogeyman stories before. It is a boogeyman story.

We’re neighbors with China. You cannot choose neighbors, just as you cannot choose close relatives. We share a border of a thousand kilometers with them. This is number one.

Second, we have a centuries long history of coexistence. We’re used to it.

Third, China’s foreign policy philosophy is not aggressive. Its idea is to always look for a compromise. And we can see that.

The next point is as follows. We’re always told the same boogeyman story, and here it goes again, through a euphemistic form, but it is still the same boogeyman story.

The cooperation with China keeps increasing. The pace at which China’s cooperation with Europe is growing. It’s higher and greater than that of the growth of Chinese-Russian cooperation.

Ask Europeans. Are they afraid? They might be. I don’t know. But they are still trying to access China’s market at all costs. Especially now that they are facing economic problems.

Chinese businesses are also exploring the European market.

Do Chinese businesses have small presence in the United States? Yes.

The political decisions are such that they are trying to limit the cooperation with China.

It is to your own detriment, Mr. Tucker, that you are limiting cooperation with China. You are hurting yourself.

As Putin made clear, the Republicans have failed to isolate China from Russia and divide BRICS.

The irony is that the Democratic Party’s hysteria over the Russiagate conspiracy, combined with the war in Ukraine, prevented the Trumpist elements from realizing this strategy.

(Washington’s failure to divide Russia from China has only further incentivized the United States to focus heavily on allying with India’s far-right government, seeking to provoke conflict between New Delhi and Beijing. Both Trump and Joe Biden have sought to woo India.)

Carlson’s bellicose anti-China rhetoric was not mere red meat for his typical Fox News conservative audience. Since he was fired, Carlson has continued churning out this cartoonish propaganda as an independent broadcaster.

On February 2, just four days before he interviewed Putin, Carlson published a video claiming that China is “fueling the invasion of America.” The implication was that war w[ith] Beijing would be justified in response to a supposed Chinese communist-backed “invasion.”

In November 2023, Carlson released an interview with Trump, in which both fearmongered about Beijing.

“Why is China allowed to conduct imperialism in our hemisphere?” Carlson asked.

Trump replied, “Yeah, and it’s far beyond Cuba; it’s all over South America.” The former US president then claimed, without a shred of evidence, that “China is building military installations in Cuba.”

Carlson is a personal friend of Trump, and acts as a propagandist for the former president and his faction of the Republican Party.

But their relationship goes deeper than friendship. In fact, Trump has publicly said that he has considered Carlson to run with him to be vice president of the United States.

This is especially relevant considering that Trump may very well win this year’s presidential election. Most polls show that he is leading over Biden, including in critical swing states.

As he campaigns for president, Trump has pledged to implement extremely aggressive anti-China policies. The Washington Post reported, citing his advisors, that “Trump is preparing for a massive new trade war with China,” and wants to impose 60% tariffs on all imports of Chinese goods into the US.

When asked about this on Fox News, Trump floated tariffs even higher than 60%, stating, “I would say maybe it’s going to be more than that.”

Historically, economic wars of this magnitude often lead to military conflict. So Trump’s hawkish anti-China policies could escalate into a conventional war.

In addition to being a close ally of Trump, Carlson has used his large post-Fox personal media platform to promote the Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Together, they have China and fearmongered about war over Taiwan.

Ramaswamy has campaigned on a Trumpist and Carlsonian foreign policy platform, arguing that the US should ally with Russia in order to try to isolate China.

Ironically, this strategy advocated by Trump, Bannon, Ramaswamy, and Carlson was also previously promoted by Henry Kissinger.

Back in the Richard Nixon administration in the 1970s, Kissinger used “triangular diplomacy” to play China against the Soviet Union. Washington’s alliance then with Beijing was a significant factor that led to the destabilization and eventually overthrow of the USSR.

In 2018, Kissinger called for returning to this triangular diplomacy, but in the opposite direction. The Daily Beast reported, “Henry Kissinger suggested to President Donald Trump that the United States should work with Russia to contain a rising China.”

Putin mocks Tucker Carlson for applying to join the CIA

With the rise of Donald Trump and his far-right movement, Tucker Carlson tried to rebrand himself as a so-called populist.

But Carlson was always blue-blooded media royalty. His middle name is Swanson, and his stepmother was the heiress of the eponymous food corporation.

The scion of a powerful, wealthy, politically connected family, Carlson started his media career as a neoconservative hawk, churning out diehard pro-war articles for the notorious neocon bible the Weekly Standard.

Carlson was soon kicked upstairs, in the 2000s, to host shows at CNN and MSNBC, before later moving to Fox News.

In the Trump era, Carlson has marketed himself as a paleoconservative, condemning neoconservatives to try to score points with “populists.” But back during the George W. Bush administration, Carlson was a card-carrying neocon.

Carlson eagerly supported the illegal US invasion of Iraq, using crude, neocolonial, racist talking points.

As The Daily Beast wrote (emphasis added):

Tucker Carlson described Iraqis as “semiliterate primitive monkeys” in past comments made on the Bubba The Love Sponge radio show, according to new audio recordings uncovered by Media Matters. The Fox News host also claimed Iraqis don’t “behave like human beings” and said he had “zero sympathy” for Iraqis or their culture during a May 2006 discussion of the Iraq War on the popular radio show. “A culture where people just don’t use toilet paper or forks,” Carlson said—adding that Iraqis should “ just shut the fuck up and obey” the US because “they can’t govern themselves.” In a Sept. 2009 episode, Carlson also proclaimed that Afghanistan would never be a “civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.”

In fact, Carlson was such a dedicated Reaganite and cold warrior that, back when he was in college, he applied to join the CIA.

Journalist Alan Macleod showed how, in the 1980s, Carlson traveled to Nicaragua to support the CIA’s far-right death squads, the Contras, in their terror war against the revolutionary Sandinista government.

Tucker’s father, Richard “Dick” Carlson, was the director of Voice of America, a US government propaganda outlet that is closely linked to the CIA and other spy agencies.

Russian intelligence clearly knew about Carlson’s CIA ties. So when he interviewed Putin in February, the Russian leader mocked Carlson for having applied to join the notorious US spy agency, which Putin emphasized had organized many coups d’etat and meddled in the internal affairs of countless foreign countries.

The following is a transcript of the exchange:

TUCKER CARLSON: With the backing of whom?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: With the backing of CIA, of course. The organization you wanted to join back in the day, as I understand.

We should thank God they didn’t let you in. Although it is a serious organization, I understand.

My former vis-à-vis, in the sense that I served in the first main directorate, the Soviet Union’s intelligence service.

They have always been our opponents. A job is a job.

Tucker Carlson’s neocolonial views on Latin America

Although he criticizes neocons today, Carlson’s foreign policy regarding Latin America is decidedly neoconservative, and neocolonial.

Carlson routinely treats Latin America like the US “backyard,” and frequently complains that China is supposedly trying to “take over” and even colonize “our hemisphere.”

In 2022, when he was still at Fox News, Carlson traveled to Brazil to produce a propaganda documentary for far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, who was staunchly pro-US and anti-China.

In effect, Carlson was meddling in Brazil’s election, seeking to prevent the return to power of leftist Lula da Silva (who went on to win the 2022 election).

In the promotional video that Carlson made for Bolsonaro, he invoked the 200-year-old, explicitly colonial Monroe Doctrine, in order to fearmonger about China’s bilateral, consensual relations with Latin American nations – and to justify increasingly aggressive US interventionism in the region.

The Fox News host declared (emphasis added):

In 1823, President James Monroe announced a policy that has been the center of American foreign policy for the last 200 years. Called the Monroe Doctrine, it has a very simple thesis: Great powers would not be allowed to control nations in the Western hemisphere. That would be a direct threat to the interests of the United States. And for 200 years, we haven’t allowed it.

Under the Biden administration, the Monroe Doctrine is no longer enforced.

Constrained by its ideological concerns, consumed with petty political grievances and above all, distracted by a faraway war in Eastern Europe [ie, against Russia in Ukraine], the Biden administration has abdicated its responsibility.

And into the void left by the United States moves a new superpower.

We’ve come to Brazil to see for ourselves the rise of China, and how the government of China is replacing the United States as the dominant power in our hemisphere.

Washington’s bipartisan imperialism

This anti-China, pro-colonial diatribe was a stark reminder that Carlson is in fact an ardent advocate for US imperialism.

Carlson is not opposed to war on principle. He only criticizes the US proxy war against Russia because he wants to focus the entire attention of the US empire for war on China.

Carlson is co-opting many well-intentioned people who don’t want war on Russia, and brainwashing them to want war on China.

However, US liberals’ hysteria over the Russiagate conspiracy has blinded them to this reality.

Of course, in Washington there is bipartisan opposition to China. But the Democrats are more fixated on Russia now, in the short time, while referring to China as a “long-term threat.”

Republicans, led by Trump and Carlson, want to put aside differences with Russia and dedicate all of the US empire’s resources into containing, weakening, and ultimately overthrowing the Communist Party of China.

Both dominant US political parties are thoroughly imperialist. Their fight is not about whether the US should be an empire; rather, their debate is about what is the best strategy to preserve the US empire.

Carlson and Trump share much in common politically with neocons and liberal-interventionist hawks, whom they sometimes criticize for “populist” credit.

What unites them all is their desire to strengthen the US empire and maintain Washington’s unipolar hegemony over the planet.

This is precisely why Tucker Carlson warned with terror, back on his Fox News show, “If Russia ever joins forces with China, American global hegemony, its power, would end instantly.”

Posted in China, Russia, US

65,000 South Asians to replace Palestinians

•February 12, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Israel to bring in 65,000 foreign building workers to replace Palestinians

Yahoo News • February 5, 2024

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel’s government said on Sunday it would bring in 65,000 foreign workers from India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan to resume construction stalled since Oct. 7 when Palestinian workers were sent home in the wake of the attack on Israel by Hamas.

LUCKNOW, India: Hungry Indians queue for Israel jobs as war in Gaza rages

Some 72,000 Palestinian workers were employed on construction sites in Israel prior to the attack, which prompted the government to lay them off and exclude them from Israel for security reasons.

Some 20,000 foreign workers remain but almost half the country’s building sites have been closed down due to the labour shortage.

A housing ministry spokesperson said new groups of foreign workers were expected to arrive in coming weeks as the government seeks to avoid a blockage in supply that would risk reigniting real estate prices as interest rates start to fall.

Indians queuing in long lines for jobs in Israel as the war with Hamas grinds on say the risks to their safety are preferable to hunger at home.

Recruiters are aiming to fill a labor shortage in Israel exacerbated by nearly four months of fighting against Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Thousands of Indians apply for construction jobs in Israel despite war

While India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of the fastest growing, it has struggled to produce enough full-time and well-paying jobs for millions of people.

For the hundreds of Indians in line, almost all men, the chance of a skilled construction job in Israel — and wages up to 18 times higher — outweighs their fears.

“If it is written in our fate to die, we’ll die there — at least our kids will get something,” said motorbike mechanic Jabbar Singh, among the packed crowd at a training center and recruitment site in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state. “It’s better than hunger here.”

Posted in India, Israel

F-35 Jet Fails in 65 Areas

•February 11, 2024 • Leave a Comment

F-35 Jet Fails to Meet Basic Operating Standards in 65 Areas – Pentagon Report

Sputnik International • February 4, 2024 // Defence News

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter still suffers at least 65 basic deficiencies where it continues to fail to meet basic testing specifications, the Office of the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E) said in a report.

The F-35 program faces scrutiny for 65 technical problems and cost blowouts

The JPO [F-35 Joint Project Office] completed the readiness review for JSE [joint simulation environment] trials in September 2023, and certified it as ready for testing, despite 65 deficiencies against the baseline JSE requirements, the report said on Friday.

The F-35 program development cycle continues to experience delays due to immature and deficient Block 4 mission systems software and avionics stability problems with the new Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3) hardware going into Lot 15 production aircraft, the report said.

“As a result, deliveries of production Lot 15 aircraft in the TR-3 configuration are on hold until more testing can be completed and the avionics issues resolved. …[T]hese delays prevented the F-35 JPO from adequately planning and programming for hardware modifications … of the upgraded hardware configuration,” the report said.

Also, the necessary flight test instrumentation, including both aircraft and open-air battle shaping instrumentation, for both, the remaining TR-2 configuration and upgraded TR-3 aircraft, are not all on contract and will not be available in time, the report added.

(Jan. 13, 2022) An F-35C Lightning II, assigned to the “Argonauts” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA 147), prepares to recover on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70), Jan. 13, 2022. - Sputnik International, 1920, 06.09.2023

In June 2019, Defense News published an investigation into the F-35 that detailed all 13 category 1 deficiencies on the books at the time — the first and only time a full list of F-35 critical deficiencies has been publicly released.

Details of [deficiencies] — even unclassified [deficiencies] — are not publicly releasable; but here is a list of known problems:

A technical problem involving the F-35′s cockpit pressure regulation system led to several incidents of extreme sinus pain, or barotrauma. In April 2020, the program office believed it would be able to resolve the problem in 2021 after flight testing the fix.
On nights with little ambient light, the night vision camera embedded in the F-35 helmet could display horizontal green lines that could make it more difficult for pilots to land on ships. The JPO had intended to test a software update for the Generation III helmet to assess whether that could correct the issue with the hopes of declaring the deficiency solved in 2021.
The F-35′s Northrop Grumman-made AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array radar meets requirements, but the Navy wants to upgrade the system so that it can scan a wider area while in sea-search mode. In 2020, the program office stated that this issue would remain on the books until 2024, when a software update is made to the aircraft’s avionics equipment.

Trust ye not in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these” Jeremiah 7:4

“I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them till I have consumed them” Jeremiah 9:16

Posted in Tech Race, US

A new Civil War is very real

•February 10, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Make no mistake, a new Civil War is a very real prospect for the United States

It has long been on the minds of doomsday preppers and fiction media creators alike – but how likely is it, really?

RT by Tarik Cyril Amar • February 5, 2024

Let’s sketch a big country in three broad strokes:

First, its population is over 333 million. These citizens privately own about (or at least) 339 million guns. They are unique in that no other state in the world has more private guns than people. They easily outdistance, for instance, Yemen, a country with a martial culture that has gone through years of civil war and yet there are only about 53 firearms per 100 inhabitants.

Second, polarization is unusually high and virulent: As of 2020 already, a political scientist at one of America’s most prestigious universities, found that “political polarization among Americans has grown rapidly in the last 40 years — more than in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia or Germany,” for instance.

The result: America is special, but not in a good way. “None of the wealthy, consolidated democracies of East Asia, Oceania, or Western Europe,” a 2022 paper published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pointed out, “have faced similar levels of polarization for such an extended period.”

Last year, another Carnegie Endowment paper found that even while some of the perception of polarization on specific policy questions (such as gun control or abortion) is exaggerated, that perception itself is detrimental to the country’s cohesion.

Because “the people who are most involved in civic and political life hold the least accurate [here meaning: highly negative] views of the other side’s beliefs” and there is a high degree of what political scientists call “affective polarization.”

Put simply, all or many of those citizens, collectively hoarding so many guns that over 40% of households are armed in one way or the other, do not like or even merely respect “the other side” of the political spectrum – not at all and ever less.

Third, the country also displays a pronounced cultural preoccupation, really almost obsession, not merely with the idea of civil war as such or the specific history of its own very bloody civil war in the nineteenth century.

Rather its elites and general population are fixated on a coming civil war, which, as of 2022, a whopping 43 percent considered likely in the next ten years. Debates, high-brow books, articles, and popular culture feature this fantasy prominently and persistently.

We are talking, of course, about the United States of America. While it would be easy to adduce more criteria and data points, there is no need. The above is sufficient to demonstrate that it would be shortsighted to pooh-pooh the risk of a second civil war in America, for two reasons:

It is not a mere fantasy, owing its current national resonance to “hype” and the titillation of imagining a liberatingly apocalyptic future of chaos and every man and woman for themselves (and, in the US, I guess, every other gender that wishes to participate).

Smart Americans realize this as well. Barbara F. Walter, for instance, is a prominent political scientist who has worked extensively with the CIA to develop a model of civil war predictors, for any country but the US, of course.

She has now come to warn that the model begins to fit America itself disturbingly well. She may have her centrist biases – the usual exaggeration of “Russian influence” included – but her core points are valid: The US is turning into an anocracy, that is, in essence, a regime that only pretends to be a democracy. (

In fact, that is what it has always been, I would content.) And there is a substantial constituency of those who feel threatened by losing their former social status and preeminence. Those happen to be phenomena strongly correlated with a risk of civil war.

Let’s also not forget that America is proving its enormous capacity for global disruption every day, even without civil war at home. While some observers may – even gleefully – hope that Americans fighting each other would finally have to let go of the rest of us, that is a very dicey bet.

With an elite narcissistically obsessed with global “primacy” and “indispensability,” about 800 bases worldwide, an arsenal of thousands of nuclear warheads, and a nasty habit of blaming others for its own failures, a new American civil war would not exclude aggression abroad.

Moreover, declining as it is, the US is still a key part of the global economy, much more so than in 1860, when its first civil war already had serious repercussions for the rest of the world.

In sum, it may attract preppers with camo baseball hats, beards, and pump guns, but don’t let that fool you: American Civil War 2.0 is a serious issue. So, what about it? What can we reasonably guess about how likely it really is and what shape it might take if it happens?

To start with the latter question, perhaps the first thing to note is that big civil wars can start small and local. That is, by the way, the real significance of the recent, open tensions over migration and border control between the state of Texas and the federal government in Washington.

They did involve armed forces and much foreboding rhetoric, but, fortunately, no shots were fired. Yet those glibly dismissing the incident as mere political theater are wrong. Because, as the New York Times has noted, it was not only Texas that defied the US government. Rather, “many Republican state leaders publicly expressed defiance in terms that echoed armed conflicts.”

Indeed, the second thing to note is that, due to America’s federal structure, a new civil war would most likely begin with secession. In the fracas between Washington and Texas, 25 Republican governors openly sided with rebellious Texas.

This was a perfect illustration of how one local flashpoint could quickly suck in the rest of the country by creating a logic of ultimate polarization and then secession. This logic has not yet fully unfolded. Its contours, however, have emerged clearly.

It is worth noting that many of the fiction narratives about Civil War 2.0 make the same point: Whether it is the cult graphic novel series “DMZ,” the bitterly ironic novel “American War” (it’s obvious in-joke is that it has some Americans treat other Americans the way Americans and Israelis now treat Palestinians, Iraqis, or Syrians), the small-budget yet clever movie “Bushwick,” or the big-budget “Civil War” about to hit American cinemas now: Again and again the basic premise is a scenario of secession escalating into massive domestic warfare.

Third, while the humongous pile of private firearms would certainly play a large role in a new civil war, it would be misguided to assume that such a fight would only pit gangs of private citizens, organized in militias, against official police and military forces.

In reality, a dynamic of secession, once set in motion would lead to parts of the US’s manifold “siloviki” choosing their own allegiance, splitting, and starting to fight each other. If you believe that, in such a situation, the formal chains of command ultimately linking them all back to Washington would remain intact, I have a whole-and-indivisible Yugoslavia to sell you.

And, last but not least, in such a development, the war would be both severe and long. In that respect, it would resemble the first Civil War. Although, due to advanced technologies and declining inhibitions, it could be even more devastating and cruel.

In Netflix’s recent and tellingly successful “Leave the World Behind,” the protagonists never learn who exactly is blowing up their country, but by the end of the movie two things seem reasonably clear: No, it’s not enemies from outside, but an inside job, and nukes are being used. That, by the way, was the premise as well of the earlier, initially unsuccessful but now cult television show “Jericho.”

How likely is such a dark future? Obviously, we do not know. But let’s note two things: We could, a priori, be looking at an America where no one is much interested in thinking about it. Yet we are seeing the opposite. If you think that means nothing, fine. Just don’t mistake your guess for a good policy or planning basis.

There are, of course, alternatives to civil war. One is peaceful de-polarization under the current anocratic conditions, which, hypothetically, can happen. The other is full-blown authoritarianism: one way to suppress the possibility of a civil war is to impose dictatorship.

But here’s the catch: A country can end up with both civil war and dictatorship. Ask the ancient Romans. Those Romans, that is, who were so much on the mind of the founders of the American Republic.

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.’

⁶ Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
⁷ And it shall be, when they say unto thee, ‘Why sighest thou?’ that thou shalt answer, ‘For the tidings, because it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water.’ Behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 21:4-7)

Posted in Texas, US

Numbers (5-6)

•February 10, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14;

— these Words, prophecised by Balaam, especially in regards to the house of Jacob, “in the latter days,” are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 5

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying:

²“Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper and every one who hath an issue and whosoever is defiled by the dead. — and everyone that hath an issue; leperous or having a gonorrhoea, man or woman, such an one might be in the camp of Israel, but was to be put out of the camps;

— and whosoever is defiled by the dead; by attending the funerals of the dead, or touching them, see Leviticus 21:1; such an one might go into the camp of the Levites,

³Both male and female shall ye put out. Outside the camp shall ye put them, that they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell.” — in the midst whereof I dwell; for the tabernacle, which was the dwelling place of the Lord, was in the midst of the camps of Israel;

⁴And the children of Israel did so, and put them out outside the camp; as the Lord spoke unto Moses, so did the children of Israel.

⁵And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁶“Speak unto the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit to do a trespass against the Lord, and that person be guilty, — the wrongs current amongst men; wrongs done to the property of another;

— such wrongs, perhaps because they were considered legitimate as long as they were not found out, were taken up by the Lord himself as involving a trespass against his own righteousness.

⁷then they shall confess their sin which they have done. And he shall recompense his trespass with the principal thereof, and add unto it a fifth part thereof, and give it unto him against whom he hath trespassed. — the principal; that is, the thing he took away, or what is equivalent to it;

— and add; both as a compensation to the injured person for want of his goods so long, and as a penalty upon the injurious dealer, to discourage others from such attempts.

⁸But if the man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass unto, let the trespass be recompensed unto the Lord, even to the priest, besides the ram of the atonement, whereby an atonement shall be made for him.

— but if a man have no kinsman to recompense the trespass to; this supposes that if a man should die, against whom the trespass is, before the restitution is made, then it shall be made to his heirs; and if he has none, then it was to be given to the priest;

⁹And every offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they bring unto the priest, shall be his. — which they bring unto the priest, shall be his; what they bring to him to offer for them shall be his who performs the service;

¹⁰And every man’s hallowed things shall be his; whatsoever any man giveth the priest, it shall be his.’” — shall be his; which he, by a vow or freewill offering, separates to holy uses; these are at his own dispose, to give to what priest he will, or they are the priest’s;

¹¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘If any man’s wife go astray and commit a trespass against him, — this law was given partly to deter wives from adulterous practices, and partly to secure wives against the rage of their hard-hearted husbands, who otherwise might upon mere suspicions destroy them, or at least put them away.

¹³and a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband and be kept secret, and she be defiled and there be no witness against her, neither be she taken in the act, — and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close; so that it is not known by her husband, nor by any other; “she hath hid herself” being in a private place with another man;

¹⁴and the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled — or if the spirit of jealousy come upon him and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not defiled—

— and he be jealous of his wife, and she be defiled; that his wife is defiled by a man; and which is the real case, as it afterwards appears, though at present he is not certain, only has a suspicion of it;

¹⁵then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest. And he shall bring her offering for her, a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil upon it nor put frankincense thereon, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance.

— for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to remembrance; if guilty of it, and therefore oil and frankincense were forbidden in this kind of offering as in a sin offering, Leviticus 5:11;

¹⁶“‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the Lord. — the priest was to bring her near to the altar at which he stood, and place her before the Lord;

¹⁷And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take and put it into the water. — the water of purification appointed for such kind of uses;

¹⁸And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering; and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse.

— no woman, if she were guilty, could say Amen to the adjuration, and drink the water after it, unless she disbelieved the truth of God, or defied his justice.

¹⁹And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, “If no man have lain with thee and if thou hast not gone astray to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse.

— and thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband; which is but another phrase expressive of the same thing, the sin of adultery;

²⁰But if thou hast gone astray to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled and some man have lain with thee besides thine husband” — but if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, gone aside from the paths of modesty and chastity, and betook herself to another man’s bed instead of her husband’s;

²¹then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman — “the Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot and thy belly to swell. — when the Lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; upon drinking the bitter waters;

²²And this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels to make thy belly to swell and thy thigh to rot.” And the woman shall say, “Amen, amen.” — amen, amen; doubled here; the woman was to accept (if she dared) the awful ordeal and appeal to God by this response; if she dared not, she pronounced herself guilty.

²³“‘And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water; — bot them out with the bitter water; in order to transfer the curses to the water. The action was symbolic;

²⁴and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse, and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. — after the woman’s amen, the priest was to write “these curses,” those contained in the oath, in a book-roll,

— and wash them in the bitter water, that is, wash the writing in the vessel with water, so that the words of the curse should pass into the water, and be imparted to it;

²⁵Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering before the Lord and offer it upon the altar. — and shall wave the offering before the Lord: backwards and forwards, upwards and downwards;

²⁶And the priest shall take a handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the water.

— and afterwards shall cause the woman to drink the water; oblige her to it; having proceeded thus far, and no confession made, namely, an oath taken, the curses of it written in a scroll and scraped into the waters, and the jealousy offering waved and offered.

²⁷And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, if she be defiled and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter, and her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot; and the woman shall be a curse among her people.

²⁸And if the woman be not defiled, but be clean, then she shall be free and shall conceive seed. — then she shall be free; from the effects of the bitter water; they shall have no such influence upon her, but she shall be as soured and healthful as ever;

²⁹“‘This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of her husband and is defiled, — this is the law of jealousies; which was appointed by God to deter wives from adultery, and preserve the people of Israel, and the true worshippers of him;

³⁰or when the spirit of jealousy cometh upon him and he is jealous over his wife, and shall set the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this law.

— and the priest shall execute upon her all this law; he shall proceed according to the law, and perform every rite and ceremony required; nor could any stop be put to it, unless the woman owned she was defiled.

³¹Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity.’” — and the woman shall bear her iniquity; the punishment of it, through the effects of the bitter waters upon her, if guilty; nor was her husband chargeable with her death, she justly brought it on herself.

Numbers 6

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazirite, to separate themselves unto the Lord,

— the vow of a Nazirite; the verb which is here used denotes the doing something wonderful or extraordinary, and the spiritual lesson seems to be that God’s servants are expected and required to do something more than others;

— they must not cut their hair, neither poll their heads, nor shave their beards; this was the mark of Samson being a Nazarite;

³he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. — nor eat grapes; which he was forbidden to do for greater caution, to keep him at the farther distance from wine.

⁴All the days of his separation shall he eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. — the Nazarites were to eat nothing that came of the vine; this may teach the utmost care to avoid sin, and all that borders upon it, and leads to it, or may be a temptation;

⁵“‘All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head. Until the days be fulfilled in which he separateth himself unto the Lord, he shall be holy and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. — nor scissors, or other instrument, to cut off any part of his hair.

⁶All the days that he separateth himself unto the Lord he shall come near no dead body. — the word Nazarite signifies separation; some were appointed of God, before their birth, to be Nazarites all their days, as Samson and John the Baptist.

⁷He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother, for his brother or for his sister when they die, because the consecration of his God is upon his head.

— he shall not make himself unclean; the law of the Nazirite in this respect was equally stringent with that of the high priest (Leviticus 21:11), and more stringent than that which was imposed upon the priests generally (Leviticus 21:2-3).

⁸All the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. — all the days of his separation he is holy unto the Lord. Set apart for his service, separate from all others, especially the dead;

⁹And if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration, then he shall shave his head in the day of his cleansing; on the seventh day shall he shave it.

— if any man die very suddenly by him, and he hath defiled the head of his consecration; cases of sudden death might occur to make him contract pollution; and in such circumstances he was required, after shaving his head, to make the prescribed offerings necessary for the removal of such defilement;

¹⁰And on the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation;

— and on the eighth day he shall bring two turtles or two young pigeons to the priest; not a turtledove and a young pigeon, but two of one of the sorts, which was the offering of the poorer sort of childbearing women at their purification;

¹¹and the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, and make an atonement for him, because he sinned by the dead, and shall hallow his head that same day. — and shall hallow his head the same day; consecrate himself to God afresh, particularly the hair of his head, let that grow again;

¹²And he shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb of the first year for a trespass offering; but the days that were before shall be lost, because his separation was defiled.

— and this Nazirite shall consecrate unto the Lord the days of his separation; he was to begin his account again, from the time of his shaving his head, and devote as many days to the service of the Lord as what he had vowed before;

¹³“‘And this is the law of the Nazirite when the days of his separation are fulfilled: He shall be brought unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

¹⁴and he shall offer his offering unto the Lord: one helamb of the first year without blemish for a burnt offering, and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,

¹⁵and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, and wafers of unleavened bread anointed with oil, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings.

¹⁶And the priest shall bring them before the Lord, and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering.

¹⁷And he shall offer the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, with the basket of unleavened bread. The priest shall offer also his meat offering and his drink offering.

¹⁸And the Nazirite shall shave the head of his separation at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall take the hair of the head of his separation and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings.

— and shall take the hair of the head of his separation; being cut off and shaved: and put it in the fire which is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings;

¹⁹And the priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one unleavened cake out of the basket and one unleavened wafer, and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazirite after the hair of his separation is shaved. — and shall put them upon the hands of the Nazarite; the boiled shoulder, and the cake and wafer upon it;

²⁰And the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. This is holy for the priest, with the wave breast and heave shoulder. And after that the Nazirite may drink wine.’

— and after that the Nazarite may drink wine; and cut his hair, and shave his head, and be defiled for the dead as other persons, the vow of his Nazariteship being fulfilled.

²¹“This is the law of the Nazirite who hath vowed, and of his offering unto the Lord for his separation, besides that which his hand shall get: according to the vow which he vowed, so he must do according to the law of his separation.”

²²And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²³“Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, ‘In this way ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them: — the priests were solemnly to bless the people in the name of the Lord; to be under the almighty protection of God; to enjoy his favour as the smile of a loving Father;

²⁴The Lord bless thee and keep thee; — and keep thee; from the evil of the world, from the evil one Satan, from the evil of sin, and the power, prevalence, and dominion of it, and from falling totally and finally by it, and keep in a state of grace unto everlasting salvation;

²⁵the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; — and be gracious unto thee; by granting larger measures of grace out of his fulness, by leading more abundantly into it, and making fresh and frequent applications of it; grace is often wished for from Christ as well as from the Father;

²⁶the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.’ — and give thee peace; all outward needful prosperity, internal peace of mind, through the blood and righteousness of Christ, the peacemaker, and peace giver, and eternal peace in the world to come;

²⁷“And they shall put My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.” — and they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; call them by his name, the people of the Lord; call upon the name of the Lord to bless them, and pronounce the blessing on them in the name of the Lord, in or by the name Yehovah.

Posted in Books of Moses

20 Countries With The Largest Jewish Population

•February 9, 2024 • Leave a Comment

20 Countries with the Largest Jewish Population in the World; and about two-thirds of Jewish Americans felt less secure in late 2023 than they did a year earlier, according to a survey mostly conducted after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 according to a report; these are Jews of about 5 million (two-thirds of 7.5 million from the United States alone) more ready to populate a Greater Israel via Aliyah.

Insider Monkey • January 31, 2024

20 Countries with the highest potential for Zionism.

Israel is home to 7.2 million Jews, accounting for 42.9% of the total Jewish population in the world. The global Jewish population has witnessed a steady growth trend since 1945, with a sharp rise in recent years. Between 2022 and 2023, the community recorded an increase from 15.25 million to 16.78 million people.

United States
Jewish Population = 7,500,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 44.7%

The US is at the first position on our list of countries with the largest Jewish population in the world. The country has a Jewish population of around 7.5 million. This makes up for around 44.7% of the world’s Jewish population.

Israel
Jewish Population = 7,208,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 42.9%

Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, with a Jewish population of approximately 7.2 million. This accounts for about 43% of the total Jewish population.

France
Jewish Population = 440,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 2.9%

France has a Jewish population of around 440,000, making it the European country with the largest Jewish population. The Jewish community in France dates back to Roman times, and over the centuries, Jewish communities have been established in major cities such as Paris and Marseille.

Canada
Jewish Population = 398,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 2.6%

Canada has a Jewish population of approximately 398,000. The Jewish community in Canada mainly dates to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

United Kingdom
Jewish Population = 312,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 1.9%

The Jewish population in the UK is estimated to be around 312,000, making it the fifth largest country with a Jewish population. The country’s Jewish community has a rich history, with Jewish settlements dating back to Roman times.

Argentina
Jewish Population = 171,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 1.1%

Argentina has a Jewish population of around 171,000 people, making up 1.1% of the world’s Jews. The Jewish community in Argentina dates back to the 19th century, with many Jews arriving from Eastern Europe.

Russia
Jewish Population = 132,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 1.0%

Russia is home to 1% of the world’s Jewish population, with around 132,000 Jews living in the country. Russia is the only other country besides Israel to have a Jewish autonomous region, with its center in Birobidzhan. However, less than a thousand Jews are living in this area now.

Germany
Jewish Population = 125,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.8%

Despite Germany’s role in the Holocaust that wiped out millions of Jews from the world, Germany made it to the top 8 countries with the largest Jewish population in the world. The country has a Jewish population of around 120,000 people. The Jewish community in Germany dates back to the Middle Ages, with Jews playing a significant role in German society.

Australia
Jewish Population = 117,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.8%

Australia has a Jewish population of around 117,000 people. It is among the top 10 countries with the highest Jewish population in the world. The Jewish community first arrived in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Brazil
Jewish Population = 90,500

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.6%

Brazil is home to a Jewish population of 90,500 individuals. The Jewish community in Brazil dates back to the 19th century, with many Jews arriving from Eastern Europe and Russia. Today, the Jewish community in the country is centered in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazil also has several synagogues, a Jewish school, and a Jewish cultural center.

South Africa
Jewish Population = 50,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.3%

Approximately 50,000 Jews are living in South Africa today. Many Jews arrived in South Africa during the 19th century, fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Over the years, the Jews have played significant roles in various aspects of South African society, including business, politics, culture, and academia.

Hungary
Jewish Population = 46,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.3%

Hungary has a Jewish population of around 46,000 people. The country accounts for 0.3% of the world’s Jewish population. The first Jewish settlement in Hungary dates back to the 13th century in the city of Pest.

Mexico
Jewish Population = 40,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.3%

Mexico has a Jewish population of around 40,000 people. The Jewish community in Mexico traces its roots back to the early 16th century when Spanish Jews arrived in New Spain. Today, Mexico has a small but vibrant Jewish community that adds to the North American Jewish population.

Ukraine
Jewish Population = 33,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.3%

Ukraine is home to approximately 33,000 Jews, placing it among the top 15 countries with the largest Jewish populations in the world. The historical roots of the Jewish community in Ukraine run deep, with a significant presence dating back to the Middle Ages. Despite facing periods of severe persecution, particularly during the Holocaust, the Jewish community in Ukraine has managed to maintain its identity and traditions.

Netherlands
Jewish Population = 29,700

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.2%

The Netherlands has a Jewish population of around 29,700, accounting for 0.2% of the world’s Jewish population. The Dutch Jewish community has a long history, with the first Jewish settlement in Amsterdam dating back to the 12th century.

Belgium
Jewish Population = 29,000

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.17%

Belgium has a Jewish population of approximately 29,000 individuals. The Jewish community in Belgium has a rich history, with Jews having lived in the region since the Middle Ages.

Italy
Jewish Population = 26,900

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.16%

Italy has a Jewish population of around 26,900 people, making up 0.16% of the world’s Jewish population. Italy has a long history of Jewish presence, dating back to Roman times. The country is at the seventeenth position on our list of countries with the largest Jewish population in the world.

Switzerland
Jewish Population = 20,500

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.12%

Switzerland has a Jewish population of around 20,500 people. The Jewish community in Switzerland dates back centuries, with the first Jewish settlers arriving in the late 16th century. Switzerland has many synagogues and a thriving Jewish community.

Uruguay
Jewish Population = 16,200

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.10%

Uruguay is home to a small Jewish population, with 0.1% of the world’s Jews residing there. The Jewish community in Uruguay is primarily located in the capital, Montevideo. There are several synagogues and Jewish schools in Uruguay, although the community remains relatively small.

Chile
Jewish Population = 15,700

Percentage of World Jewry = 0.09%

Chile has a very small Jewish population, making up about 0.09% of the world’s Jews. The Jewish community in Chile is mostly concentrated in the capital, Santiago. The historical composition of the Jewish population in Chile has been shaped by waves of Jewish immigration, particularly from Eastern Europe, especially after the Holocaust. Today, Chile has a handful of synagogues and Jewish schools.

Posted in Judah, Judiasm, Zionism

A $3.7B fragile aircraft carrier

•February 8, 2024 • Leave a Comment

After the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier and her escort ships had conducted a passage exercise in the South China Sea on 26 July 2021, the high-profile $3.7B carrier has lost one of its F-35B fighters and has shown continuously how Britain is struggling to keep up with other first-rate militaries.

Business Insider • Febryuary 6, 2024 // Sputnik

The high-profile failure of the UK’s flagship aircraft carrier over the weekend has shown how Britain is struggling to keep up with first-rate navies around the world.

The $3.7 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth had to pull out of the largest NATO naval exercises since the Cold War on Sunday when a problem was discovered with its propeller.

In a message on X, the Royal Navy said there was an issue with a coupling on the carrier’s starboard propeller shaft.

The setback came 18 months after its sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, broke down after a similar problem, causing it to pull out of exercises with the US Navy.

This stuff matters — the problems are being exposed at a time when the UK is stretching its naval capabilities by providing protection to vessels in the Red Sea targeted by Houthi rebels.

It’s also poised to defend against China’s aggression in East Asia and Russian aggression in the Black Sea amid the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Tom Sharpe, a former navy commander, said that the malfunction would mean that Britain no longer sends a carrier to the Red Sea, according to The Times.

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Technical Woes Highlight ‘Systemic Problems’ in the British Largest Weapon Programs

On the same day that the carrier broke down, the House of Commons defense committee said the military was “consistently overstretched,” with “unrelenting pressure” on personnel.

The report questioned its readiness for some wars and said the outlet heard that the “hollowing out” of the armed forces had undermined the UK’s military capabilities.

“Gen. Lord Houghton pointed to the shortage of available vessels and further noted that he found the high proportion of naval equipment which was inoperable to be ‘quite disturbing,'” the report said, citing a top UK defense official.

The Defense Ministry said in response to the report that the military was meeting its commitments.

“Our Armed Forces are always ready to protect and defend the UK, and we continue to meet all operational commitments, including participating in every single NATO mission, supporting Ukraine, and tackling Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea,” a spokesperson said.

The Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth have been in service for only about three years. In 2020, the UK’s government-spending watchdog said that it was unclear whether enough money had been budgeted to meet ambitious plans for the vessels given the lack of frigates and support vessels.

It’s not just the flagship vessels but also smaller ships that seem to be encountering problems. In January, two UK warships collided off the coast of Bahrain.

The Defense Ministry told BI that technical problems were inevitable on state-of-the-art ships.

Britain suffered an embarrassing aircraft carrier malfunction just as China started showing off its new carrier

“It’s not uncommon to have maintenance issues with state-of-the-art ships which contain complex engineering and technology. Having two aircraft carriers means that HMS Prince of Wales can quickly prepare to deploy in place of HMS Queen Elizabeth,” a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added: “HMS Prince of Wales will deploy soon on NATO exercise Steadfast Defender, carrying out her duties to keep the nation and our allies safe.”

Experts were sounding the alarm about the state of the British navy even before HMS Queen Elizabeth’s participation in the exercises was canceled, saying in comments to the Financial Times last week that it would’ve been dependent on allies for support vessels.

“There is a dissonance between the UK’s military ambitions and its capabilities,” Richard Barrons, a former head of the UK’s armed forces, told the publication. “The risk is that we get drawn into a conflict and can’t sustain our presence, and this exposes a strategic weakness.”

For more, see

HMS Royal Calamity!

UK’s Crumbling Navy Power

Posted in Manasseh, UK

Numbers (3-4)

•February 8, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14;

— these Words, prophecised by Balaam, especially in regards to the house of Jacob, “in the latter days,” are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 3

¹ These also are the generations of Aaron and Moses in the day that the Lord spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai. — all the other tribes being mustered and registered, and the genealogy of each stated, next follows all account of the priests and Levites;

— first of their descent from the two principal heads of their families; namely, Aaron and Moses; and then of the particular services allotted to each family;

²And these are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. — on Nadab and Abihu, Leviticus 10:1-2; they had neither of them any children when they were put to death, Eleazar and Ithamar were the only priests “in the sight of Aaron their father;”

³These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed, whom he consecrated to minister in the priest’s office.

⁴And Nadab and Abihu died before the Lord when they offered strange fire before the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai; and they had no children. And Eleazar and Ithamar ministered in the priest’s office in the sight of Aaron their father. — and they had no children; to die childless was regarded not only as a reproach, but also as a judgment;

⁵And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁶“Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him. — and present the Levites before Aaron the priest; that he may receive them as a gift unto him, as servants to wait upon him; that he may appoint and declare unto them their work, that they may minister unto him;

⁷And they shall keep his charge, and the charge of the whole congregation before the tabernacle of the congregation, to do the service of the tabernacle. — and they shall keep his charge; the word rendered charge may mean the directions which the Levites should receive from Aaron;

⁸And they shall keep all the instruments of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the charge of the children of Israel, to do the service of the tabernacle.

⁹And thou shalt give the Levites unto Aaron and to his sons: they are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel. — the Levites are represented as “wholly given” to the Lord instead of the firstborn; here, they are represented as being given by Him to Aaron and his sons;

¹⁰And thou shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest’s office; and the stranger who cometh nigh shall be put to death.” — the stranger; that is, every one who is of another family than Aaron’s; yea, even though he maybe a Levite; shall be put to death;

¹¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying:

¹²“And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the firstborn who openeth the womb among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine, — and I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel; separated them from others, and set them apart for the service of the sanctuary;

¹³because all the firstborn are Mine; for on the day that I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto Me all the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. Mine shall they be: I am the Lord.” — the concluding words are better expressed thus: “Mine shall they be, Mine, the Lord’s;”

— or; I am the Lord; that is, I decree it to be so; and being possessed of sovereign authority, I expect full obedience.

¹⁴And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, saying:

¹⁵“Number the children of Levi according to the house of their fathers, by their families. Every male from a month old and upward shalt thou number them.”

— from a month old; because at that time the firstborn, in whose stead the Levites came, were offered to God. And from that time the Levites were consecrated to God, and were, as soon as capable, instructed in their work;

— elsewhere they are numbered from twenty-five years old, when they were entered as novices into part of their work, (Numbers 8:24,) and from thirty years old, when they were admitted to their whole office.

¹⁶And Moses numbered them according to the word of the Lord, as he was commanded.

¹⁷And these were the sons of Levi by their names: Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari.

¹⁸And these are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.

¹⁹And the sons of Kohath by their families: Amram, and Izehar, Hebron, and Uzziel.

²⁰And the sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites according to the house of their fathers.

²¹Of Gershon was the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimites; these are the families of the Gershonites.

²²Those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, even those who were numbered of them were seven thousand and five hundred. — 7,500

²³The families of the Gershonites shall pitch camp behind the tabernacle westward.

²⁴And the chief of the house of the father of the Gershonites shall be Eliasaph the son of Lael.

²⁵And the charge of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation shall be the tabernacle, and the tent, the covering thereof, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation,

²⁶and the hangings of the court, and the curtain for the door of the court which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, and the cords of it for all the service thereof.

²⁷And of Kohath was the family of the Amramites, and the family of the Izharites, and the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites; these are the families of the Kohathites.

²⁸In the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were eight thousand and six hundred, keeping the charge of the sanctuary. — 8,600

²⁹The families of the sons of Kohath shall pitch camp on the side of the tabernacle southward.

³⁰And the chief of the house of the father of the families of the Kohathites shall be Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.

³¹And their charge shall be the ark, and the table, and the candlestick, and the altars, and the vessels of the sanctuary wherewith they minister, and the hanging, and all the service thereof.

³²And Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest shall be chief over the chief of the Levites, and have the oversight of those who keep the charge of the sanctuary.

³³Of Merari was the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites; these are the families of Merari.

³⁴And those who were numbered of them, according to the number of all the males, from a month old and upward, were six thousand and two hundred. — 6,200

³⁵And the chief of the house of the father of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail; these shall pitch camp on the side of the tabernacle northward.

³⁶And under the custody and charge of the sons of Merari shall be the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and the sockets thereof, and all the vessels thereof, and all that serveth thereto,

³⁷and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords.

³⁸But those who encamp before the tabernacle toward the east, even before the tabernacle of the congregation eastward, shall be Moses and Aaron and his sons, keeping the charge of the sanctuary for the charge of the children of Israel; and the stranger who cometh nigh shall be put to death.

— and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death; that is, whoever came nigh to enter into the holy place, and did, who was no priest, though an Israelite, and even a Levite, or into the most holy place, excepting the high priest, it was death unto him;

³⁹All who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron numbered at the commandment of the Lord, throughout their families, all the males from a month old and upward were twenty and two thousand. — 22,000

⁴⁰And the Lord said unto Moses: “Number all the firstborn of the males of the children of Israel from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names. — number all the firstborn of the children of Israel, from a month old and upward, and take the number of their names; that they might be compared with the number of the Levites;

⁴¹And thou shalt take the Levites for Me (I am the Lord) instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of the children of Israel.”

— and thou shall take the Levites for me; for his service, to minister to his priests, and serve in his tabernacle;

— I am the Lord; who has a right to all, and can claim who he pleases for himself in a special manner, and therefore could and did take the Levites to himself;

⁴²And Moses numbered, as the Lord commanded him, all the firstborn among the children of Israel.

⁴³And all the firstborn males by the number of names, from a month old and upward, of those who were numbered of them were twenty and two thousand two hundred and threescore and thirteen. — 22,273

⁴⁴And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁴⁵“Take the Levites instead of all the firstborn among the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle. And the Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord.

— and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle; not to be given to Aaron and his sons, or to the priests for their use, but to remain with the Levites for their use, who were now separated from the other tribes, and taken into the service of God;

⁴⁶And for those who are to be redeemed of the two hundred and threescore and thirteen of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the Levites, — excess of 273; for the sum total of the Levites, given as 22,000; from the sum total of the firstborn of Israel, 22,273;

⁴⁷thou shalt even take five shekels apiece by head count; according to the shekel of the sanctuary shalt thou take them (the shekel is twenty gerahs). — five shekels apiece was the price to be paid for the redemption of a first-born; but this money, though paid for these 273 persons, was probably paid out of the common stock of all;

⁴⁸And thou shalt give the money, wherewith the odd number of them is to be redeemed, unto Aaron and to his sons.” — unto Aaron, and to his sons; since the Levites were taken in lieu of the firstborn, whose redemption money belonged to the priests;

⁴⁹And Moses took the redemption money from those who were over and above those who were redeemed by the Levites. — of them that were over and above redeemed by the Levites; there remained two hundred seventy three firstborn to be redeemed by money, and it was the redemption money of these Moses took.

⁵⁰Of the firstborn of the children of Israel took he the money, a thousand three hundred and threescore and five shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. — 275 X 5 shekels each = 1375 shekels for Moses;

⁵¹And Moses gave the money of those who were redeemed unto Aaron and to his sons, according to the word of the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses. — as the Lord commanded Moses; so did he; he did not convert it to his own use, or to any other use than to what God had appointed it.

Numbers 4

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

²“Take a count of the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, — Kohath appears to have been the second son of Levi (Numbers 3:17), but the Kohathites here stand first because Moses and Aaron belonged to them, and it was their office to bear the Ark;

³from thirty years old and upward even until fifty years old, all who enter into the host, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. — the previous census of the Levites was from a month old; the present census was with a view to the discharge of duties requiring a considerable amount of physical strength, and hence the prescribed age for entering upon these duties was fixed at this time at thirty, and limited to fifty.

⁴This shall be the service of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation concerned with the most holy things. — about the most holy things; of the ark, which was indeed a most holy thing, and stood in the most holy place;

— but there were other holy things; as the shewbread table, the candlestick, and the altars of incense and burnt offering, and the veil, and the ministering: vessels, which Jarchi reckons with it, as more holy than all other things.

⁵And when the camp moves forward, Aaron shall come and his sons, and they shall take down the covering veil and cover the ark of Testimony with it, — and cover the ark of testimony with it; together with the mercy seat and cherubim on it, that they might not be seen nor touched by the Levites when they carried them;

⁶and shall put thereon the covering of badgers’ skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. — and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue; this was the distinctive outer, and therefore visible, covering of the most sacred thing, the ark; not be seen nor touched by the Levites;

⁷And upon the table of showbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes and the spoons and the bowls, and covers for covering; and the continual bread shall be thereon.

⁸And they shall spread upon them a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. — a cloth of scarlet; upon the dishes and other vessels belonging to the shewbread table, and on the shewbread itself;

⁹And they shall take a cloth of blue and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps and his tongs and his snuff dishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it. — wholly of blue; the third and external covering of the ark only was to be of this color;

¹⁰And they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put it upon a carrying pole. — of badgers’ skins; which was the outermost covering; the ark and the shewbread table had three coverings;

¹¹And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue and cover it with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. —and upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue; the altar of incense, which was overlaid with gold, and therefore called a golden one;

¹²And they shall take all the instruments of ministry wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue and cover them with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put them on a carrying pole. — wherewith they minister in the sanctuary; the garments in which the priests, ministered in the sanctuary, which were laid up in proper places, and which they only wore when in service;

¹³And they shall take away the ashes from the altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon; — having cleared the holy of holies, and the holy place, they were to come forth from thence into the court of the tabernacle, where stood the altar of burnt offering, which is here meant, and on which sacrifices being daily burnt, there were always ashes to be removed;

¹⁴and they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof wherewith they minister about it — even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar — and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers’ skins and put in the staves of it. — and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers’ skins: to prevent the rains falling upon them, which being all of brass, would be apt to tarnish;

¹⁵And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to move forward, after that the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.

— after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it; to bear or carry the whole vessels of ministry which had been previously enumerated. The distinction between the service of the priests and that of the Levites in regard to the removal of the Tabernacle and its furniture is here clearly marked.

¹⁶“And to the office of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, pertaineth the oil for the light, and the sweet incense, and the daily meat offering, and the anointing oil, and the oversight of all the tabernacle and of all that therein is in the sanctuary and in the vessels thereof.” — Eleazar; he himself is to carry these things, and not to commit them to the sons of Kohath;

¹⁷And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:

¹⁸“Cut ye not off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites from among the Levites, — in order to prevent as far as possible any calamity from befalling the Levites while carrying the most holy things, the priests are again urged by the command of God to do what has already been described in detail in Numbers 4:5-15;

— lest through any carelessness on their part they should cut off the tribe of the families of the Kohathites, that is, should cause their destruction;

¹⁹but thus do unto them, that they may live and not die when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and appoint them every one to his service and to his burden; — and appoint them in everyone to his service, and to his burden; what everyone shall do, and how they shall take them up, and bear them;

²⁰but they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered, lest they die.” — but they shall not go in to see when the holy things are covered; they were not to be present while they were packing up, test they should see any of them with their eyes; lest they die; by the hand of God.

²¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²²“Take also the sum of the sons of Gershon, throughout the houses of their fathers, by their families. — the sons of Gershon; as well as of the sons of Kohath; for though Gershon was Levi’s eldest son, yet his posterity were not excused from the service of the tabernacle, and bearing things of it in journeying;

²³From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them, all who enter in to perform the service, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation.

²⁴This is the service of the families of the Gershonites, to serve and to bear burdens.

²⁵And they shall bear the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tabernacle of the congregation, his covering, and the covering of the badgers’ skins that is above upon it, and the hanging for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, — they shall bear the curtains; for these four coverings, of tapestry, of goats’ hair, of rams’ skins, and of sea-cow skin respectively;

²⁶and the hangings of the court, and the hanging for the door of the gate of the court which is by the tabernacle and by the altar round about, and their cords, and all the instruments of their service, and all that is made for them; so shall they serve.

²⁷At the appointment of Aaron and his sons shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites, in all their burdens and in all their service; and ye shall appoint unto them in charge all their burdens.

— shall be all the service of the sons of the Gershonites; everyone of them was to take their share, as Aaron and his sons should appoint them; in all their burdens, and in all their service; what each of them should carry, and in what they should perform duty;

²⁸This is the service of the families of the sons of Gershon in the tabernacle of the congregation; and their charge shall be under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest. — the Gershonites and Merarites are superintended by Ithamar, Aaron’s younger son, who had already had the oversight of the tabernacle in its construction;

²⁹“As for the sons of Merari, thou shalt number them according to their families, by the house of their fathers; — as for the sons of Merari; the third and youngest son of Levi;

³⁰from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old shalt thou number them, every one who entereth into the service to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³¹And this is the charge of their burden, according to all their service in the tabernacle of the congregation: the boards of the tabernacle, and the bars thereof, and the pillars thereof, and sockets thereof,

³²and the pillars of the court round about, and their sockets, and their pins, and their cords, with all their instruments, and with all their service; and by name ye shall reckon the instruments of the charge of their burden.

³³This is the service of the families of the sons of Merari, according to all their service, in the tabernacle of the congregation, under the hand of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.”

³⁴And Moses and Aaron and the chief of the congregation numbered the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by the house of their fathers,

³⁵from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one who entereth into the service for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation;

³⁶and those who were numbered of them by their families were two thousand seven hundred and fifty. — 2750

³⁷These were they that were numbered of the families of the Kohathites, all who might do service in the tabernacle of the congregation, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

³⁸And those who were numbered of the sons of Gershon, throughout their families and by the house of their fathers,

³⁹from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one who entereth into the service for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation”

⁴⁰even those who were numbered of them throughout their families, by the house of their fathers, were two thousand and six hundred and thirty. — 2630; these in the three Levitical families: viz., 2750 Kohathites, 2630 Gershonites, and 3200 Merarites – in all, 8580

⁴¹These are they that were numbered of the families of the sons of Gershon, of all who might do service in the tabernacle of the congregation, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the commandment of the Lord.

⁴²And those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, throughout their families, by the house of their fathers,

⁴³from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one who entereth into the service for the work in the tabernacle of the congregation”

⁴⁴even those who were numbered of them by their families, were three thousand and two hundred. — 3200

⁴⁵These are those who were numbered of the families of the sons of Merari, whom Moses and Aaron numbered according to the word of the Lord by the hand of Moses.

⁴⁶All those who were numbered of the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the chief of Israel numbered, according to their families and by the house of their fathers,

⁴⁷from thirty years old and upward even unto fifty years old, every one who came to do the service of the ministry and the service of the burden in the tabernacle of the congregation—

⁴⁸even those who were numbered of them were eight thousand and five hundred and fourscore. — 858

⁴⁹According to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of Moses, every one according to his service and according to his burden. Thus were they numbered by him, as the Lord commanded Moses.

Posted in Books of Moses

20 Cities With The Largest Jewish Population

•February 7, 2024 • Leave a Comment

20 Most Jewish Cities in the World; these are Jews ready to populate a Greater Israel via Aliyah

Insider Monkey • December 3, 2023

As of 2023, there are around 16.7 million Jews in the world. This means that Jews make up about 0.2% of the world’s population.

While there is only a single Jewish state in the world at the moment, many countries are home to significant populations of Jews. It would be interesting to note that despite being a Jewish state, Israel isn’t the country with the highest Jewish population in the world.

Between 2022 and 2023, the community recorded an increase from 15.25 million to 16.78 million people. A 2015 study by the Pew Research Centre predicted that the global Jewish population would reach 16 million by the year 2050.

However, the Jewish population has exhibited a faster-than-expected growth rate and surpassed the 16 million mark already, with nearly 25 years remaining until 2050.

According to the same study, the annual growth rate for the Jewish population was projected to be lower than the average global growth rate. This prediction proved accurate, as the world Jewish population experienced an annual growth rate of about 0.63% until 2018.

The United States of America is also among the countries with the largest Jewish population in the world. New York stands out as the state with the highest Jewish population, at about 1.7 million Jews.

This means that New York is home to around 22% of America’s Jews and 10% of the total Jews in the world. California and Florida follow New York with the second and third-highest Jewish populations in the US. These three states have a higher number of Jewish residents than any country in the world, excluding Israel and the US.

Meanwhile, Europe is home to about 8% of Jews in the world, with France in the leading position.

1 – Tel Aviv, Israel
Jewish Population – 3,891,800
Tel Aviv, one of the most populous cities and the financial hub of Israel, is the most Jewish city on earth. The city has more than 3.8 million Jews, which is 1.7 million more than the next most Jewish city.

2 – New York, United States
Jewish Population – 2,109,300
New York is the most Jewish city outside Israel. With more than two million Jews living in the city, it is the second most Jewish city in the world. New York City is part of New York State, which is the state with the most jews in the United States.

3 – Jerusalem, Israel
Jewish Population – 992,800
Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and the holiest city for Jews is among the top three most Jewish cities in the world. However, Jerusalem is quite diverse. Some 60% of the population is Jewish, whereas 40% of Muslim Palestinians live in the city. However, most recently, this proportion may have been modified significantly because of the ongoing Israel and Palestine conflict.

4 – Haifa, Israel
Jewish Population – 710,600
Haifa is home to more than 700,0000 jews, making it the third most Jewish city in Israel and the fourth most Jewish city in the world. The population of Haifa, although, is heterogeneous when compared to the rest of Israel. While 82% of the population is Jewish, almost 14% are Christians, and 4% are Muslim.

5 – Los Angeles, United States
Jewish Population – 622,480
Los Angeles is one of the top five most Jewish cities in the world. The jews in the city make up almost 17.5 percent of its total population. The Jewish community of Los Angeles is the largest outside Israel and New York. Jewish settlements in Los Angeles can be traced back to the time when it was part of the Mexican State of Alta California, but most of the migration happened at the end of the nineteenth century.

6 – Miami, United States
Jewish Population – 535,500
The first permanent settlement of jews in Miami happened in the late nineteenth century. In the early twentieth century, the first bris, a Jewish ceremony in which a newborn is circumcised, happened in the city. The first Jewish congregation in the city was formed in 1913 by the name of B’nai Zion.

7 – Philadelphia, United States
Jewish Population – 419,850
Jews have lived in Philadelphia since the late seventeenth century, but Jewish traders have operated in the region since at least the mid-seventeenth century. Nathan Levy, a prominent and wealthy Jew of his time, purchased a ground for Jewish burial in 1738. Jews of Philadelphia took a prominent part in the War of Independence, and several Jewish merchants, along with other citizens of Philadelphia signed the Non-Importations resolution.

8 – Paris, France
Jewish Population – 337,600
Paris is home to the largest number of Jews in Europe, making it one of the most Jewish cities. The history of jews and France dates back to the middle ages when it was a center of Jewish learning. However, Jews faced persecution and saw multiple expulsions and returns. It was not until the late 19th century, during the French Revolution, Jews got emancipation in France.

9 – Washington, United States
Jewish Population – 297,290
There are 297,200 Jews in Washington, DC making it one of the top nine most Jewish countries. The Jewish community of the metroplolitan areas of Washington, DC is younger than the national Jewish population. The Jewish community in Washington, DC is also quite diverse. Seven percent of Jews in Washington, DC identify as LGBTQ, and 7% as people of color. 53% of all couples in the household with married or partnered Jews include someone who does not identify as Jewish.

10 – Chicago, United States
Jewish Population – 294,280
Chicago is among the top 10 most Jewish countries. While the Jewish immigrants came to Chicago from several different countries, the most common one of them was Western and Eastern Germany. They arrived at the city soon after its incorporation in 1833. However, the population growth of Jews in Chicago has been moderate, at best, since 2010.

11 – Boston, United States
Jewish Population – 257,460
Boston, a city in Massachusetts, is one of the most Jewish cities in the United States and the world. The Jewish community in Boston is increasing. It has seen an approximate population increase of 4.6% since 2005. One interesting thing to note about Boston’s Jewish community is that there was no significant presence of jews in the city until the mid-nineteenth century.

12 – Be’er Sheva, Israel
Jewish Population – 247,600
Be’er Sheva is a city located in southern Israel. It is the largest city in the Negev desert and houses 247,600 Jews, making it the 12th most Jewish city in the world. Be’er Sheva is also a holy site for Jews because according to their Holy Scriptures, it is the site where Abraham made a covenant with the Philistine King Abimelech.

13 – San Francisco, United States
Jewish Population – 244,00
Although San Fransisco, the financial center of northern California, is currently the 13th largest Jewish city in the world, up until the 19th century, it was home to the second-largest Jewish community in the United States. Currently, the city has a vibrant and active Jewish community. Several synagogues are spread throughout the city, and the Jews are dispersed throughout its metropolitan areas.

14 – London, United Kingdom
Jewish Population – 230,400
London is one of the most Jewish cities in the world, although its Jewish population is quite close to Buenos Aires’ Jewish population. London and its surrounding counties host more than 70% of England’s Jewish population. The history of Jews in London dates back to the eleventh century when the Norman conquest forced Jews to move to England.

15 – Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jewish Population – 230,300
Buenos Aires has the highest Jewish population in Argentina. The country’s Jewish population is the largest in Latin America and the third largest in the American continent. Jewish expulsion from Spain led to the Jewish migration to Argentina in the sixteenth century. Currently, Buenos Aires alone has 230,000 Jews, which is marginally lower than the Jewish population of Be’er sheva.

16 – Netanya, Israel
Jewish Population – 196,300
Netanya is a Mediterranean resort city in central Israel. However, despite being a resort city, it houses one of the largest Jewish populations in the world. The city houses the Museum of Yemenite Jews Heritage, which showcases the culture of Yemenite Jewry. An important thing to note about Netenya’s Jewish community is that approximately half of it is made up of secular Jews.

17 -Toronto, Canada
Jewish Population – 188,710
Toronto has the largest Jewish community in Canada. Nearly one-half of Canada’s Jewish community lives in Toronto, and between 1980 and 2020, an average of 1500 jews immigrated to Canada annually. In addition, more than 90% of Canada’s Jews live in these five provinces: Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Alberta.

18 – Ramat Gan, Israel
Jewish Population – 175,000
Amongst all Israeli cities, Ramat Gan has the lowest Jewish population. Ramat Gan, however, is known as Israel’s greenest city and almost entirely comprised of Jews. It is worth noting that although more recently Ramat Gan is recognized as a city, most people know it as a suburb of Tel Aviv.

19 – Moscow, Russia
Jewish Population – 165,000
Moscow has the most Jews in Russia. The history of Jews in Moscow goes back to the 17th century, but the city became an important Jewish center in the 19th century. However, it is worth noting that currently because of increasing antisemitism in the country, the population of Jews in Moscow is decreasing.

20 – Atlanta, United States
Jewish Population – 119,800
Jews have been a part of Atlanta since the early years of the city’s establishment. However, in the early decades of its settlement, the city’s Jewish community was largely made up of German Jews who migrated to America for a better life. In the nineteenth century, although only 1% of Atlanta’s population was Jewish, they owned more than 10% of its retail businesses. Currently, Atlanta is the 20th most Jewish city in the world.

Posted in Israel, Zionism

US calls Chinese EVs a threat

•February 6, 2024 • Leave a Comment

US calls Chinese EVs a posssible security threat

AsiaTimes • February 1, 2024 // AsiaFinancial

The Biden administration has warned that Chinese electric vehicles can pose a national security threat to the United States as they can collect huge amounts of personal information and may send it overseas.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) is the world’s largest lithium and sodium-ion battery manufacturer for electric vehicles

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said during an Atlantic Council fireside chat on Tuesday that the US should think deeply about whether it wants all the data collected by electric and autonomous vehicles to be sent to China.

She said the information could be about the driver, the location of the vehicle and the surroundings of the vehicle.

Raimondo’s comments came after Bloomberg reported last week that the White House is preparing an executive order to prevent foreign adversaries from accessing “highly sensitive” individual data.

A Commerce Department official said the commerce chief’s comments were unrelated to the executive order. The official said Raimondo is increasingly focused on new technology areas from a national security perspective.

Chinese columnist Ruan Jiaqi on Wednesday criticized Raimondo, accusing her of maliciously defaming China’s EV makers.

Ruan said EVs made by Chinese firms such as BYD have already received strong market responses in Europe and Latin America but not actually entered the US market due to an additional 25% tariff imposed by the Trump administration on Chinese autos in 2019.

Citing a previous comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Ruan said the United States’ protectionism may have violated the World Trade Organization’s most-favored-nation principle and national treatment principle.

She said the US should abide by WTO rules, uphold the trade order to ensure fair competition and provide a fair, just and nondiscriminatory business environment for foreign companies.

In 2022, the US Federal Communications Commission cited national security reasons for banning the sale of communications equipment made by Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE and restricted the use of some China-made video surveillance systems in US critical infrastructure.

Over the past few years, the US has also successfully persuaded its European allies not to use Huawei’s 5G equipment.

“And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, who shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet roundabout; and I will set judgement before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgements.

“And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire” Ezekiel 23:24-25

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

Numbers (1-2)

•February 5, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14;

— these Words, prophecised by Balaam, especially in regards to the house of Jacob, “in the latter days,” are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 1

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses in the Wilderness of Sinai, in the tabernacle of the congregation, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, — in the tabernacle of the congregation;

— which had now been set up a whole month, and out of which the Lord had delivered to Moses the several laws recorded in the preceding book in that space of time, Exodus 40:17;

²“Take ye the number of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by head count — of the children of Israel; so the stranger mixed with them were not numbered;

— the people were divided into twelve tribes, the tribes into great families, Numbers 26:5; these great families into lesser families, called the houses of their fathers, because they were distinguished one from another by their fathers;

³from twenty years old and upward, all who are able to go forth to war in Israel. Thou and Aaron shall number them by their armies. — that are able to go forth to war; it would seem from this that none of the aged and infirm were numbered, as being unable to go to war;

⁴And with you there shall be a man of every tribe, every one head of the house of his fathers. — and with you there shall be a man of every tribe; excepting Levi, of which Moses and Aaron were, to assist in taking the account, and to see that it was an exact and perfect one;

⁵And these are the names of the men who shall stand with you: of the tribe of Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur; — of the tribe of Reuben: or “for Reuben” for the taking the number of men in this tribe; and so of all the rest; Elizur the son of Shedeur; from Numbers 1:5 the names of those several men are given, which were very proper for Moses and Aaron to know;

⁶of Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai; — and the rest, Simeon and Judah, are ranked according to their birth; Levi being omitted, because that tribe was not now numbered, and besides, Moses and Aaron were of it;

⁷of Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab;

⁸of Issachar, Nethaneel the son of Zuar;

⁹of Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon;

¹⁰of the children of Joseph: of Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud, and of Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur;

¹¹of Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni;

¹²of Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai;

¹³of Asher, Pagiel the son of Ocran;

¹⁴of Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel;

¹⁵of Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan.”

¹⁶These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel.

¹⁷And Moses and Aaron took these men who are expressly named.

¹⁸And they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; and they declared their pedigrees according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward by head count.

— and they assembled all the congregation together on the first day of the second month; that is, the month Ijar, or Iyar;

¹⁹As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the Wilderness of Sinai. — as the Lord commanded Moses; the numbering of the people was not an act sinful in itself, as Moses did it by divine appointment; but David incurred guilt by doing it without the authority of God.

²⁰And the children of Reuben, Israel’s eldest son, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by head count every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

²¹those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Reuben, were forty and six thousand and five hundred. — Reuben: 46,500 (Septuagint 46,400)

²²Of the children of Simeon, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, those who were numbered of them, according to the number of the names, by head count every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

²³those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Simeon, were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred. — Simeon: 59,300 (Septuagint 59,300)

²⁴Of the children of Gad, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

²⁵those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Gad, were forty and five thousand six hundred and fifty. — Gad: 45,650 (Septuagint 45,650)

²⁶Of the children of Judah, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

²⁷those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Judah, were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred. — Judah: 74,600 (Septuagint 74,600)

²⁸Of the children of Issachar, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

²⁹those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Issachar, were fifty and four thousand and four hundred. — Issachar: 54,400 (Septuagint 54,400)

³⁰Of the children of Zebulun, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

³¹those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Zebulun, were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred. — Zebulun: 57,400 (Septuagint 57,400)

³²Of the children of Joseph, namely, of the children of Ephraim, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

³³those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Ephraim, were forty thousand and five hundred. — Ephraim: 40,500 (Septuagint 40,500)

³⁴Of the children of Manasseh, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

³⁵those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Manasseh, were thirty and two thousand and two hundred. — Manasseh: 32,200 (Septuagint 32,200)

³⁶Of the children of Benjamin, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

³⁷those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Benjamin, were thirty and five thousand and four hundred. — Benjamin: 35,400 (Septuagint 35,400)

³⁸Of the children of Dan, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

³⁹those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Dan, were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred. — Dan: 62,700 (Septuagint 62,700)

⁴⁰Of the children of Asher, by their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

⁴¹those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Asher, were forty and one thousand and five hundred. — Asher: 41,500 (Septuagint 41,500)

⁴²Of the children of Naphtali, throughout their generations, according to their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war:

⁴³those who were numbered of them, even of the tribe of Naphtali, were fifty and three thousand and four hundred. — Naphtali: 53,400 (Septuagint 53,400)

⁴⁴These are those who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, and the princes of Israel, being twelve men; each one was for the house of his fathers.

⁴⁵So were all those who were numbered of the children of Israel, by the house of their fathers, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go forth to war in Israel,

⁴⁶even all those who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand and five hundred and fifty. — all those registered: 603,550; as given in Exodus 38:26; (Septuagint 603,550)

— all they that were numbered were six hundred thousand; what an astonishing increase from seventy-five persons who went down to Egypt about two hundred fifteen years before;

⁴⁷But the Levites, according to the tribe of their fathers were not numbered among them. — the Levites were not to be numbered as fighting men, as they were assigned other duties on the march. These duties are stated more fully in chapters 3 and 4.

⁴⁸For the Lord had spoken unto Moses, saying,

⁴⁹“Only the tribe of Levi shalt thou not number, neither take the count of them among the children of Israel; — but the Levites were not numbered among them; they were obliged to keep a register of their own.

⁵⁰but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony, and over all the vessels thereof and over all things that belong to it. They shall bear the tabernacle and all the vessels thereof, and they shall minister unto it and shall encamp round about the tabernacle.

— but thou shalt appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of testimony; so called from the ark in it, in which was the law of God, which was a testimony of the will of God to his people: and over all the vessels thereof; the candlestick, table: and altars;

— and shall encamp round about the tabernacle; they were a sort of camp or army of themselves, and their station was around the tabernacle, which was a kind of royal palace to God the King of kings; so that as they were the king’s legion, and to be numbered alone, as they were guards about his palace, and were placed between that and the camp of Israel.

⁵¹And when the tabernacle setteth forward, the Levites shall take it down; and when the tabernacle is to be pitched, the Levites shall set it up; and the stranger who cometh nigh shall be put to death.

— and the stranger that cometh nigh; to meddle with or touch the above things, to assist in taking down or setting up the tabernacle, or bearing any of the vessels;

— shall be put to death; either the sanhedrim or court of judicature shall condemn and put him to death, as the same writer observes; or he shall die by the hand of heaven,

⁵²And the children of Israel shall pitch their tents, every man by his own camp and every man by his own standard, throughout their hosts. — and every man by his own standard throughout their hosts; there were four standards, and three tribes to each standard, which were placed east, west, north, and south of the tabernacle;

⁵³But the Levites shall pitch round about the tabernacle of testimony, that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel; and the Levites shall keep the charge of the tabernacle of testimony.”

— that there be no wrath upon the congregation of the children of Israel; that is, from the Lord, should any of them approach too near, or meddle with and touch what they had nothing to do with, or go where they should not; such wrath as came upon Uzzah for his error and transgression before observed;

⁵⁴And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses; so did they. — so they did; which is repeated to show how readily, punctually, and perfectly they observed the command of God with respect to this affair.

Numbers 2

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: — and the Lord spake unto Moses, and unto Aaron; probably after the number of the children of Israel was taken,

— and when the congregation of Israel with the tabernacle were about to set forward on their journey; and therefore directions are here given for their orderly and regular proceeding in taking up and down with the tabernacle, in what form and manner they should both encamp and march;

²“Every man of the children of Israel shall pitch his tent by his own standard, with the ensign of their father’s house. Far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch.

— far off about the tabernacle of the congregation shall they pitch; that is, at a reverential distance. The place of every tribe is successively and specifically described because each had a certain part assigned both in the order of march and the disposition of the encampment;

³And on the east side toward the rising of the sun shall those of the standard of the camp of Judah pitch throughout their armies; and Nahshon the son of Amminadab shall be captain of the children of Judah.”

— Judah; this tribe was in the first post, and in their marches led the van, not only because it was the most numerous, but they have the sceptre; the Lion of the tribe of Judah;

— one of a series of JUDAH FIRST (1) Movement of the Camp, Numbers 2:3; (2) Judah’s First Day to present Offering, Numbers 7:12; (3) Judah first to cross the Jordan River, Jewish Malbim writing

⁴And his host and those who were numbered of them were threescore and fourteen thousand and six hundred.

⁵“And those who pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar; and Nethaneel the son of Zuar shall be captain of the children of Issachar.”

⁶And his host and those who were numbered thereof were fifty and four thousand and four hundred.

⁷“Then the tribe of Zebulun: and Eliab the son of Helon shall be captain of the children of Zebulun.”

⁸And his host and those who were numbered thereof were fifty and seven thousand and four hundred.

⁹All who were numbered in the camp of Judah were a hundred thousand and fourscore thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. “These shall first set forth.

¹⁰“On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben according to their armies; and the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.” — on the south side the standard of the camp of Reuben; the description given of the position of Reuben and his attendant tribes on the south;

¹¹And his host and those who were numbered thereof were forty and six thousand and five hundred.

¹²“And those who pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon; and the captain of the children of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.”

¹³And his host and those who were numbered of them were fifty and nine thousand and three hundred.

¹⁴“Then the tribe of Gad: and the captain of the sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel.”

¹⁵And his host and those who were numbered of them were forty and five thousand and six hundred and fifty.

¹⁶All who were numbered in the camp of Reuben were a hundred thousand and fifty and one thousand and four hundred and fifty, throughout their armies. “And they shall set forth in the second rank.

¹⁷“Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall go forward with the camp of the Levites in the midst of the camp. As they encamp, so shall they go forward, every man in his place by their standards.

¹⁸“On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim according to their armies; and the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.”

¹⁹And his host and those who were numbered of them were forty thousand and five hundred.

²⁰“And by him shall be the tribe of Manasseh; and the captain of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.”

²¹And his host and those who were numbered of them were thirty and two thousand and two hundred.

²²“Then the tribe of Benjamin: and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni.”

²³And his host and those who were numbered of them were thirty and five thousand and four hundred.

²⁴All who were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were a hundred thousand and eight thousand and a hundred, throughout their armies. “And they shall go forward in the third rank.

²⁵“The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies; and the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.”

— the standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies; to the left of the tabernacle as encamped, and so was the left wing of the grand army; it consisted of the tribes of Dan, Asher, and Naphtali;

²⁶And his host and those who were numbered of them were threescore and two thousand and seven hundred.

²⁷“And those who encamp by him shall be the tribe of Asher; and the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran.”

²⁸And his host and those who were numbered of them were forty and one thousand and five hundred.

²⁹“Then the tribe of Naphtali: and the captain of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan.”

³⁰And his host and those who were numbered of them were fifty and three thousand and four hundred.

³¹All those who were numbered in the camp of Dan were a hundred thousand and fifty and seven thousand and six hundred. “They shall go hindmost with their standards.”

³²These are those who were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers; all those who were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were six hundred and three thousand and five hundred and fifty.

³³But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses. — but the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel; at this time, not among the Israelites, but by themselves, they being a camp of themselves;

³⁴And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses: so they camped by their standards, and so they went forward, every one by their families, according to the house of their fathers.

— so they pitched by their standards; every tribe, and every person in the tribe, as they were ranked, pitched by the standard to which they belonged: and so they set forward.

Posted in Books of Moses

Sequence of Prophecies till the Return of Israel

•February 4, 2024 • Leave a Comment

These are Prophecies of a sequence of Major events that will lead to the Return of the House of Israel, the Northern Lost 10-Tribes, back to the Promise Land that God had promised to Abraham, the land defined as the land between the two rivers.

Speaking to Abraham, God said, which is a PROPHECY:

“I am thy shield! … Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates,” Genesis 15

And second, consider Isaac’s blessing to Esau, an endtime encrypted 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 Targum of Jonathan

Many of the prophecies written in Ezekiel, Isaiah and Jeremiah are tightly encrypted and are not meant to be understood until the latter days.

“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 we shall understand it perfectly,” so says many other versions.

First, in order to establish a rough timeline as a guide, we’ll use the Jewish Calendar.

We’re now in the Hebrew year 5784 AM (AM stands for “Anno Mundi,” Latin for “in the year of Adam and Eve Creation”) which means we’ll need another 215 years (to add to 5999, the eve of the 6000th year) to usher the Divine Plan into the 7th Millennium, from the year 6000.

That means to say: if we add 215 years to the Gregorian calendar year 2024 we’ll come to 2239 when the 7th Millennium starts. It would also be the time of Christ’s return to establish his Kingdom.

Given the above rough framework, here are the Major Prophecies that would lead to Christ’s return to establish his Kingdom at the beginning of the Millennium:

A) Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

The figures used here are from the Septuagint version of the Scriptures instead of from the Masoretic Text because of its better logic and details. Briefly, the house of Israel is to bear his iniquity for 190 years, while the house of Judah is to bear his iniquity for 40 years.

And, according to II Chronicles 36:19-21, the length of Judah’s captivity in Babylon was directly related from the length of time they neglected to observe the land Sabbath. Hence we can deduce that the 190/40 years have something to do with their years of negligence in keeping the land Sabbath.

So let’s jump into a deeper study of Ezekiel 4 (from the Septuagint version)

God speaking to Ezekiel:

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.

— lying on both the left and right side, Ezekiel is representing the two kingdoms as enduring Divine judgement for their iniquities;

— this riddle starts with the lost 10 tribes house of Israel—the left side—the Northern Kingdom and lasts for 150 years; while Judah, the Southern Kingdom, corresponds to “the right side”

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 lost 10 tribes but end with the two houses of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years; after the start of the lost 10 tribes house of Israel that lasted for 150 years, the 3 tribes house of Judah joins in for 40 years;

— both houses ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the year 2232 (I’d give 7 years for the Gog and Magog episode to play out: taking precedence from Nebuchadnezzar who was punished for seven years by having an unsound mind and eating grass; hence 7 years back from 2239 is 2232)

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.

— after the start of the house of Israel, in 2042, that lasted for 150 years, that is, in the year 2192, the house of Judah joins in for the last 40 years; both ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the year 2232 (7 years for Gog and Magog: 7 years from 2239)

⁷ Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

— the logic here is that the 40 years begins with a siege of Jerusalem and of course this represents the modern house of Judah

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.

— “not turn thee from one side to another” is a sign of being in captivity, where freedom of movements “turning left or right” is restricted or even non-existent

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 4:4-9 Septuagint)

— why the difference from the start with the lost 10 tribes and ends with the full House of Israel: 190 years with Israel against 40 years by Judah in captivity? Perhaps (a) Judah had undergone numerous pogroms and cleanings whereas Ephraim and the other tribes has none since the day when they went into the Assyrian captivity and into apparent oblivion;

— (b) the 40 years could be founded in a parallel exile. During their 70 years of exile in Babylon, the house of Judah had evidently failed to observe the land’s one-year-in-seven Sabbath for 490 years, so the term of the Babylonian captivity was set at 70 years to make up the deficit;

— hence the prophecised 40 years of captivity means their failure to keep the land Sabbath for 280 years (40 x 7). From the year 2232 less 280 years is the year 1942, which is around the time of the Holocaust in Germany and the Jews were resettling in the Promised Land ever since from roughly 1918 to 1948.

Working backward 190 years from 2232 will bring us back to the year 2042, a years that could start Ephraim’s (or the lost 10 tribes’) captivity.

So could the year 2042 be the start of the house of Israel’s “iniquity?” — to fulfil “thus shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, whither I will drive them;” Ezekiel 4:13 indicating, perhaps the year 2042, the children of Israel would begin their 190 years of captivity?

It seems so, nevertheless.

And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

“‘Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths” Leviticus 26:33-34

As the length of the house of Judah’s captivity in Babylon was directly related from the length of time they neglected to observe the land Sabbath according to II Chronicles 36:19-21, so would the length for the house of Israel: hence the longer period of 190 years.

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; “spoken by Jeremiah” this is a reference to the seventy years of captivity as spelt out in Jeremiah 25:11.

Hence the length of Israel’s and Judah’s captivities are to correct the years they each had neglected to give their land, in actual fact, God’s land, their respective Sabbathical rest.

For more, see (1) Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years; (2) Ephraim and Manasseh; (3) Jacob prefers Ephraim over Manasseh (4) What is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble?

B) The Sword and Flaming Fire from the South!

The book of Ezekiel is written principally to the house of Israel (Ezekiel 2:3, 3:1,4,5,7,17, 4:3,4,5,13); so who are the enemies of the house of Israel? Being identified here as the United States, United Kingdom and its European allies. To many, Russia or China are the main threats of the United States; but God inspired Ezekiel to say that America’s main enemy will come 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 21:1 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.

⁴Seeing 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,

⁵that 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 mystery, and so the Qs are: how would such scenarios be unpacked? More importantly, Who are these enemies the Prophet Ezekiel identifies coming from the SOUTH, and how would God says He will kindle a fire and the flaming SWORD be played out? The current Russia/Ukraine and China/Taiwan crises are just two major distractions: they are not from the South.

Could Isaiah 34:6 indicate where the Sword comes from? It says:

“The Sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”

Note: the Scripture in Isaiah 34:6 doesn’t say it is the ‘Sword of Edom or Bozrah’ but ‘the Sword of the Lord.’ This ties in with ‘My Sword’ mentioned three times in Ezekiel 20:45-21:5 highlighted above. Isn’t this really significant?

Continuing in Isaiah 34:7, ”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.” — the unicorns symbolise the British while the bulls/bullocks symbolise the United States, and “their land shall be soaked with blood” (for more, see Ephraim and Manasseh).

In Obadiah 1:20 “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 (בִּסְפָרַ֑ד Hebrew 5614) shall possess the cities of the south.” — for the word ‘Sepharad’ Targum of Jonathan renders “Spain” (Rashi quoting the Targum: Sepharad shall inherit the cities of the Southland as Spain); the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain, hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim!

But the most important point is this: that Esau were living South of Judea and Samaria; 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 other Latinos live South of the United States and Canada.

In the latter days, our knowledge would increase, and this would include the knowledge of who the children of Esau are, and the fulfilment of another encrypted prophecy. For more details, a clearer picture emerges from the Targum:

“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 latter-day 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 Jonathan

In brief, 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 other Latin Americans.

And if the prophecy from the Targum above is of significance, then when the children of Israel become evil and stray away from keeping the laws of God, the children of Esau would ravage and massacre the children of Jacob!

For more, see (1) The Sword and Flaming Fire from the South! (2) Obadiah; and (3) What is the Time of Jacob’s Trouble?

C) A Psalm 83 Prophecy

This Psalm 83 prophecy is a biblical Case for a Zionist “Greater Israel” that lies between two Great Rivers!

“I am thy shield” God promised to protect Abraham, and he went on to a greater covenant:

“On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates” Genesis 15:18

The Scriptures above are part of a prophecy speaking of the regathering of the outcasts of Israel from the nations to which they have been scattered; but first, the clearance of the Promised Land.

The Promise Land between two Great Rivers; the Nile and Euphrates

They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.” Psalm 83:4

— the ancient tribes and countries mentioned in Psalm 83 are:

of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagarites (verse 6); Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre (verse 7); Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot (verse 8); the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin at the Brook of Kishon (verse 9); their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb, yea, all their princes as Zebah and as Zalmunna (verse 11);

— notice that these tribes and countries mentioned above are largely the land bound by “between the rivers” that is, within the bound of God’s given land allocated from God to Abraham and then to the full House of Jacob (Genesis 15)

Instead of having the name Israel being cut of being a nation, the land shall be cleared of all the unwanted inhabitants: the ancient Edomites and the Ishmaelites, the Moabites and the Hagarites, the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; and more “between the two great rivers,” the Nile and Euphrates:

“Let them be confounded and troubled for ever; yea, let them be put to shame and perish,” Psalm 83:17 — thus they are put to shame and perish, clearing the land both for the returning house of Judah and the lost house of Israel!

Notice that Iran (or Persia or Elam known by its ancient names) is not “between the two great rivers,” neither is its name mentioned anywhere in Psalm 83.

Iran (or Persia or Elam) is not “between the two great rivers.”

And God says to Ezekiel in Ezekiel 11:16-17 for confirmation:

¹⁶ Therefore say, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.’

¹⁷ Therefore say, ‘Thus saith the Lord God: I will even gather you from the people and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’

For a more detailed analysis, see A Psalm 83 Prophecy!

D) A Greater than the Egyptian “Exodus”

Once the Promised Land (or Holy Land) had been cleared of its unwanted inhabitants of Psalm 83, there shall be plenty of space for new Settlers that had been scattered from the four corners of the earth to re-populate it; thus the restoration of the full House of Israel back to the Promised Land would be better remembered in place of an earlier deliverance from Egypt:

Jeremiah 16:14-15

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

These two verses above, by promising a deliverance greater than that from Egypt, implied also a chastisement more terrible than the bondage in the “iron furnace” there. Instead of their being placed in one land, they were to be scattered into the north and many other countries, followed by a restoration back to the Promised Land finally.

Therefore, Jeremiah, rejoicing at the hope of restoration to come, addressed the Lord as his strength and refuge, repeated the prophecy that their deliverance from it shall be a greater benefit than that originally out of Egypt.

Jeremiah 23:7-8

⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that they shall no more say, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

⁸ but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.” Jeremiah 23:7-8

The children of Israel went out of Egypt as a unified group in the first Exodus, since they all lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt. However, in this second Exodus of the last days, scattered Israel, by virtue of the fact that they have been scattered around the world, will not return to Israel as a single unified group.

But just as this deliverance will exceed the earlier one, so would much the greater will the affliction of Israel in this second Exodus be than the Egyptian bondage had been.

They would return in waves at various times and from various directions.

Many from Judah have already returned to the land of Israel “between the two rivers” since 1918. It is a slow process “in waves” and after over a hundred years, they are still returning, in waves. The same would be for the northern house of Israel.

A parallel Scripture from Ezekiel 36:4; the mountains from the north are identified as: the United States, UK and France; from 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.

Remember, the first Exodus involved the ancient Israelites coming out of Egypt. The prophesies that the second Exodus will involve the last days’ descendants of those ancient Israelites who have been scattered to the four corners of the globe will make the first Exodus fades into insignificance.

For a more detailed analysis, see Another “Out of Egypt” Exodus

E) Ezekiel 37 – Return of the Whole House of Israel

Chapter 37 of Ezekiel contains “the whole house of Israel” (verse 11) a prophecy of both the Jews’ and Israelites’ returning from captivity to their own land; of each of the twelve tribes with one another; their restoration and union are represented by a vision of dry bones made alive.

In Isaiah 8:14 it is expressed as the “two houses of Israel” or “both houses of Israel;” which means the house of Judah could also be expressed as the house of Israel! ~ and depending on context, the house of Israel could only meant the 2-tribes house of Judah as in Ezekiel 8:6,11,12 and Matthew 15:24;

But in Ezekiel 37, it means the end of their 190 and 40 years of bearing Israel’s and Judah’s iniquities in Captivity.

⁴ Again He said unto me, “Prophesy upon these bones and say unto them, ‘O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

⁵ Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. — the word of prophecy from the Lord, indicating, as usual, it it a prophecy and a reference to a future time.

⁶ And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord’” Ezekiel 37:4-6 — God said of these dry bones “and ye shall know that I am the Lord” implying that they never have known God before, despite many claim they were Christians.

— how could they? In today’s world, no less than 99.99 percent of professing Christians don’t even know the basic tenet of understanding the Oracles of God!

Then He said unto me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts.’ Ezekiel 37:11

Hosea 1:11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

— her feast days; to avoid themselves being “judaizing” these “Christians” adopt new understandings and practices:

(a) Christmas, which honors Mithraism – is 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

(b) Easters, a celebration of 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; and

(c) her sabbaths which is Sundays, where the original keepers were the sun-worshipping 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.

Only through chastisement would they repent of their sins; hence the Sword and Flaming Fire from the South serves as their chastisement.

For more, see Ezekiel Ch 37-38

F) The Gog and Magog Prophecy

Once the whole house of Israel “dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob My servant,” securely and at peace, God will deal with the Gentiles, just as he had dealt with Nebuchadnezzar for seven years by having him an unsound mind and eating grass.

And let’s start with Ezekiel 38:

And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

“Son of man, set thy face against Gog, in the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him Ezekiel 38:1-2

— countries involve: Magog, Meshech and Tubal, these are the sons of Japheth; Gomer, and his son, Togarmah; Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish;

— countries that couldn’t learn from what the houses of Israel had gone through will face their own judgement.

And thou shalt come up against My people of Israel as a cloud to cover the land. It shall be in the latter days; and I will bring thee against My land, that the nations may know Me when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Ezekiel 38:16

Those nations that know God when he put Gog through fury trial will be repentant; they “shall shake at My presence” in the right way; those with eyes to see, will see; and understand, “and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Those who continue to resist and have their heart hardened, “there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel,” they will perish like the Pharaoh and his chariots did by ending up being washed away by the waters of the Red Sea.

But in this case Gog and Magog would perish too, by ‘a great shaking’ with hailstones, fire, and brimstone (verse 22) in the land of Israel, and “they shall know that I am the Lord” or else for those who are still unrepentant they would be dead;

And continuing with Ezekiel 39:

⁵ Thou shalt fall upon the open field, for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

⁶ And I will send a fire on Magog and among them that dwell confidently in the isles; and they shall know that I am the Lord.

And the Israelites from both houses would have seven months to happily burying them; “And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land,” Ezekiel 39:12

²¹“And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed and My hand that I have laid upon them.

²²So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.

²³And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity. Because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies; so fell they all by the sword. Ezekiel 39:21-23.

For more, see The Gog and Magog Prophecy

G) Return of the Messiah

From Ezekiel 40 to 48, these are the Millennium chapters, about the rebuilding of the Temple, known as the Ezekiel Temple; and the allocation of land among the twelve tribes. The Ezekiel Temple will be built sacrifices will continue.

But for the purposes of this Study, we’ll focus on Zechariah 14:

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;

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 this day of Judgement, God will gather all the rest of unrepentant nations against Jerusalem to battle, the enemies being recruited from all countries of the world; for judgement;

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 like as when they fought “at the Red Sea.”

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. Zechariah 14:1-4

— 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;

Despite all the chastisements, there would still be some unrependant nations:

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.

— but some would take heed and repent:

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 nations which came against Jerusalem, 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.

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.

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, representative of anyone who still refuses to go up to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, there should have no rain, or the lack of rain would be its plague or infliction; there shall be the plague whereby the Lord will smite the nations that refuse to be received into the Kingdom and take part in its worship.

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.

For more, see (1) Ezekiel 41-42 and (2) Zechariah 14

Posted in Ephraim, Ezekiel Timeline, Israel, Manasseh, Mexico, Southern Border, Spain, UK, US, Zionism

The Sword and Flaming Fire from the South!

•February 3, 2024 • Leave a Comment

In a slip of the tongue, presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said states have the right to ‘make the decisions that their people want to make’ and that if Texas wants to secede ‘they can do that.’

Who are the enemies that will desolate the house of Israel, identified here as the United States? Many believe Russia was and some still believe it is the main threat of the United States.

Others, like warmonger John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, give incredible speeches around the world saying China is the main threat. And accoring to his warmongering pipe dream, America’s next forever war is unfortunately locked in the Russia-Ukraine zone instead of laser-focused against China in North-East Asia or in the South-China Sea.

This China, to warmonger John Mearsheimer, is the main threat, and thus a great opportunity lost! At least Colonel Douglas Macgregor got his foresight on focus!

A Flaming Sword Killing all Flesh from the Forest of 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.’”
⁴⁹Then 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.’

⁶ Sigh therefore, thou son of man, with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes.
⁷ And it shall be, when they say unto thee, ‘Why sighest thou?’ that thou shalt answer, ‘For the tidings, because it cometh; and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water.’ Behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 20:45-21:7)

See some parallel Scriptures: Hosea 5:14, “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.”

Or in Jeremiah 5:6, “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;”

Or Zechariah 13:8-9

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 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.’” Zechariah 13:8-9

Or Habakkuk 1:8 “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 hasteneth to eat.”

The Scriptures above are shrouded in cryptic languages and so the Qs are: how would such scenarios be played out? The current Russia/Ukraine and China/Taiwan arises are just two major distractions, but more importantly, who are these enemies the Prophet Ezekiel identifies coming from the SOUTH, and how would God says He will kindle a fire and “because thou hast despoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall despoil thee?” Habakkuk 2:8

Furthermore, could Isaiah 34:6 indicate where the Sword comes from? It says “the Sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made fat with fatness and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.”

Note: the Scripture in Isaiah 34:6 doesn’t say it is the ‘Sword of Edom or Bozrah’ but ‘the Sword of the Lord.’ This tie in with ‘My Sword’ mentioned three time in Ezekiel 20:45-21:5 highlighted above. Isn’t this really significant?

Continuing in Isaiah 34:7, ”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.” The unicorns symbolise the British while the bulls/bullocks symbolise the United States, and “their land shall be soaked with blood” (for more see Ephraim and Manasseh).

And in Isaiah 63:1 a question was asked, “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?”

In Obadiah 1:20 “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 (בִּסְפָרַ֑ד Hebrew 5614) shall possess the cities of the south.” — for the word ‘Sepharad’ Jonathan renders: Spain (Rashi quoting the Targum: Sepharad shall inherit the cities of the Southland as Spain); the Targums identified Sepharad with Spain, hence, Spanish Jews are called Sephardim!

One Report by McKinsey says of the 60 millions Latinos in the US that had migrated from the South; 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); is this analysis wrong? Am I mistaken? Do feel free to present your opinion; thanks. (Originally under Ezekiel (Ch 21-22)

For a Discussion at Unz Review, click Goodbye America!

The Targum of Jonathan (ChatGPT) Compares to the Masoretic Text

Ezekiel 20:45-48 missing but transfered to chapter 21

Ezekiel 21:1-12 of the Targum of Jonathan translated with comments by ChatGPT

¹ “And the word of prophecy came from before the Lord with me to say:”

This is a typical introduction to a prophetic statement in biblical or post-biblical Hebrew and Aramaic texts, indicating that what follows is a message or command from God.

² “A man received prophecy to go on the way to the south, and he went south, and he prophesied about the forest of the field in the south.”

This passage suggests that a person was divinely instructed to journey southward, where they received a prophecy concerning a specific area, described as a forest in a southern field. The language and structure are similar to prophetic or biblical texts, where directions and locations often carry symbolic meaning.

³ “And you shall say to the forest of the south: Hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will kindle a fire in you, and it will consume every dry tree in you; the flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be scorched by it.”

This passage is in the style of a biblical prophecy, delivering a divine message of judgment or destruction. The imagery of fire consuming the forest and the widespread impact from south to north evokes a sense of impending doom, typical of prophetic warnings in scripture. The reference to “every dry tree” may symbolize those who are spiritually or morally lifeless, while the unquenchable flame suggests the inevitability and totality of the divine judgment.

A Flaming Sword from the Forest of the South to the North!

⁴ “And all flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.”

This statement continues the prophetic declaration, emphasizing the visibility and undeniability of the divine act. The phrase “all flesh” (כָּל בְּנֵי בִסְרָא) indicates that everyone, possibly all humanity, will witness this event. The unquenchable fire represents an irreversible act of divine judgment or purification, leaving no doubt about its divine origin. This language is characteristic of the prophetic literature in the Hebrew Bible, where God’s actions are often portrayed as both powerful and inescapable.

⁵ “And I said, ‘O Lord God, they say to me, “Isn’t he just speaking in parables?”‘”

This passage reflects a response from the prophet, expressing concern or frustration that the people are dismissing his prophetic message as mere parables or symbolic stories rather than taking it seriously. This kind of dialogue between a prophet and God is common in prophetic literature, where the prophet conveys both the divine message and the people’s reaction to it. The skepticism of the people suggests a lack of belief or understanding, which often leads to a deeper explanation or further prophetic discourse.

⁶ “And the word of prophecy came from before the Lord with me to say:”

This introduction signals the beginning of a new prophetic message, indicating that what follows is a divine communication or instruction. This phrase is often used in biblical and prophetic texts to emphasize that the message being delivered is not of human origin but comes directly from God.

⁷ “Son of man, receive prophecy concerning Jerusalem, and go to the sanctuaries, and prophesy concerning the land of Israel.”

This passage is a divine instruction to the “son of man” (a common term used for a prophet, particularly in the Book of Ezekiel), directing him to deliver a prophecy about Jerusalem, the sanctuaries (likely referring to the Temple or holy places), and the land of Israel. The command suggests that the forthcoming prophecy will address significant issues related to these sacred and important locations, likely involving judgment, warning, or instruction. This language is typical of prophetic literature where the prophet is tasked with delivering God’s message to specific people or places.

⁸ “And you shall say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am sending my wrath upon you, and I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.”

This prophetic message conveys a severe judgment from God upon the land of Israel. The imagery of God drawing a sword from its sheath indicates the commencement of divine punishment or warfare. The phrase “cut off from you the righteous and the wicked” suggests that the impending judgment will be comprehensive and indiscriminate, affecting everyone regardless of their moral standing. This reflects the gravity of the situation and the extent of divine displeasure. Such language is common in prophetic texts that deal with themes of judgment, destruction, and the consequences of the people’s actions.

⁹ “Because I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore my sword shall go out from its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north.”

This continuation of the prophecy emphasizes the comprehensive nature of the divine judgment. The reason given for this judgment is the removal of both the righteous and the wicked, which suggests that the entire population will face consequences. The phrase “my sword shall go out from its sheath against all flesh” indicates a widespread and unavoidable judgment that will affect everyone, spanning the entire land “from the south to the north.” This type of language underscores the totality and severity of the divine action being foretold.

¹⁰ “And all the children of Israel shall know that I, the Lord, have drawn my sword from its sheath; it shall not return anymore.”

This passage conveys a clear message of finality and inevitability regarding the divine judgment. It indicates that once God has initiated this judgment (“drawn my sword from its sheath”), it will not be reversed or stopped. The phrase “it shall not return anymore” underscores the permanence of the decision, implying that the consequences will be severe and unalterable. This kind of language is intended to emphasize the seriousness of the situation and the certainty of the divine action being described.

¹¹ “But you, son of man, groan with bitter anguish and mourn with bitterness before their eyes.”

This directive instructs the prophet to express profound grief and sorrow openly. The language of “groan with bitter anguish” and “mourn with bitterness” suggests a deep emotional response to the impending judgment or disaster that is about to befall the people. The phrase “before their eyes” indicates that this expression of grief should be visible and public, likely to convey the seriousness of the situation and to reflect the prophet’s own deep concern for the fate of the people.

¹² “And when they say to you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the report that is coming, and every heart will melt, and every hand will be slack, and every spirit will faint, and all loins will be weak.’ This is because the report is coming, and thus says the Lord God.”

This passage describes a response the prophet is to give when questioned about his visible mourning. The message is that the coming calamity will cause widespread fear and despair. The description of melting hearts, slack hands, faint spirits, and weak loins conveys the intense psychological and physical impact of the impending disaster on the people. This response aims to make the seriousness of the situation clear and underscore the gravity of the prophecy.

Posted in Ephraim, Esau, Ezekiel, Ezekiel Timeline, Latin Americas

Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

•February 2, 2024 • Leave a Comment

God says in Isaiah 46:9 “Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is none other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure,’” Isaiah 46:9-10.

A clue for this Ezekiel Timeline – 390/40 Years could be found in a parallel exile. Israel had evidently failed to observe the land’s one-year-in-seven Sabbath for 490 years, so the term of the Babylonian captivity was set at 70 years to make up the deficit.

But let’s consider an earlier warning:

And I will scatter you among the nations, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste.

“‘Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths” Leviticus 26:33-34

God says when ye entered my land you defiled it by not giving its Sabbath rest; where this commandment is given in Leviticus 25:4; “Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; but in the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of Rest unto the land, a Sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard” Leviticus 25:1-7;

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: “spoken by Jeremiah” this is a reference to the seventy years of captivity as spelt out in Jeremiah 25:11.

From the above, it could be established that the length of captivity has something to do with Israel’s neglect in their observance of the Sabbath, and in this case the observance of the land Sabbath; for more on understanding the coming 390 years of Israel’s captivity and 40 years for Judah,

God works out the end from the beginning and our endeavour is to understand how are the numbers work out. God gives some clues and hints here and there and the most puzzling of this Ezekiel Timeline – 390/40 Years which is one found in Ezekiel 4.

Some attempts have been made on this 390/40 mystery years ago but there are many additions since the original postings of Ezekiel Ch 3-4 and Ezekiel 4 – 390/40 Years, hence this update. I’ve always been wondering if there are any thoughts to the contrary? Any other possibilities? And so my constant updates.

Ezekiel 4

It has been proven in numerous times that the Septuagint is more accurate than the Masoretic Text. (For more on this issue, click here Lies about the Septuagint)

Hence below is the Septuagint (and Arabic) version and putting all the numbers (in Ezekiel 4:5 & 4:9 LXX reads 190; in Ezekiel 4:4 the reading is 150) together is a far more possible explanation to the mystery of the 390/190/150/40 years which has puzzled theologians, pastors and academics in Ezekiel 4:

Ezekiel 4 (Septuagint)

God speaking to Ezekiel:

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. — this riddle starts with the Lost Ten Tribes House of Israel—the left side—the Northern Kingdom and lasts for 150 years; while Judah, the Southern Kingdom, answers to “the right side”

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 Lost 10 Tribes but end with the full House of Israel; all 12 tribes: end of the 190 years; after the start of the Lost 10 Tribes House of Israel that lasted for 150 years, the 3 tribes House of Judah join in for 40 years; both ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the year 2232 (I’d give 7 years for the Gog and Magog episode: hence 7 years back from 2239)

⁶And 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. — after the start of the house of Israel in 2042, that lasted for 150 years, the house of Judah joins in for the last 40 years; both ending at the end of the 190 years; that is, the year 2232 (7 years for Gog and Magog: 7 years from 2239)

⁷ Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem; and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it. — the logic here is that the 40 years is a siege of Jerusalem and of course this represents the modern house of Judah

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. — “not turn thee from one side to another” is a sign of being in captivity, where freedom of turning left or right is restricted or even non-existent

⁹Take 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 4:4-9 Septuagint) — from the start with the Lost 10 Tribes and ends with the full House of Israel: 190 years in captivity: why the difference? Perhaps Judah had undergo numerous pogroms and cleanings whereas Ephraim and the other tribes has none since the day when they went the Assyrian captivity and into apparent oblivion

Bishop Ussher had famously calculated the date of creation to be 4004 BC, and if so the end of the 6000 years would have ended in 1994; but it is wrong as such date had fallen off the cliff almost three decades ago.

We’ll hence use the Jewish Calendar. We’re now in the Hebrew year 5783 AM; (AM stands for “Anno Mundi,” Latin for “in the year of Adam and Eve Creation”) and we’ll need another 216 years (add to 5999, the eve of the 6000th year) to usher the Divine Plan into the 7th Millennium (from the year 6000) as we believe.

Of course, this is on the assumption that God’s oracles have been accurately kept since the day Adam was created as the Orthodox custodians claim; since the Jewish Calendar has been accepted by all forms of Judaism and is standard for Asheknazim, Sephardim and Mizrachim.

If we add 216 years to the Gregorian calendar year 2023 we’ll come to 2239 when the 7th Millennium starts. Working backward 190 years (and 7 years for Gog and Magog ) will bring us to the year 2042. Thence could the year 2042 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;” Ezekiel 4:13 in captivity to start the 190 years. It seems so, nevertheless.

In Ezekiel 37, the 190 years should end with the appearance of “My servant David,” in the “valley full of dry bones” scenario where the full house of Israel would dwell securely rather than in captivity. Judgement often comes after a period of seven years as the dynamic of the number seven is interwoven throughout the Bible.

Jacob served Laban seven years for Leah and another seven for Rachel. Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream of seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. In Psalms 12:6 the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace purified seven times.

As for punishment for the Gentiles, one prominent example was Nebuchadnezzar, who was punished for seven years by having an unsound mind and eating grass. And if this seven year period applies to the punishment of Gentiles involving “Gog and all his multitude” (Ezekiel 38-40) there will be a seven years interval before the beginning of the Millennium.

If so, the end of the 190 years would be brought forward seven years, which would be the year 2232, and the start of the 190 years would be 2042; but we couldn’t know for sure the period from Ezekiel 37 to Ezekiel 40 is seven years, hence these figures are subject to adjustments.

On reflection the children of Israel were in Egypt for about 210 years, so not as long; 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.

One Question that comes to mind is, “Why the iniquity for Israel is much longer than 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 millennium whereas the house of Israel have remained largely unscatched since their captivity was only once by the Assyrians.

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)

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 still in exile from its Promised Land. It would take decades for adverse conditions to build up for the whole house of Israel to want to return back into 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.

Third, forty years for the house of Judah rhymes a few parallels (a) when the children of Israel rejected Joshua’s and Caleb’s suggestion to take the land immediately, they were punished by wandering in the wilderness for forty years, Numbers 14:33; (b) when the children of Israel rejected God’s judgement under the rule of the judges, God abandoned them and subjected them under the Philistines for forty years, Judges 13:1.

For the Lord had said “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities” Amos 3:2. Notice the sweetness and bitterness composite message above!

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 your thoughts.

For more, see a possible scenario how such a scene could come about: A Sword from the South!

Posted in Ezekiel, Ezekiel Timeline, Jacob's Trouble, Manasseh, Septuagint, Time of the Gentiles, UK, US

Another “Out of Egypt” Exodus

•February 1, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Because of a rebellious heart and a stiff neck, Israel was cast out, and had gone about worshipping other gods, their shepherd seeing false visions and had never returned.

Then say thou to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and served them, and worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and not kept my law; Jeremiah 16:12.

And ye did yet worse than your fathers; and behold, ye walk each after the stubbornness of your evil heart, hearkening not unto me. Jeremiah 16:13.

Therefore I cast you out of this land into the land which he know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there may ye serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no favour. Thus the House of Israel was exiled in 712 BC; and had never returned.

The prophesies of another Exodus will involve the last days’ descendants of those ancient Israelites who have been scattered to the four corners of the globe which will make the first Exodus fades into insignificance

The restoration of the full House of Israel back to the promised land would be remembered in place of the deliverance from Egypt; the consolation is incidental here.

The prominent thought is the severity of their punishment, so great that their rescue from it will be that their Exodus from Egypt would be of no comparison; especially after being chastised by the Sword and Flaming Fire from the South!

Jeremiah 16:14-15

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

These two verses above, by promising a deliverance greater than that from Egypt, implied also a chastisement more terrible than the bondage in the iron furnace there. Instead of their being placed in one land, there was to be a scattering into the north and many other countries—because they have defiled My land—followed finally by a restoration.

Therefore, the prophet, Jeremiah, rejoicing at the hope of restoration to come, addressed the Lord as his strength and refuge, repeated the prophecy that their deliverance from it shall be a greater benefit than that originally out of Egypt.

Jeremiah 23:7-8

⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that they shall no more say, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

⁸ but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.” Jeremiah 23:7-8

The children of Israel went out of Egypt as a unified group in the first Exodus, since they all lived in the land of Goshen in Egypt.

But just as this deliverance will exceed the earlier one, so would much the greater will the affliction of Israel in this second Exodus be than the Egyptian bondage had been. “For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in My house have I found their wickedness,” saith the Lord, Jeremiah 23:11.

However, in this second Exodus of the last days, scattered Israel, by virtue of the fact that they have been scattered around the world, will not return to Israel as a single unified group. They will likely return in waves at various times from various places.

¹⁶ “Behold, I will send for many fishers,” saith the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

¹⁷ For Mine eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes.

¹⁸ And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled My land; they have filled Mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.” Jeremiah 16:16-18

Many from Judah have already returned to the land of Israel since 1918. One hundred years later the House of Judah are still returning; but the House of Israel has not return, but they have 190 years ahead of them to return.

Currently, they are blind, their shepherd prophesy false dreams; they couldn’t see their shepherd “for I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err” Jeremiah 23:13.

But when they are chastised, they will remember their forefathers’covenent with God; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And they will recall that the first Exodus involved the ancient Israelites coming out of Egypt;

But the prophesies of another second Exodus involving the last days’ descendants of those ancient Israelites who have been scattered to the four corners of the globe will make the Egyptian Exodus fades into insignificance:

“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,’ Jeremiah 16:14

Then from the “four corners of the globe” their eyes will be opened; and the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, and “Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely.”

Posted in Ephraim, Ezekiel Timeline, Jeremiah

‘Extremely Dangerous’ Texas Civil War?

•January 31, 2024 • Leave a Comment

‘Extremely Dangerous’: Texas Border Battle Portends Growing US Dysfunction, Civil War?

Sputnik International • January 27, 2024 // VICE News

The fight over states’ rights versus the power of the US federal government hearkens back to the country’s 19th-century Civil War.

Border Standoff Escalates Into Constitutional Crisis After Biden Messes With Texas

Activist Anthony Rogers-Wright joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits program Friday to discuss the escalating border standoff between Texas and the US federal government, a dispute that strikes at long standing controversies at the core of the country’s system of governance.“

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said he’s just not going to comply with the order from the Biden administration to let federal Border Patrol agents access this state park, Shelby Park, on the Rio Grande,” noted host Michelle Witte, “where Texas is undertaking its own efforts to block migrants from crossing in defiance of federal law.”

Witte noted that Texas officials have apparently chosen to ignore Supreme Court orders governing the conduct of Texas National Guardsmen, employing highly emotional language claiming the state is defending against an “invasion” of migrants at the border.“

This is extremely dangerous,” said Rogers-Wright, a spokesman for the coalition Movement for Black Lives, adding that US President Joe Biden is “showing a very craven approach to this.”

“We already have a dysfunctional Supreme Court,” said Rogers-Wright, a view shared by most Americans as voters’ approval of the institution sinks to just 41%. “It seems like governmental trickle down dysfunction is working just fine here.”

‘Extremely Dangerous’: Texas Border Battle Portends Civil War?

The activist slammed Biden’s response to the crisis, suggesting Republican candidate Donald Trump is more effectively “demonstrating leadership” through his unyielding stance on the issue.

“Joe Biden is blowing it right now with a constituency that he’s not polling very well with and essentially what he’s doing is kicking the can down the road,” he added, decrying the consequences of “macho men with guns getting into a heated debate in a country that already has a gun violence problem.”

“If one skirmish like that happens, oh my goodness, what would happen after that, like, nobody knows,” said Rogers-Wright. “Joe Biden’s got to step up and get a handle on this immediately. It’s not something that you can send Blinken to do your bidding. You got to step up now, get your butt on Air Force One, go down to Texas and handle this.”

Texas is often seen as among the most independent-minded states in the US, previously existing as a self-governing republic from 1836 until 1846.

Protest Convoy Headed to Southern Border Is Calling Itself an ‘Army of God’

Texan politicians occasionally raise the prospect of seceding from the United States. Similar efforts are sometimes proposed in California, and the former husband of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin previously held membership in the local Alaskan Independence Party.

Secession efforts in the US have never gained widespread support in modern times but the issue reverberates on a deep level as states often chafe at orders from the federal government.

“Biden has to get control of it, not just because of the humanitarian aspect of it, but this is a constitutional crisis right in front of us right now,” said Rogers-Wright. “We haven’t really seen anything like this since the era of Jim Crow where governors were just saying… ‘I don’t care what you’re saying.’ Even Eisenhower, with Little Rock, tapped into the National Guard to protect these young Black students.”

Political polarization remains at an all-time high in the United States, a reality perhaps best demonstrated by the controversy over riots at the US Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

As controversy remains over the disputed role of federal and state authorities in Texas observers fear tensions could boil over into a violent event, particularly if federal and state troops are forced to interact.

“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Deuteronomy 28:28-29

“I create darkness; I create evil; I, the LORD, do all these things” Isaiah 45:7

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword” Matthew 10:34

Posted in Texas, US

Alaska: an Occupied Territory?

•January 30, 2024 • Leave a Comment

In January 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that the 1867 sale of Alaska to the United States was “illegal.”

MSN news •

In 1867, the United States bought Alaska from the Russian Empire, significantly expanding its territory. Fast forward to January 2024: Amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and US support for Ukraine, a rumor surfaced online.

It claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the 1867 sale of Alaska “illegal.” For instance, one Reddit post on the topic read, “Putin stokes tensions with US, declares 1867 sale of Alaska ‘illegal.'”

Moreover, social media users shared an alleged document signed by Putin, claiming that the sale of Alaska was not legitimate. “Putin signed an order insinuating the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867 was illegitimate. This mofo is trolling the West and our leaders shake in their boots in response,” a post on X with the alleged official document read.

We found that the rumor was also spread on TikTok. Our research indicated that the rumor originated from an article published on Jan. 21, 2024, by essanews.com website with the title, “Putin stokes tensions with US, declares 1867 sale of Alaska ‘illegal.'” It read:

Interestingly, Vladimir Putin appears to have rethought the sale of Alaska to the Americans. It’s not a joke: he’s trying to give the impression that his influence extends not only to his country’s future events but also plans to rewrite the past. Therefore, he signed a decree rendering the sale of Alaska illegal.

It is true that on Jan. 18, 2024, Putin signed a decree pertaining to the management of Russian Federation property abroad. A copy of it was shared on an official website of the Russian government, labeled as follows (we translated it using Google Translate):

Order of the President of the Russian Federation dated January 18, 2024 No. 21-rp

(On determining the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Enterprise for Property Management Abroad” of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation as the recipient of a subsidy for financial support of costs)

We used Google Translate to ascertain what the decree itself stated, in English:

The document did not, according to this translation, mention Alaska at any point, or state that Alaska or any other territory formerly owned by Russia was sold “illegally.”

On Jan. 19, 2024, the Russian state-owned news agency TASS published a report on the decree, titled, “Russia to allocate funds for search of Soviet, Imperial Russian property abroad.” It informed that Russia would allocate funds for an effort to “find, register and ensure legal protection of Russia’s property abroad, including property of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.” The article continued (emphasis ours):

A relevant decree, signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, will allocate funds for the purpose to the Department of Foreign Property of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation.

The funds will be allocated to cover expenses related to “the process of searching the real estate property owned by the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire, the former USSR,” as well as for “due registration of [property] rights” and “legal protection of this property.”

Another decree allocates funds to cover the department’s expenses for maintaining and using Russia’s federal property abroad.

Again, the TASS article did not mention any reference to Alaska in the decree.

The Institute for the Study of War, a nonprofit research group and think tank, underscored that, “The Kremlin may use the ‘protection’ of its claimed property in countries outside of its internationally recognized borders to forward soft power mechanisms in post-Soviet and neighboring states ultimately aimed at internal destabilization.”

In other words, the organization argues that Putin could use the excuse of protecting Russia’s properties abroad to spread its influence and cause unrest in nearby countries.

In sum, given that the decree signed by Putin did not declare that the 1867 sale of Alaska was “illegal” — or indeed mention Alaska at all — we have rated this claim as False.

“The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet” Isaiah 28:3

“Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be,” Hosea 5:9

“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

Posted in Alaska, Russia, US

Where are the US laser weapons?

•January 29, 2024 • Leave a Comment

US laser weapon program hits a glaring blind spot; how to sustain America’s next never ending war using Standard SM-2 $2,000,000 missiles to shoot down $2000 Houthis drones?

AsiaTimes • January 20, 2024

While broadly touted as the future of shipboard point and missile defense, laser weapons have been glaringly absent in the US-led coalition strikes against Iranian-supplied drones and missiles used by Houthi forces in Yemen to attack commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea.

This month, Breaking Defense reported that Rear Admiral Fred Pyle, the US Navy’s director of surface warfare requirements, has expressed frustration with the current pace of laser weapon system development.

Pyle believes that the US Navy and American defense industry need to be more intellectually honest about what is possible with laser weapons, noting a tendency by both to overpromise and underdeliver.

How to sustain America’s next never ending war using Standard SM-2 $2,000,000 missiles to shoot down $2000 Houthis drones?

Breaking Defense notes that the US Navy has sought to develop a capability that would enable a sailor underway to fire a laser that knocks down an enemy drone or takes out a small boat.

The report mentions Lockheed Martin’s experimental HELIOS laser aboard the USS Preble (DDG-88) as an example of a project that aims to bring the concept closer to real-world applications.

However, the source notes that Vice Admiral Brendan McLane, the US Navy’s top surface warfare officer, has expressed frustrations with the navy’s current pace of laser weapon system development, emphasizing that laser weapons must deliver on their promise of negligible cost per shot.

Pyle said that laser weapons need physical, weight, power and cooling space that may be unavailable to current US surface combatants. The report also quotes Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro expressing concerns that laser weapon development has taken a long time to bear results.

While currently available US shipboard air defense weapons are effective, their high cost per shot and limited magazine depth raise significant cost and survivability concerns.

Lara Seligman and Matt Berg mention in a December 2023 Politico article that the US Navy has used Standard SM-2 missiles costing US$2.1 million in the Red Sea to destroy Houthi drones worth just $2,000, raising concerns about the cost-effectiveness and unsustainability of this kind of warfare.

Seligman and Berg note that while US destroyers can use their five-inch guns with airburst rounds for anti-drone defense, they can only hit targets ten nautical miles away, which may be dangerously close.

While they say that US destroyers can use Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles to hit targets closer than five nautical miles, the missiles cost around US$1.8 million per shot.

Seligman and Berg point out that US destroyers’ last line of defense, the 20-millimeter Phalanx Close-in Weapons System (CIWS), can hit targets inside one nautical mile, but the closer the drone gets to the target, the higher the chances of a successful strike.

How to sustain America’s next forever war using Standard SM-2 $2,000,000 missiles to shoot down $2000 Houthis drones?

Given that high cost-per-shot ratio, the problems would undoubtedly be magnified if the US gets into a conflict with China over Taiwan, with China having much greater production capabilities and advanced drones and missiles than the Houthis in Yemen.

US laser weapon development is thus seemingly caught in limbo due to various unresolved practical and technological issues.

A December 2023 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) report notes that proponents of high-powered military lasers have made various predictions about when these weapons would be fielded that have repeatedly passed unrealized.

Laser weapon proponents cited by CRS say that the situation has changed due to advancements in solid-state laser (SSL) technology and the adoption of more realistic goals, including the use of kilowatt-power lasers for point defense instead of megawatt-power lasers for ballistic missile defense.

They say that skeptics may be prematurely abandoning the development of laser weapons due to past setbacks, despite steady and hopeful technological progress.

A separate August 2023 CRS report mentions that laser weapon development programs have been plagued by technological maturity issues related to improving beam quality and control, failure to deliver specialized facilities to maintain sensitive components and the lack of a defense industrial base to produce the weapons at economy of scale.

While the US Navy has positioned laser weapons on a few of its warships, it’s not clear if it has a strategic plan or timeline for widespread adoption of the technology.

Jared Keller notes in a January 2023 article for Task and Purpose that the US Navy has seven Optical Dazzling Interdictor Navy (ODIN) systems and one HELIOS laser.

Keller notes that while the navy is pushing to field laser weapons on surface warships as soon as possible it has at the same called for further at-sea testing of the HELIOS laser.

This month, Asia Times noted that the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyers have already maxed out their upgrade potential, with internal space constraints limiting the installation of new power generation systems. That, in turn, means there is a lack of space for future sensors, communications and weapons systems.

Keller notes that Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers may not be able to accommodate laser weapons, as most of its electric power is directed to its installed AN/SPY-6 Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). That means the Arleigh Burke Mod 2.0 may be the platform of choice for laser weapons integration until the new DDG(X) design begins production in 2032.

Sebastien Roblin mentions in a Popular Mechanics article this month that the US Navy plans to upgrade 20 Arleigh Burke Flight IIA destroyers, which first entered service between 1998 and 2010, for US$850 million per ship, with each refit reportedly taking about 1.5 to 2 years.

However, Roblin points out that the Arleigh Burke Mod 2.0 upgrade program may suffer the same fate as the troubled attempts to upgrade aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers, where cost overruns and delays have hobbled full upgrades.

Roblin notes that as the US Navy has upgraded its Arleigh Burkes over the last four decades, the design is running out of free space for future upgrades including laser weapons.

“The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet” Isaiah 28:3

“Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be,” Hosea 5:9

“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

Posted in Houthis, US

Leviticus (27)

•January 28, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 27

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: ‘When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be for the Lord by thy estimation. — shall make a singular vow; that is, shall consecrate a vow; the form of the vow is nowhere given in the Bible; hence, many other points of detail, the wording of it was left to the administrators of the law;

— Samuel, who was thus vowed to God, was not redeemed, because he was a Levite but not of the priesthood, and designed by his parents to be lent to the Lord as long as he lived, (1 Samuel 1:28).

³And thy estimation shall be of the male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy valuation shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary. — from twenty years old even unto sixty years old; the estimation not only begins with the male, who is the most important person, but takes special notice of his age;

— the years here represent the prime of his life, and he is to be rated not according to his rank or position, but according to the value of his services.

⁴And if it be a female, then thy valuation shall be thirty shekels. — and if it be a female, thirty shekels; as the woman is the weaker vessel, and her labour is of less value, if she vows herself or dedicates by a vow any other one of her own sex to the sanctuary, she is to pay thirty shekels;

⁵And if it be from five years old even unto twenty years old then thy valuation shall be for the male twenty shekels and for the female ten shekels.

⁶And if it be from a month old even unto five years old, then thy valuation shall be for the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

⁷And if it be from sixty years old and above, if it be a male, then thy valuation shall be fifteen shekels and for the female ten shekels.

⁸But if he be poorer than thy valuation, then he shall present himself before the priest and the priest shall value him; according to his ability who vowed shall the priest value him. — a discretion is left with the priest to lower these valuations in case the man who has made the vow is very poor;

⁹“‘And if it be a beast whereof men bring an offering unto the Lord, all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy. — all that any man giveth of such unto the Lord shall be holy; shall be set apart to sacred uses, either were for the use of the altar or of the priests;

¹⁰He shall not alter it nor change it, a good for a bad or a bad for a good; and if he shall at all change beast for beast, then it and the exchange thereof shall be holy. — he shall not alter it, nor change it; the identical animal vowed is to be delivered; no change whatever, even if it is in the substitution of a better for an inferior animal, is permitted.

¹¹And if it be any unclean beast, which they do not offer as a sacrifice unto the Lord, then he shall present the beast before the priest. — then he shall present the beast before the priest; to be viewed, examined, and judged of as to its worth, and a value put upon it, that it might be sold or redeemed;

¹²And the priest shall value it, whether it be good or bad; as thou, who art the priest, valuest it, so shall it be. — whether it be good or bad; that is, the priest shall estimate its value according to the condition of the animal, whatever that may be, whether it is of good quality or bad.

¹³But if he will at all redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy valuation. — he shall add a fifth part; whilst anyone else could purchase the animal at the valuation put upon it by the priest, its former owner is to pay a fifth more than the valuation price.

¹⁴“‘And when a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the Lord, then the priest shall evaluate it, whether it be good or bad; as the priest shall evaluate it, so shall it stand. — and when a man shall sanctify his house; that is, devotes it to the service of God by a vow;

— when it has to be sold and the money used by the authorities for the maintenance and repair of the sanctuary, unless it is required as a dwelling for the priests, or for some other purpose connected with the duties of the Temple.

¹⁵And if he that sanctified it will redeem his house, then he shall add a fifth part of the money of thy valuation unto it, and it shall be his. — then he shall add the fifth part of the money of thy estimation unto it, and it shall be his; that is, he was to give a fifth part more for the house than it was valued at by the priest;

¹⁶“‘And if a man shall sanctify unto the Lord some part of a field of his possession, then thy valuation shall be according to the seed thereof: a homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. — an homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver; that is, if the piece of land which he vowed could properly be cropped with one homer, or five bushels and a half of barley seed;

¹⁷If he sanctify his field from the Year of Jubilee, according to thy valuation it shall stand. — if he sanctify his field from the year of jubilee; that is, the above-named valuation of fifty shekels only applies if he makes the vow immediately after the expiration of the year of jubilee, when the period covered by this estimation is forty-nine years.

¹⁸But if he sanctify his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall reckon unto him the money according to the years that remain, even unto the Year of the Jubilee, and it shall be abated from thy valuation. — but if he sanctify his field after the jubilee; if, however, the vow is made after the jubilee, the priest is to value the field according to the number of years from the time of the vow to the next jubilee year.

¹⁹And if he that sanctified the field will in any wise redeem it, then he shall add a fifth part of the money of thy valuation unto it, and it shall be assured to him. — the rule here included his wife and his heirs, any one of whom had the right to redeem it; but the family in redeeming it had, as usual, to add one-fifth over and above the valuation price, for the reason already stated.

²⁰And if he will not redeem the field or if he have sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemed any more. — and if he will not redeem the field; that is, if after all the advantages which the law affords to the vower to redeem his patrimonial inheritance before the jubile year, he is base enough to forego the privilege of redemption, thus showing no desire to perpetuate his family name;

²¹But the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee, shall be holy unto the Lord, as a field devoted; the possession thereof shall be the priest’s. — but the field, when it goeth out in the jubilee; that is, when it quits the hand of the purchaser, since in jubilee every buyer was to part with the land which he bought; —

²²And if a man sanctify unto the Lord a field which he hath bought, which is not of the fields of his possession, — and if a man sanctify unto the Lord a field which he hath bought; but if a man vows a field which he has acquired by purchase, and which is only his till the next jubile, when it reverts to its original owner;

²³then the priest shall reckon unto him the worth of thy valuation, even unto the Year of the Jubilee; and he shall give thy valuation on that day as a holy thing unto the Lord. — in this case, the priest is to value it in proportion to the number of crops which it will produce up to the year of jubilee, in the same way as fields are valued in ordinary purchases.

²⁴In the Year of the Jubilee the field shall return unto him from whom it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of the land did belong. — in the Year of the Jubilee, the field thus vowed did not return to the purchaser in the year of jubile, but to the, hereditary owner, of whom the person who had vowed it to the Lord had bought it.

²⁵And all thy valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs shall be the shekel. — according to the shekel of the sanctuary; as the proceeds of these vows were devoted to the maintenance and repair of the sanctuary, all the valuations are to be made and paid according to the standard weight of the sanctuary shekel.

²⁶“‘Only the firstborn of the beasts, which should be the Lord’S firstling, no man shall sanctify it; whether it be ox or sheep, it is the Lord’S. — no man shall sanctify it, to wit, by vow; because it is not his own, but the Lord’s already;

— that which is born as a firstling to the Lord, that is, one which, by virtue of its being a firstling, and by its very birth, is the property of the Lord.

²⁷And if it is of an unclean beast, then he shall redeem it according to thy valuation and shall add a fifth part of it thereto; or if it be not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to thy valuation. — if it be not redeemed; by him, he does not choose to give the price, and the fifth part;

— then it shall be sold according to thy estimation; to another man, without the fifth part, that chooses to purchase it, and then the purchase money was laid out for sacred uses.

²⁸“‘Notwithstanding, no devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord. — things or persons devoted, are distinguished from things or persons that were only sanctified; devoted things were most holy to the Lord, and could neither be taken back nor applied to other purposes;

— from MSG

“But nothing that a man irrevocably devotes to God from what belongs to him, whether human or animal or family land, may be either sold or bought back. Everything devoted is holy to the highest degree; it’s God’s inalienable property” Leviticus 27:28 MSG

²⁹None devoted, which shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. — devoted thing; something cut off, cut off from common use and given up in some sense to the Lord, without the right to be redeemed; neither by price nor estimation;

³⁰“‘And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’S; it is holy unto the Lord. — and all the tithe of the land; of which there were various sorts, the first tithe, the tithe out of the tithe, the second tithe, and the poor’s tithe, which are generally reduced to three;

³¹And if a man will at all redeem aught of his tithes, he shall add thereto a fifth part thereof. — and if a man wishes to redeem; if he wishes he may redeem them by adding one-fifth to the actual value.

³²And concerning the tithe of the herd or of the flock, even of whatsoever passeth under the rod, a tenth shall be holy unto the Lord. — whatsoever passeth under the rod; this alludes to the mode of taking the tithe of cattle, which were made to pass singly through a narrow gateway, where a person with a rod, dipped in ochre, stood, and counting them, marked the back of every tenth beast, whether male or female, sound or unsound.

³³He shall not search whether it be good or bad, neither shall he change it; and if he change it at all, then both it and the change thereof shall be holy; it shall not be redeemed.’” — he shall not search whether it be good or bad; that is, the owner is not to pick out the good ones from the bad, but, as described above, is to mark every tenth one as it comes out of the fold as belonging to the Lord.

³⁴These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. — these are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses; either what are contained in this chapter, or rather in the whole book, which he delivered to Moses; for the children of Israel; to be observed by them, priests and people: and these were given to him.

Posted in Books of Moses

‘We’re being sold a false choice on war’

•January 27, 2024 • Leave a Comment

‘We’re being sold a false choice on war’

Pearls and Irritations by Sue Wareham • January 24, 2024

Australia has just taken another step, as part of the AUKUS agreement with the US and the UK, that is leading us towards an event that should be unthinkable – involvement in a major war against China.

On Tuesday 16 January, Acting Defence Minister Pat Conroy announced a $37 million contract with Lockheed Martin Australia to begin the manufacturing in Australia in 2025 of GMLRS (Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System) rockets, which have a range of around 70 kilometres.

Australia will also purchase the longer range (over 500 kilometres) Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM), and will join the development program to extend their range to around 1000 kilometres in the future.

“Pentagon’s drive for dominance in military technology “will consume an ever- increasing share of this country’s wealth and scientific talent”

Lockheed Martin Australia’s parent company, Lockheed Martin, is the world’s biggest weapons maker, 90% of its revenue coming from weapons sales. Like other weapons companies, Lockheed Martin relies on wars and threats of wars for its existence.

Its stocks rose almost immediately after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israeli civilians, its fighter jets being among those that are currently destroying Gaza. The company has profited greatly from the wars in Ukraine and Afghanistan and elsewhere.

While Minister Conroy reassured us that this investment “is contributing to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” long range weapons for Australia are, on the contrary, likely to have significant negative implications for peace (but very favourable impacts on Lockheed Martin’s bottom line).

It should be noted also that while $37 million is small fry in terms of weapons programs, the government plans to spend $4.1 billion across the forward estimates on long range strike and missile manufacturing.

The official narrative with new weapons program announcements has become very familiar – we live in dangerous times, we face aggression from others and we have no choice but to deter attack by being better armed than any adversary, especially China. The narrative comes to a full stop at that point. There is no discussion as to what would happen if and when deterrence fails and war breaks out.

There is an unspoken assumption of victory for our side, despite the experiences of Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Any discussion of the vast human and other costs is taboo; they are for someone else to worry about, not the military strategists or the Lockheed Martin executives. Many other questions are similarly unanswered..

Most basically, what is the exact purpose of the missiles – to target what, and where? Given Australia’s increasingly close integration in training, hardware and doctrine with the US military, it seems extremely likely that they will be forward deployed in coalition with US forces in a major great-power war with China – a catastrophic situation that would serve no-one’s interests except those of the war profiteers.

Importantly also, what are Indonesia and other neighbours to think, and will Indonesia or other regional nations plan to match Australia’s acquisition?

With long range missiles designed for offence rather than defence, Australia will in effect be feeding a regional arms race, with all the risks and costs that that carries.

Michael Klare, professor emeritus of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College in the US, states in his own country that the Pentagon’s drive for dominance in military technology “will consume an ever- increasing share of this country’s wealth and scientific talent, while providing negligible improvements in national security.” Australia faces the very same dangers.

Australians are being presented with a false choice. In August last year, ahead of the ALP National Conference, Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy both sought to boost support for AUKUS, stating that the cost of deterrence was far less than that of going to war, the obvious implication being that AUKUS will prevent war. We can have AUKUS or war – take our pick.

It’s an appealing notion, but simplistic, deeply flawed and contrary to the lessons of history. Frightening arrays of military technology have repeatedly failed to deter armed attacks. Momentum towards war can become virtually unstoppable, as in 1914 when the tensions between powerful opposing militaries descended into four years of industrialised slaughter following a single assassination event.

Alfred W. McCoy, the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, reminded us just a year ago, in relation to tensions over Taiwan, of “a tried-and-true historical lesson that bears repeating at this dangerous moment in history: when nations prepare for war, they are far more likely to go to war.”

Australia needs to start extricating itself from our deep entanglement with our US ally, who talks peace but is nearly always at war. With the distinct possibility of Donald Trump being the next US president, serious thought should be given to the extent of our “shared values” with that nation.

Our overriding goal for the Indo-Pacific region should be the peaceful resolution of any crises and the avoidance of warfare – which are no more than our obligations under the 1951 ANZUS Treaty that unites Australia, New Zealand and the US.

There is far more that Australia could be doing, such as committing to defence rather than offence in our military policies, finding an independent voice in foreign affairs matters, initiating arms control talks for the region, and, of course, giving priority attention to our existential threats – nuclear weapons and climate change.

Rather than long-range missiles, we’d be better off with a long-range missive to the US telling them that war against China is not an option for Australia.

For more, see

“Dangerous Allies!”

Others on (1) Ephraim / The United States; (2) Ephraim and Manasseh

(3) The Ox without the Unicorn

Posted in Australia, China, US

China’s ban of rare earth technologies

•January 26, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China announced a ban of rare earth extraction and separation technologies

CSIS by Gracelin Baskaran • January 8, 2024 ~ Reuters

China announced a ban of rare earth extraction and separation technologies on December 21, 2023. This has significant implications for US national, economic, and rare earth security. Rare earth elements—a group of 17 metals—are used in defense technologies, including missiles, lasers, vehicle-mounted systems such as tanks, and military communications.

They are also used in computers, televisions, and smartphones, along with various clean energy technologies central to decarbonization.

At present China produces 60 percent of the world’s rare earths but processes nearly 90 percent, which means that it is importing rare earths from other countries and processing them. This has given China a near monopoly.

WEST STRUGGLES

The move to protect its rare earth technology comes as Europe and the United States scramble to wean themselves off rare earths from China, which accounts for nearly 90% of global refined output.

China has mastered the solvent extraction process to refine the strategic minerals, which MP Materials, opens new tab and other Western rare earth companies have struggled to deploy due to technical complexities and pollution concerns.

Shares of MP, which has slowly begun increasing rare earths processing, opens new tab in California, jumped more than 10% on Thursday after China’s move. The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ucore Rare Metals said on Thursday that it had finished commissioning of a facility to test its own rare earths processing technology, which is being funded in part by the U.S. Department of Defense.

“New technologies will be needed to outmaneuver the Chinese grip on these important areas,” said Ucore CEO Pat Ryan. Ucore’s stock rose more than 16%.

It is not clear to what extent China’s rare earths technology is actually being exported. Beijing has discouraged its export for years, said Constantine Karayannopoulos, former CEO of Neo Performance Materials, which separates rare earths in Estonia.

Global Abundance

There are substantial global reserves of rare earths outside of China, including 19 percent in Vietnam, 18 percent in Brazil, 6 percent in India, and 4 percent in Australia—which amounts to nearly half of the world’s supply. These are countries the United States and its allies are friendly with, which means there is ample opportunity to diversify sources.

But rapidly scaling up domestic processing capacity is critical to protecting national and energy security. Leveraging industrial policies, such as tax incentives and fiscal subsidies, to reduce the cost of doing business for processing firms becomes critical to achieve this.

The United States’ delay in developing processing capacity had hindered its ability to build both national, energy and economic security. There are two main reasons for this. First, China has technical know-how in this area that other countries lack.

For example, China has an absolute advantage in the solvent extraction processing for rare earths because Western companies have struggled to roll out these advanced technical operations alongside pollution concerns.

Second, although several separation, processing, and manufacturing facilities are under construction, it can take years to complete construction and fully operationalize them.

The rollout of major export restrictions for graphite, gallium, germanium, rare earth extraction, and separation technologies in less than one year should be a powerful signal to US policymakers that although they are late to the critical minerals game, there is a significant need to both build domestic capabilities and leverage international cooperation to facilitate rapid sourcing and developing of processing capacity.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

“And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire” Ezekiel 23:24-25

Posted in China, Rare Earth & Critical Materials, Tech Race, US

Putin’s Decree Triggers Ominous Alaska Calls

•January 25, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Putin’s Decree Triggers Ominous Alaska Calls

Newsweek • January 22, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new decree relating to Moscow’s historic real estate holdings abroad, a move interpreted by ultranationalist bloggers as a foundation for future revanchism against Russia’s neighbors—and even the US.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Moscow, on January 17, 2024; signed a new decree relating to Moscow’s historic real estate holdings abroad

The decree, signed by the president late last week, allocates funds for the search, registration, and legal protection of Russian property abroad, including property in the former territories of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

This would include Alaska, swathes of eastern and central Europe, large chunks of central Asia, and parts of Scandinavia.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry and its presidential administration’s Foreign Property Management Enterprise are directed to carry out the work, ordered to find, register, and protect “property” in question.

The Institute for the Study of War noted that the “exact parameters of what constitutes current or historical Russian property are unclear.” Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin by email to request comment.

“The Kremlin may use the ‘protection’ of its claimed property in countries outside of its internationally recognized borders to forward soft power mechanisms in post-Soviet and neighboring states ultimately aimed at internal destabilization.”

One prominent ultranationalist, pro-war military blogger framed the decree as a step towards new territorial conflicts with Russian neighbors, including the US.

“We suggest starting with Alaska,” the Two Majors Telegram channel—which has more than 530,000 subscribers—wrote. Beyond that, the blogger wrote that the Kremlin should look to “Dnieper Ukraine, Bessarabia, the Grand Duchy of Finland, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Central Asian states of Russian Turkestan, most of the Baltic provinces, and a significant part of Poland.”

“Property can be searched both in the [German Democratic Republic] and in other Warsaw Pact countries,” the channel wrote, referring to the Cold War era parts of Germany and other central European nations under Soviet control. “An expedition of combat legal defenders has already set out for Africa,” it added, perhaps in a reference to Moscow’s burgeoning “Africa Corps.”

Putin has previously downplayed the 1867 sale of Alaska to the US. He has called the deal “inexpensive” and said people should “not get worked up about” the event. But some of his allies have suggested that Moscow may re-open the issue as a territorial dispute.

The ISW said such ambitions are implausible, but the reaction of the Two Majors speaks to the deep-set revanchist sentiment within Russia’s ultranationalist community. There, criticism of Moscow’s war on Ukraine stems from Russia’s failure to achieve its goals, and Putin’s apparent hesitation to order full national mobilization.

There is speculation that the Kremlin may begin a new round of mass mobilization after the March presidential election, which Putin is sure to win. The Russian leader has shown no sign of downgrading his maximalist goals in Ukraine, and Kyiv is preparing for a new major Russian offensive operation in 2024.

“The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet” Isaiah 28:3

“Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be,” Hosea 5:9

“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

Posted in Alaska, Russia, US

Leviticus (25-26)

•January 25, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 25

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses on Mount Sinai, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord.

— Sabbath of the Seventh Year; the land not to be tilled, but rest the seventh year; and that which grew of itself in the field or vineyard to be meat for them and their cattle, Leviticus 25:1-7. The jubilee on the day of atonement; a year of liberty and restoration; a year of rest to the land;

³Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard and gather in the fruit thereof, — the land shall keep a sabbath; that is, enjoy rest from ploughing and tilling; unto the Lord; in obedience and unto the honour of God;

— this was instituted, for the assertion of God’s sovereign right to the land, in which the Israelites were but only tenants at God’s will.

⁴but in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord; thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard. — a Sabbath of rest; the express prohibition of sowing and reaping, and of pruning and gathering;

⁵That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed; for it is a year of rest unto the land. — that which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap; that which sprung up of itself from grains of corn, shed in the harvest of the preceding year, without any ploughing or sowing;

— he might reap it, but not as at other times, the whole of it, and gather it as his own property, but only somewhat of it in common with others for his, present use;

⁶And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you: for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger who sojourneth with thee;

— for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid; the owner of the fields and vineyards, he and his family, wife, children, and servants, might eat of the fruits of them in common with others; for whereas it is elsewhere said, Exodus 23:11, “that the poor of thy people may eat”; but this is observed here, lest anyone should think the rich are forbid eating them;

— Rashi:

And [the produce of] the Sabbath of the land, shall be [yours to eat]: Although I have prohibited the produce [of the Shemittah year] to you, I did not prohibit you to eat it or to derive benefit from it, only that you should not treat it as if you were its owner. Rather, everyone is deemed equal [regarding the use of the Shemittah year’s produce]-you, [your slaves,] and your hired worker and resident.

⁷and for thy cattle and for the beasts that are in thy land shall all the increase thereof be meat. — and for thy cattle, and for the beasts that are in thy land; the former signifies tame cattle, such as were kept at home, or in fields, or were used in service, and the latter the wild beasts of the field;

⁸“‘And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. — and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty and nine years; just such a space of years there was between each jubilee, which, as afterwards said, was the fiftieth year;

⁹Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. — in the day of Atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land;

— which day of atonement was on the tenth day of the month, and a very proper time it was to sound the trumpet, that after they had been afflicting themselves, then to have joy and comfort; and when atonement was made for all their sins, then to hear the joyful sound;

¹⁰And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

— ye shall hallow the fiftieth year; much difference of opinion exists as to whether the jubilee was observed on the forty-ninth, or in round numbers, it is called the fiftieth. The prevailing opinion, both in ancient and modern times, has been in favor of the latter;

— it is expressly called the fiftieth year here, and Leviticus 25:11, that fiftieth year, which was not true if it is but the nine and fortieth year;

¹¹A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. — two years would come together in which were no sowing reaping; but that God, that could cause the earth to forth fruit for three years, Leviticus 25:21; could make it bring forth enough for four years;

¹²For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. — ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field; that is, ye shall eat its produce from the field; because it is the jubilee, which must be observed as a sacred institution, the spontaneous produce of this year is not to be stored, but as much of it must each time be taken direct from the field as is wanted for daily consumption.

¹³“‘In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession. — ye shall return every man unto his possession; in the year of jubile every man is to be restored to his landed property, whether he had disposed of it by sale or by gift.

¹⁴And if thou sell aught unto thy neighbor or buyest aught of thy neighbor’s hand, ye shall not oppress one another. — ye shall not oppress one another; better, ye shall not overreach any man his brother;

— not only does the Law provide against the poor man losing his land for ever, but enjoins that in the temporary sales the buyer and seller are not to take undue advantage of each other’s circumstances.

¹⁵According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy from thy neighbor, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee.

— the promised land, according to the Law, was to be divided by lot in equal parts among the Israelites; the plot which should thus come into the possession of each family is to be absolutely inalienable, and for ever continue to be the property of the descendants of the original possessor;

— hence it is here enacted that where a proprietor being pressed by poverty is compelled to sell a field, it could not be bought of him for a longer period than up to the time of the next jubile, when it reverted to the original possessor, or to his family;

¹⁶According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it; for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee.

— the price thereof; more was to be asked and required, and should be given for an estate, when, for instance, there were thirty years to the year of jubilee, than when there were but twenty;

¹⁷Ye shall not therefore oppress one another, but thou shalt fear thy God; for I am the Lord your God. — that is; ye shall not overreach any man his neighbour; for I am the Lord your God; omniscient and omnipotent and able to punish, which of them either should oppress or defraud;

— from MSG

“If you sell or buy property from one of your countrymen, don’t cheat him. Calculate the purchase price on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee.

“He is obliged to set the sale price on the basis of the number of harvests remaining until the next Jubilee. The more years left, the more money; you can raise the price. But the fewer years left, the less money; decrease the price.

“What you are buying and selling in fact is the number of crops you’re going to harvest. Don’t cheat each other. Fear your God. I am God, your God.” (Leviticus 25:14-17 MSG)

¹⁸“‘Therefore ye shall do My statutes, and keep My judgments and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. — wherefore ye shall do my statutes; and ye shall do; that is, the above named statutes and ordinances respecting the sabbatical year and the jubile, which required great care in implementing them.

¹⁹And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill and dwell therein in safety. — and dwell therein in safety; not fearing enemies, nor being disturbed by them, nor carried captive; but they failed, and the Babylonians came and took them into captivity;

²⁰And if ye shall say, “What shall we eat the seventh year? Behold, we shall not sow nor gather in our increase.” — such as are of little faith, disbelieve the promise, and distrust the providence of God, and take thought for tomorrow;

²¹Then I will command My blessing upon you in the sixth year, and it shall bring forth fruit for three years. — for three years; not completely, but in great part, for that part of the sixth year which was between the beginning of harvest and the beginning of the seventh year; including the year of jubilee;

²²And ye shall sow the eighth year, and eat yet of old fruit until the ninth year; until her fruits come in ye shall eat of the old store. — until her fruits come in; that is, until its produce come in, that is, the produce of the eighth year which was gathered in the ninth.

²³The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is Mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with Me. — for the land is mine; as indeed the whole earth is, but the land of Canaan was peculiarly his, which he had chosen above all other lands for the inheritance of his people; out of which he drove the old inhabitants of it for their sins, and put in his own people to possess it under him;

— for the land is mine; the reason for this prohibition absolutely to cut off the patrimony from the family, is that God claims to be the supreme owner of the land; a special sense of the territory which God gave by promise and miracle, which was kept by obedience, and lost by rebellion;

²⁴And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land. — ye shall grant a redemption for the land; that is, whenever any estate in it was sold through necessity, the buyer was obliged to grant a liberty to the seller to redeem it;

²⁵“‘If thy brother waxeth poor and hath sold away some of his possession, and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his brother sold. — and if any of his kin come to redeem it; come to the buyer and propose to redeem it, by giving what it was sold for, or in proportion to the time he had enjoyed it: then shall he redeem that which his brother sold;

²⁶And if the man have none to redeem it, and he himself is able to redeem it, — and if the man have none to redeem it; in case, however, he has either no nearest of kin, or if his nearest of kin is himself too poor to perform this duty,

²⁷then let him count the years of the sale thereof, and restore the overplus unto the man to whom he sold it, that he may return unto his possession. — that is, a proportion of the original price obtained, corresponding to the number of years which were still to intervene between the redemption and the next Jubile year;

²⁸But if he is not able to restore it to him, then that which is sold shall remain in the hand of him that hath bought it until the Year of Jubilee; and in the jubilee it shall go out, and he shall return unto his possession. — not able to restore it to him; that is, if the vendor is unable to return to the purchaser the probable value of the crops between the contemplated redemption and the next jubile year;

— from MSG

“If one of your brothers becomes poor and has to sell any of his land, his nearest relative is to come and buy back what his brother sold.

“If a man has no one to redeem it but he later prospers and earns enough for its redemption, he is to calculate the value since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own land.

“If he doesn’t get together enough money to repay him, what he sold remains in the possession of the buyer until the year of Jubilee. In the Jubilee it will be returned and he can go back and live on his land.” (Leviticus 25:25-28)

²⁹“‘And if a man sell a dwelling house in a walled city, then he may redeem it within a whole year after it is sold; within a full year may he redeem it. — a dwelling house in a walled city; it is, however, quite different in the case of houses in walled cities: these are not the creation of God (Leviticus 25:23), allotted by His command to the different tribes of Israel; they are the work of man, who build them up and raze them to the ground at their own will;

³⁰And if it is not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations; it shall not go out in the jubilee. — if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year; that is, either by the vendor or his son.

³¹But the houses of the villages which have no wall round about them shall be counted as the fields of the country; they may be redeemed, and they shall go out in the jubilee. — but the houses of the villages which have no wall; houses in villages, however, form an exception: they are part of the landed property, and hence, like the cultivated land on which they are erected, are subject to the law of jubile.

³²Notwithstanding, the cities of the Levites and the houses of the cities of their possession may the Levites redeem at any time. — and as to the cities of the Levites, the houses, that is, the houses which belong to the Levites, in the forty-eight cities given to them (Numbers 35:1-8; Joshua 21:1-3), are to be exempt from this general law of house property.

³³And if a man purchase from the Levites, then the house that was sold and the city of his possession shall go out in the Year of Jubilee; for the houses of the cities of the Levites are their possession among the children of Israel. — then the house that was sold in the city of his possession shall go out, that is, in the year of jubile the house is to revert to the vendor just as if it were landed property;

³⁴But the field of the suburbs of their cities may not be sold, for it is their perpetual possession. — the Levitical cities had both suburbs or commons for their cattle, steep and fields which they cultivated; and it is their perpetual possession;

— frpm MSG

“As to the Levitical cities, houses in the cities owned by the Levites are always subject to redemption. Levitical property is always redeemable if it is sold in a town that they hold and reverts to them in the Jubilee,

“because the houses in the towns of the Levites are their property among the People of Israel. The pastures belonging to their cities may not be sold; they are their permanent possession” (Leviticus 25:32-34)

³⁵“‘And if thy brother be waxed poor and hath fallen into ruin with thee, then thou shalt relieve him, yea, though he be a stranger or a sojourner, that he may live with thee.

— and fallen in decay with thee; that is, when it is weak and can no longer render support, or gain a livelihood; he is not to be treated like an outcast because he has been compelled by poverty to sell his patrimony, but is to receive the same consideration which strangers and sojourners receive, who, like the unfortunate Israelite, have no landed property.

³⁶Take thou no interest from him or increase; but fear thy God, that thy brother may live with thee. — if he borrowed money, they were not to demand interest; or if food, they were not to demand any addition, any larger quantity, when it was returned;

³⁷Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor lend him thy victuals for increase. — no interest was to be permitted in such a case for money lent, nor, if the loan took the form of the necessaries of life, was more than the amount lent to be exacted in return.

³⁸I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

— I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt where they had been strangers and sojourners, and therefore should be kind to such in necessitous circumstances, and relieve them, and especially their brethren; and where God had given them favour in the eyes of the Egyptians.

³⁹“‘And if thy brother who dwelleth by thee be waxed poor and is sold unto thee, thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bond servant; — thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant; under these circumstances he is not to be treated like heathen slaves who are either purchased or captured, and made to do the menial service which these Gentile slaves have to perform.

⁴⁰but as a hired servant and as a sojourner he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the Year of Jubilee. — but as an hired servant who is hired by the day, or month, or year; and, when his time is up, receives his wages and goes where he pleases;

⁴¹And then shall he depart from thee, both he and his children with him, and shall return unto his own family, and unto the possession of his fathers shall he return. — and shall return unto his own family; his father’s family, and that of his near relations, having been out of it during his time of servitude, and which the year of jubilee restored him to;

⁴²For they are My servants, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as bondmen. — for they are my servants; this is a clue to the whole system of Hebrew servitude. These poverty-stricken men, who are driven to sell themselves to their fellow-Israelites, God claims as His servants.

⁴³Thou shalt not rule over him with rigor, but shalt fear thy God. — thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; the master is forbidden to tyrannise over him as if he were a slave without any rights.

⁴⁴Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, whom thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen who are round about you. From them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids.

⁴⁵Moreover of the children of the strangers who sojourn among you, from them shall ye buy and from their families who are with you, whom they begot in your land; and they shall be your possession.

⁴⁶And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession. They shall be your bondmen for ever. But over your brethren, the children of Israel, ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. — and ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children; that is, they may appropriate them to themselves, as their personal property, which is transmissible as inheritance to posterity with the family land;

— from MSG

“The male and female slaves which you have are to come from the surrounding nations; you are permitted to buy slaves from them.

“You may also buy the children of foreign workers who are living among you temporarily and from their clans which are living among you and have been born in your land. They become your property.

“You may will them to your children as property and make them slaves for life. But you must not tyrannize your brother Israelites” (Leviticus 25:44-46 MSG)

⁴⁷“‘And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother who dwelleth by him wax poor and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family,

⁴⁸after he is sold he may be redeemed again. One of his brethren may redeem him:

⁴⁹either his uncle or his uncle’s son may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he is able, he may redeem himself.

⁵⁰And he shall reckon with him that bought him from the year that he was sold to him unto the Year of Jubilee; and the price of his sale shall be according unto the number of years, according to the time of a hired servant shall it be with him.

⁵¹If there be yet many years behind, according unto them he shall give again the price of his redemption out of the money that he was bought for.

⁵²And if there remain but few years unto the Year of Jubilee, then he shall count with him, and according unto his years shall he give him again the price of his redemption.

⁵³And as a yearly hired servant shall he be with him, and the other shall not rule with rigor over him in thy sight.

— from MSG

“If a foreigner or temporary resident among you becomes rich and one of your brothers becomes poor and sells himself to the foreigner who lives among you or to a member of the foreigner’s clan, he still has the right of redemption after he has sold himself.

“One of his relatives may buy him back. An uncle or cousin or any close relative of his extended family may redeem him. Or, if he gets the money together, he can redeem himself.

“What happens then is that he and his owner count out the time from the year he sold himself to the year of Jubilee; the buy-back price is set according to the wages of a hired hand for that number of years.

“If many years remain before the Jubilee, he must pay back a larger share of his purchase price, but if only a few years remain until the Jubilee, he is to calculate his redemption price accordingly.

“He is to be treated as a man hired from year to year. You must make sure that his owner does not tyrannize him” (Leviticus 25:47-53 MSG)

⁵⁴And if he is not redeemed in these years, then he shall go out in the Year of Jubilee, both he and his children with him.

⁵⁵For unto Me the children of Israel are servants. They are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God;

— from MSG

“If he is not redeemed in any of these ways, he goes free in the year of Jubilee, he and his children, because the People of Israel are my servants, my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am God, your God” Leviticus 25:54-55 MSG

Leviticus 26

¹ “‘Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither shall ye set up any image of stone in your land to bow down unto it; for I am the Lord your God. — the words here rendered “images of stone” to indicate beholding or worshipping stones; that is, stones set in the ground in places of worship upon which the worshippers prostrated themselves to perform their devotions;

²Ye shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord. — ye shall keep my Sabbaths (plurals), and reverence my sanctuary; very frequently, in this Book of the Law, the Sabbath and the sanctuary are mentioned as antidotes to idolatry.

³“‘If ye walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them, — if ye walk in my statutes; in that covenant into which God graciously entered with the people of Israel, He promised to bestow upon them a variety of blessings, so long as they continued obedient to Him as their Almighty Ruler;

⁴then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. — rain in due season; the periodical rains, on which the fertility of the holy land so much depends, are here spoken of.

⁵And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

— from MSG

“If you live by my decrees and obediently keep my commandments, I will send the rains in their seasons, the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit.

“You will thresh until the grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting time; you’ll have more than enough to eat and will live safe and secure in your land” (Leviticus 26:3-5 MSG)

⁶And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. — and I will give peace; not only are they to have rich harvests, but the Lord will grant them peace among themselves, so that they shall be able to retire at night without any anxiety, or fear of robbers;

⁷And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. — and ye shall chase your enemies; if, covetous of their prosperity, the enemies should dare to attack them, God will inspire His people with marvellous courage, so that they will not only pursue them, but put them to the sword.

⁸And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. — five of you shall chase; a proverbial mode of expression for superiority in warlike prowess; Deuteronomy 32:30; Isaiah 30:17.

⁹For I will have respect unto you, and make you fruitful and multiply you, and establish My covenant with you. — and multiply you, and establish my covenant with you; that is, by multiplying them as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea, God fulfil the covenant which He made with their fathers;

¹⁰And ye shall eat old store, and bring forth the old because of the new. — and bring forth the old because of the new; and remove the old on account of the new: they will always have such abundant harvests that they will be obliged to remove from the barns and garners the old stock of corn, in order to make room for the new.

¹¹And I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. — not only will God bless them with these material blessings, but will permanently abide with them in the sanctuary erected in their midst.

¹²And I will walk among you and will be your God, and ye shall be My people. — ye shall be my people; I will own you for that peculiar people which I have singled out of the mass of mankind, to bless you here, and to save you hereafter.

¹³I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

— I am the Lord your Lord, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt; who, having done that, was able to fulfil the above promises; and which may be considered as an earnest and pledge of them, as well as be a motive to the Israelites, and an obligation upon them to obey the commandments of God, and walk in his statutes;

¹⁴“‘But if ye will not hearken unto Me and will not do all these commandments, — the glowing promises of blessings for obedience are now followed by a catalogue of calamities of the most appalling nature, which will overtake the Israelites if they disobey the Divine commandments.

¹⁵and if ye shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments so that ye will not do all My commandments, but that ye break My covenant,

— and if ye shall despise my statutes; from passive indifference to the Divine statutes mentioned in the preceding verse, their falling away is sure to follow. Hence what was at first mere listlessness now develops itself into a contemptuous education of God’s ordinances.

¹⁶I also will do this unto you: I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. — ague, plague or perhaps pestilence;

¹⁷And I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies; they that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. — and ye shall flee when none pursueth you; of such faint-hearted spirits should they be, and filled with such dread and terror of their enemies, so contrary from what is promised them on their obedience, Leviticus 26:8.

¹⁸And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. — I will punish you seven times more; that is, indefinitely or unceasingly; many more times. Seven being a complete number is often used to denote thoroughness;

¹⁹And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass. — the pride of your power the pride with which ye rely upon your prosperity and the fruitfulness of your land; will be broken;

— and I will make your heaven as iron; so that neither dew nor rain shall descend from thence to make the earth fruitful; but, on the contrary, an heat should be reflected, which would parch it, and make it barren;

²⁰And your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. — and your strength shall be spent in vain; that is, with the heaven over them as metal, their labour expended in ploughing, digging, and sowing will be perfectly useless.

²¹“‘And if ye walk contrary unto Me and will not hearken unto Me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. — and if ye walk contrary unto me; to his mind and will, to his laws, commands, and ordinances, showing no regard unto them by a walk agreeably to them, but neglecting and breaking them continually;

— I will bring seven times more plagues upon you, according to your sins; greater and sorer punishments still, and these more frequently repeated, and in proportion to their transgressions of his righteous laws.

²²I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children and destroy your cattle and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate. — I will also send wild beasts among you; either in a literal sense, as lions, bears, wolves; and so is the reverse of what is promised to them on their doing well;

— and your high ways shall be desolate; or ways, the word high not being in the text, and may signify both their public and private ones, which would be all forsaken, none caring to venture to walk in them for fear of beasts of prey.

²³“‘And if ye will not be reformed by Me by these things, but will walk contrary unto Me, — God is setting conditions for He will avenge the outraged cause of His covenant, by the sword, pestilence, famine, and captivity.

²⁴then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. — and will punish you yet seven times for your sins; add fresh corrections, and these greater than before, and more numerous in proportion to their aggravated transgressions.

²⁵And I will bring a sword upon you that shall avenge the quarrel of My covenant; and when ye are gathered together within your cities I will send the pestilence among you, and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. — and I will bring a sword upon you; war upon them by the sword of their enemies; they that use and kill with the sword;

— for more details from prophet Ezekiel, see The Sword from the South!

²⁶And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight; and ye shall eat and not be satisfied. — and when I have broken the staff of your bread; or when I break you the staff of bread, that is, when God cuts off their supply of bread, which is the staff of life.

²⁷“‘And if ye will not for all this hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me, — and if ye still will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;

²⁸then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. — and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins; add new and many more chastisements, and that in hot displeasure, for their sins;

— and the repetition or doubling of the phrase, “I, even I, will do it”, denotes the certainty of it, and that he will do it himself, and his hand should be visible in it; and they should feel the weight of it, and be obliged to own that these were punishments inflicted by him for their sins.

²⁹And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. — which Jeremiah thus bewails, “the hands of pitiful women have sodden their own children, they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentations 4:10);

³⁰And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses upon the carcasses of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you. — and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols; nothing could show a greater contempt both for the idol-worshippers and the idols than the picture here given;

— when the apostate Israelites have succumbed to the sword, famine, and pestilence, they will not even have a seemly burial, but their carcases will be mixed up with the shattered remains of their gods, and thus form one dunghill;

— a parallel picture is given by Ezekiel, “Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols, and I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones round about your altars” (Ezekiel 6:4-5).

³¹And I will make your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savor of your sweet odors. — I will make your cities waste; not only will the elevated spots outside the cities with their idols be destroyed, and the carcases of the deluded worshippers be scattered among their remains, but the cities themselves will be converted into ruins and desolations;

³²And I will bring the land into desolation, and your enemies who dwell therein shall be astonished at it. — note: “your cities” and “the land” but not “your land” indicating the land they are currently living on are not quite their own, but those designated land are “between the two rivers” Genesis 15;

— Targum says “your country” facing hostile invasions and conquests, the desolation of the whole country and the dispersion of the Israelites described in the following verses are to be the work of God Himself

³³And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. — mentioned belatedly, “your land” and will draw out a sword after you; draw it out of its scabbard, and with it pursue after them;

³⁴“‘Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate and ye are in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. — then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate; a long arrear of sabbatic years had accumulated through the avarice and apostasy of the Israelites,

— who had deprived their land of its appointed season of rest; this early prophecy is very remarkable, considering that the usual policy of the Assyrian conquerors was to send colonies to cultivate and inhabit their newly acquired provinces; but as determined by the duration of the Babylonian captivity, the number of those sabbatic years seems to have been seventy;

³⁵As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it; — because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelt upon it; they manured and tilled it on the seventh years, as on others, neglecting the command which God had given them;

— II Chronicles 36:21 says, “The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.” This is a reference to Jeremiah 25:11;

— for a related upcoming prophecy, see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

³⁶And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursueth. — and upon them that are left alive of you; in the land of Judea, or rather scattered about among the nations, suggesting that these would be comparatively few;

— I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; or “a softness” so that they should be effeminate, pusillanimous, and cowardly, have nothing of a manly spirit and courage in them; but be mean spirited and faint hearted;

— and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; either the sound of a leaf that falls from the tree shall put them to flight, as the Targum of Jonathan says, or which the wind beats one against another;

— and they shall flee as fleeing from the sword; as if there were an army of soldiers with their swords drawn pursuing them; and they shall fall when none pursueth; fall upon the ground, and into a fit, and drop down as if dead, as if they had been really wounded with a sword and slain;

³⁷And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. — and they shall fall one upon another; in their hurry and confusion, everyone making all the haste he can to escape the imaginary danger;

— as it were before a sword, when none pursueth: as if a sword was drawn and brandished at them, just ready to be thrust in them, filling them with the utmost dread and terror, and yet at the same time none in pursuit of them;

— and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies; no heart to resist them, no strength nor spirit to oppose them, and defend themselves but be obliged to surrender their cities, themselves, their families and goods, into the hand of the enemy.

³⁸And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. — so far as the nation was concerned, those who were left when the kingdom was overthrown would find no rest in the land of their enemies;

— but would perish among the heathen for their own and their fathers’ iniquities, till they confessed their sins and bent their stiffed-necked rebellious hearts under the righteousness of the divine punishments;

— and the land of your enemies shall eat you up; they should die in it through one disease or another; by the pestilence, as the Targum of Jonathan, and so be buried in it; in which sense it may be said to eat them up, or consume them, for the grave swallows up and consumes all that are put into it; this is to be understood of those that die in captivity.

³⁹And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. — shall pine away; shall languish through diseases and oppressions out the remainder of their days in bitter grief;

— and sad reflections upon the miseries which their own and their fathers’ complicated guilt has brought upon them; and hereby shall be consumed and melt away.

⁴⁰“‘If they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against Me, and that also they have walked contrary unto Me, — if they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers; “in the time of their distress;” which might serve to bring their sins to remembrance;

— and them to a confession, not only of their own sins, but of their fathers’ also; acknowledging thereby that they had been guilty of sinning against God for a long course of years past; with their trespass which they trespassed against me; along with their own iniquities, and those of their fathers; even 190 years;

— for an upcoming prophecy, see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

⁴¹and that I also have walked contrary unto them and have brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity, — and that I also have walked contrary unto them; that is, and they shall also confess that through their walking contrary unto God, He also walked contrary unto them, and brought them into the land of their enemies;

— if then their uncircumcised heart be humbled; their rebellious heart, as the Targums of Jonathan; it signifies a sinful, wicked, hard, and impenitent heart, brought to a sense of sin, to repentance and humiliation for it.

⁴²then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.

— my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; when thus brought to repentance, the Lord will perform towards them the covenant which He made with their ancestors, and in which He not only promised that the Israelites are to be a numerous people, but that they are to possess the land “between the two rivers” for ever;

— I will remember the land, which now seems to be forgotten, and neglected, and despised, as if I had never chosen it to be the peculiar place of my presence and blessing.

⁴³The land also shall be left by them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths while she lieth desolate without them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity, because, even because they despised My judgments and because their soul abhorred My statutes. — the land also shall be left of them; that is, the land shall be deserted by them;

— the solemn warning is here reiterated, that before God will remember His covenant with the patriarchs, and also be mindful of the land, the land must be depopulated of its rebellious inhabitants, and enjoy the Sabbaths which have been denied to it; even 190 years.

⁴⁴And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly and to break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. — “your land” has now turned into “the land of their enemies” indicating the land they are currently living on are not quite their own;

⁴⁵But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord.’” — again, to remind them that their land are “between the two rivers” that were promised to their fathers: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

⁴⁶These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between Himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

— these are the statutes, and judgments, and laws; which refer not only to those in this chapter, but in all the preceding chapters in this book; in Mount Sinai in the wilderness, while the children of Israel lay encamped about it; by the hand of Moses; they were first delivered to him, and by means of him to the people.

Posted in Books of Moses

China world’s largest wind tunnel

•January 24, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China constructs world’s largest wind tunnel to outpace Boeing, Airbus

After 16 years of shrouded secrecy, China reveals its 18 state-of-the-art wind tunnels for the aviation world.

Interesting Engineering • January 18, 2024

China has pulled back the curtain on its monumental achievement in the aviation world — the world’s largest civil wind tunnel complex. After 16 years of shrouded secrecy, a paper published in the Chinese journal Acta Aerodynamica Sinica has exposed the colossal infrastructure, equivalent to the combined total of similar facilities in the United States and Europe.

Since 2007, China has invested extensively in constructing 18 wind tunnels across the country, providing crucial testing grounds for scientists and engineers. These facilities played a pivotal role in developing China’s latest passenger plane, the C919, marking the nation’s foray into large civil jet aircraft without accusations of imitating Western designs.

The significance of China’s achievement becomes evident when compared to its Western counterparts. While the largest wind tunnels in the US and EU measure below five meters, China boasts four tunnels exceeding eight meters in size.

These cutting-edge facilities enable testing for various aircraft development challenges, including aerodynamics, extreme operating conditions, icing, vibration, noise and flight control systems.

Outshining competitors like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320

The results are tangible with the C919, which outshines competitors like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Boasting a more spacious interior, lower drag aerodynamics, and reduced cabin noise during cruise, the C919 has proven its mettle in terms of performance and efficiency.

Additionally, Chinese state media reports a 10 percent lower overall operating cost, including fuel consumption, compared to Western counterparts.

While the C919 is still in its infancy in commercial operations, it represents a technological triumph. Designed entirely from scratch using China’s wind tunnels, the aircraft stands as a “fundamental and original technological breakthrough” for the non-Western world, as outlined in the paper by senior engineer Wu Junqiang.

Beyond the realm of aviation, the colossal wind tunnel complex underscores China’s broader ambitions. Experts suggest this initiative goes beyond aircraft production, pointing toward China’s intent to reshape relations with the West.

The construction of such a vast infrastructure indicates a strategic move aimed at achieving breakthroughs against the backdrop of great power competition.

This colossal endeavor is a departure from China’s earlier approach, as seen in the 1980s when the Y-10 passenger plane project was canceled. Critics argued that the reinvention of the wheel was unnecessary, advocating for the purchase of mature products from the West. However, the winds have shifted, and China’s current achievement highlights a commitment to independent innovation.

Wind tunnel builders in China have overcome technological bottlenecks over the past two decades, establishing a large aircraft research and development technology system with fully independent intellectual property rights.

Now, with ambitions reaching new heights, China aims to provide better support for aerodynamic stealth requirements, flying wing layout, and wing-body fusion layout.

As China strides confidently into the future, it is not just about the C919. The wind tunnel complex stands as a symbol of the nation’s determination to lead in cutting-edge aviation technologies, both in civilian and military applications.

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

“He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Posted in China, Europe, Tech Race, US

Time to scrap the 737 Max?

•January 23, 2024 • Leave a Comment

In a corporate culture of profits before safety what goes around comes around. Anything short of a complete overhaul and corporate culture change will only compound the problem and put more lives at risk.

Perahps it is time for Boeing to scrap the 737 Max, “designed by clowns” who were “supervised by monkeys,” rather than to risk the whole Company, Boeing.

AsiaTimes by ManMohan S Sodhi • January 15, 2024 // The Conversation

The Boeing 737 Max is in the news again, this time because the door plug on a brand new plane came off soon after take-off.

The pilots of the Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, managed to return the Max 9 safely to Portland International Airport, but the consequences would have been far more serious had the incident occurred at cruising height a few minutes later.

A recovered engine from the “designed by clowns” “supervised by monkeys” Max

Alaska Airlines and fellow US carrier United Airlines have also discovered loose hardware and connections on their fleets of 737 Max planes. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has now grounded 171 Boeing aircraft, mostly operated by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, pending inspections.

The 737 Max is a series of narrow-body commercial aircraft developed as an upgrade to the highly successful Boeing 737 Next Generation (NG) series. First delivered in 2017, it was designed to be even more fuel efficient and with more power supplied by bigger engines.

It has attracted more demand than Boeing can supply, but has faced significant challenges. Most notable were crashes in Indonesia (2018) and Ethiopia (2019), which were partly caused by technical problems and killed 346 people.

So why have there been all these problems and what can be done?

Design and manufacturing

An investigation following the Indonesia crash revealed issues with an automated flight control system called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS).

This was designed to prevent the 737 Max from stalling, which had been made more likely by its larger engines. Yet the system’s complexity and reliance on a single sensor made it vulnerable to failure.

The MCAS was also involved in the Ethiopian crash, albeit the US safety agency argued pilot errors were the main cause. Boeing subsequently issued a software fix for the MCAS problem. So far as we are aware, it has now been resolved.

“Designed by clowns” who were “supervised by monkeys,” the Max flew along

Besides the most recent issues with Alaska and United, quality and safety problems have included unsatisfactory wing components in 2019. In 2023, suppliers were poorly attaching aircraft fittings and drilling unnecessary holes.

While these defects could be blamed on manufacturing, unwieldy designs make it difficult to manufacture products at scale while meeting quality requirements. So, you have to question whether poor design and unrealistically high volume expectations are ultimately what has happened to the 737 Max.

The fact that door plug problems and loose bolts are cropping up at a time when Boeing is trying to ramp up 737 Max production to about double the pre-pandemic level – and the pressure to achieve the pre-pandemic stock price – makes design all the more suspect.

Moreover, leaked internal documents from 2015-18 have revealed that employees who worked on the Max planes believed the design was unsound. Hundreds of internal messages showed them referring to the “piss-poor design” and one “designed by clowns” who were “supervised by monkeys.”

A US Congressional report in 2020 into the 737 Max crashes said: “Boeing failed in its design and development of the 737 Max, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft.” It also pointed to too close a relationship with the FAA.

Boeing’s approach to manufacturing costs may also be a factor. Former employees previously suggested it had imported a culture that was very focused on cost-cutting when it bought rival US aerospace manufacturer McDonnell Douglas back in 1997. Boeing has denied that it has compromised on product safety or quality for any reason whatsoever.

Assembly line workers on the 737 Max have reportedly faced intense pressure to meet production deadlines while a former senior manager claimed in 2019 he had sent urgent emails and letters to the company’s leadership to shut down production.

Boeing has denied that assembly-line pressure had any bearing on the crashes and pointed out that the company’s commitment to safety was reflected in the fact that the whistleblower was able to brief its general counsel over his concerns.

Two catastrophic crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes in less than five months

Despite these alleged assembly-line issues, Boeing has not faced anything like the same problems with the other 737 variants or indeed with other planes like the 787 Dreamliner. Again, it indicates that the problem may ultimately have more to do with the design of the 737 Max.

What next?

So what happens now? Going by the previous debacles, the playbook is clear. The FAA will lift the grounding order in the coming weeks as politicians start complaining about orders being lost to Airbus.

Boeing will swear all the planes are safe and that the production processes of the parts vendor in question, Kansas-based Spirit AeroSystems, have been reviewed (Spirit has said it is committed to ensuring every Boeing plane meets the highest safety and quality standards).

Then the White House will push developing countries to buy the Boeing 737 Max, as President Joe Biden did in his visit with business leaders to Vietnam last September. All will be well – until it isn’t.

Instead, Boeing should suppress its political muscle and take a different approach. The 737 Max brand is so tarnished that it may be better to let go. More importantly, if the design is also ultimately unworkable at scale, it would be better to scrap it too rather than trying to push production even harder.

The good news for the company is that the 737 has been highly successful commercially going back to 1968, with a solid history of safety, not including the 737 Max. The 737 variants’ safety record until the end of 2019 was the same as the narrow-body offering from Airbus, including the A320, but it has now become much worse with the 737 Max.

Boeing should arguably design a new narrow-body plane again based on the 737 Next Generation with higher efficiency and larger engines. The supply chain won’t need to be changed dramatically. It worked for previous 737s, so there is no reason it can’t work again. If cost-cutting has resulted in suppliers cutting too many corners, that needs to be revisited of course.

Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun said at an all-employee safety meeting on January 9: “We’re going to have to demonstrate trust by our actions, by our willingness to work directly and transparently with them (customers).”

Alaska Airlines CEO says company found loose bolts on ‘many’ Boeing Max 9s

This is true, but the company’s first priority has to be to make sure it has the trust of its workers by listening to their safety concerns and taking them on board.

Only by addressing its culture can Boeing really end this crisis. There has been such a catalog of sequential errors that anything short of a complete overhaul is only likely to compound the problem and put more lives at risk.

ManMohan S Sodhi is Professor of Operations and Supply Chain Management, City, University of London

Posted in US

EU faces 2024 immigration surge

•January 22, 2024 • Leave a Comment

EU faces 2024 immigration surge – think tank

RT News • January 17, 2024

War, elections, and the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House could all drive more migrants to the continent, the report claimed

Asylum seekers arrive at a shelter in a student housing complex in Groningen, the Netherlands, December 8 2023

Immigration to the EU in 2024 will increase beyond record levels set in 2016, an Austrian-based think-tank has warned. With opposition parties across the continent threatening a crackdown on illegal arrivals, the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has predicted a rush to get in before the doors close.

More than a million people claimed asylum in the EU last year, the think tank stated in a press release on Wednesday, citing preliminary bloc data. When all people who legally entered are added, the total suggests that 3.5 million people migrated to the EU in 2023.

Ahead of a full report on the issue due for release next week, the ICMPD predicted that war and conflict would cause “record displacement levels” around the world this year. At the same time, more economic migrants will journey to Europe seeking employment before European countries potentially introduce restrictions following elections this year.

“I call it the closed-shop effect. People will hear all these measures on migration announced in election campaigns and will think they have to be here before they come into force,” Michael Spindelegger, the director general of the ICMPD, told The Guardian.

Legislative elections will be held this year in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Romania, while regional elections are scheduled in Germany and Ireland. Elections for the European Parliament will take place in June, with all 720 seats of the EU’s legislature up for grabs.

With the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party doubling its support in the last three years to become the country’s second-largest political faction, and with anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders in talks to lead the government of the Netherlands, the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell, warned last month that popular discontent over immigration could lead to a right-wing wave in June’s EU elections.

In France, meanwhile, the ruling Renaissance Party recently joined forces with the right-wing National Rally (RN) to pass a bill significantly cutting welfare benefits to immigrants. This move was primarily seen as an attempt by the Renaissance Party to stave off growing support for the RN.

Almost a third of EU voters consider immigration the most critical issue facing the bloc, a Eurobarometer survey in December found.

Spindelegger also highlighted the potential return of former US President Donald Trump to the White House as a driver of migration to Europe. Should Trump take office and make good on his promise to “seal up” the country’s border with Mexico, Venezuelans and Colombians could use visa-free visitor routes to Spain as a means of entering the EU, he told the Guardian.

Despite growing public backlash, the EU has committed to increasing the flow of immigrants. Speaking in Athens earlier this month, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson stated that “legal migration should grow by more or less 1 million per year” to replace Europe’s aging workers. Spindelegger suggested that even more people should be invited, telling the Guardian that Germany alone needs a million more migrants while Austria needs 500,000.

For more, see

West’s ‘500-year dominance’ ending – Lavrov

Europe Facing Civil War?

Posted in Europe

China’s ‘Micro Nuclear Battery’

•January 21, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China’s ‘Micro Nuclear Battery’ Tech

ZeroHedge by Tyler Burden January 15, 2024 // GizmoChina

Dallas-based hedge fund manager Kyle Bass blasted the US Department of Energy in a post on social media X for transferring nuclear battery technology to China.

“What’s going on in the US Department of Energy? Why did we hand this technology over to the Chinese Government?” Bass wrote on X while commenting on Hu Xijin’s, the editor-in-chief of Chinese state media Global Times, post.

Bass pointed out, “The Chinese company didn’t steal this technology. It was given to them — by the US Department of Energy. First in 2017, as part of a sublicense.”

Hu from Global Times: “In case you didn’t know: A Chinese company this week developed a micro #nuclear battery. It’s smaller than a coin and can generate electricity at 3V constantly for over 50 years without charging, maintenance, or radiation leakage. So amazing!”

“In 2021, as part of a license transfer. An investigation by NPR and the Northwest News Network found the federal agency allowed the technology and jobs to move overseas, violating its own licensing rules while failing to intervene on behalf of US workers multiple times,” the China Hawk hedge fund manager continued.

The Chinese company in focus is “Betavolt,” It recently announced it had created an “atomic energy battery that mainly uses nickel-63 as the energy source and diamond semiconductor as the energy converter.”

According to tech blog Tom’s Hardware, Betavolt’s nuclear battery will have a lifespan of 50 years and will target aerospace, AI devices, medical, MEMS systems, intelligent sensors, small drones, and robots.

This means that charging a smartphone may become obsolete in the future.

If Bass’ claims are correct, why did DoE allow China to obtain such a game-changing technology?

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

“He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

Leviticus (23-24)

•January 20, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 23

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — this isn’t a law of Moses, but a Command of God convey to all the Israelites through Moses;

²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘Concerning the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are My feasts. — speak unto the children of Israel; as the festivals here discussed were to be solemnly kept by them, Moses is ordered to address these regulations to the people or their representatives;

— concerning the feasts of the Lord; better, the festivals of the Lord which ye shall proclaim as holy convocations, these are my festivals; that is, the following festivals God claims as His, on which solemn assemblies are to be held in the sanctuary and in the land of Israel.

³“‘Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation. Ye shall do no work therein; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings. — six days shall work be done; recurring every week, and being the most important as well as the oldest of all festivals, the Sabbath introduces the holy seasons.

⁴“‘These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, which ye shall proclaim in their seasons. — these are the feasts of the Lord; because the following are the festivals proper as distinguished from the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:37-38), and because they are now enumerated in their regular order, the introductory heading is here repeated.

⁵On the fourteenth day of the first month at evening is the Lord’S Passover. — at even; or in the evening, as renders this phrase in the parallel passage (Exodus 12:6), literally, denotes between the two evenings;

— the interpretation of this expression constituted one of the differences between the Sadducees and the Pharisees during the second Temple, and seriously debates about the time for offering up the paschal lamb and the evening sacrifices.;

— according to the Sadducees, who follow the relegated Samaritans, it denotes the time between the setting of the sun and the moment when the stars become visible, or when darkness sets in, yhat is, roughly between six and seven o’clock, a space of about one hour and twenty minutes;

— according to the Pharisees, however, “between the two evenings” means from the afternoon, to the disappearing of the sun. The first evening is from the time when the sun begins to decline towards the west, or after noon or twelve o’clock the middle of the day; whilst the second is when it goes down and vanishes out of sight;

— this is the reason why the paschal lamb in the evening sacrifice began to be killed and the blood sprinkled from 12.30 pm onward; which is more in harmony with the fact that the large number of sacrifices on this day could only be offered up in the longer period of time.

⁶And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread unto the Lord; seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. — the Feast of Unleavened Bread was instituted at the same time with the Feast of the Passover;

— in fact, they are a composite Feast; the whole made a festival of eight days, called indifferently the Feast of the Passover, or the Feast of Unleavened Bread; hence those who thought they are two distinct feasts read the Gospel Texts with much confusion.

⁷On the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein. — the first day of unleavened bread, which commenced on the evening of the 14th, in other words, the 15th Abib, ye shall have a holy convocation.

⁸But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein.’” — in the seventh day is an holy convocation, ye shall do no servile work therein; as on the first day;

⁹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — that is, this isn’t a law of Moses, but a Command of God convey to all the Israelites through Moses;

¹⁰“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘When ye come into the land which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest. — ye shall bring the first-fruit omer of your harvest; the omer had to be from the best and ripest standing corn of a field near Jerusalem.

¹¹And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you; on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

— and he shall wave the sheaf; that is, and he shall wave the omer. The priest mixed with the omer of meal a log of oil, put on a handful of frankincense (Leviticus 2:15), as on other meat-offerings, waved it, took a handful of it and caused it to ascend in smoke;

— on the morrow after the sabbath; the interpretation of this phrase also constituted one of the differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.;

— according to the Pharisees, the term Sabbath here, as elsewhere (Leviticus 23:24; Leviticus 23:32; Leviticus 23:39), is not the weekly Sabbath, but the next day, or the first day of the holy convocation, the first day of Passover;

— the Sadducees, infiltrated by the relegated Samaritans, however, maintained that it is to be understood in its literal sense as denoting the weekly Sabbath in the Passover week, which might happen to fall within the seven days;

— on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it; not after the weekly seventh day, but after the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, which was a Sabbath, in which no servile work was to be done, Leviticus 23:7; and so the Targum of Jonathan calls it the first festal day of Pascha (or, the day after the feast-day of Pascha), that is, the sixteenth of Nisan;

¹²And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf a helamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the Lord.

— an he lamb without blemish of the first year, for a burnt offering unto the Lord; typical of the perfect and immaculate Lamb of God, whose sufferings are fitly signified by a burnt offering; and which were endured at the time he became the firstfruits of his people, and sanctified them.

¹³And the meat offering thereof shall be two-tenths part of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savor; and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, a fourth part of a hin.

— the offering described in this passage was made on the sixteenth of the first month, the day following the first Passover Sabbath;

¹⁴And ye shall eat neither bread nor parched corn nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. — it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations;

¹⁵“‘And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven Sabbaths shall be complete. — from the first day, which was an holy convocation, a Sabbath in which no servile work was to be done, Leviticus 23:7;

— from the Targum of Jonathan

And number to you after the first feast day of Pascha, from the day when you brought the sheaf for the elevation, seven weeks; complete they shall be.

¹⁶Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the Lord. — even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath; that is, the day after the seven complete weeks, or the fiftieth day; hence its name, “Pentecost, or fiftieth-day” feast;

¹⁷Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenths part. They shall be of fine flour; they shall be baked with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. — two omers of the flour; they were called wave-loaves becausethey were presented to God by waving them toward heaven: they are the firstfruits unto the LORD.

¹⁸And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock and two rams; they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord, with their meat offering and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savor unto the Lord.

— seven lambs; the additional sacrifices for the feast day consisted of two bullocks, one ram, and seven lambs: seven lambs could symbolise seven eras of God’s Church of Revelation 2 and 3;

— and one young bullock, and two rams; in Numbers 28:27 it is two young bullocks, and one ram;

¹⁹Then ye shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offerings.

²⁰And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits for a wave offering before the Lord with the two lambs; they shall be holy to the Lord for the priest. — two lambs were brought into the Temple and waved together or separately by the priest while yet alive.

²¹And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day that it may be a holy convocation unto you. Ye shall do no servile work therein; it shall be a statute for ever in all your dwellings throughout your generations.

— the feast of Weeks or day of Pentecost was held in remembrance of the giving of the law, fifty days after the departure from Egypt; and looked forward to the outpouring of the Holy Spirits;

²²“‘And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not rid cleanly the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleanings of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave them unto the poor and to the stranger: I am the Lord your God.’”

— the feast of weeks being the feast of the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, it is repeated, that they might not forget what God had commanded them to do at that time, namely, to leave somewhat for the poor;

²³And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁴“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

— according to Jewish traditions “the first day” of this month was the first day of the Civil year in use whereof as to civil matters before the Exodus, and was observed as the festival of the New Year;

²⁵Ye shall do no servile work therein, but ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.’” — blowing of trumpets; here and in Numbers 29:1, literally “shouting” there is no mention of trumpets in the Hebrew text of the Law in connection with this day; yet there is no reason to doubt the tradition that the day was distinguished by a general blowing of trumpets throughout the land;

The Blowing of the trumpets against the Walls of Jericho

²⁶And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — this isn’t a law of Moses, but a Decree of God convey to the people through Moses;

²⁷“Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

— afflict your souls; from the evening of the ninth till the evening of the tenth, by resting from all work on pain of death, with fasting and bitter repentance for all, and especially their national sins, among which, no doubt, God would have them remember their sin of the golden calf.

Before taking his mission, which is a major mission to inaugurated his public ministry, Jesus went to fast for forty days and forty nights “And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He afterward hungered.” Matthew 4:2

Also Esther fasted, who asked her countrymen to fast for her: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me; and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise. And so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.” Esther 4:16

Moses also fasted: “When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water.” Deuteronomy 9:9

Fasting is also in the New Testament: Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. Acts 13:1-3

²⁸And ye shall do no work in that same day, for it is a Day of Atonement to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God. — the general festal sacrifices are described in Numbers 29:8-11.

²⁹For whatsoever soul it be that shall not be afflicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his people. — he shall be cut off from among his people; by an untimely death, by the hand of God; the Targum of Jonathan says, cut off by death from among his people.

³⁰And whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his people. — any sort of work whatever; for, as before observed, it was to be kept as strictly as the weekly Sabbath;

³¹Ye shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. — it shall be a statute for ever, throughout your generations, in all your dwellings; unto the coming of the Messiah and even beyond, who, by the atoning sacrifice of himself, would answer to this law, and put an end to it.

³²It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict your souls. On the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening unto evening, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.” — and ye shall afflict your souls; having set forth in Leviticus 23:30-31, and in the first clause of this verse, the duty of abstaining from all work, and of celebrating this day as a day of solemn rest,

— the law giver repeats the second feature of the day, which is of equal importance, namely, the fasting, lest some should think that doing the one and leaving the other undone would pass as having kept this law;

— in the ninth day of the month at even to that of the tenth; the fast was to begin at the close of the ninth day, and to continue to the end of the tenth;

³³And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — that is, this is a Command of God convey to all the Israelites through Moses;

³⁴“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days unto the Lord. — in the feast of Tabernacles there was a remembrance of their dwelling in tents, or booths, in the wilderness, as in a life’s journey;

— for seven days; like the Passover, the feast of tabernacles commenced at the full moon, on the fifteenth day of the month, and lasted for seven days.

³⁵On the first day shall be a holy convocation; ye shall do no servile work therein. — on the first day shall be an holy convocation; when they should be called together to holy exercises, to prayer, praising, and reading the law; and at this present time they observe this day, by rising early in the morning and going to the synagogue;

³⁶Seven days ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. On the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you, and ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. It is a solemn assembly, and ye shall do no servile work therein.

— on the eighth day shall be an holy convocation unto you; as on the first day; it is a solemn assembly; of all the people, when they were gathered together before the Lord.

³⁷“‘These are the feasts of the Lord which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering and a meat offering, a sacrifice and drink offerings, every thing upon his day”

— these are the feasts of the Lord; that is, the above-named six festivals: (1) the Passover (Leviticus 23:4-14), (2) Pentecost Leviticus 23:15-22), (3) Trumpet (Leviticus 23:23-25), (4) Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:26-32), (5) Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33-36 a), and (6) the Last Great Day (Leviticus 23:36 b). Thus the list of these festivals concludes with the formula by which they were introduced in Leviticus 23:4.

³⁸besides the Sabbaths of the Lord, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your freewill offerings which ye give unto the Lord. — “Beside the Sabbaths” that is, the Sabbath sacrifices (Numbers 28:9-10), and the gifts and offerings, which formed a different part of the keeping of the feasts and Sabbaths, but might be offered on those days.

³⁹“‘Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days; on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. — on the first day and on the eight day shall be a Sabbath; both on the first and last days of this festival there is to be abstention from all servile work.

⁴⁰And ye shall take for yourselves on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days. — the palm, the myrtle, and the willow, when tied together into one bundle, constitute the Lulab.

⁴¹And ye shall keep it a feast unto the Lord seven days in the year. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations; ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month. — seven days in the year; these seven days Tabernacle is the feast of Tabernacles proper, whilst the eight days in Leviticus 23:39 include the concluding festival of the Last Great Day (in Heb. Hoshana Rabbah).

⁴²Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths, — — but that last day was the eighth, the ceremony of drawing water from the pool, which was done on the Last Great Day, (in Heb. Hoshana Rabbah). seems to have been the introduction of a later period (John 7:37).

⁴³that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.’”

— that your generations may know; when their posterity are securely occupying the land of Canaan, the temporary dwelling in booths once a year may remind them of the goodness of God vouchsafed to their fathers in delivering them from the land of bondage, and sheltering them in booths in the wilderness.

⁴⁴And Moses declared unto the children of Israel the feasts of the Lord. — that is, these are but a Command of God convey to all the Israelites through Moses.

Leviticus 24

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Command the children of Israel that they bring unto thee pure olive oil, beaten for the light, to cause the lamps to burn continually. — the oil for the lamps of the tabernacle and the meal for the showbread were to be offerings; and the lamps to burn continually;

³Outside the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning before the Lord continually; it shall be a statute for ever in your generations. — shall Aaron order it from the evening unto the morning, before the Lord continually;

— that is, the lamp or lamps, or candlestick, in which they were, or the light of them; his business was, and so every priest’s that succeeded him, to supply the lamps with oil, to dress, him, and snuff them, that they might burn clear, and burn always, and that before the Lord, in the presence of the Lord;

⁴He shall order the lamps upon the pure candlestick before the Lord continually. — the pure candlestick; so called, either because of its resplendent brightness, or because it was of pure gold; before the Lord; because it was before the ark and mercy-seat, where God was peculiarly present;

— Aaron must always keep the lamps burning on the lampstand of pure gold before the Lord? – thought Aaron was only to be in the Holy of Holies only once a year? Or, this is still outside the Veil, in the Holy Place?

⁵“And thou shalt take fine flour and bake twelve cakes thereof, twotenths part shall be in one cake.

⁶And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord.

⁷And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

⁸Every Sabbath he shall set it in order before the Lord continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. — every Sabbath a fresh supply was furnished; hot loaves were placed on the altar instead of the stale ones, which, having lain a week, were removed, and eaten only by the priests;

⁹And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’; and they shall eat it in the holy place, for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the Lord made by fire by a perpetual statute.” — they shall eat it in the holy place; of the many things connected with the national service which became a perquisite of the priests: they had to be consumed within the precincts of the sanctuary;

¹⁰And the son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp.

¹¹And the Israelite woman’s son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed. And they brought him unto Moses (his mother’s name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan); — out of Egypt, being one of that mixed multitude which came out with the Israelites, Exodus 12:32. It is probable this was done when the Israelites were near Sinai;

— and they brought him unto Moses; having heard his blasphemy, to charge him with it before him, or in order to have due punishment inflicted on him;

¹²and they put him under guard, that the mind of the Lord might be shown them. — that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them; that is, that he might direct them according to the command of the Lord; —

¹³And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁴“Bring forth him that hath cursed outside the camp; and let all who heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. — let all the congregation stone him; the witnesses, who are the representatives of the people, cast the first stone, and then all the people who stood by covered the convict with stones.

¹⁵And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin. — this offender was the son of an Egyptian father, and an Israelitish mother;

¹⁶And he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him. As well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be put to death. — and all the congregation shall certainly stone him; shall have no pity on him, nor spare him, but stone him till he dies;

¹⁷And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death. — the Targum of Jonahan says he shall verily be put to death by the sword.

¹⁸And he that killeth a beast shall make it good, beast for beast. — beast for beast; or “soul for soul”; life for life, that is, a living one for that the life of which is taken away, and one every way as good as that;

¹⁹And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbor, as he hath done, so shall it be done to him— — as he hath done, so shall it be done unto him;

²⁰breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.

²¹And he that killeth a beast, he shall restore it; and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death. — and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death; or he that smites a man, though he does not kill him, as only makes a wound or bruise in him, because it is not said, the soul of a man, as before; but such damages did not require death, but satisfaction in another way;

²²Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger as for one of your own country; for I am the Lord your God.’” — as well for the stranger as for one of your own country; the above laws were binding upon proselytes as well as Israelites;

²³And Moses spoke to the children of Israel, that they should bring forth him that had cursed out of the camp and stone him with stones. And the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses.

— and the children of Israel did as the Lord commanded Moses; they took the blasphemer, and led him out of the camp, put their hands on him, and stoned him with stones till he died.

Posted in Books of Moses

Hamas to orchestrate attacks worldwide

•January 19, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Hamas working to orchestrate terror attacks worldwide, IDF claims

IDF officials have compiled intelligence on international terrorist operations with the assistance of European leaders

Fox News by Timothy Nerozzi • January 13, 2024 // The Times of Israel

The Israeli Defense Forces released a statement Saturday claiming that Hamas leaders are helping to orchestrate terror attacks worldwide as part of a larger campaign against Western powers.

The IDF published the report alongside a diagram outlining Hamas commanders linked to suspected terrorist operations in the European Union.

“Orders from the organization’s management, the purchase of drones, and the use of crime elements — this is how senior members of the terrorist organization Hamas promoted attacks against innocent people around the world,” the IDF wrote.

“Thanks to combined inter-organizational forces in Israel and abroad, a comprehensive and in-depth picture of Hamas’s terrorist activities has been revealed,” the Saturday statement said.

Gathered intelligence includes “details of areas of action, targets for attacks and those involved in implementing the activity – from Hamas commanders in Lebanon to the last attackers in the operational infrastructure, as well as information on the intention to attack the Israeli Embassy in Sweden, the acquisition of UAVs and the use of elements from criminal organizations in Europe.”

“The terrorist organization Hamas works to promote attacks against targets in the Middle East, Africa and Europe under the command of the organization’s senior leadership,” the report claims. “On December 14, 2023, the security and enforcement authorities in Denmark and Germany announced the extensive arrest of suspects in Europe who have since been subject to legal proceedings.”

The Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — in conjunction with German and Danish law enforcement — revealed last month the details of an operation that arrested multiple individuals in Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands accused of plotting terrorist attacks.

Security officials in Denmark announced the arrest of seven “terrorist operatives” connected to Hamas accused of planning an attack on European soil.

German officials reported the arrest of three Hamas members within their own borders and one in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

For more, see Europe’s anti-semitism Rising

Posted in Hamas

Leviticus (21-22)

•January 18, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 21

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Speak unto the priests the sons of Aaron, and say unto them: ‘There shall none be defiled for the dead among his people,

— he shall not defile himself for a dead person; that is, the priest is not to contract defilement by contact with the body of any dead person; none of the priests shall touch the dead body, or assist at his funeral, or eat at the funeral feast.

²except for his kin who is near unto him, that is: for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, — but for his kin, that is near unto him; there are, however, seven exceptions to the general rule; should add, “and his wife”

— these being all near relations, and for whom natural affection would lead and oblige him to mourn, and show a concern for their death, and to take care of their funeral.

³and for his sister, a virgin who is nigh unto him, who hath had no husband; for her may he be defiled. — and for his sister a virgin, that is nigh unto him; that is, his maiden sister who still remains in sole relationship with him; and no husband to take care of her funeral;

⁴But he shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. — a chief man, for such not only the high priest, but others also of the inferior priests, were;

— MSG says

God spoke to Moses: “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron. Tell them, A priest must not ritually contaminate himself by touching the dead, except for close relatives: mother, father, son, daughter, brother,

or an unmarried sister who is dependent on him since she has no husband; for these he may make himself ritually unclean, but he must not contaminate himself with the dead who are only related to him by marriage and thus profane himself. (Leviticus 21:1-4 MSG)

⁵They shall not make baldness upon their head, neither shall they shave off the corner of their beard nor make any cuttings in their flesh.

— the context speaks only of priests; make baldness upon their head; the natural expression of grief, however, which the priests were to manifest for the above-named departed relations, was not to show itself in the practices which disfigure their bodily appearance in connection with funeral ceremonies.

⁶They shall be holy unto their God and not profane the name of their God, for the offerings of the Lord made by fire and the bread of their God they do offer; therefore they shall be holy. — priests are to be devoted to God’s service, and always prepared for it, and therefore shall keep themselves from all defilements;

— from MSG

“Priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or gash their bodies. They must be holy to their God and must not profane the name of their God. Because their job is to present the gifts of God, the food of their God, they are to be holy.” (Leviticus 21:5-6 MSG)

⁷They shall not take a wife who is a whore or profane, neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband; for he is holy unto his God. — laws concerning the priests; without blemish, and separate from sinners; profane, or defiled, or defloured, a woman who has been seduced, or one of illegitimate birth.

⁸Thou shalt sanctify him therefore, for he offereth the bread of thy God. He shall be holy unto thee; for I the Lord, who sanctify you, am holy. — he shall be holy unto thee; in thy account and estimation, and for thy service to offer holy sacrifices, and therefore should be careful of his holiness to preserve it;

— from MSG

“Because a priest is holy to his God he must not marry a woman who has been a harlot or a cult prostitute or a divorced woman. Make sure he is holy because he serves the food of your God. Treat him as holy because I, God, who make you holy, am holy. (Leviticus 21:7-8 MSG)

⁹And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father. She shall be burned with fire. — she shall be burnt with fire; whilst the married daughter of a layman who had gone astray was punished with death by strangling (see Leviticus 20:10).

¹⁰“‘And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured and who is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head nor rend his clothes;

— nor rend his clothes; that is, “in the time of distress, or mourning for the dead,” being the intercessor between God and man, such outward expressions of sorrow might lead those in whose behalf he ministers in the sanctuary to believe that he thereby impugns the justice of Divine judgment.

¹¹neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father or for his mother; — neither shall he go in to any dead body; that is, into a tent or house where any dead body lies, would be unclean for seven days and would be prevented doing the duty of his office;

¹²neither shall he go out of the sanctuary nor profane the sanctuary of his God, for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. — the anointing oil of his God are upon him; the anointing oil, which was a crown of glory, and gave him a superior dignity to others, which it became him to be careful not to debase by any of the above things;

¹³And he shall take a wife in her virginity. — or, a virgin, partly for the decency of the type; though polygamy was practised by the Israelites, and even by the common priests, yet it was by no means allowed to an high priest;

¹⁴A widow or a divorced woman or profane or a harlot, these shall he not take; but he shall take a virgin of his own people for a wife. — or a divorced woman; whether by a priest, or a common Israelite; and indeed, if a common priest might not marry such a person, much less an high priest;

¹⁵Neither shall he profane his seed among his people, for I the Lord do sanctify him.’” — neither shall he profane his seed among his people; by marrying any such persons, whereby his children, born of them, would lie under disgrace, and be unfit to succeed him in the priesthood, or by marrying among mean persons, or by marrying them to such as were unlawful, and would be a disparagement to them;

¹⁶And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁷“Speak unto Aaron, saying, ‘Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations who hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. — whosoever he be of thy seed, whether the high priest or the inferior ones; in their generations; in all successive ages, as long as your priesthood and policy endures;

— any blemish, i.e. any defect or excess of parts, any notorious deformity, or imperfection in his body; that still such persons as have notorious defects or deformities, which render them contemptible, are not fit for the ministry.

¹⁸For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, — any deformity relating to it, either the want of it wholly or in part, or the shortness, flatness, or crookedness of it;

¹⁹or a man who is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, — brokenfooted, or brokenhanded; that is, one with a badly cured fractured foot or hand, since in ancient days such accidents were scarcely ever properly cured.

²⁰or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or who hath a blemish in his eye, or hath scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken— — or crookbackt; rather, or whose eyebrows cover his eyes.

²¹no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire. He hath a blemish: he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. — no man that hath a blemish; any notorious blemish whereby he is disfigured; whether an high priest or a common priest that lies on him anyone of the above blemishes;

— he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God: this is repeated for its confirmation, and to show how determined the Lord was in this matter; and how much he should resent it in any that should be found guilty of the breach of those rules;

²²He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy. — he shall eat the bread of his God; but though unfit for serving at the altar, and reduced to do the menial work connected with the sanctuary, he was not only allowed to partake of the less holy sacrificial gifts;

²³Only he shall not go in unto the veil nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish, that he profane not My sanctuaries; for I the Lord do sanctify them.’” — not to set the shewbread upon the table there, nor to light and him the lamps in the candlestick, nor to offer incense on the altar of incense;

²⁴And Moses told it unto Aaron and to his sons, and unto all the children of Israel. — and to all the children of Israel; to the heads of the tribes and elders of the people, and by them to the whole, that they might know who were fit, and who not, to put their sacrifice into their hands, to offer for them.

Leviticus 22

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and that they profane not My holy name in those things which they hallow unto Me: I am the Lord.

— that they profane not my holy name in those things which they hallow unto me, that is, let them not, by their want of due reverence, give occasion to profane my holy name. A careless or irreverent use of things consecrated to God tends to dishonor the name and bring disrespect on the worship of God.

³Say unto them: ‘Whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations, who goeth unto the holy things which the children of Israel hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that soul shall be cut off from My presence: I am the Lord. — having his uncleanness upon him; through a leprosy, or running issue, or touching any unclean person or thing;

⁴Whatsoever man of the seed of Aaron is a leper or hath a running issue, he shall not eat of the holy things until he is clean. And whoso toucheth any thing that is unclean by the dead, or a man whose seed goeth from him,

— what man soever of the seed of Aaron is a leper; a young, or an old man, as the Targum of Jonathan, and indeed man or woman; for the wives and daughters of the priests, if in this, and other circumstances following, might not eat of the holy things until cleansed;

⁵or whosoever toucheth any creeping thing whereby he may be made unclean, or a man of whom he may take uncleanness, whatsoever uncleanness he hath—

⁶the soul who hath touched any such shall be unclean until evening, and shall not eat of the holy things unless he wash his flesh with water.

⁷And when the sun is down he shall be clean, and shall afterwards eat of the holy things, because it is his food. — because it is his food: his common food, his ordinary diet, that by which he subsists, having nothing else to live upon; this being the ordination of God, that he which ministered about holy things should live on them;

⁸That which dieth of itself or is torn with beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith: I am the Lord. — that which dieth of itself, or is torn with beasts; whether fowls or beasts, and even clean ones;

⁹They shall therefore keep Mine ordinance, lest they bear sin for it and die therefore if they profane it: I the Lord do sanctify them. — lest they bear sin for it: the sanctuary, by neglecting it, and so be charged with the guilt of sin, and be obliged to bear the punishment of it; Targum of Jonathan says, “lest they die by flaming fire.”

¹⁰“‘There shall no stranger eat of the holy thing. A sojourner of the priest or a hired servant shall not eat of the holy thing. — there shall no stranger eat of the holy thing; by holy thing here is meant, that portion of the sacrifices which belonged to the priests.

¹¹But if the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house; they shall eat of his meat.

— but if the priest buy any soul; the case, however, was different with heathen slaves whom the priest purchased; these were admitted into the Jewish community by the rite of circumcision, they were allowed to partake of the paschal lamb, and of every privilege of the Israelites;

— one special case is Samuel, though he wasn’t a slave; but an Israelites, though not of priestly line;

¹²If the priest’s daughter also be married unto a stranger, she may not eat of an offering of the holy things. — if the priest’s daughter also be married; or if the priest’s daughter be married, by marrying a Hebrew of non-Aaronic descent, and thus leaving her paternal home, the daughter of the priest ceased to be part of the family circle, and lost her right to partake of the holy things.

¹³But if the priest’s daughter be a widow or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father’s house as in her youth, she shall eat of her father’s meat; but there shall no stranger eat thereof.

— be a widow, or divorced, and have no child; an exception, however, to this rule is, when the priest’s married daughter loses her husband either by death or by divorce, and has no children; under such circumstances she may resume her family ties under her paternal roof.

¹⁴And if a man eat of the holy thing unwittingly, then he shall put a fifth part thereof unto it, and shall give it unto the priest with the holy thing. — if anyone eats from a holy offering accidentally, he must give back the holy offering to the priest and add twenty percent over and above the principal of the value to it.

¹⁵And they shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer unto the Lord, — and they shall not profane; that is, the priests are not to desecrate the holy gifts of the Israelites by carelessly exposing them, and by not treating them with that sacred regard which is due to their being the bread of God.

¹⁶or allow them to bear the iniquity of trespass when they eat their holy things: for I the Lord do sanctify them.’” — when they eat their holy things; the holy things belonging to the priests, which they permitting them to do; —

¹⁷And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁸“Speak unto Aaron and to his sons and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them: ‘Whosoever he be of the house of Israel or of the strangers in Israel, who will offer his oblation for all his vows and for all his freewill offerings, which they will offer unto the Lord for a burnt offering”

— that will offer his oblation for all his vows, and for all his freewill offerings, which they will offer unto the Lord for a burnt offering; distinguish between a vow and a freewill offering; every vow is a freewill offering, but every freewill offering is not a vow;

¹⁹ye shall offer at your own will a male without blemish of the beeves, of the sheep, or of the goats. — bullocks, sheep, and goats, were the only sorts of beasts, out of which sacrifices were taken, and those that were for burnt offerings were always to be males, and unblemished;

²⁰But whatsoever hath a blemish, that shall ye not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for you. — to secure for him the good pleasure of God; but an animal with a fault would not be acceptable.

²¹And whosoever offereth a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no blemish therein. — every peace-offering was also to be faultless, whether brought “to fulfil a special vow” or as a freewill gift;

²²Blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wen, or scurvy, or scabbed, ye shall not offer these unto the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar unto the Lord. — ye shall not offer these unto the Lord; any creatures defective in any of these instances; three times this is said, to make them careful concerning their sanctification and concerning their slaying and sprinkling of their blood;

²³Either a bullock or a lamb that hath any thing superfluous or lacking in his parts, that mayest thou offer for a freewill offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted.

— but for a vow it shall not be accepted; because the other was according to a man’s will and pleasure, and he might bring what he would on that account; but when he made a vow that he would offer such a sacrifice, it must be of creatures that were perfect, and without blemish;

²⁴Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut; neither shall ye make any offering thereof in your land. — that is, not only are animals thus mutilated prohibited as offerings for the altar, but this practice of gelding (castrated) is altogether forbidden to the Israelites with regard to any animal whatsoever throughout the country.

²⁵Neither from a stranger’s hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these, because their corruption is in them and blemishes are in them; they shall not be accepted for you.’” — that is, animals that are imported and sold to the Israelites by the hands of foreigners.

²⁶And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁷“When a bullock or a sheep or a goat is brought forth, then it shall be seven days with its dam; and from the eighth day and thenceforth it shall be accepted for an offering made by fire unto the Lord. — it shall be seven days under the dam; animals were not considered perfect nor good for food till the eighth day.

²⁸And whether it be cow or ewe, ye shall not kill it and her young both in one day. — this prohibition to slaughter the dam and its youngling the same day was not only designed to remind the Israelites of the sacred relations which exist between parent and offspring, but was especially intended to keep up feelings of humanity.

²⁹And when ye will offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving unto the Lord, offer it at your own will. — offer it at your own will; just what they pleased, whether a bullock, a sheep, or a goat, and whether a male or female; these were left to their own option;

³⁰On the same day it shall be eaten up; ye shall leave none of it until the morrow: I am the Lord. — ye shall leave none of it till the morning; of another day;

³¹“Therefore shall ye keep My commandments and do them: I am the Lord. — the law about the priests and sacrifices now concludes with an appeal to both the priests and the people to faithfully observe these commandments.

³²Neither shall ye profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the Lord who hallow you, — neither shall ye profane my holy name; either by despising me and my command yourselves, or by giving others occasion to profane them.

³³that brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God: I am the Lord.” — I am the Lord; that hath sovereign right unto them, and claim upon them, and therefore they ought to be subject to his will, and observe his laws ordinances.

Posted in Books of Moses

Suez Canal tolls rise by 300%

•January 17, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Inflation is sure to rise in Europe and elsewhere as Houthi attacks from Yemen on commercial vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf have generated major disruption across key shipping artery. Hopefully not at Argentinian level!

RT News • January 13, 2024

The cost of transporting cargo through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, a major waterway for global shipping, have surged over 300% since November, amid Houthi attacks on commercial vessels thought to be Israel-linked, Sky News reported on Friday, citing data analyzed by global logistics company DSV.

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index (SCFI), the most commonly used measure of such costs, reached $3,101 per 20-foot container from $2,871 last Friday. The data shows that the overall price of a container being shipped from Shanghai to Europe was reportedly 310% up from prices at the beginning of November.

The Houthis, who have pledged to support Gaza amid fighting in the enclave between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, have since mid-October launched multiple drones and missiles targeting commercial vessels in the Red Sea, as well as warships patrolling the vital channel. They have carried out more than two dozen attacks, forcing major freight giants like MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd, to divert cargo around the southern tip of Africa, avoiding the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal.

Despite the major increases, shipping costs remain below levels recorded in March 2021 when the grounded 400-meter-long Ever Given container ship blocked the Suez Canal, leaving the crucial trade route impassable for six days. That incident left hundreds of ships stuck in mooring and reportedly held up $9 billion of global trade for each day of stoppage.

Earlier this week, the US and UK began carrying out airstrikes on Houthi militias in Yemen in response to the group’s actions in the Red Sea and the Gulf. The move has garnered mixed international reactions, with many warning that it would lead to escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

Posted in Armageddon, Islamic

Most Americans see as an Invasion

•January 16, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“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

What goes around comes around. Now most Americans see border crisis as ‘invasion’ – poll.

Will the United States become a Hispanic country by 2060?

RT News • January 8, 2024

A new survey has shown that US voters of all political stripes believe their country is being overrun by illegal aliens

Nearly two-thirds of US voters see the record influx of illegal aliens crossing the nation’s southern border as not just a crisis, but an “invasion,” a new Rasmussen Reports poll has found.

New survey shows US voters believe their country is being invaded

The survey released on Monday shows that 65% of voters believe their country is being invaded. A majority of respondents in every demographic category – including 73% of Hispanics, 74% of blacks, 63% of women, 55% of Democrats, 80% of Republicans, and 70% of voters under age 40 – agreed with the statement that it’s ‘very accurate’ or ‘somewhat accurate’ to call the flood of illegal migrant crossings an invasion. Just 15% of US adults believe that it’s ‘not at all accurate.’

Even more voters, 72%, believe the situation at the border is a “crisis.” Similarly, 70% of Americans, including 63% of Democrats, see border security as a vital national security interest, the poll shows.

The nationwide survey of 1,044 likely US voters comes at a time when the border crisis is weighing on President Joe Biden’s approval rating as he campaigns for reelection later this year. A Monmouth University poll released last month showed that just 26% of US adults approve of Biden’s immigration policies, while his overall approval rating dropped to a record low of 34%.

“Let’s be clear: What’s happening at the border is an invasion – at the invitation of Joe Biden,” Senator Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said.

Representative Mary Miller, an Illinois lawmaker who was part of a congressional delegation that toured key ports of entry last week, called for lawmakers to cut off funding to the government until the Biden administration secures the border.

Border Patrol officers encountered over 300,000 illegal immigrants crossing into the US in December, an all-time high. Illegal crossings have surged since Biden took office in January 2021 and began dismantling the immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump.

The Biden administration is on pace to have more than 12 million illegal migrant encounters during his four-year term, according to an estimate by Datahazard, compared with 4.76 million during the Trump years. Border Patrol officers intercepted 172 foreign nationals who appeared on the FBI’s terrorism watch list in the past fiscal year, compared with 14 combined during Trump’s four years in office.

Trump, who is polling as the leading Republican presidential candidate for November’s election, has vowed to launch the largest deportation operation in American history if voters send him back to the White House.

Senator Marsha Blackburn and other Republican lawmakers have pointed out that while the Biden administration pleads unsuccessfully to get more help from Mexico in slowing the migrant influx, the president has sued the state of Texas for trying to help secure its part of the border.

The administration has fought the state in court to remove border barriers and sued Texas last week over a new law enabling local police to arrest migrants for entering the country illegally.

Will the United States become a Hispanic country by 2060?

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Esau, Latin Americas, Mexico, Southern Border, US

The Boomarang effect of chanting “Yemen! Yemen!”

•January 15, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Protestors chant ‘Yemen Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around’ as 200,000 march through London and Met Police move in to make arrests – and Just Stop Oil are there too.

Today, around 300,000 Jews are living in the United Kingdom; or the 350,00 in France. More of such demonstrations will frighten them and will make them yearning for home. That’s right, Aliyah! And more will end up setting roots around the West Bank, the ancient land of Judea and Samaria. And more troubles ahead!

And more, Hamas planned to attack Israeli Embassy in Sweden – M ossad; Israel in the shadow of American decline by David Goldman

And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, “What seest thou?” And I said, “I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north.”

Then the Lord said unto me, “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land” Jeremiah 1:13-14

Daily Mail •January 13, 2024

More than 200,000 Pro-Palestinian protesters have started marching through London for the first major demonstration of 2024 — as the Metropolitan Police confirmed it had moved in to make six arrests.

Protesters pack central London as they protest the ongoing Israel-Hamas war

Around 1,700 police officers from the Met and other UK forces have been mobilised amid fears the escalating tension in Yemen will bring more activists to the streets of the capital.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels, whose slogan includes ‘death to Israel’ and ‘curse the Jews’, have targeted commercial ships passing through the Red Sea in a show of solidarity with Palestine.

Some protesters appeared to agree with the actions, chanting: ‘Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around’ as they marched through the capital.

Others waved Palestine flags, chanted ‘Free Free Palestine’ and lit flares as they marched from Queen Victoria Street towards Parliament Square, calling for a ceasefire in war-torn Gaza.

An estimated 200,000 people have taken to the streets of London today to join the action, which comes after raids in Yemen

Just Stop Oil protesters in fluorescent orange vests also joined the action, sharing a video of their activists clutching large banners walking alongside other activists.

Some protesters wearing masks of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were seen holding bloodied dolls up in the air in a bid to highlight the civilian lives being lost in the Middle East war.

The London march was one of several others being held in European cities including Paris, Rome, Milan where thousands also marched along the Irish capital’s main thoroughfare to protest Israel’s military operations in the Palestinian enclave.

For more, see Europe’s anti-semitism Rising

During the march in Edinburgh, a 70-year-old woman was arrested and charged with a driving offence after her car ploughed into protesters, with no injuries reported.

Israeli military drafting new immigrants older than 21 for settlements

Photographs on social media showed a black Seat Leon surrounded by protesters and police officers on The Mound in the city centre on Saturday afternoon.

In Dublin, a thousands-strong protest march reached the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Demonstrators waving Palestinian flags joined chants calling for the Irish government to support boycott, divestment and sanction actions and Israel.

And the word of the Lord came unto me the second time, saying, “What seest thou?” And I said, “I see a seething pot, and the face thereof is toward the north.”

Then the Lord said unto me, “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

For lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” saith the Lord; “and they shall come and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

And I will utter My judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. Jeremiah 1:13-16

Posted in Hamas, Islamic, Israel, UK, Zionism

Leviticus (19-20)

•January 15, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 19

¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: ‘Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. — ye shall be holy; separated from all the forementioned defilements, and entirely consecrated to God, and obedient to all his laws and statutes.

³Ye shall fear every man his mother and his father, and keep My Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God. — and keep my Sabbaths; this is expressed in the plural number, because there were various Sabbaths: the seventh day Sabbath, and the seventh year Sabbath, and the jubilee, which was once in seven times seven years; the seventh day Sabbath is chiefly meant;

⁴Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the Lord your God. — turn ye not unto idols; as the Lord is their God, and there is no other God besides Him, the Israelites must never turn their affections nor address prayers or enquiries to idols.

⁵“‘And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, ye shall offer it at your own will. — at your own will; or, according to your own pleasure, a voluntary freewill offering, of their own accord, and not by force, what you think fit; for though this sacrifice, was appreciated, it was left to their choice to determine the particulars.

⁶It shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow; and if aught remain until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. — it shall be eaten the same day ye offer it, and on the morrow; the meaning is, that if it could be, it was best to eat it all up the same day it was offered, but if not, the remainder was to be eaten on the morrow, but by no means to be kept any longer;

⁷And if it be eaten at all on the third day, it is abominable; it shall not be accepted. — it is abominable; it is as any common thing, as if it was no sacrifice; yea, as if it was corrupt and putrefied flesh;

⁸Therefore every one who eateth it shall bear his iniquity, because he hath profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. — therefore everyone that eateth it shall bear his iniquity; be chargeable with sin, be pronounced guilty, and endure the punishment, which is cutting off;

⁹“‘And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. — thou shall not wholly reap the corner of the field; but a part was to be left for the poor.

¹⁰And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard. Thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God. — left for the poor; is the poor Israelite; “the stranger” is properly the foreigner, or a proselyte who could possess no land of his own in the land of Israel.

¹¹“‘Ye shall not steal, neither deal falsely, neither lie one to another. — neither deal falsely; in any respect defrauding and over reaching in trade and commerce, particularly not being faithful to a trust committed to them;

¹²And ye shall not swear by My name falsely; neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. — ye shall not swear by my name falsely: this is here added, to show how one sin draws on another, and that when men will lie for their own advantage, they will easily be induced to perjury.

¹³“‘Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not remain with thee all night until the morning. — MSG “Don’t exploit your friend or rob him. “Don’t hold back the wages of a hired hand overnight.

¹⁴Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. — do no hurt to any, because they are unable to avenge themselves. We ought to take heed of doing any thing which may occasion our weak brother to fall;

¹⁴Thou shalt not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shalt fear thy God: I am the Lord. — thou shalt not curse the deaf; to revile one who cannot hear, and is therefore unable to vindicate himself, is both inexpressibly mean and wicked.

¹⁵“‘Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty, but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbor.

— ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; this is said with respect to judges and witnesses; that the one should not bear false witness in a court of judicature to the perversion of justice, and the other should not pronounce an unrighteous sentence, justifying the wicked and condemning the righteous;

¹⁶“‘Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor: I am the Lord. — thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer, or thou shalt not go about slandering; either by bearing a false testimony, whereby his blood is in danger of being shed when innocent; or by being silent, and not hearing a testimony for him, whereby the shedding of his innocent blood might have been prevented;

¹⁷“‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart. Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not let sin come upon him. — you shall not hate your brother in your heart, nor shall you rebuke your brother in any way, lest you bear sin because of him.

¹⁸Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord. — but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself; sincerely and heartily, as a man loves himself, doing all the good to him as a man does to himself, or would have done to himself;

¹⁹“‘Ye shall keep My statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle breed with a diverse kind. Thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed; neither shall a garment mingled with linen and wool come upon thee. — thou shall not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind; or “cause them to gender” for cattle do not usually of themselves gender with a diverse kind, unless directed and solicited to it, as a male of one kind with a female of another;

— for instance, an horse with a she ass, or an he ass with a mare, and even creatures that were like one another, yet of different kinds, were not to mix together; as a wolf and a dog, a hound and a fox, goats and roebucks, goats and sheep, a horse and a mule, a mule and an ass, an ass and a wild ass; for though they are like one another, they are of different kinds;

²⁰“‘And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman who is a bondmaid, betrothed to a husband, and not at all redeemed nor freedom given her, she shall be scourged. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free. — betrothed to an husband; rather, who has been betrothed to a man. The reference appears to be to a bondwoman who has been betrothed to a fellow-servant by her master;

— she shall be scourged; and not he, as the Targum of Jonathan says;

²¹And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: even a ram for a trespass offering. — he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord; to the priest of the Lord, to offer it for him; he, and not she, as the Targum of Jonathan has it;

²²And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he hath done, and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.

²³“‘And when ye shall come into the land and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised. Three years shall it be as uncircumcised unto you. It shall not be eaten of. — as uncircumcised, that is, as unclean, not to be eaten, but cast away, and counted abominable, as the foreskins are;

— three years shall it be; the cutting off of the fruit is to be repeated every year during three successive years. As the produce of the earliest year when let to grow upon the trees is both stunted and tasteless,

²⁴But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy with which to praise the Lord. — but in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy; separated and devoted to the service of God, to be given to the priest;

²⁵And in the fifth year shall ye eat of the fruit thereof, that it may yield unto you the increase thereof: I am the Lord your God. — and in the fifth year; it was only in the fifth year that the owner was permitted to eat the fruits without redeeming them.

²⁶“‘Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood; neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe omens. — any thing with the blood; any flesh out of which the blood is not first poured.

²⁷Ye shall not round off the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. — round the corners of your heads; that is, they are not to shave off the hair around the temples and behind the ears, so as to leave the head bald;

— neither shall thou mar the corners of thy beard; by shaving them entirely;

²⁸Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord. — ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead; by tattooing, imprinting figures of flowers, leaves, stars; either with their nails, tearing their cheeks and other parts, or with any instrument: knife, razor; it was the custom of the Amorites, when anyone died, to cut their flesh;

²⁹“‘Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to be a whore, lest the land fall to whoredom and the land become full of wickedness. — lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness: of the wickedness of whoredom;

³⁰Ye shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuary: I am the Lord. — ye shall keep my sabbaths; by attending to the worship and service of God on Sabbath days, they and their children would be preserved from the idolatry of the Gentiles, and all the filthy practices attending it;

³¹“‘Regard not those who have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

— those who have familiar spirits; it implied that those who practised this craft were supposed to be attended by an invisible spirit who was subject to their call to supply them with supernatural information; or practising as witchcrafts;

— neither seek after wizards or soothsayers; such as pretend to a great deal of knowledge, as the word signifies; such as are called cunning men; the expression “wizard,” which in old English denotes “wise man,” “sage,” is almost the exact equivalent of the word in the original.

³²“‘Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the Lord. — rise up before the hoary head; but though no regard is to be paid to these soothsayers and cunning men, the greatest reverence is to be shown to the aged, for “with the old is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.”

³³“‘And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. — ye shall not vex him; having once been admitted into the community, the Israelites were forbidden to upbraid him with his nationality or throw at him the fact that he was originally a heathen.

³⁴But the stranger who dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

— shalt love him as thyself; he is not simply to be treated with consideration and courtesy because he is a foreigner, and enjoy the rights and receive the justice due to every human being, but he is to be put on a perfect equality with the ordinary Israelite.

³⁵“‘Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measuring length, weight, or number. —n meteyard, in weight, or in measure; the first of these signifies the measure of land, of fields and so likewise of anything that is measured, not only by the rod or line, but by the yard or ell, as cloth and other things.

³⁶Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. — just balances, just weights; that is, they were to be the same for buying as for selling.

³⁷Therefore shall ye observe all My statutes and all My judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.’” — terefore; because my blessings and deliverances are not indulgences to sin, but greater obligations to all duties to God.

Leviticus 20

¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel: ‘Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who giveth any of his seed unto Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. — Molech, literally, “the King,” called also Moloch, Milcom, and Malcham, was known in later times as “the abomination of the Ammonites” 1 Kings 11:5.

— the nature of the rite and of the impious custom called passing children through the fire to Molech is probably true; the practices appear to have been essentially connected with magical arts, probably also with unlawful lusts, and with some particular form of profane swearing.

³And I will set My face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile My sanctuary and to profane My holy name. — and to profane my holy name: by sacrificing to an idol, when sacrifice should be offered to God; and such a sacrifice as would cause the name of God, and his holy laws, and true religion, to be blasphemed and evil, spoken of among the Gentiles.

⁴And if the people of the land do in any way hide their eyes from the man when he giveth of his seed unto Molech and kill him not, — and if the people of the land; if the community itself, whose duty it is to execute the sentence, either from culpable indifference or criminal sympathy with the sin, connive at it;

⁵then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off, and all who go a whoring after him to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. — then I will set my face against that man; that man that sees him do the fact, and winks at it, or the judge that connives at him, and will not condemn him, as well as the man that has committed the iniquity;

⁶“‘And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits and after wizards to go a whoring after them, I will even set My face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people. — such as have familiar spirits; to seek knowledge, or counsel, or help from them; the same punishment will be visited upon the man who consults necromancers; Jonathan says “and will destroy him by a plague from among his people.”

⁷“‘Sanctify yourselves therefore and be ye holy, for I am the Lord your God. — sanctify yourselves therefore; by abstaining from such impious and idolatrous practices, as well as by observing the holy commandments of the Lord; otherwise internal sanctification is not the work of man, but of the Lord himself;

⁸“‘And ye shall keep My statutes and do them: I am the Lord who sanctify you. — and ye shall keep my statutes, and do them; not only those respecting the above things, but all others, which would be a means of preserving them from sin, and of promoting holiness in their lives and conversations;

— I am the Lord which sanctify you: who had separated and distinguished them from all other people on earth, and who had given them holy laws, as the means of holiness; and who only could and did sanctify internally, by his spirit, such or them as were sanctified in heart, as well as outwardly.

⁹“‘For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. He hath cursed his father or his mother: his blood shall be upon him. — for everyone that curseth his father or his mother; here begins the account of the penalties annexed to the several laws in the preceding chapter; and that respecting the fear and honour of parents being the first,

¹⁰“‘And the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

— this death was inflicted for six crimes; (1) upon him who had commerce with another man’s wife; (2) who smote his father or mother; (3) who stole an Israelite; (4) who being an elder rebelled against the decree of the senate (Deuteronomy 17:12); (5) who played the false prophet; and (6) who prophesied in the name of another god.

¹¹And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both of them shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them. — it should be noted that having sex with a stepmother or daughter-in-law are put, by the punishment inflicted upon them, on the same level with adultery and unnatural crimes (verses 10, 13, 15, 16);

¹²And if a man lie with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death. They have wrought confusion: their blood shall be upon them. — confusion; by perverting the order which God hath appointed, and making the same offspring both his own child and his grand-child.

¹³“‘If a man also lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them. — if a man lie also with mankind, as he lieth with a woman; is guilty of the sin of sodomy, this is a breach of the law and worthy of death; be slain by stoning, as the above Targum says;

¹⁴“‘And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both he and they, that there be no wickedness among you. — it is wickedness; abominable wickedness, shocking and detestable; there are other things, which also are wicked and not to be done, but this is extremely wicked, wickedness to a high degree;

¹⁵“‘And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death; and ye shall slay the beast. — if a man lie with a beast; a sin quite unnatural, exceeding shocking and detestable, forbid Leviticus 18:23,

¹⁶And if a woman approach unto any beast and lie down thereto, thou shalt kill the woman and the beast. They shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them. — thou shall kill the woman and the beast: the woman by stoning, and the beast with clubs, as the Targum of Jonathan; and this for the same reasons as before, as well as to prevent monstrous births;

¹⁷“‘And if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter, and see her nakedness and she see his nakedness, it is a wicked thing; and they shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He hath uncovered his sister’s nakedness: he shall bear his iniquity.

— if a man shall take his sister, his father’s daughter, or his mother’s daughter; take her to be his wife, or commit lewdness with her, it is not lawful to marry her, or lie with her;

¹⁸“‘And if a man shall lie with a woman having her sickness and shall uncover her nakedness, he hath discovered her fountain, and she hath uncovered the fountain of her blood; and both of them shall be cut off from among their people. — a woman having her sickness; her monthly periods, which make her weak and languid, which is forbidden;

¹⁹And thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister nor of thy father’s sister, for he uncovereth his near kin: they shall bear their iniquity. — for he uncovereth his near kin; as an aunt is to a man, and so an uncle to a woman, and both equally criminal;

²⁰And if a man shall lie with his uncle’s wife, he hath uncovered his uncle’s nakedness. They shall bear their sin: they shall die childless. — they shall die childless; either the offspring should not be regarded as lawfully theirs, nor be entitled to any hereditary privileges, or they should have no blessing in their children.

²¹And if a man shall take his brother’s wife, it is an unclean thing. He hath uncovered his brother’s nakedness: they shall be childless. — and if a man shall take his brother’s wife; to his wife, whether in his life, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, or whether after his death;

— unless when there is no issue, then he was obliged to it by another law, Deuteronomy 25:5; which is now ceased, and the law in Leviticus 18:16; here referred to, stands clear of all exceptions;

²²“‘Ye shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and do them, that the land whither I bring you to dwell therein spew you not out. — that the land . . . spue you not out; as the stomach does its food when it is loathsome and nauseous to it, and it cannot bear it; Leviticus 18:25.

²³And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out before you; for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. — for there were seven nations cast out for them; and notorious for their wickedness: hence we often meet with this phrase, “the way of the Amorites” they would be ejected and abhorred by him, as the Targums of Jonathan says;

²⁴But I have said unto you, “Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who have separated you from other people. — but I have said unto you; that is, promised to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also to you, that he would expel the Canaanites, and give the land to the Israelites as an inheritance;

— I am the Lord your God; had chosen them above all people, to be a special and peculiar people to him; had distinguished them by his favours, and had given them particular laws and ordinances, to observe and walk according to them, different from all other nations, which it became them carefully to regard.

²⁵Ye shall therefore put difference between clean beasts and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean; and ye shall not make your souls abominable by beast or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that creepeth on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. — have separated you from other people; your selection from the rest of the nations was for the all-important end of preserving the knowledge and worship of the true God amid the universal apostasy;

²⁶And ye shall be holy unto Me; for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people, that ye should be Mine. — and ye shall be holy unto me; separated from all unclean persons and things, and devoted to his service, and obedient to all his commands, and so live holy lives and conversations, according to his will, and to his honour and glory;

— for I the Lord am holy; and therefore they, his people, should be like him, and imitate him, and observe those things which are agreeable to his holy nature and will, and yield a cheerful obedience to his holy precepts;

— and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine; which is a very forcible argument, a strong motive, and which laid them under great obligation to obedience and holiness.

²⁷“‘A man also or woman who hath a familiar spirit, or who is a wizard, shall surely be put to death. They shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.’” — “but” a man also or woman; that is, because the Israelites are God’s holy ones, therefore every man or woman who pretends to disclose future events by means of necromancy, thus usurping the functions of God, is to be stoned to death.

Posted in Books of Moses

China’s New Defense Minister

•January 14, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Chinese Naval Officers Supplanting Army within PLA

With military establishment in turmoil, Xi turns to the navy to assure loyalty

Asia Sentinel by Andy Wong Ming Jun • January 8, 2024

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s elevation of an admiral to the position of defense minister for the first time under Communist Party (CCP) rule, and several major reshuffles that rerouted senior naval flag-rank officers into China’s Rocket Forces, is a significant signal – if any was needed after 70 of the forces were arrested earlier – that all is not well within the Chinese military establishment.

Most significantly, the promotion of two People’s Liberation Army-Navy flag-rank officers to take up significant leadership roles such as Defense Minister and Commander, Rocket Forces, plus an ex-submariner promoted to become the new naval chief, hints at a potential sea change in the balance of interservice power more befitting the country’s newfound self-imagery as a blue-water power, or more tellingly at deeper issues with political loyalty from the land army to Xi.

Admiral Dong Jun’s elevation is widely seen as unprecedented, given the party’s enduring adherence to traditional Soviet/communist dogma of valuing the land army bit of the military as both the most important defenders of national survival and also the strongest bastion of political/ideological reliability.

Of China’s 14 defense ministers since 1949, all but three hail from the PLA Ground Force. While the 12th (Wei Fenghe) and 13th (Li Shangfu) were the first to break this tradition by hailing from the rocket force and the Strategic Support Force responsible for the PLA’s non-kinetic/electronic warfare branch, all of them nonetheless still came from the land domain of military service.

The land army had to be of the strongest political loyalty. In the case of both the former Soviet Union and modern-day China under the CCP, both countries’ political leaderships heavily politicized their national militaries with the land army the largest of the services.

To this day, political commissars ensure the PLA’s continuing loyalty as the CCP’s armed wing and guarantor of sole political survival as a more ideologically reliable hard power alternative. In Mao’s words, “The Party controls The Gun.”

Also, both the Russian and Chinese communists shared the same ideological distrust of their navies. This is due to two key reasons: a lack of modern naval historical tradition in the case of the Chinese prior to the CCP gaining power in 1949, and a history of starting revolutions in the case of the Russians.

Navies have also proved to be the hardest to effectively politicize, due to their self-image of relatively high professionalism enjoying a degree of operational autonomy away from central political command on land that is difficult if not impossible to achieve for army or air force officers.

It is also why despite its title, command and control of the PLA does not reside with whoever is Defense Minister but with whomever is Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC): one of Xi’s three main hats. The defense minister role is largely to give China an equivalent military leadership title to match those of foreign countries such as the US so as to facilitate diplomatic and professional interactions.

Of eye-opening intrigue is the fact that President Xi has not also concurrently promoted Admiral Dong to a seat on the CMC, which remains vacant following his predecessor Li Shangfu’s October removal.

Combined with Xi’s successful removal of term limits for the Chinese presidency, increasingly strident propagation of his brand of Chinese socialist ideology, and his rolling purges within the PLA and wider Chinese politics under the guise of “anti-corruption,” all signs indicate Dong’s appointment leaves him as the least powerful military figurehead in CCP history.

Dong’s symbolic appointment as defense minister, however, still holds significant signaling value.

According to a potted profile written by Dr Andrew S Erickson and Captain (Ret) Christopher Sharman at the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute, Dong’s career, spanning 44 years as a surface warfare officer culminating as naval chief, combined with his experience in operational assignments to key maritime-oriented theater commands facing Taiwan and the South China Sea make him an ideal candidate to demonstrate Xi’s focus on asserting Chinese maritime territorial claims in the East and South China Seas.

Dong’s experience in melding together joint service operations also put him in good stead with Xi, who has sought to modernize the PLA by copying the US military in terms of theater commands combining all military forces. This “flattened” command structure with individual joint-service theater commanders is ultimately controlled directly by Xi through the CMC.

This unprecedented elevation of an admiral to China’s second-highest military office also hints at how, after years of intensifying purges, the prestige, integrity, and political reliability of the PLA’s land army component has fallen significantly enough to allow the navy, historically the most junior and least-prioritized of the services, to gain enough clout to supplant. Nor is this just a one-off.

In another eye-catching move, General Wang Houbin, the new rocket force commander appointed last July, is also a former vice-admiral and deputy commander. Even Wang’s new chief political commissar at the rocket force, General Xu Xisheng, has exposure to maritime operations.

He was previously the chief political commissar of the Southern Theater Command Air Force as well as the deputy political commissar of the entire Southern Theater, which focuses on maintaining and advancing Chinese maritime interests in the South China Sea, as well as supporting its neighboring Eastern Theater Command for any major amphibious invasion of Taiwan.

The rising tide for the navy in the pecking order is indicative of the party’s pivot away from defining military priorities as focusing on continental defense towards becoming a true-blue water maritime power. This is further consolidated with the appointment of ex-submariner Hu Zhongming who succeeds General Dong as the new navy chief, which hints at submarines and undersea warfare as the next area of focus after the previous focus on aircraft carriers and surface vessels.

There is no doubt this will come as a fresh worry for US navy leaders, who have previously said the only clear area of asymmetrical advantage still held by the US against China is in undersea and submarine warfare.

Perhaps even more tellingly, it reflects the fallen star of the PLA ground force and its land-based Rocket Force, which is increasingly out of favor with a leader demanding personal loyalty. At last count nine senior military officers have been caught up in Xi’s latest wave of anti-corruption purges, which have primarily ensnared individuals hailing from the ground forces-linked rocket force and general weapons procurement, with more speculated to come.

Some military observers have expressed cautious hope that this weakening of the rocket force, with its tactical and strategic land and antiship missiles critical to any potential PLA offensive strategy against Taiwan and the US in the Western Pacific, will put pause to any contemplations of war by Xi and the CCP to reclaim Taiwan in the near future.

Posted in China

China sanctions US defense companies

•January 13, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China sanctions US defense companies: namely BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat, and Data Link Solutions. Perhaps no more rare earth, gallium and germanium.

The measures are in response to Washington’s weapons sales to Taipei, Beijing says

RT News • January 2024

China has sanctioned five American defense industry companies in response to “gravely wrong actions taken by the US,” the Foreign Ministry has announced. The move is said to be a countermeasure to Washington’s decision to proceed with new arms sales to Taiwan, as well as unilaterally sanctioning Chinese businesses.

This comes after Washington approved a $300 million weapons sale to Taipei last month, ahead of Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary elections on January 13, in which US-friendly Vice President Lai Ching-te of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party is the front-runner, according to recent polls.

Earlier in 2023, the administration of US President Joe Biden authorized a direct military transfer of $80 million to Taiwan under a program typically used for sovereign states, Reuters reported.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said the US sanctions imposed on Chinese companies and individuals “under various false pretexts” harm “China’s sovereignty and security interests, undermine the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

“China strongly deplores and firmly opposes this and has made solemn démarches to the US,” according to the statement.

The American companies affected by the new sanctions are BAE Systems Land and Armament, Alliant Techsystems Operation, AeroVironment, ViaSat, and Data Link Solutions, according to the ministry, which added that the measures include freezing the companies’ assets and prohibiting Chinese organizations and individuals from working with them.

Beijing urged the US to abide by the one-China principle and refrain from supplying arms to Taipei. It added that there will be a “strong and resolute response” if Washington continues with “illegal unilateral sanctions.”

Though Taiwan has long been self-governing, China considers the island part of its territory and reserves the right to seek reunification by force if Taipei formally declares independence. The US has officially recognized China’s sovereignty over Taiwan. However, in 2022, Biden said that Washington would defend Taipei in the event of an “unprecedented attack” by Beijing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping told Biden in November 2023 that Taiwan is the biggest and “most potentially dangerous” issue in bilateral relations, according to Reuters.

“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” Obadiah 1:15

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

Posted in China, Taiwan, US

Obadiah

•January 13, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“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.

In the latter days our knowledge would increase, and that would include the knowledge of the children of Esau, who they are, where they live and the prophecy, “thou shalt break his yoke of servitude from off thy neck….and then will I kill Jakob my brother,” Genesis 27:40-41 Jonathan

The book of Obadiah is about the Prophecy of Esau, also known as Edom (Hebrew for red), Mount Seir (Esau’s residence), Teman; children to the South of the children of Israel. Sometimes they are known as the Idumaean, children of Edom who live in Idumea, south of Jerusalem.

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.

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

The long feud between the brother 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 he obviously must have known this event.

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 to remember in Psalms 137 against the Edomites who had asked 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 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? 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.

Esau selling his Birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil soup

Obadiah

A parallel Prophecy in Ezekiel Chapter 35

— 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;

Rashi: The vision of Obadiah: 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: 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.”

For more, see (1) Another 100 Million MIGRANTS!; (2) Prophesied Battle over Migrants at the Border

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.

— Esau was the firstborn, 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 he 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: 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?

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.

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: to entice you to leave, and they deserted you.

— your food they lay as a wound under you: 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?

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.

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.

— in order that every man be cut off: i.e, every mighty man. [from Targum Jonathan]

— from the mountain of Esau by slaughter: By the great slaughter that will come upon them.

The Targum: And your warriors who dwell in the south shall be smashed, in order to destroy any man with the mark of the City of Esau, through slaughter.

¹⁰ “For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.

— “Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever; and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken.”

Rashi: Because of the violence of your brother Jacob: Because of the violence you inflicted upon Jacob.

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.”

Dwellers of the Southland – Anachronous map of the Spanish Empire (RED Territories until the Spanish American wars of independence (1808–1833))

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.

The Targum: And that you entered the gates of my nation 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.

Rashi: And you should not have stood by the gap: Heb. הַפֶּרֶק. The place through which the escapees emerge to escape, and in French they call it “trou.”

— And you should not have stood by the gap: From here [we learn] that one may not interrupt between one paragraph and another in reading the “Shma.” [Haggadah of Rabbi Akiva]

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. — 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.

Rashi: For, as you drank on My Holy Mount: Just as you rejoiced concerning the destruction of My Holy Mount. [from Jonathan]

— and be stunned: Heb. יְלָעוּ. As the Targum renders: וְיִסְתַּלְעֲמוּן, an expression of confusion, amazement, and benumbing the mind; etourdissant in French – stunning.

¹⁷ “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

The Targum: And in Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and they will be holy. And the House of Jacob shall inherit the possessions of the nations who had inherited from them.

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” the Spanish Empire were put to numerous defeats; first by the British, and second, by the Americans;

— 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.

Rashi: for the Lord has spoken: Now where did He speak? (Num. 24:19) “Out of Jacob shall come a ruler, and he shall destroy him that remains in the city.” [from Mechilta Bo 12:16, Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer ch.37]

— 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;

— Rashi: And [the inhabitants of] the southland shall inherit: Israel, who were dwelling in the south of Eretz Israel, shall inherit the mountain of Esau, which is at the southern boundary; and the people of the plain shall inherit the land of the Philistines and Mt. Ephraim and Mt. Shomeron;

— but a better interpretation is that “they of the south” that is, the children of Esau who live there, will one day, process the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria; and Benjamin with [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 (בִּסְפָרַ֑ד Hebrew ⁵⁶¹⁴) shall possess the cities of the south (Negev הַנֶּֽגֶב ⁵⁰⁴⁵)

— and the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the south; many versions of the Scriptures translate the captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad (bis·p̄ā·raḏ) as the South or Negev; so Q. Who live in the place call Sepharad? Who lives in the place South of Judea known as Negev? Answer: the captives of Jerusalem; that is, the Jews;

— the Edomites were to possess the cities of the Negev (South); but they, the captives from Jerusalem, the Jews, came to live with the Edomites in Sepharad in the South; in ancient times, the children of Esau were living at the South of Judea and Samaria; 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;

— further evidence are provided 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 Edomites, 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.”

— Geneva Study Bible: by Zarephath, France; and by Sepharad, Spain;

— 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.

For more on Esau: Ezekiel 20:45-21:1-5; Ezekiel 35

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

Are there any other possible observations?

Posted in Canada, Ephraim, Esau, Israel, Latin Americas, Minor Prophets, Southern Border, Spain, US

Israel’s far-right to expel Gaza’s Palestinians

•January 12, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Israel’s far-right bellowing to expel Gaza’s Palestinians. For further insight, see The War in Gaza isn’t about Hamas, it’s Demographics

Ultranationalist Ben Gvir calling for Palestinian resettlement in the West, a proposal the US sees as ‘inflammatory and irresponsible’

The Conversation by Leonie Fleischmann • January 6, 2024 // AsiaTimes

After more than 90 days of war in Gaza, in which at least 22,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed, Israeli officials have shifted their attention to what happens once the fighting has ceased.

There has been considerable controversy over proposals from far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Israeli ultranationalist politician Itamar Ben Gvir

The pair, who Netanyahu needed to include in his coalition to form a government last year, have advocated for Palestinians in Gaza to be resettled in countries around the world, making space for Israeli civilians to reoccupy the area.

Israel’s allies, who have thus far supported its war aims, have been quick to condemn the proposal. The United States released a press statement on January 2 rejecting the plan as “inflammatory and irresponsible.”

Washington confirmed its support for Gaza as Palestinian land. The statement further claimed that Netanyahu had reassured the US that the proposal does not reflect government policy.

But while Smotrich and Ben Gvir represent the most extreme factions of Israel’s ruling coalition and were frozen out of the war cabinet, it would be unwise to dismiss their comments as merely another incident of incitement against Palestinians.

The pair have the power to bring down the ruling coalition and Netanyahu if their demands are not heeded. And they have considerable support within the settler movement, which has been influential in the policy and practice of settlement building throughout Israel’s history.

And it is also important to note that proposals to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were initially proposed by Israeli lawmakers considered to be more moderate.

‘West should welcome Gaza refugees’

In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on November 13, 2023, two Israeli lawmakers – former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and center-left politician Ram Ben-Barak, formerly deputy director of Mossad, wrote that countries around the world should accept some of Gaza’s population who “have expressed a desire to relocate.”

They criticized the international community for not fulfilling “their moral imperative” to “help civilians caught in the crisis.”

Intelligence minister, Gila Gamliel – who represents Likud, the mainstream conservative nationalist party led by Netanyahu – reiterated this proposal in an article in the Jerusalem Post on November 19, 2023. She referred to Gaza as “a breeding ground for extremism” and called for the “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip.

Both these proposals suggested humanitarian concerns for Palestinians alongside security concerns for Israelis. But others who also support the plan do so out of strong religious ideology.

The aftermath of an attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian town near Nablus on the West Bank, where an estimated 700,000 Israelis live

Return of the settlers?

As documented by political geographer David Newman, the Israeli settler movement mainly comprises religious Zionists who believe the greater land of Israel was promised to the Jewish people by God. In light of this, many believe that settling the land is an opportunity to fulfill God’s promise.

Following the 1967 and 1974 wars, they rejected those who believed returning land to the Arab countries would secure peace. Instead, they advocated for the establishment of Israeli settlements to ensure the land was never relinquished.

They have had significant influence on Israeli policy and practice and now find themselves represented in the corridors of power by Smotrich and Ben Gvir.

The movement was dealt a severe blow following the decision by former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s disengagement plan in 2005. Sharon evicted about 8,000 Israeli settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Settlers have been quick to respond to the current conflict, seeing it as an opportunity to fulfill the religious promise. At the end of December last year, the leader of the Nachala Israeli settlement movement, Daniella Weiss, appeared on mainstream television calling for Palestinians to be cleared from Gaza.

This was so that Israeli settlers “can see the sea … There will be no homes, there will be no Arabs – it’s just an elegant way of saying, I want to see the sea.” She declared that Gaza City had always been “one of the cities of Israel. We’re just going back. There was a historical mistake and now we are fixing it.”

What these positions fail to fundamentally understand is the deep connection Palestinians have to the land and their steadfastness in remaining there.

Deep divisions

Weiss’s position – and the aspirations of the settler movement – appear to have been dealt a setback by Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who has presented his plans for Gaza after the destruction of Hamas.

On January 5, he said: “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.” Gallant further proposed that there should be no Israeli civil presence in Gaza.

An account in the Times of Israel said that the cabinet meeting at which Gallant outlined his proposal ended in acrimony, exposing the deep divisions in Netanyahu’s government.

Gallant’s proposal comes days before US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit to discuss “transitioning to the next phase” of the war. The proposal has been presented to the US administration, although it does not yet form official policy.

As attention turns towards the end of the hostilities, Netanyahu will have a difficult juggling act in placating the different factions of his coalition and the Israeli public, as well as satisfying demands from the US.

What is missing from the discussions thus far is the voice of the Palestinians – which must be put at the center of any future solutions.

For more, see The War in Gaza isn’t about Hamas, it’s Demographics

“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,’

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.

“Behold, I will send for many fishers,” saith the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

For Mine eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hid from My face, neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes. Jeremiah 16: 14-17

Posted in Islamic, Israel, Judiasm, Zionism

Leviticus (17-18)

•January 11, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“And if you pollute it, the land will vomit you up just as it vomited up the nations that preceded you”

Leviticus 17

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them: ‘This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, saying: — this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded; ordered to be observed as his will and pleasure by everyone of them: saying; namely, what follows.

³Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel who killeth an ox or lamb or goat in the camp, or who killeth it out of the camp, — that killeth; not for common use, for such beasts might be killed by any person or in any place; but for sacrifice, as the sense is limited, Leviticus 17:5;

⁴and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man: he hath shed blood. And that man shall be cut off from among his people,

— he shall be cut off by death, either by the hand of God, in case men do not know it or neglect to punish it, or by men, if the fact was public and evident;

⁵to the end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them for peace offerings unto the Lord.

— whoever of the house of Israel slaughtered an ox, sheep, or goat, either within or outside the camp, without bringing the animal to the tabernacle, to offer a sacrifice therefrom to the Lord, “blood was to be reckoned to him;”

⁶And the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and burn the fat for a sweet savor unto the Lord. — and burn the fat for a sweet savour to the Lord; the fat includes the inwards, the kidneys, the flanks and caul of the liver; Leviticus 3:3.

⁷And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for ever unto them throughout their generations.’ — and they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils; the word, sēirim here translated “devils,” literally indicates hairy or shaggy goats, and then goat-like deities, or demons.

⁸“And thou shalt say unto them: ‘Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who offereth a burnt offering or sacrifice,

⁹and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation to offer it unto the Lord, even that man shall be cut off from among his people.

— even that man shall be cut off from his people; from being one of them, and having communion with them, and sharing in their privileges; or by death, either by the hand of the civil magistrate, or rather by the hand of God;

¹⁰“‘And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who eateth any manner of blood, I will even set My face against that soul who eateth blood and will cut him off from among his people.

— owing to its great importance, the law is enacted here separately, where it naturally follows the order that the blood of all animals sacrificed in the sanctuary is to be offered to the Lord upon the altar.

¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. — and I have given it unto you to make an atonement for your souls: that being the life of the creature, was given for theirs to preserve them alive, and secure them from death their sins deserved;

¹²Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, “No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood.” — neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood; any proselyte of righteousness; this may not have been observed before.

¹³And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among you, who hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten, he shall even pour out the blood thereof and cover it with dust. — he shall even pour out the blood; and cover it with dust; upon the earth, from which all animals came forth at their creation;

¹⁴For it is the life of all flesh: the blood of it is for the life thereof. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, “Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh, for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. Whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.” — whosoever eateth it shall be cut off; by death, whether he be an Israelite or a proselyte of righteousness;

¹⁵And every soul that eateth that which died of itself or that which was torn by beasts, whether it be one of your own country or a stranger, he shall both wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening; then shall he be clean. — that which died of itself; the law enacted here is a natural sequel to the one immediately preceding, since it is still based upon the sacredness of blood;

— then shall he be clean; when he has washed his garments, and bathed himself, and the evening is come, and then shall be admitted to society as before:

¹⁶But if he wash them not nor bathe his flesh, then he shall bear his iniquity.’” — then he shall bear his iniquity; his guilt shall remain on him, and he shall suffer the punishment the law exposes him to, either by the hand of God, or the civil magistrate, which is due to persons that enter into the sanctuary in their uncleanness, or eat of holy things.

Leviticus 18

¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘I am the Lord your God. — I am the Lord your God; the Lord, Yehovah, is their recognised and sole sovereign, the children of Israel are therefore bound to obey His precepts, and not be led astray by the customs or statutes which prevailed among the people whose country they are to possess.

³According to the doings of the land of Egypt wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan whither I bring you, shall ye not do; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.

— after the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do; where they had dwelt many years, and were just come out from thence, and where they had learned many of their evil practices; not only their idolatrous ones referred to in the preceding chapter;

⁴Ye shall do My judgments and keep Mine ordinances to walk therein; I am the Lord your God. — ye shall do my judgments; the expression “my judgments and mine ordinances” is here used emphatically, in opposition to “their ordinances,” and has here the force of Mine only;

⁵Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. — he shall live in them; not only happily here, but also eternally hereafter;

⁶“‘None of you shall approach any who is near of kin to him to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord. — to illicit incestuous relation is illegal;

⁷The nakedness of thy father or the nakedness of thy mother shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. — by uncovering a father’s nakedness is not meant anything similar to what befell Noah, which Ham beheld with pleasure, and the other two sons of Noah studiously and with reverence to their father covered;

— she is thy mother, thou shalt not uncover her nakedness; that is, not lie with her, nor marry her, because she is his mother that bore him, of whom he was born, and therefore ought not to become his wife, or be taken into his bed; such a marriage must be incestuous and shocking;

⁸The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness. — a man’s father’s wife is for ever prohibited, whether she be simply betrothed or married to his father, whether she be divorced or not, whether she be a widow or not; all connection with her on the part of the father’s son is forbidden;

— this, therefore, includes the sin of Reuben with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (Genesis 35:22), and of Absalom with the wives of his father (II Samuel 16:20-23; I Kings 2:17); which was not incestuous marriage but adultery, since their husbands were alive and the wives were not divorced from them;

⁹The nakedness of thy sister, the daughter of thy father or daughter of thy mother, whether she be born at home or born abroad, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover.

— the nakedness of thy sister; to lie with one in so near a relation is exceeding criminal, and for which the law curses a man, Deuteronomy 27:22; and to marry her is not lawful; for though it was necessary for the propagation of mankind that a man should marry his sister, for who else could Cain and Abel marry?

— yet afterwards, when there was an increase of mankind, and there were people enough remote from each other, it became unlawful for persons in such near ties of consanguinity to marry with each other;

¹⁰The nakedness of thy son’s daughter or of thy daughter’s daughter, even their nakedness thou shalt not uncover; for theirs is thine own nakedness. — for theirs is thine own nakedness; which sprung from his, being the descendants either of his son or daughter; the Targum of Jonathan says,” for they are as thy own nakedness,” his own flesh and blood.

¹¹The nakedness of thy father’s wife’s daughter, begotten of thy father, she is thy sister; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. — thy father’s wife’s daughter; if this clause stood alone it would denote the daughter of a man’s stepmother by another or previous husband;

¹²Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister: she is thy father’s near kinswoman. — thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s sister; his aunt by his father’s side;

¹³Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister, for she is thy mother’s near kinswoman. — thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy mother’s sister; which is the same relation as before, an aunt by the mother’s side; wherefore, if such a marriage was unlawful, this must also, and for the same reason;

¹⁴Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother. Thou shalt not approach his wife: she is thine aunt.

— thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy father’s brother; which some understand this of committing sodomy with him, on which account he was doubly guilty, partly because of lying with a male, and partly because of uncovering the nakedness of his father’s brother;

¹⁵Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy daughter-in-law: she is thy son’s wife; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. — she is that son’s wife; and so one flesh with him, and who is of the same flesh and blood with his father, and therefore the nearness of the relation forbids such incestuous copulation or marriage;

¹⁶Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brother’s wife: it is thy brother’s nakedness. — the Targum of Jonathan adds; by way of explanation, “in the life of thy brother, or after his death, if he has children,” but then that law was but an exception from this general rule, and so did not make it void in other respects, but bound it the more strongly; and besides, it was a special and peculiar law to them;

¹⁷Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter, neither shalt thou take her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter to uncover her nakedness: for they are her near kinswomen; it is wickedness.

— a woman and her daughter; that is, if a man marries a widow who has a daughter by a former husband, or if he forms an alliance with a woman who has a daughter out of wedlock, he is forbidden to marry also the daughter.

¹⁸Neither shalt thou take a wife to her sister to vex her, to uncover her nakedness beside the other in her life time. — to vex her; that is, by marrying also the younger sister, the first, who is already the wife, would be roused to jealousy, and the natural love of sisters would thus be converted into enmity, thus precluding the occurrence of a case like that of Jacob with Leah and Rachel.

¹⁹“‘Also thou shalt not approach unto a woman to uncover her nakedness as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness. — to uncover her nakedness, as long as she is put apart for her uncleanness; in her monthly courses; and the time of her separation from her husband on that account was seven days;

²⁰Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbor’s wife, to defile thyself with her. — thy neighbour’s wife; for committing adultery, which is here branded as a defilement, whether with a betrothed or married woman, both guilty parties incurred the penalty of death by stoning.

²¹And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord. — pass through the fire to Molech; literally, to let it pass to Molech, that is, to put the child into the hands of the figure of Molech, when it fell into the fire which was kindled in the hollow statue of this idol.

²²Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination. — as with womankind; this was the sin of Sodom (Genesis 19:5), whence it derived its name, and in spite of the penalty of death enacted by the Law against those who were found guilty of it;

²³Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith, neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. — any beast; the necessity for the prohibition of this shocking crime, for which the Mosaic law enacts the penalty of death;

²⁴“‘Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you, — defile not ye yourselves in any of these things; in incestuous copulations and marriages, in adultery, sodomy and bestiality;

— the Targum of Jonathan says:

Defile not yourselves by any one of all these; for by all these have the peoples defiled themselves whom I am about to drive away from before you. Leviticus 18:24 Targum

Defile not yourselves by any one of all these; for by all these have the peoples defiled themselves whom I am about to drive away from before you.

— for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you; that is, the seven nations of the land of Canaan: the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites. Genesis 15:19-21

²⁵and the land is defiled. Therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.

— therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it; and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants: the Canaanites collectively, as enormous and incorrigible sinners, were to be exterminated; and this extermination was manifestly a judicial punishment inflicted by a ruler whose laws had been grossly and perseveringly outraged;

— and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants; as a stomach loaded with corrupt and bad food it has taken in, nauseates it, and cannot bear and retain it, but casts it up; so the land of Canaan is represented as loathing its inhabitants, and as a indignation against them, and as not being able to bear them, but entirely willing to be rid of them and throw them out of their places in it, never to be admitted again, being as nauseous and as useless as the cast of a man’s stomach;

²⁶Ye shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation nor any stranger who sojourneth among you — ye shall therefore keep my statutes; as the perpetration of the above named abominations entailed such disastrous consequences both to the land and to its inhabitants,

²⁷(for all these abominations have the men of the land done, who were before you, and the land is defiled), — the repetition as those in Leviticus 18:24-25, is of the same sentiments in diiferent words, as is frequently the case in the Scriptures, is designed to impart emphasis. The parentheses are unnecessary.

²⁸that the land spew not you out also when ye defile it, as it spewed out the nations that were before you. — that the land spue not you out also; better, Lest the land vomit you out; that is, as it spewed out the nations that were before you;

— the judgement is expulsion; hence the Targum Jonathan says

For these abominable things have been done by the men of the land who have been before you, so that the land hath been polluted:

lest, when you pollute the land, it cast you forth, as it will have delivered itself of the people that were before you. Leviticus 18:27-28 Targum

— same thing, the judgement is expulsion; and here from the MSG

“Don’t pollute yourself in any of these ways. This is how the nations became polluted, the ones that I am going to drive out of the land before you. Even the land itself became polluted and I punished it for its iniquities—the land vomited up its inhabitants.

You must keep my decrees and laws—natives and foreigners both. You must not do any of these abhorrent things. The people who lived in this land before you arrived did all these things and polluted the land.

And if you pollute it, the land will vomit you up just as it vomited up the nations that preceded you. Leviticus 18:24-28 MSG

And below a parallel Scripture from Jeremiah:

“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,’

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

²⁹For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations, even the souls who commit them shall be cut off from among their people. — the souls that commit them shall be cut off; this strong denunciatory language is applied to all the crimes specified in this chapter without distinction: from incest as truly as to Sodomy to bestiality, and to other cases of affinity;

³⁰Therefore shall ye keep Mine ordinance, that ye commit not any one of these abominable customs, which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God.’”

— and that ye defile not yourselves therein; for though the land is so often said to be defiled, yet, properly speaking, and chiefly, it was the inhabitants that were defiled by their abominable customs;

— and so should the Israelites do so also, should they observe the same, and thereby become abominable in the sight of God, and incur his same displeasure, and be liable to his vengeance:

— from MSG

“Those who do any of these abhorrent things will be cut off from their people. Keep to what I tell you; don’t engage in any of the abhorrent acts that were practiced before you came.

Don’t pollute yourselves with them. I am God, your God.” Leviticus 18:29-30 MSG

Posted in Books of Moses

Jacob prefers Ephraim over Manasseh

•January 10, 2024 • Leave a Comment

The Scripture tells us that Joseph’s sons were blessed by Jacob, who was inspired by God in his choice of words. They were to carry his name, Israel, to be blessed and “as the fishes of the sea in multiplying are multiplied in the sea, so may the children of Joseph be multiplied abundantly in the midst of the earth” (Genesis 48:16 Jonathan).

This means that the children of Joseph would be like fish which are fruitful and multiply, and which are not affected by the evil eye, since they live calmly and are unseen by their enemies.

Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph by placing his right hand on the head of the younger sibling, and his left hand on the older. When Joseph saw that Jacob’s right hand was on Ephraim’s head, he tried to move it, thinking Jacob couldn’t see which son was which. Joseph assumed that the greater blessing would go to the older son.

“I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he.”

But this was God’s intent; Ephraim, the younger son, was blessed by God with the blessing of the right hand, the greater blessing – the blessing of the firstborn. His offspring were to become a “multitude” of nations.

Joseph protested, and the story of Jacob’s words continues in Genesis 48:19, “I know, my son, I know that he is the firstborn.” Jacob repeated the expression to imply that he knew many things of which Joseph was unaware, and if he chose to give the primary blessing to Ephraim, it was for good and sufficient reason.

Ephraim’s pre-eminence was not the result of Jacob’s blessing. It was not Jacob’s blessing because Ephraim’s upbringing was the source of his future greatness, for he was accustomed to studying the Torah with Jacob (Rashi Genesis 48:1), while Manasseh, the firstborn was picked up by Joseph to be his assistant in governing Egypt.

Manasseh: the Royal Coat of Arms of Scotland has two Unicorns

Let’s study a critical verse in Deuteronomy 33:17

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

Who symbolises the Bullock and who is the Unicorn?

If Great Britain were truly Ephraim, then why does their Royal Standard bear the clear representation of the Unicorn – the symbol or sign of the tribe of Manasseh? The Unicorn of Great Britain identifies the British as primarily of the tribe of Manasseh. And if the unicorn is the symbol of Manasseh and the United States is “Manasseh” – why doesn’t the United States have this symbol in their national emblems and symbols?

The beginning of the story of America is the saga of the search for freedom to worship God without having to conform to the authority of a religious tyranny emanating from Europe. Today, as a whole, America remains a religious nation.

Among advanced industrialized countries, the United States is easily the most religious. Some 60 percent of its citizens say religion is very important to their lives, about six times the percentage of the French. But the divine looms even larger in most Americans’ hearts than those figures suggest. Some 90 percent say they believe in God – 94 percent if you add those who revere a ‘universal spirit’ – while less than 1 percent call themselves atheists or agnostics.

The United States was originally founded largely by Puritans, called Pilgrims, a break-away group of devout Christians who were known as Separatists, because they separated from the Church of England to follow the precepts of the Bible. Because of intense persecution, they sailed for the New World to establish a country where they could worship God in peace.

If anyone visits Washington, DC, he or she would be able to see Bible verses etched in stone all over Federal buildings and monuments. Up the steps to the Supreme Court building, near the top of the building, lies a row of the world’s great lawgivers, each one facing the one in the middle – Moses holding the Ten Commandments. Continuing inside the courtroom, the wall right above where the chief justice sits, there displays the Ten Commandments.

The Puritans of New England – sought to practice their own Christian faith and to found a Christian state. They established Congregationalism and supported it with taxes and compelled their chief magistrates to govern “according to the rule of the Word of God.”

During the 1740s, the colonies were swept by a powerful religious revival called “The First Great Awakening.” It emphasized individual religious experience and conversion.

With a renewed and over zealous fevour, they viewed their emigration from England as a virtual re-enactment of the Exodus from Egypt: England was Egypt, the English king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean their Red Sea, America was the Land of Israel, and the Indians were the ancient Canaanites.

“We are the New Israelites,” they thought, entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land; with a notion of cultural and racial superiority, the new Settlers started eradicating the native population like it was when they were entering into the land of Canaan.

Names of cities, towns and settlements likewise derived from Hebraic sources. This widespread use of biblical names, however, was not confined to the naming of offspring, cities and towns – names of many biblical heights were eventually bestowed upon the great mountains of America.

Mount Carmel and Mount Horeb, home of the Prophets, were popular names, as was Mount Nebo, the final resting place of Moses. Names like Mount Ephraim, Mount Gilead, Mount Hermon, Mount Moriah, Mount Pisgah, were all popular as well. Some mountains in the New World were even called Mount Sinai, Mount Zion and Mount Olive.

Ephraim: a Mystical Bull: the Ox with Horns of a Unicorn, but no Unicorn

Many of the people who settled British North America in the seventeenth century came for religious reasons, for the opportunity to worship God in ways that were unacceptable in Europe. As the New Israelites, their passion for their faith was transmitted to their descendants who created the American nation in 1776.

The Puritans wholeheartedly believed that it was their special mission to establish in America a society precisely modeled on the precepts of Sacred Scriptures. They firmly believed that the Hebrew prophets were speaking to them as directly as they had spoken to the the new Israelites; and thus they also carried out ethnic cleansings like it was upon entering the land of Canaan.

Thus the history of the Israelites as related in the Bible served, according to the ministers of the day, as a mirror in which the Puritans could see their own activities reflected. Still considering themselves as Christian Protestants, the Puritans related to the Israelites and their Jewish belief for their fundamental ‘grounding.’

The Second Great Awakening, around 1845, saw revivalist Christianity and evangelicalism spread hand in hand with Jacksonian democracy, bolstering the American creed of liberty, individualism and equality.

It was a Protestant religious revival spreading religion through emotional preaching which sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a key part of the movement and attracted hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations. The Methodist Church used circuit riders to reach people in frontier locations.

The outpouring of religious fervor and revival began in Kentucky and Tennessee in the 1790s and early 1800s among the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists; and new religious movements such as the Latter Day Saint and Adventist movements; and later, the Jehovah witnesses.

Prophet Joseph Smith, holding the golden plates before the angel Moroni

And here is the story of Prophet Joseph Smith (1805-1844), who inspired a fabricated treasure-digging scheme promoted by the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr that empowered the Latter Day Saint movement:

Joseph Smith began his vision with angel Moroni giving him the Golden Plates in a buried stone box at the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York situated a few miles from Smith’s boyhood home on a farm.

When Smith arrived, “the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room.” The account continues by saying they found “more plates than probably many wagon loads; and were piled up in the corners and along the walls.”

But Smith was forbidden by the angel to show the plates to anyone until they had been translated from their original “reformed Egyptian” language.

Jesus the Son and God the Father came to visit Joseph Smith, an honour and privilege even Moses or Elijah couldn’t achieve

In his home, Smith dictated the text of the plates while his wife or a scribe wrote down the words which would later become the Book of Mormon. Smith translated the plates, not by looking directly at them, but by looking through a transparent seer stone in the bottom of his hat.

Smith published the first edition of the translation in March 1830 as the Book of Mormon, with an initial print run of 5,000 copies; and hence starting the Movement more riveting and entertaining than a Tom Clancy novel.

Overlapping the life of Joseph Smith, a Prophetess Ellen G White (1827-1915) were to appear to energize the Adventist movement:

Ellen G White, seeing rays of lights from the Throne of the Most High

Soon after Baptist preacher William Miller (1782-1849) failed miserably in his prophecy that the Second Coming would occur at Atonement Ocober 22, 1843 and then again on Ocober 22, 1844. Among the founders of the Adventist movement was Ellen G White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard that they are on higher ground than the Bible by the church.

In one of her fabricated visions, Ellen G White, wrote of rays of lights from the throne or in one of her dreams, of “her revelation” that her writings ahead of Moses and the Prophets, ahead of God’s Word in actual fact; wine isn’t wine as we normally think of drinking wine to make one merry during festivals.

And in an extremely case, Noah, a righteous man, was found to be drunk with wine, but it was simply grape juice, says Sister White, so let’s check on her writing what she wrote about the eating of meat:

From the light God has given me, the prevalence of cancer and tumors is largely due to gross living on dead flesh.

I sincerely and prayerfully hope that, as a physician, you will not forever be blind on this subject, for blindness is mingled with a want of moral courage to deny our appetite, to lift the cross, which means, to take up the very duties which cut across the natural passions.

Feeding on flesh, the juices and fluids of what you eat pass into the circulation of your blood, and, as we are composed of what we eat, we become animalized; thus a feverish condition is created, because the animals are diseased, and by partaking of their flesh, we plant the seeds of disease in our own tissue and blood.

Then when exposed to the changes in a malarious atmosphere, these are more sensibly felt; also when we are exposed to prevailing epidemics and contagious diseases the system is not in condition to resist the disease. TSDF 68.11

I have the subject presented to me in different aspects. The mortality caused by meat-eating is not discerned; if it were, we would hear no more arguments and excuses in favor of the indulgence of the appetite for dead flesh. We have plenty of good things to satisfy hunger without bringing CORPSES upon our table to compose our bill of fare. TSDF 68.12

But during Passover, the Israelites were asked to eat lamb. False prophets and false prophetesses abound, Ellen Super White seemed to have more understanding of our human body than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Besides, the sons of Aaron serving as priests in His Temple, would be most defiled because they have to eat the numerous offerings, not CORPSES as false prophetess White alleged, considered as most holy; Leviticus 2:3,10, 6:29. Such a subtle attack on the priesthood; hence giving rise to a Thyatira dublicity!

In ancient Israel, when prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel spoke, their words and prophecies are complementary, although they spoke in different ways, but in this latter day’s so-called prophets or prophetess teachings, their themes kill each other.

That is, Joseph Smith’s teaching is incompatible with Ellen G White’s. And besides, Ellen G White’s numerous visions, as well as her voluminous writings, are as authentic as the treasure-digging scheme promoted by Prophet Joseph Smith Jr!

Not only that, their themes, teachings and prophecies are also incompatible to any of the Old Testament Prophets.

For example, Ezekiel wrote about the Passover, among many other sacrifices, reinstated in the Millennium:

“‘In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten” Ezekiel 45:21 — this is understood to mean the Passover, “a feast of a full week,” the exact duration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which began with the eating of the Paschal lamb;

— in actual fact, Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, and numerous sacrifices are to be offered during the Millennium Ezekiel 40 to 48.

Today, this spiritual malaise about Ephraim has been prophesied long ago of their false teachings or human idols: “for I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied in Baal and caused My people Israel to err” Jeremiah 23:13; further, the God they seemingly worshipped looks down from heaven and says:

“I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled” Hosea 6:10

“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

And to be followed by God’s judgement:

“The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet” Isaiah 28:3

Posted in Books of Moses, Ephraim, Manasseh, Sects & Cults, UK, US

Leviticus (15-16)

•January 9, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 15

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and to Aaron, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, ‘When any man hath a running issue out of his flesh, because of his issue he is unclean.

— clearer from the MSG

God spoke to Moses and Aaron: “Speak to the People of Israel. Tell them, When a man has a discharge from his genitals, the discharge is unclean. Whether it comes from a seepage or an obstruction he is unclean. He is unclean all the days his body has a seepage or an obstruction. Leviticus 15:1-3

³And this shall be his uncleanness in his issue: whether his flesh run with his issue or his flesh be stopped from running with his issue, it is his uncleanness.

⁴Every bed whereon he lieth who hath the issue is unclean, and every thing whereon he sitteth shall be unclean. — every thing; Heb. vessel, by which the Hebrews understand all sorts of household stuff.

⁵And whosoever toucheth his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

— every bed, whereon he lieth; so severely did the canonical law deal with these cases that any defilement communicated to the bed, and hence also to his seat and saddle, by the patient in five different ways: by standing, sitting, lying, hanging, or leaning on it;

— and be unclean until the even; be unfit for conversation with other men till the even, though both his body and clothes are washed.

⁶And he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat who hath the issue shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. — and he that sitteth on any thing whereon he sat that hath the issue; shall be unclean, even though he does not touch it.

⁷And he that toucheth the flesh of him that hath the issue shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and is unclean until the evening.

⁸And if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. — and if he that hath the issue spit upon him that is clean; not purposely, which is not usual for a man to do, and whenever it is done, nothing is more affronting; but accidentally;

— whatever is brought up by coughing, as phlegm, or flows from the nose, or is pressed out of it;

⁹And what saddle soever he rideth upon who hath the issue shall be unclean. — and what saddle soever he sitteth upon that hath the issue; when he rides upon any beast, horse, ass, or camel, whatever is put upon the creature, and he sits upon it, the saddle, and whatever appertains to it, the housing and girdle;

¹⁰And whosoever toucheth any thing that was under him shall be unclean until the evening; and he that beareth any of those things shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening. — and whosoever toucheth anything that was under him shall be unclean until the even; either when lying along, or sitting, or riding;

¹¹And whomsoever he toucheth who hath the issue and hath not rinsed his hands in water, he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

¹²And the vessel of earth that he toucheth who hath the issue shall be broken, and every vessel of wood shall be rinsed in water. — and the vessel of earth . . . shall be broken; for the reason why vessels of a porous clay must be destroyed when contaminated by defilement;

¹³“‘And when he that hath an issue is cleansed of his issue, then he shall number to himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in running water, and shall be clean. — man’s “ritual” impurity;

— from the Chabad Bible for this verse:

When the man with the discharge is cleansed of his discharge, he shall count seven days for himself for his purification, and then immerse his garments and immerse his flesh in spring water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁴And on the eighth day he shall take for himself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and come before the Lord unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and give them unto the priest.

— from the MSG

“When a person with a discharge is cleansed from it, he is to count off seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe in running water. Then he is clean. On the eighth day he is to take two doves or two pigeons and come before God at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest.

The priest then offers one as an Absolution-Offering and one as a Whole-Burnt-Offering and makes atonement for him in the presence of God because of his discharge. Leviticus 15:13-15

¹⁵And the priest shall offer them, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord for his issue.

¹⁶“‘And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water and be unclean until the evening.

¹⁷And every garment and every skin whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water and be unclean until the evening.

— from MSG

“When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his entire body in water; he remains unclean until evening. Every piece of clothing and everything made of leather which gets semen on it must be washed with water; it remains unclean until evening. When a man sleeps with a woman and has an emission of semen, both are to wash in water; they remain unclean until evening. Leviticus 15:16-18

¹⁸The woman also with whom a man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water and be unclean until the evening.

¹⁹“‘And if a woman have an issue and her issue from her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days; and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the evening.

²⁰And every thing that she lieth upon in her separation shall be unclean; every thing also that she sitteth upon shall be unclean.

²¹And whosoever toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

²²And whosoever toucheth any thing that she sat upon shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

— from MSG

“When a woman has a discharge of blood, the impurity of her menstrual period lasts seven days. Anyone who touches her is unclean until evening. Everything on which she lies or sits during her period is unclean. Anyone who touches her bed or anything on which she sits must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening. Leviticus 15:19-23

²³And if it be on her bed or on any thing whereon she sitteth, when he toucheth it, he shall be unclean until the evening.

²⁴And if any man lie with her at all and her monthly discharge be upon him, he shall be unclean seven days; and all the bed whereon he lieth shall be unclean.

²⁵“‘And if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation; she shall be unclean.

²⁶Every bed whereon she lieth all the days of her issue shall be unto her as the bed of her separation; and whatsoever she sitteth upon shall be unclean, as the uncleanness of her separation.

— from MSG

“If a woman has a discharge of blood for many days, but not at the time of her monthly period, or has a discharge that continues beyond the time of her period, she is unclean the same as during the time of her period.

Every bed on which she lies during the time of the discharge and everything on which she sits becomes unclean the same as in her monthly period. Anyone who touches these things becomes unclean and must wash his clothes and bathe in water; he remains unclean until evening. Leviticus 15:25-27

²⁷And whosoever toucheth those things shall be unclean, and shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and be unclean until the evening.

²⁸But if she be cleansed of her issue, then she shall number to herself seven days, and after that she shall be clean.

²⁹And on the eighth day she shall take unto her two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them unto the priest to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³⁰And the priest shall offer one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for her before the Lord for the issue of her uncleanness.

— from MSG

“When she is cleansed from her discharge, she is to count off seven days; then she is clean. On the eighth day she is to take two doves or two pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

The priest will offer one for an Absolution-Offering and the other for a Whole-Burnt-Offering. The priest will make atonement for her in the presence of God because of the discharge that made her unclean. Leviticus 15:28-30 —

³¹“‘Thus shall ye separate the children of Israel from their uncleanness, that they die not in their uncleanness when they defile My tabernacle that is among them.’”

³²This is the law of him that hath an issue, and of him whose seed goeth from him and is defiled therewith,

³³and of her that is sick with her monthly discharge, and of him that hath an issue, of the man and of the woman, and of him that lieth with her that is unclean.

— from MSG

“These are the procedures to follow for a man with a discharge or an emission of semen that makes him unclean, and for a woman in her menstrual period—any man or woman with a discharge and also for a man who sleeps with a woman who is unclean.”

Leviticus 16

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the Lord, and died;

— after the death of the two sons of Aaron; that is, after Nadab and Abihu, his two eldest sons, had died, in consequence of having presumptuously entered the sanctuary in a profane manner, and playing with strange fire; they died by a flaming fire; or lightning?

²and the Lord said unto Moses, “Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the Holy Place within the veil before the mercy seat which is upon the ark, that he die not; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.

— that he come not at all times; Moses is therefore to warn his brother Aaron, the high priest, that if he wishes to escape a similar fate, he is not to presume to enter the Holy of Holies except on one day of the year, the Day of Atonement;

— as Aaron here stands for all those who in future are to succeed him in the pontificate, so Moses, who teaches him his duty, stands for his successors who are hereafter to impart instruction to the high priests on these most solemn occasions;

— he was to go into the holy of holies four times on the Day of Atoneme; first to offer incense, a second time to sprinkle the blood of the bullock, a third time to sprinkle the blood of the goat, and a fourth time to fetch out the censer; and if he entered a fifth time, he was worthy of death; yet Moses might at any time, and consult the Lord upon the mercy seat, Exodus 25:22;

— during the second Temple the instruction and preparation of the high priest for his functions devolved upon the Sanhedrin, who prescribed most minute rules for his guidance. Seven days before the Day of Atonement he was separated from his wife, and lodged in a chamber in the Temple, lest he should contract defilement, which might unfit him for the performance of his pontifical duties;

— the elders or the representatives of the Sanhedrin read and expounded to him the ordinances contained in this chapter; which he had to practise in their [presence, so as to make sure that he could rightly perform all the ceremonies. This continued during the whole night previous to the Day of Atonement, where he was to be kept awake, so as to prevent any pollution arising from a dream or accident by night.

³Thus shall Aaron come into the Holy Place: with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. — thus shall Aaron come; preparatory to his entering on this solemn service the high-priest was to offer two sacrifices in behalf of himself and his family.

⁴He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen miter shall he be attired. These are holy garments. Therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on.

— and he shall wash; he had to bathe his body every time when he changed his vestments, which were no less than five times on this day, and washes his hands and feet ten times on that day, and all are done in the holy place.

⁵And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. — and make atonement for himself and his house; for his own personal sins and for his family’s sins, those of his wife and children; and it may be extended to all the priests of the house of Aaron;

⁶And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself and for his house.

Two goats: one for the Lord, the other for Azazel

On the Day of Atonement

⁷And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. — both goats were presented for the Day of Atonement before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; it is commanded that they should be alike in colour, height, and price,

— which may represent the two natures in Christ; his divine nature, as the Son of God, in which he is impassable, and lives for ever, which may be signified by the goat in which he suffered and died at the hand of the high-priest;

— and the second goat, and may be fitly represented by the goat that was alive, when it too was offered to the Lord, but let go; and in his human nature, as the Son of Man, in which he also suffered in the wilderness called Azazel, and died;

⁸And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats — one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. — after the lot had been chosen, the two goats were distinguished from each other by having a piece of scarlet cloth tied, the first round its neck, the second round its horn. One lot for the Lord, and the other lot for Azazel, which is a wilderness about 12 miles from Jerusalem;

⁹And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.

¹⁰But the goat on which the lot fell to be for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him and to let him go into the wilderness to Azazel. — Jonathan says “by sending him to die in a place rough and hard in the rocky desert which is Beth-hadurey.”

— both goats were presented before the Lord; thus it doesn’t go well that the goat destined for Azazel should represent a demon, or Azazel, to be the same as the evil angel in the Book of Enoch 8:1; 10:10; 13:1; while others as Satan; but Satan or any of his evil demons have never play that role of atoning for the sins of Israel.

¹¹“And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself.

— and shall make atonement for himself and for his house: by a confession of sins, as the second confession; and in the same words as before; then he put a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet wool upon the head of the goat to be sent away, and came beside his bullock;

¹²And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it inside the veil. — inside the veil, that is, into the holy of holies before the Lord Leviticus 16:2.

¹³And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not. — that he die not for so gross an error committed in the highest acts of worship, and that by a high priest, whose knowledge and function was a great aggravation to his sin.

¹⁴And he shall take of the blood of the bullock and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. — and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat, eastward; with his right finger; and the blood sprinkled with it did not fall upon the mercy seat;

¹⁵Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. — having completed the atonement in the holy of holies on behalf of the priests, the high priest had now to do the same thing on behalf of the people.

¹⁶And he shall make an atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions in all their sins; and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

— next he cleansed the tent of meeting, or the court of the sanctuary, where the Israelites were usually admitted; that is, the high priest sprinkled the court and the altar of burnt offering which was in it eight times with the mingled blood of the bullock and goat.

¹⁷And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the Holy Place until he come out, and has made an atonement for himself and for his household and for all the congregation of Israel.

— and there shall be no man; whilst the high priest was performing this process of cleansing, no one, whether priest or Israelite, was permitted to be present;

¹⁸And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the Lord and make an atonement for it, and shall take of the blood of the bullock and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.

— the order of the ceremony required that atonement should first be made for the most holy place with the mercy-seat, then for the holy place with the golden altar, and then for the altar in the court;

— the horns of the brazen altar were touched with the blood, as they were in the ordinary sin-offerings.

¹⁹And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel. — and he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times; this was done with his right finger, or forefinger, and seven times, to denote the perfect cleansing of the altar with it.

²⁰“And when he hath made an end of reconciling the Holy Place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. — he shall bring the live goat; having already been presented before the Lord (Lev 16:10), it was now brought forward to the high priest;

²¹And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness.

— the high priest, who, placing his hands upon its head, and “having confessed over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins,” transferred them by this act to the goat as their substitute.

²²And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited; and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

— it was then delivered into the hands of a person, who was appointed to lead him away into a distant, solitary, and desert place, “Azazel,” where he was led to a high rocky twelve miles from Jerusalem, and there, being thrust over the precipice, he was killed.

²³“And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the Holy Place and shall leave them there;

— and shall put off the linen garments which he put on when he went into the holy place; the holy of holies, that is, after he had brought it (the censer) out, then he clothed himself with the golden garments for the daily evening sacrifice;

— and this was the order of the services (on the day of atonement); the daily morning sacrifice (was performed) in the golden garments; the service of the bullock and of the goat, and the incense of the censer, in the white garments; and his ram, and the ram of the people, and some of the additions, in the golden garments;

²⁴and he shall wash his flesh with water in the Holy Place and put on his garments, and come forth and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself and for the people. — he shall wash in the holy place; that is, in the court of the tabernacle, where stood the altar of burnt-offering, and the sacred laver.

²⁵And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.

²⁶And he that let go the goat for Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp. — Jonathan: “And he who led away the goat to Azazel shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in forty seahs of water, and afterward he may enter the camp.”

²⁷And the bullock for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the Holy Place, shall one carry forth outside the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins and their flesh and their dung. — shall one carry forth; shall be carried forth; during the second Temple four men carried the carcases upon two poles to the place set aside outside Jerusalem for burning.

²⁸And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp. — because they had been defiled by the animals laden with sin.

²⁹“And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country or a stranger who sojourneth among you;

— seventh month, on the tenth day; the month of Tisri, as being the seventh in the Sacred year; on the first day was celebrated the Feast of Trumpets, the tenth day was the Day of Atonement, and on the fourteenth day the Feast of tabernacles commenced;

— a stranger that sojourneth among you; rather, the foreigner who dwelleth among you; meaning is, one of foreign blood, who dwelt with the Israelites, and had become familiarly known to his neighbors: the Kenites (Judges 4:11, etc.); the Gibeonites Joshua 9; and a considerable portion of the “mixed multitude” (compare Exodus 12:38, Exodus 12:48);

³⁰for on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord.

³¹It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever. — it shall be a Sabbath of rest unto you; literally, a resting day of solemn resting, a Sabbath of Sabbaths, ithat is, a day of complete and perfect rest.

³²And the priest, whom he shall anoint and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments;

— and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments: that is, on the Day of Atonement; in which clothes all the service peculiar to that day, as it was done by Aaron, so it was to be done by all his successors;

³³and he shall make an atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests and for all the people of the congregation.

³⁴And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you: to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year.” And he did as the Lord commanded Moses. — these several atonements, for his family, and for all the priests, were separate and distinct, and did not hinder one another, or interfere with one another.

Posted in Books of Moses

China’s Small Modular Reactor

•January 8, 2024 • Leave a Comment

China’s Small Nuclear Reactor Completes Core Module Assembly. Q. Could such a Reactor powered an aircraft carrier?

SASAC News • August 11, 2023 // China.org.cn

HAIKOU — Assembly of the core module of the world’s first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), Linglong One, was completed on Thursday, according to its developer, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC).

Linglong One includes the likes of pressure vessels and steam generators

This marks the peak of the installation process of Linglong One, representing a historic step in the miniaturization of global nuclear energy and confirming that China is at the forefront globally in terms of modular SMR construction.

Located in south China’s island province of Hainan, Linglong One is a multi-purpose small modular pressurized water reactor self-developed by the CNNC.

The core module is the key component of Linglong One, and was independently designed and purchased by the Nuclear Power Institute of China under the CNNC. It includes the likes of pressure vessels and steam generators.

The welding and assembly, which integrate the nuclear power plant’s metaphorical “lungs” and “heart,” is the most challenging aspect of the project. It’s a striking example of the “factory prefabrication, modular manufacturing” approach to the nuclear power equipment construction.

Linglong One to generate up to 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, sufficient to meet the needs of 526,000 households in Hainan

When commissioned, Linglong One is projected to generate up to 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, sufficient to meet the needs of 526,000 households in Hainan. This will help cut carbon dioxide emissions by 880,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to planting 7.5 million trees annually.

The stable and reliable clean energy provided by Linglong One will not only aid China in reaching peak carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, but also foster global nuclear energy development through the demonstration of advanced reactor technology. It will further contribute to the construction of a “clean energy island” in Hainan.

Q. Could such a reactor powered China’s next aircraft carriers? Or, that the Fujian carrier already has such Reactor?

For more, see

China’s first Thorium Reactor

Nature Index: China Surpassed US in Research

Posted in China, Tech Race

Leviticus (13-14)

•January 7, 2024 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 13

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron, saying,

²“When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy, then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest or unto one of his sons the priests.

— the plague of leprosy was a disease as well as an uncleanness; Miriam’s leprosy, and king Uzziah’s, were punishments of particular sins;

— as cleansing, a pollution as well as a disease; it belonged to the priest to cleanse him, and therefore to search and discover whether he was defiled and needed cleansing.

³And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh; and when the hair in the plague has turned white and the plague in appearance be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy; and the priest shall look on him and pronounce him unclean.

— when the hair in the plague is turned white; this is the first symptom, and the most noticeable as the commencement of the disease; the hair around the spot loses its colour and becomes thin and weak, the separate hairs being hardly stronger or individually thicker than down;

— the second symptom is when the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh; that is, below the upper skin, or cuticle, and in the real cutis. These two symptoms distinguish real leprosy from other affections which at first bear a similar appearance.

⁴If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh and in appearance be not deeper than the skin and the hair thereof be not turned white, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days.

— then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague; the individual thus suspected was to be separated from the rest of the community for seven days, during which time it would be seen whether it actually developed itself into this disorder.

⁵And the priest shall look on him the seventh day; and behold, if the plague in its appearance is stayed and the plague spread not in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up seven days more.

— if the plague in his sight be at a stay; better, if the plagued spot remain the same in its colour, that is, if the suspicious spot which caused the individual to be shut up had not altered its complexion;

— then the priest shall shut him up seven days more; such abundant care was taken, lest after all it should prove a leprosy.

⁶And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day; and behold, if the plague be somewhat dark and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean. It is but a scab, and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

— and if, on further examination upon the seventh day, he found that the mole had become paler, had lost its brilliant whiteness, and had not spread, he was to declare him clean, for it was a scurf, i.e., a mere skin eruption, and not true leprosy.

⁷But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after he hath been seen by the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen by the priest again.

⁸And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is leprosy. — it is a leprosy: it is a clear and plain case that it was one, and no doubt is to be made of it, it is a spreading leprosy;

⁹“When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest. — then he shall be brought unto the priest; by his friends and neighbours, if he is not willing to come of himself;

¹⁰And the priest shall see him; and behold, if the rising be white in the skin and it has turned the hair white and there be living raw flesh in the rising,

¹¹it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh; and the priest shall pronounce him unclean and shall not shut him up, for he is unclean.

— and the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up; there being no doubt at all of it being a leprosy, and of his uncleanness, and therefore no need to shut him up for further examination, but to turn him out of the camp till his purification was over; —

¹²And if leprosy break out abroad in the skin and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh,

— and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague, from his head even to his foot; such an one as the leper was that came to Christ for healing, said to be full of leprosy, Luke 5:12;

¹³then the priest shall consider; and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague. It has all turned white; he is clean.

¹⁴But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.

¹⁵And the priest shall see the raw flesh and pronounce him to be unclean, for the raw flesh is unclean; it is leprosy.

¹⁶Or if the raw flesh turn again and be changed unto white, he shall come unto the priest,

¹⁷and the priest shall see him; and behold, if the plague be turned into white, then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague; he is clean.

¹⁸“The flesh also in which, even in the skin thereof, was a boil and it is healed,

¹⁹and in the place of the boil there be a white rising or a bright spot, white and somewhat reddish, and it be shown to the priest,

²⁰and if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it is in appearance lower than the skin and the hair thereof is turned white, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil.

²¹But if the priest look on it, and behold, there are no white hairs therein and if it is not lower than the skin, but is somewhat dark, then the priest shall shut him up seven days.

²²And if it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a plague.

²³But if the bright spot stay in his place and spread not, it is a burning boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

²⁴“Or if there be any flesh in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the living flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish or white,

²⁵then the priest shall look upon it; and behold, if the hair in the bright spot is turned white and it is in appearance deeper than the skin, it is a leprosy broken out of the burning. Therefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is the plague of leprosy.

²⁶But if the priest look on it, and behold, there is no white hair in the bright spot and it is no lower than the other skin, but is somewhat dark, then the priest shall shut him up seven days.

²⁷And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day; and if it is spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is the plague of leprosy.

²⁸And if the bright spot stay in his place and spread not in the skin, but it is somewhat dark, it is a rising from the burning; and the priest shall pronounce him clean, for it is an inflammation from the burning.

²⁹“If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard, — the treatment is similar to that in the preceding cases, but two periods of confinement are prescribed, and the hair is to be shaven after the first seven days.

³⁰then the priest shall see the plague; and behold, if it be in appearance deeper than the skin and there is in it a yellow thin hair, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

— even a leprosy upon the head or beard; as the head is the seat of knowledge, and the beard a sign of manhood, and of a man’s being arrived to years of discretion; when wisdom and prudence are expected in him; this sort of leprosy may be an emblem of errors in judgment;

— of false doctrines and heresies imbibed by persons, which eat as doth a canker, and are in themselves damnable, and bring ruin and destruction on teachers and hearers, unless recovered from them by the true teachings of God.

³¹And if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and behold, it is not in appearance deeper than the skin and there is no black hair in it, then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days.

³²And on the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague; and behold, if the scall spread not and there is in it no yellow hair and the scall is not in appearance deeper than the skin,

³³he shall be shaved, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more.

³⁴And on the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall; and behold, if the scall is not spread in the skin nor is in appearance deeper than the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; and he shall wash his clothes and be clean.

³⁵But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing,

³⁶then the priest shall look on him; and behold, if the scall is spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.

³⁷But if the scall is in appearance stayed and there is black hair grown up therein, the scall is healed; he is clean, and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

³⁸“If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots,

³⁹then the priest shall look; and behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white, it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is clean.

— he is clean; from leprosy; this is observed, lest a person that is freckled should be mistaken for a leprous person; as every man that has some spots, failings, and infirmities, is not to be reckoned as unclean.

⁴⁰“And the man whose hair has fallen off his head, he is bald, yet is he clean. — he is bald; yet is he clean; the baldness mentioned in the first part of the verse in general terms is now more minutely specified as consisting of two kinds of baldness.

⁴¹And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, his forehead is bald, yet is he clean.

⁴²And if there be in the bald head or bald forehead a white reddish sore, it is leprosy sprung up in his bald head or his bald forehead.

⁴³Then the priest shall look upon it; and behold, if the rising of the sore is reddish white in his bald head or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh,

⁴⁴he is a leprous man; he is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is on his head.

⁴⁵“And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry, ‘Unclean, unclean.’

— and shall cry, Unclean; as leprosy was most defiling, and as the very entrance of a leper into a house rendered everything in it unclean, the person thus afflicted had to warn off the passers by, lest they should approach him, and by contact with him become defiled.

⁴⁶All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean. He shall dwell alone; outside the camp shall his habitation be. — he shall dwell alone; in consequence of his extreme defilement, the leper had to live in seclusion outside the camp or city.

⁴⁷“The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woolen garment or a linen garment,

⁴⁸whether it be in the warp or woof, of linen or of wool, whether in a skin or in any thing made of skin,

⁴⁹and if the plague is greenish or reddish in the garment or in the skin, either in the warp or in the woof or in any thing of skin, it is a plague of leprosy and shall be shown unto the priest.

⁵⁰And the priest shall look upon the plague and shut up it that hath the plague seven days.

⁵¹And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day; if the plague is spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in a skin or in any work that is made of skin, the plague is a consuming leprosy; it is unclean.

⁵²He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in wool or in linen, or any thing of skin wherein the plague is, for it is a consuming leprosy; it shall be burned in the fire.

⁵³“And if the priest shall look, and behold, the plague is not spread in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof, or in any thing of skin,

⁵⁴then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more.

⁵⁵And the priest shall look on the plague after it is washed; and behold, if the plague has not changed his color and the plague is not spread, it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire. It has eaten inward, whether it be bare within or without.

⁵⁶And if the priest look, and behold, the plague is somewhat dark after the washing of it, then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof.

⁵⁷And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp or in the woof or in any thing of skin, it is a spreading plague; thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire.

⁵⁸And the garment, either warp or woof or whatsoever thing of skin it is which thou shalt wash, if the plague is departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time and shall be clean.”

⁵⁹This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of wool or linen, either in the warp or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean or to pronounce it unclean.

Leviticus 14

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: He shall be brought unto the priest. — this shall be the law of the leper; that is, the manner in which an Israelite cured of his leprosy shall be purified and restored to the communion of the sanctuary on the day when he is pronounced clean.

³And the priest shall go forth out of the camp, and the priest shall look; and behold, if the plague of leprosy be healed in the leper,

⁴then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop. — two birds; literally, “sparrows,” but any sort of birds,

— and the cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; a stick of cedar; are also to be burnt with the red heifer for the ashes for the water of separation (Numbers 19:6), and they appear to have been commonly employed in purifications;

⁵And the priest shall command that one of the birds be killed in an earthen vessel over running water.

⁶As for the living bird, he shall take it, and the cedar wood, and the scarlet, and the hyssop, and shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water.

⁷And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird loose into the open field.

⁸And he that is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes, and shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water, that he may be clean; and after that he shall come into the camp, and shall tarry abroad out of his tent seven days. — and shall tarry abroad out of his tent; but though permitted to return to the camp, yet he had to live the first week out of his own house.

⁹But it shall be on the seventh day that he shall shave all his hair off his head and his beard and his eyebrows, even all his hair he shall shave off, and he shall wash his clothes; also he shall wash his flesh in water, and he shall be clean.

¹⁰“And on the eighth day he shall take two helambs without blemish and one ewe lamb of the first year without blemish, and threetenths part of fine flour for a meat offering mingled with oil, and one log of oil.

¹¹And the priest who maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

¹²And the priest shall take one helamb and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.

¹³And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place; for as the sin offering is the priest’s, so is the trespass offering; it is most holy.

¹⁴And the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering, and the priest shall put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot.

¹⁵And the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand.

¹⁶And the priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and shall sprinkle of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord;

¹⁷and of the rest of the oil that is in his hand shall the priest put upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the blood of the trespass offering.

¹⁸And the remnant of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall pour upon the head of him that is to be cleansed; and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord.

¹⁹And the priest shall offer the sin offering, and make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed from his uncleanness; and afterward he shall kill the burnt offering.

²⁰And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

²¹“And if he be poor and cannot get so much, then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved to make an atonement for him, and onetenth part of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering, and a log of oil,

— if he be poor, and cannot get so much; then he shall take one lamb—a kind and considerate provision for an extension of the privilege to lepers of the poorer class.

²²and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; and the one shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering.

— and two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, such as he is able to get; as good as he can get for his money, or his money he is possessed of will purchase; so that the poor man had as many offerings for his atonement and cleansing as the rich, and his expiation and purgation were as complete as theirs.

²³And he shall bring them on the eighth day for his cleansing unto the priest unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the Lord.

²⁴And the priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.

²⁵And he shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering, and the priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot;

²⁶and the priest shall pour of the oil into the palm of his own left hand.

²⁷And the priest shall sprinkle with his right finger some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the Lord;

²⁸and the priest shall put of the oil that is in his hand upon the tip of the right ear of him that is to be cleansed, and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot, upon the place of the blood of the trespass offering.

²⁹And the rest of the oil that is in the priest’s hand he shall put upon the head of him that is to be cleansed, to make an atonement for him before the Lord.

³⁰And he shall offer one of the turtledoves or of the young pigeons, such as he can get—

³¹even such as he is able to get — the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, with the meat offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him that is to be cleansed before the Lord.

³²This is the law for him in whom is the plague of leprosy, whose hand is not able to get that which pertaineth to his cleansing.”

³³And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

³⁴“When ye have come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession,

— when ye be come into the land of Canaan; which as yet they were not come to, being in the wilderness, and so the following law concerning the leprosy in houses could not yet take place, they now dwelling in tents, and not in houses;

³⁵and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, ‘It seemeth to me there is, as it were, a plague in the house,’ — leprosy in a house; this law was prospective, not to come into operation till the settlement of the Israelites in Canaan.

³⁶then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house.

³⁷And he shall look on the plague, and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, which in appearance are lower than the wall,

³⁸then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days.

³⁹And the priest shall come again the seventh day and shall look; and behold, if the plague is spread in the walls of the house,

⁴⁰then the priest shall command that they take away the stones in which the plague is, and they shall cast them into an unclean place outside the city.

⁴¹And he shall cause the house to be scraped within round about, and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off outside the city into an unclean place.

⁴²And they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones, and he shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house.

⁴³“And if the plague come again and break out in the house, after he hath taken away the stones and after he hath scraped the house and after it is plastered,

⁴⁴then the priest shall come and look; and behold, if the plague is spread in the house, it is a consuming leprosy in the house; it is unclean.

⁴⁵And he shall break down the house — the stones of it and the timber thereof and all the mortar of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

— and he shall break down the house; order it to be pulled down, and demolished entirely, that is, the priest shall give such orders; but this was to be done by the owner of the house, and that he was to do it himself, and have no associate with him in it;

⁴⁶Moreover he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening.

⁴⁷And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes, and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes.

⁴⁸“And if the priest shall come in and look upon it, and behold, the plague hath not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean, because the plague is healed.

⁴⁹And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.

⁵⁰And he shall kill one of the birds in an earthen vessel over running water;

⁵¹and he shall take the cedar wood and the hyssop and the scarlet and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the slain bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times.

⁵²And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird and with the running water and with the living bird, and with the cedar wood and with the hyssop and with the scarlet;

⁵³but he shall let go the living bird out of the city into the open fields, and make an atonement for the house; and it shall be clean.”

⁵⁴This is the law for all manner of plague of leprosy and scall,

⁵⁵and for the leprosy of a garment and of a house,

⁵⁶and for a rising and for a scab and for a bright spot,

⁵⁷to teach when it is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy. — this is the law of leprosy; respecting every sort of it, and which is very remarkably enlarged upon; that is, to give directions for the time when they would have to do with the clean and unclean.

Posted in Books of Moses

UK records 2000% surge in anti-Semitic incidents

•January 6, 2024 • Leave a Comment

UK records 2000% surge in anti-Semitic incidents – media

The surge in hate crimes around the world was reported following the outbreak of Israel-Hamas war, which will definitely result in more Aliyah!

RT News • December 23, 2023

Data obtained from UK police forces has reflected a surge in anti-Semitic and Islamophobic hate crimes in some parts of Britain since Hamas’ October 7 attack and Israel’s subsequent retaliation, according to The Independent.

A Freedom of Information request by the UK newspaper revealed that British Transport Police, whose operational remit includes more than 3,000 stations across the country, recorded 87 anti-Semitic offenses in the four weeks after Hamas’ cross-border assault, the publication said on Friday. There were eight such hate crimes noted from the same period a year prior, a rise of 987%.

Similarly, the figures showed that Islamophobic hate crimes rose to 22 offenses during the same period, up from just two in the same month in 2022, an increase of 1000%.

The Home Office told the paper that “we expect the police to fully investigate all hate crimes and work with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) to make sure the cowards who commit these abhorrent crimes feel the full force of the law.”

The surge in hate crimes in the Uk will definitely result in more Aliyah!

In October, a group representing British Jews said that an initial surge of anti-Semitism in some parts of the UK was “unprecedentedly high” even when compared to “previous conflicts involving Israel.”

Campaigners against the abuse of Muslims in the UK said that the data was “deeply worrying,” according to The Independent on Friday. “We should never allow such hatred and intolerance to take root in our communities,” Iman Atta of the Tell Mama group said.

“Please look out for each other, whether Muslim or Jewish. We must stand together against intolerance, hate, and racism,” Atta added.

Greater Manchester Police, meanwhile, noted a 400% rise in anti-Semitic incidents from the year before in the month after October 7. Islamophobic crimes, though, dropped, the newspaper said. Police in Merseyside and West Yorkshire also saw similar rises.

Authorities in Thames Valley recorded the most precipitous increase, the data seen by The Independent showed, with a 2000% increase in anti-Semitic incidents. Islamophobia rose by 42% in the same area.

The surge in hate crimes around the world will definitely result in more Aliyah!

A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews told The Independent that the rise of anti-Semitic incidents across the UK had “caused enormous anxiety for Jewish people, particularly children and Jewish students or indeed anyone easily identified as Jewish by their dress.”

The spokesman added, “We call on police to take strong action against anyone found to be perpetrating hate crimes.”

Israeli officials have said that 1,139 people, mostly civilians, died in Hamas’ attack on October 7, while it is believed that the Palestinian militant group seized at least 236 hostages.

The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 20,000, health officials in the besieged enclave have said.

For more, see

“I am thy shield!” (Genesis 15)

The Case for “Greater Israel!”

Posted in Islamic, Israel, UK, Zionism

China’s Rare Earth Strategy

•January 5, 2024 • Leave a Comment

What goes around comes around. Now China’s New Rare Earth Sanction Policy Shakes Global Tech Industry

OilPrice by Kurt Cobb • December 27, 2023

The ban includes technology for making rare earth magnets used in various industries.
China, controlling 90% of the refined rare earth metal market, seeks to maintain its processing monopoly.
The US has made efforts to incentivize domestic mining of critical minerals, but challenges remain due to China’s market dominance.

China just expanded its already tight restrictions on export of technology related to refining rare earth minerals. The most recent restrictions involve technology for making rare earth magnets which are used in electric motors and generators. These minerals are also used extensively in the automotive industry and in consumer electronics such as cellphones.

I have previously written that the clean energy economy is a metals energy economy, and rare earths constitute a substantial and key part of that metals energy economy.

Export of rare earth extraction and separation technology had already been banned by China. The most recent and previous restrictions are part of a broader trade war between the United States and China over exchange of technology.

In late 2022 the United States banned exports of advanced microchips. China responded with a ban on the export germanium and gallium, two metals crucial to the manufacture of advanced chips. The United States imports half of its germanium needs and all of the gallium it uses.

What exactly are the Chinese hoping to achieve? The answer becomes pretty clear when you realize that China supplies 90 percent of the volume of refined rare earth metals to the world. The country produces 60 percent of the ore. That means the rest of the world is sending three-quarters of its ore to China for processing, and the Chinese would like to continue to enjoy its near monopoly on processing.

That puts China in a commanding position to decide who will get these metals and even whether the rest of the world gets any at all. China unexpectedly and dramatically reduced its rare earth exports in 2010, driving prices skyward.

The obvious response to such uncertainty would be to encourage the mining of rare earths outside of China. The current US administration rolled out a modest program to incentivize US-based mining of critical minerals such as lithium, nickel, graphite, cobalt and manganese.

Many rare earths are already on what is known as the List of Critical Minerals and thus eligible for incentives to encourage domestic production. A small amount of funding has been allocated for this purpose.

A private attempt to revive a closed rare earth mine, the largest in the United States, resulted in a colossal financial loss for the investors when rare earth prices plummeted after China resumed its previous level of exports following the reduction in 2010. This shows how China can easily sabotage any attempts to challenge its dominance of the rare earth market.

Given the close relationship between China’s government and its rare earth industry, the only reasonable way to break the Chinese stranglehold on the rare earth market would be for governments to guarantee the price of rare earths mined by domestic companies. That runs so counter to the neoliberal free market ethic of the past 40 years that I don’t see it becoming a reality.

In a world where the consensus regarding the free exchange of goods is breaking down and geopolitical interests are coming to the fore, China seems to care far less about living up to free trade rules than protecting its perceived national interests. If other major trading countries and blocks start moving in the same direction, the easy availability of cheap goods and resources produced in faraway locales may become increasingly problematic.

For more, see:

Rare Earth Reserves: Top 8 Countries

Rare Earth Production: Top 5 Countries

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

“Then will I slay my brother Jacob” (Genesis 27)

•January 4, 2024 • Leave a Comment

“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 modern 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 Jonathan

Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup

Genesis 27

¹ And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, “My son.” And he said unto him, “Behold, here am I.”

— it came to pass; the importance of this chapter is manifest. Just as in Abraham’s life the decision had to be made which of the two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, was to be the heir of the promise, so, here again, there is the same Divine election: but while Abraham obeyed, though with heavy heart (Genesis 21:11), Isaac even struggled against God’s will;

— in this case, however, the sons are more closely allied, being twins, born of the same mother, but the younger following so closely upon the very heels of the elder as to seem, even at his birth, as if in eager pursuit.

— Esau violated the family law laid down by Abraham, Jacob conformed to it. By marrying Canaanitish women, Esau forfeited by his own act the birthright which previously he had sold; for his children, being illegitimate;

²And he said, “Behold now, I am old; I know not the day of my death. — when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim; he was in his hundred thirty-seventh year; but he lived to be 180 (Genesis 35:28).

³Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison. — take me some venison; in this Isaac designed, as receiving a fresh instance of his son’s filial duty and affection to him, before he bestowed the designed favour upon him.

⁴And make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.” — that my soul may bless thee; we gather from the solemn blessing given to his sons by Jacob (Genesis 49) that this was a prophetic act, by which the patriarchs, under the influence of God’s spirit, and in expectation of death, decided to which son should belong the birthright;

— that my soul may bless thee before I die; having eaten a comfortable meal, and being refreshed with it, but that having had proof of his son’s duty and affection to him, he might confer the blessing on him heartily: this blessing was not an ordinary and common one, but what parents used to bestow upon their children at the time of their death, or a little before it;

— and good men oftentimes did this under a spirit of prophecy, declaring what would be the case and circumstances of their children in time to come; and particularly the principal part of the blessing of Isaac, which Abraham had entailed upon him by divine direction, and he thought to have entailed on Esau his firstborn; especially of the possession and inheritance of the land of Canaan; between the two great rivers, (Genesis 15);

⁵And Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. — but Rebekah, who heard what he said, sought to frustrate this intention, and to secure the blessing for her favourite son, Jacob.

⁶And Rebekah spoke unto Jacob her son, saying, “Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, — if Rebekah, when she heard Isaac promise the blessing to Esau, had gone to him, and with humility and seriousness put him in remembrance of that which God had said concerning their sons;

— if she had further showed him how Esau had forfeited the blessing, both by selling his birthright, and by marrying of strange wives; it is probable Isaac would have been prevailed with to confer the blessing upon Jacob, and needed not thus to have been cheated into it;

And Isaac entreated (beseech; ask earnestly) the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord was entreated by him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” And she went to inquire of the Lord.

And the Lord said unto her, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy body; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.” Genesis 25:21-23

The Targun of Jonathan says:

And Izhak went to the mountain of worship, the place where his father had bound him. And Izhak in his prayer turned the attention of the Holy One, blessed be He! from that which He had decreed concerning him who had been childless. And he was enlarged, and Rivekah his wife was with child.

And the children pressed in her womb as men doing battle. And she said, If this is the anguish of a mother, what then are children to me? And she went into the school of Shem Rabba to supplicate mercy before the Lord.

And the Lord said to her, Two peoples are in thy womb, and two kingdoms from thy womb shall be separated; and one kingdom shall be stronger than the other, and the elder shall serve the younger, if the children of the younger will keep the commandments of the Law. Genesis 25:21-23

— and the elder shall serve the younger; that is only true if the children of the younger, that is, of the children of Israel, would keep all the laws, statutes and ordinances of God;

⁷‘Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death.’ — before the Lord; solemnly, as in God’s presence, in his name, and by his authority, and with his leave and favour, which I shall heartily pray for thee. So he signifies that this was more than an ordinary blessing which he now intended to give him.

⁸Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. — Rebekah knew that the blessing was intended for Jacob, and expected he would have it. But she wronged Isaac by putting a cheat on him; she wronged Jacob by tempting him to wickedness.

⁹Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth;

— two good kids of the goats; though two may seem to be too much to be dressed for Isaac only; it may be observed, that Rebekah intended only to take out some of the choicest and most tender and delicate parts of them, and which would best suit her purpose, and which she would make most like to venison;

— I will make them savoury meat, out of their most tender and delicate parts; wherewith it was not difficult to deceive Isaac, partly because of the likeness of the flesh, especially being altered by convenient sauce; and partly because the same old age which had dimmed Isaac’s sight had also dulled his other senses;

¹⁰and thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat and that he may bless thee before his death.” —that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death; to whom she knew by the divine oracle the blessing belonged, Genesis 25:23;

¹¹And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, “Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. — Jacob said, Esau my brother is a hairy man; it is remarkable that his scruples were founded, not on the evil of the act, but on the risk and consequences of deception.

¹²My father perhaps will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.” — I shall bring a curse upon me, which is due to every one that deceiveth the blind, Deu 27:18, especially his father, and especially in a religious concern;

¹³And his mother said unto him, “Upon me be thy curse, my son; only obey my voice, and go, fetch me them.” — upon me be thy curse; that is, I will warrant the success; or, if the issue turn out ill, I shall bear the blame and the punishment;

¹⁴And he went, and fetched and brought them to his mother; and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. — being satisfied with what his mother had said, he went to the field where the flock was, and took out of it two young kids, and brought them to his mother; and thus far he did right to obey her commands;

¹⁵And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son; — goodly raiment; it has been supposed that the elder son held a sort of priestly office in the household, and as Isaac’s sight was growing dim, that Esau ministered for him at sacrifices.

¹⁶and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck. — Upon the two exposed parts of his body, which were most likely to be discovered. As for his face, it is more than probable from his age, which was the same with Esau’s;

¹⁷And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. — and she gave the savoury (salty and spicy instead of being sweet) meat; seasoned and dressed in such a manner as might be taken for venison;

¹⁸And he came unto his father, and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here am I. Who art thou, my son?” — who art thou, my son? for, from the voice and the quick dispatch made, he suspected it was not his son Esau.

¹⁹And Jacob said unto his father, “I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.”

— that thy soul may bless me; as this was the thing in view, so speaking of it as soon as he came in, and which he desired might be done after his father had eat and drank, might serve to take off the suspicion of his being another person;

— the disguise, though wanting in one thing, which had nearly upset the whole plot, succeeded in misleading Isaac; and while giving his paternal embrace, the old man was roused into a state of high satisfaction and delight.

²⁰And Isaac said unto his son, “How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the Lord thy God brought it to me.” — because the Lord thy God brought it to me; Jacob does keep up his acting well, for it was in accordance with Isaac’s protraying to see anything providential in Esau’s success in hunting. This may have helped to arouse Isaac’s suspicions, who immediately proceeds to examine him;

— but it was another falsehood; for it was not the Lord, but his mother brought it to him: and this seems to be the most marvellous of all, that so good a man should dare to bring the name of the Lord God into this affair;

²¹And Isaac said unto Jacob, “Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.” — whether thou be my very son Esau, or not; which he still was somewhat doubtful.

²²And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.” — but the hands are the hands of Esau; are like them, being hairy as they; or, as the Targums Jonathan says, “the feeling of the hands is as the feeling of the hands of Esau;”

²³And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him. — and he discerned him not; as he could not see, he could make no judgment by that sense; and, though he had his hearing;

— and thought the voice was like Jacob’s, he might imagine there might be an alteration in Esau’s voice, coming in haste and weary from the fields; yet, as there could not be any deception in his feeling, he thought it safest to trust to that, as it follows;

²⁴And he said, “Art thou my very son Esau?” And he said, “I am.” — and he said, I am; in a further excuse from lying, that Jacob does not say, “I am Esau”, only “I”, but it will not do, since it is an answer to Isaac’s question, with a design to deceive him; and he intended by it that he should understand him as he did, that he was really Esau.

²⁵And he said, “Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son’s venison, that my soul may bless thee.” And he brought it near to him, and he ate; and he brought him wine, and he drank. — and he brought him wine, and he drank; and so was comfortably refreshed, and in a good temper and disposition of mind to confer the blessing.

²⁶And his father Isaac said unto him, “Come near now, and kiss me, my son.” — come near now, and kiss me, my son; this was the solemn preparation for the giving of the blessing.

— Isaac’s suspicions had now quite passed away’he had eaten and drunk, and the time had now come for the decision which son was to inherit the promise.

²⁷And he came near, and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him and said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. — and he came near, and kissed him; Jacob came near and kissed Isaac his father;

— and Isaac smelled the smell of his raiment; which being not like the smell of a sheep coat, but of a field, might give him more full satisfaction that it was truly Esau: and he blessed Jacob; with his patriarchal and prophetic blessing,

²⁸Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. — the dew of heaven; in Middle-Eastern countries, where there is so little rain, the dew is the most important prerequisite for the growth of the fruits of the earth, and is often mentioned therefore as a source of blessing;

²⁹Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother’s sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee!”

— let people serve thee; Heb. peoples (‘am·mîm,); up to this point the blessing had been general, but now Isaac bestows the birthright, carrying with it widespread dominion, precedence over all other members of the family, and special blessedness. The phrases “thy brethren” and “thy mother’s sons” include all nations sprung from Abraham, and all possible offshoots from Isaac’s other descendants.

³⁰And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting.

— and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father; which no doubt he made haste to do, as soon as he had got the blessing; partly to avoid his brother, whom he might expect to come in every moment, and partly to relate to his mother the success he had met with;

³¹And he also had made savory meat, and brought it unto his father and said unto his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s venison, that thy soul may bless me.” — he also made; Esau returned just as Jacob was leaving Isaac’s presence. There would still be some considerable delay before the captured game was made into savoury meat;

³²And Isaac his father said unto him, “Who art thou?” And he said, “I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau.” — and Isaac his father said unto him, who art thou? Hearing another voice more like Esau’s than what he had heard before surprised him, and therefore in haste puts this question;

— and he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau; all which was true in a sense; he was his son, and he was Esau, and he was his firstborn by nature, but not by right, for he had sold his birthright.

³³And Isaac trembled exceedingly and said, “Who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? Yea, and he shall be blessed.” — Isaac trembled very exceedingly; this was not from mere vexation at having been so deceived, and made to give the blessing contrary to his wishes;

— what Isaac felt was that he had been resisting God. In spite of the prophecy given to the mother, and Esau’s own irreligious character and heathen marriages, he had determined to bestow on him the birthright by an act of his own will; and he had failed; he has no word of blame for Rebekah and Jacob, but confirms to him the possession of the birthright, and declares, “Yea, he shall be blessed.”

³⁴And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, “Bless me, even me also, O my father!” — and said unto his father, bless me, even me also, O my father; thou art my father, and I am a child of thine as well as Jacob, show paternal affection to me; give me also a child’s blessing, one at least equal to what thou hast given Jacob, if not a greater, as being the firstborn.

³⁵And he said, “Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing.” — and he said, thy brother came with subtilty; the Targum Jonathan interprets it, “with subtilty” taking it in a good sense, “subtilty is the quality of being subtle, or having a high degree of finesse or skill” or with wisdom, and rather commending it, as if it was wisely and prudently managed;

³⁶And he said, “Is not he rightly named Jacob [that is, A supplanter]? For he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?”

— and he said, is not he rightly named Jacob? as he was by his parents, and those that were at his birth, because he took his brother by the heel as he came out of his mother’s womb; for Jacob signifies “heeler”, a supplanter, and was given him to keep up the memory of what he had done, to which Esau here refers;

— for he hath supplanted me these two times; to supplant another is to put his foot under the heel of another, in order to trip him up, to which Esau alludes; but uses the word in a figurative sense, for circumventing him, and dealing fraudulently and deceitfully with him, though he is not able to support his charge; for if he dealt fraudulently with any, it was with his father, and not with him, and the two times he refers to prove it not;

— he took away my birthright; which is not true, he did not take it away from him either by force or fraud, Esau sold it to him for a mess of pottage, Genesis 25:29;

— and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing; this is not true, he had not taken it away; it was given him by his father; and though he had used some artful methods to get it, Genesis 27:15, he had neither supplanted Esau, but if anyone, his father; nor had he done any injustice to Esau, since as he had bought from him the birthright, the blessing annexed to it went along with it, and of right belonged to Jacob;

— and he said, hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? is the whole fund of blessings exhausted? are all bestowed upon Jacob? is there not one left for me? he hoped there was, and that as good a one as he had bestowed on his brother, and entreats he might have it.

³⁷And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, “Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son?” — behold, I have made him thy lord; the lord of his posterity, who would be subdued and become tributary to his seed;

— and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; the Edomites, who sprung from his brother Esau, who, according to this prophetic blessing, became servants to David, who was a son of Jacob’s;

— and with corn and wine have I sustained him; promised him a fruitful country, the land of Canaan, abounding with all good things, particularly with corn and wine, which are put for all the rest;

— and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? what is there remains? what can be bestowed upon thee? there is nothing left; dominion over others, even over all nations, yea, over thyself and thy posterity, and plenty of all good things, are given already to Jacob; what is there to be done for thee, or thou canst expect?

³⁸And Esau said unto his father, “Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. — and Esau said unto his father, hast thou but one blessing, my father? he seems to speak diminutively of what had been given to Jacob, calling it one blessing:

— whereas there were many, of different sorts, temporal and spiritual; but it may be Esau had not so clear and comprehensive a view of what was contained in Jacob’s blessing; or at least was willing to think and hope that there was not so much given, but there might be some behind for him, and that his father had a greater stock than to be drained of all at once;

— bless me, even me also, O my father: with another blessing, with one equal to what has been given my brother:

— and Esau lift up his voice, and wept; in order to move the affections of his father, and to prevail upon him to reverse the blessing he had bestowed on Jacob, and give it to him; but he could not bring his father to repentance, to change his mind, and revoke the blessing, and give it him, with all his crying and tears;

³⁹And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, “Behold, thy dwelling shall be away from the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. — and Isaac his father answered and said unto him; being willing to bestow what he could upon him, without lessening or breaking in upon the grant made to Jacob;

— behold, thy dwelling shall be away from the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above: this agrees with the blessing of Jacob, and if so, Jacob hasn’t took the birthright; and would have no occasion of complaint or grief; or to have hated his brother and sought his life; to which may be added, that the land of Edom, which Esau and his posterity inhabited, was a very desert country;

— but from the Septuagint:

“And Isaac his father answered and said to him, See, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of the sky on high” (Genesis 27:39 Septuagint NETS)

— and from MSG (the Message)

Isaac said to him, You’ll live far from Earth’s bounty, remote from Heaven’s dew. You’ll live by your sword, hand-to-mouth, and you’ll serve your brother. But when you can’t take it any more you’ll break loose and run free. (Genesis 27:39 MSG)

— but it was deemed from the beginning that the birthright would be dew and fatness from heaven; hence many translations, following the Septuagint, have Esau’s loss of the birthright as “Your dwelling shall be away from the fatness of the earth and away from the dew of heaven from above;” and no mention made of corn and wine; the land of Edom not being so fat and fruitful as the land bestowed upon Jacob’s;

— though Esau was not personally subject to his brother, his posterity would be tributary to the Israelites: “Behold, I have made him thy lord.”

⁴⁰And 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.” — and by thy sword (or by your dagger; Septuagint NETS) shalt thou live; by what he could get by it; his land being so poor that he could not live upon it, but must be obliged to such methods for a livelihood; or his country being surrounded with enemies, his posterity would be obliged to defend themselves by the sword, and other weapons of war;

— and shalt serve thy brother; which is the sense and language of the oracle, Genesis 25:23; and which Isaac perhaps now remembered, and had a clear understanding of it, and delivers out his prophetic blessing agreeably to it;

— and it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion; not over the Israelites, the posterity of Jacob, which the Edomites, Esau’s posterity, never had; but when they should get a greater degree of strength, power, authority, and dominion in the world;

— that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck; the Edomites should revolt from the posterity of Jacob, and shake off the yoke of bondage and subjection they had been long under; thus in this prophecy, Esau is bidding for his time;

⁴¹And 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 days of mourning for my father are at hand; Esau evidently expected that his father’s death was near, and such also was Isaac’s own expectation (Genesis 27:2); but he recovered, and lived forty-four years after this;

— perhaps on this account another translation has been suggested, namely, “Days of mourning for my father are at hand: then I will slay Jacob.”

— and the Targum Jonathan says of Esau’s delayed intent of killing his brother Jacob; in fact it is a prophecy for the house for Esau against the house of 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 [Jacob]; but it will be that when his sons [the modern 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, and will be found the killer and the heir” Genesis 27:41 Jonathan

— a bit more on what this phase means “and will be found the killer and the heir”:

Esau says to himself that he will not make the same mistake as Cain. Cain killed his brother Abel, thinking that that would make him the sole heir. But then, Adam had another child, so Cain still had to share the inheritance.

Hence Esau said that he would not do that. Instead, he would delay the killing of Jacob until the death of Isaac, so that when Jacob is killed, Esau will become the sole heir.

So, Esau hopes he would be both be the killer and the only heir.

⁴²And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah; and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, “Behold, thy brother Esau doth comfort himself concerning thee, purposing to kill thee.

— and said unto him, behold, thy brother Esau, as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee; he has determined on it, and has laid a scheme for it, and comforts himself and so be the heir of the promise, and get the blessing; and even that thy death will be a comfort to him under the loss of his blessing, though he gets nothing by it, so sweet is revenge unto him.

⁴³Now therefore my son, obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother in Haran, — these words of Esau were told Rebekah; poor woman! she now early begins to reap the bitter fruits of her fraudulent device;

— she is obliged to part with her son, for whom she planned it, never, probably, seeing him again; and he felt the retributive justice of heaven fall upon him heavily in his own future family; but she had taken full responsibility upon herself, in fulfilment of her promise in Genesis 27:13, “upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice.”

⁴⁴and tarry with him a few days until thy brother’s fury turn away; — and tarry with Laban my brother, and remaining there “some days,” as she mildly puts it, until his brother’s wrath was subdued.

⁴⁵until thy brother’s anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day?” — why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? who might either in the quarrel kill one another; or however, as one would be murdered, so the other, the murderer, must die by the hand of the law;

— Why should I be deprived of you both? — Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary says this refers to the law of Goelism, by which the nearest of kin would be obliged to avenge the death of Jacob upon his brother.

⁴⁶And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these who are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me?” — if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth; as his brother has done, and after his example, as the best are too apt to be led by bad examples;

— such as these which are of the daughters of the land: like those Esau had married, of the same tribe, or other tribes of the Canaanites, for Esau had married two “Hittite” wives (Genesis 26:34-35), which were in religion and manners like them.

Posted in Books of Moses, Esau, Mexico, Spain, US

200 Years since Monroe is 200 too many

•January 3, 2024 • Leave a Comment

200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine is 200 too many

And this is what the Targum Jonathan says of Isaac’s prayer for Esau:

“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 modern 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

Pearls and Irritations by John Raby • December 28, 2023

If the United States is serious about liberty and justice for all, respect for international law, and a rules based order that treats everyone fairly and even-handedly, it’s time to ditch the doctrine and its corollaries.

When those of us of a certain age were in school, we learned that the Monroe Doctrine committed the United States to protect the independence of Latin American nations, which had just freed themselves from Spanish and Portuguese rule.

While it granted European nations the right to keep whatever colonies they still had in the Western Hemisphere, it declared that any attempt on Europe’s part to expand those colonies would be considered an unfriendly act against the United States. It looked like a brave and noble act, and a step forward for the US on the world stage.

As the doctrine approaches its 200th anniversary December 2, we know it ain’t necessarily so.

At first, the US couldn’t enforce it because its navy was too small to keep European powers out. However, the British navy was quite willing to do the job now that Latin markets were open to British trade.

In that vein, British Foreign Secretary Lord George Canning suggested the US and Britain issue a joint statement in defense of Latin independence. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams rejected the idea, arguing that it would make the US “a cock-boat in the wake of the British man-of-war.”

Marine General Smedley Butler, who took part in several such actions, confessed that he had become a bag man for US corporations, and concluded that “war is a racket.”

Instead, Adams drafted his own statement, which became the Monroe Doctrine, since president James Monroe approved the draft and could take credit for it. And so, the US got the glory while the British did the work, which they were content to do for the sake of their own economic advantage.

There was more tricky business involved. The US wouldn’t recognize Haitian independence from France until 1862, since Haiti rose from a brutal slave revolt. Nor did it have any quarrel with France’s demand that Haiti repay it for the loss of its slaves, an insistence which plunged Haiti deeply into debt and made it what it still is—the poorest, least stable nation in the Western Hemisphere. It was a nasty thing to do, since the Haitian revolution made the Louisiana Purchase possible.

Ever since then, there has been more and more tricky business. When Texas detached itself from Mexico in 1836, the US immediately recognized it, along with its territorial claims out to the Rio Grande, which then included parts of New Mexico and Colorado. Mexico disputed those claims.

Matters got worse when Texas became a US state in 1845, the evident objective all along, and there was still the question of disputed territory. When President James K Polk sent troops to Corpus Christi, which was just inside the disputed area, the Mexicans saw it as an invasion. War with Mexico followed, and in 1848, Mexico surrendered half its territory in return for a $15,000,000 payment.

During the mid-1850s, a Tennessee soldier of fortune named William Walker set off a series of coups in Central America, whereby he attempted to unite it into one slaveholding country and offer it to the US, either for annexation or as a client state. In 1853 and 1854, he had already tried to do something similar in northwestern Mexico.

Though President Franklin Pierce recognized his short-lived regime in Nicaragua, the United States had too many problems at home to follow through with the idea. By 1860, both the offer and the daring Mr. Walker’s own life were finished.

Nonetheless, the US did covet Cuba, and considered buying the island from Spain in the 1850s and 1870s. Spain wasn’t interested, but by the 1890s, the Cuban revolution was well enough along for the United States to see an opportunity and take it.

When the battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, the US blamed Spain and the Spanish-American War followed. And so we helped Cuba oust Spain, but with a catch. In 1902, the US insisted on fastening the Platt Amendment to the Cuban constitution, which gave the US the right to supervise Cuban foreign policy. In effect, the island was a US protectorate until Fidel Castro took over in 1959.

Now let’s backtrack a bit. In 1895, there was a border dispute between Venezuela and British Guyana. By that point, US Secretary of State Richard Olney felt confident enough to issue a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which declared that the US had the right to mediate all such disputes, which the US did in this instance, without objection from either side.

In 1901, Britain and America reached a further understanding in the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. Britain recognized America’s predominance in the Western Hemisphere, while America did the same for Britain in the East. And so the English-speaking nations went halfsies on the entire planet.

By the early 1900s, the United States was getting used to rearranging Latin America to its liking. When Colombia insisted on more money from the United States than the US was willing to pay to dig the Panama Canal, President Theodore Roosevelt purchased a Panamanian revolt which let him have his way.

He openly boasted, “I took Panama!” He was right, since he created the country. In 1989, when Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega became inconvenient to US interests there, the US removed him. The operation featured the bombardment of Panama City.

In 1905, Roosevelt added a corollary of his own to the Monroe Doctrine, announcing that whenever the United States thought a Latin American nation was unable to protect foreign lives or property, or pay debts to foreign lenders, the US had the right to intervene and put its affairs in order.

During the first half of the 1900s, military interventions and occupations followed in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico. Marine General Smedley Butler, who took part in several such actions, confessed that he had become a bag man for US corporations, and concluded that “war is a racket.”

The interventions continued during the Cold War. In 1954, after Guatemala’s democratically elected government nationalized United Fruit Company’s idle holdings there, intending to turn them over to small farmers, the CIA moved in and installed a dictatorship, in part because Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and CIA boss Allen Dulles were major stockholders in United Fruit and were annoyed.

Then there was the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, followed by economic sanctions which continue to this day. In 1964, when the Dominican Republic’s democratically elected government decided to pursue a friendlier policy toward Cuba than the Johnson administration liked, the Marines moved in and set up a dictatorship there. The next year, the US backed a military coup in Brazil.

The 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s saw no essential change, with ethnic massacres, interventions, overthrows, and assassinations in Guatemala, Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, and the previously mentioned one in Panama. Quite often, Latin troops and officers trained in the US took part.

Nor did our government bat an eye when a Salvadoran death squad murdered archbishop Oscar Romero, who had protested against what the death squads were doing across that suffering country. In 1999, as part of the US drug war, President Bill Clinton initiated Plan Colombia, which included aerial bombardment in that country.

The most glaring example was against Chile’s democratically elected president, Salvador Allende. By 1973, Allende had nationalized International Telephone and Telegraph’s holdings in Chile. ITT head Harold Geneen was furious about what he thought was inadequate compensation.

He complained to Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who had been working to destabilize the Allende government, and who were ready to arrange Allende’s overthrow and murder. A 17-year dictatorship under the more agreeable Augusto Pinochet followed, and Geneen cleaned up when he got back his business in Chile.

Economic sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela have continued in this century. And in 2009, the US shrugged its shoulders when a military coup overthrew the democratically elected Zelaya government in Honduras. The unlucky President Manuel Zelaya had supported Indigenous objections to US investments there that were doing environmental damage.

In that same country, the fate of Berta Cáceres was worse. She had successfully blocked the building of a dam that would have flooded her Indigenous homeland and fouled its waters. Her murder in 2011 was the price she paid for that success. No condolences or protests came from our government.

Readers of this column quite likely know about all these things and more. After all, there is extensive literature and broadcast reporting on the subject. The essential point of this modest offering is a simple one.

If the United States is serious about liberty and justice for all, respect for international law, and a rules based order that treats everyone fairly and even-handedly, it’s time to ditch the Monroe Doctrine and its corollaries. Adios, Olney. Adios, Roosevelt. Adios, Adams. Adios, Monroe.

And now for some reflections:

“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,

“a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young.

“And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed; he also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy cattle, or flocks of thy sheep until he have destroyed thee” Deuteronomy 28:49-51

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 27:41

Posted in Esau, Global South, Latin Americas, Mexico, UK, US

Most Dangerous Combination: China and Russia

•January 2, 2024 • Leave a Comment

World’s Most Dangerous Combination: China and Russia

Gatestone Institute by Gordon G Chang • December 25, 2023

China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups.
The Chinese and Russian leaders are forming this grouping because they believe the United States, the final guarantor of the international system that frustrates them both, must be taken down. Xi, by, among other things, declaring a “people’s war” on America, has made it clear that the US must be destroyed and Americans exterminated. Putin is less ambitious, only wanting the US out of his way as he recreates the Russian Empire at its greatest extent.
“Washington has little leverage over Russia. There are no carrots to offer to Putin, and the sticks haven’t worked.” — Rebekah Koffler, author of Putin’s Playbook and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, to Gatestone, December 2023.
In other words, China and Russia are preparing to go to war together. As no country threatens either of them, they are undoubtedly thinking of perpetrating more acts of aggression.

Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy knows how to end the greatest threat to American national security. That threat would be the combination of the world’s two most dangerous states: China and Russia.

“I would freeze the current lines of control,” the candidate told Fox News’s Jesse Watters during his prime time show, referring to the battlefields in Ukraine. “I would further make a hard commitment that NATO will not admit Ukraine to NATO. That’s enough to get Putin to do the deal.”

“But I would require something even greater in return, Jesse,” Ramaswamy said. “Russia has to exit its military alliance with China.”

Putin will take the deal, the charismatic candidate assured Watters: “He’s gonna say, ‘Ok’ because I’m going to say, ‘We’ll reopen our economic relations with Russia and further, we’ll end the Ukraine war and also make sure NATO never admits Ukraine.’ “

The interview occurred in late August, but these themes are often heard, in America and elsewhere. Is Ramaswamy on the right track?

World’s Most Dangerous Combination: China and Russia

In theory, it should be possible to separate Moscow from Beijing. After all, China and Russia have for centuries been competitors, adversaries, and even enemies. Take something as fundamental as their common border. After border skirmishes, they finally settled the boundary only in 2008, when Moscow formally transferred various parcels to China.

Vladimir Putin knows, however, that no border is ever finally fixed, and Chinese migrants are pouring into the sparsely populated Russian Far East. There, many of them hope to “retake” lands ceded by the Qing dynasty to Moscow in the 1850s and 1860s in what Chinese officials now call “unequal treaties.” Beijing has made no formal claim to Vladivostok and surrounding areas, but it has been continually pushing the idea nonetheless.

In short, China poses the greatest threat to Russia, at least over the long term.

The Ramaswamy proposal, however, ignores the reality that as long as Putin and Xi Jinping rule, there is no realistic possibility of breaking up the two states. Both dictators view the world in similar terms; believe that their short-term interests coincide; and identify the same adversary, the United States of America. As Xi said on December 20 as he welcomed Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin to Beijing, “Maintaining and developing China-Russia relations well is a strategic choice made by both sides based on the fundamental interests of the two peoples.”

The two regimes, Xi’s words reveal, have been on the same page for some time. They declared their closeness with the 5,300-word joint statement issued after Putin met Xi in Beijing on February 4 of last year, just 20 days before Russia’s attack on Ukraine. That is when they declared their “no-limits” partnership.

China and Russia are more than just working together. They are forming the core of a new axis. Around this core are proxies and proxies of proxies, such as Iran, North Korea, Algeria, and a host of terrorist groups.

The Chinese and Russian leaders are forming this grouping because they believe the United States, the final guarantor of the international system that frustrates them both, must be taken down. Xi, by, among other things, declaring a “people’s war” on America, has made it clear that the US must be destroyed and Americans exterminated. Putin is less ambitious, only wanting the US out of his way as he recreates the Russian Empire at its greatest extent.

Moreover, Xi and Putin believe that the United States is in terminal decline. “Change is coming that hasn’t happened in 100 years,” the Chinese dictator said on March 22 to the Russian dictator in Moscow while bidding farewell after their 40th in-person meeting. “And we are driving this change together.”

Even if Xi and Putin were not so confident there are reasons for the Russian leader to reject the overtures of a President Ramaswamy. “Washington has little leverage over Russia,” Rebekah Koffler, the author of Putin’s Playbook and former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, told Gatestone. “There are no carrots to offer to Putin, and the sticks haven’t worked.”

Yes, the Biden administration could drop sanctions and abandon Ukraine, but even those actions, which would be deeply injurious to the US and the international system, would not be enough to break Putin’s bond with Beijing. “Russia does not trust the US and Europe,” Koffler says. “Russia believes the West will continue to try to weaken it economically and militarily. Moscow believes that regardless of who occupies the White House, a Democrat or a Republican, the US will pursue an anti-Russia policy.”

Democrats and Republicans should pursue “anti-Russia” policies: Russia has refused to abide by the rules and norms of the international system. Russia is not only an aggressor state, but it is also engaging in barbaric acts in Ukraine, some of which constitute “genocide” as defined in Article II of the 1948 Genocide Convention.

Ramaswamy says “we have wrongfully cut off Russia from the West.” It is true that Americans and Western actions, as Koffler remarked, “hit the key revenue drivers of the Russian economy,” but how could any nation allow Putin to, among other things, use its banks and financial system while his soldiers were torturing, raping, and killing Ukrainian women and children; committing acts of mass murder in town after town; and abducting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia in an apparent attempt to eliminate Ukrainian identity?

To finance acts of aggression and barbarism in the face of sanctions, Putin has found support from China. By November, China-Russia trade hit $218.2 billion in 2023, exceeding their announced target of $200 billion by the end of 2024. Trade during the first 11 months of 2023 was double the volume in 2018 of $108.3 billion, which itself represented an increase of 24.5% over 2017. Putin will not break this established and fast-growing trade relationship for mere promises from a West he neither likes nor trusts.

China does not, as Ramaswamy tells us, have a “military alliance” with Russia—China has no formal alliances except the one with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea—but the Chinese and Russian militaries are nonetheless close.

The two forces are worrying the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, Admiral John Aquilino. This month in Tokyo, he publicly stated that he was “very concerned” about their joint exercises: “I view it as far beyond the marriage of convenience at this point in time.”

In other words, China and Russia are preparing to go to war together. As no country threatens either of them, they are undoubtedly thinking of perpetrating more acts of aggression.

Would Putin join Xi if China were to invade some neighbor? That is not clear, but it is highly likely that the Russian leader will help China. “Russia could conduct shows of force to stretch US and allied surveillance,” Rebecca Grant of defense consultant IRIS Independent Research told Gatestone. “Posturing military moves by Russia could also make US leadership balk.” She points out there could be, for instance, Russian bomber flights or even nuclear weapons exercises.

Russia could also help China by trying to grab even more of the Kuril Islands chain from Japan or moving against a NATO member, such as one of the three Baltic republics, engulfing the Eurasian landmass in conflict, from one end to the other.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

“And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire” Ezekiel 23:24-25

Posted in China, Russia, US

The War in Gaza isn’t about Hamas, it’s Demographics

•January 1, 2024 • Leave a Comment

The War in Gaza: It’s Not About Hamas. It’s About Demographics

Q. Could one unexpected day the Jews bring out the Ark of the Covenant and cause both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse?

Global Research by Mike Whitney • December 18, 2023 // The Unz Review

We’ve been told repeatedly that the goal of Israel’s operation in Gaza is to “defeat Hamas.” But is that true? We don’t think it is. We don’t think that any reasonable person would attempt to eradicate a militant organization by laying to waste vast swaths of the country while killing tens of thousands of innocent people.

That is not how one garners support for one’s cause nor is it an effective strategy for defeating the enemy. Instead, it is a policy that is guaranteed to horrify allies and critics alike greatly undermining the operation’s chances of success.

And that’s why we don’t believe that Israel’s attack on Gaza has anything to do with Hamas. We think it’s a smokescreen that’s being used to divert attention from the real objectives of the campaign.

And, what might those “real objectives” be?

The real objectives relate to an issue that is never discussed in the media, but is the primary factor driving events. Demographics.

As we all know, Israel’s long-term plan is to incorporate Gaza and the West Bank into Greater Israel. They want to control all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

“I am thy shield!” the Lord said, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river [Nile] of Egypt unto the great River Euphrates” (Genesis 15)

The problem is, however, that if they annex the occupied territories without disposing of the people, then the Palestinian population will equal or exceed that of the Jews which would lead to the demise of the Jewish state. That is the basic problem in a nutshell. Check out this article that helps to explain what’s going on:

Demography is a matter of national security in Israel and a key indicator for Israeli-Palestinian relations and their outlook: demographic trends in Israel are rapidly shifting and this will impact prospects for violence and conflict resolution.

As of late 2022, over seven million Israelis lived in Israel and the West Bank, and seven million Palestinians lived in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel and East Jerusalem, a somehow integrated region referred to as “Greater Israel” by Jewish right-wing activists …

A demographic bomb is already ticking. Israeli Jews experience an existential fear to be outgrown by the Palestinian population,and this is further instrumentalized by right-wing nationalist political entrepreneurs. Demography lies at the core of the territorial dispute between Jews and Arabs, as the two nations are waging a major war on numbers, aimed at weaponizing fertility rates to turn them into a predictive assumption of victory.

As the current Israeli right-wing government is laying the ground for the de facto annexation of the West Bank’s Area C, demography has been one of the tools employed to reassure the Jewish public opinion that Judea and Samaria could still be integrated into Israel, while keeping a Jewish demographic majority.

However, demography remains a struggle for survival and an uphill battle for Israel. This is especially true if Israel were to progress with the Palestinian Area C annexation. Israel: A Demographic Ticking Bomb in Today’s One-State Reality,” Aspenia

As an American, diversity might not seem like such a big deal. But to many Israelis, it’s pure strychnine. Zionists, in particular, see growth in the Arab population as a “demographic time-bomb” that threatens the future of the Jewish state. And that’s what the Gaza fracas is really all about; getting rid of the people but keeping the land. In fact, the last 75 years of conflict can be reduced to just 8 words, “They want the land, but not the people.” Here’s more from the Times of Israel:

Jewish people make up less than 47 percent of all those living west of the Jordan River, an Israeli demographer warned Tuesday, claiming that most of the Israeli population is unaware of the democratic peril the country is sliding into by possibly becoming a ruling minority in the area.

Arnon Soffer, a professor of geography at Haifa University, told Army Radio Tuesday that in addition to the Jewish and Arab populations, he reached his figures by taking into consideration the hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish people residing in Israel who are not citizens.

According to Soffer, there are 7.45 million Jews and others along with 7.53 million Arab Israelis and Palestinians living in what he termed the Land of Israel, meaning Israel plus the West Bank and Gaza Strip. When the number of non-Israeli nationals is taken into consideration, it leaves the Jewish proportion at between 46% and 47% of the total, he claimed.

According to Israel’s official Central Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2021, 9.449 million people live in Israel (including Israelis in West Bank settlements). Of those, 6.982 million (74 percent) are Jewish, 1.99 million (21%) are Arab and 472,000 (5%) are neither…. The Palestinian Bureau of Statistics puts the West Bank Palestinian population at a little over 3 million, and the Gaza population at just over 2 million.

Soffer explained to Army Radio that although the birthrate has been higher among the Jewish population in recent years, so too is the death rate, meaning the Arab population, which is far younger on average than the Jewish population, is growing faster. Jews now a 47% minority in Israel and the territories, demographer says, the Times of Israel.

Imagine, for a minute, that you posted a number of articles on your social media sites that said you thought there were too many blacks or Asians in America. How long do you think it would take before you were either shadow-banned, censored or buried under an avalanche of death threats?

But when we look at the contents of the article above, we see that a major newspaper in Israel breezily publishes an article which states in stark terms that the country faces “democratic peril” because there are too many Arabs in the areas earmarked for future annexation. How is that not racism?

Following numerous Nakba and Naksa, Progression towards a Greater Israel

But this is how the issue is discussed in Israel. Demographics are considered a national security issue, an existential issue, and an issue that will decide the future of the Jewish State. Is it any wonder why the reaction has been so extreme? Is it any wonder why people refer to the fact that there is a large population of Palestinians in Palestine as the “Arab problem”? And, of course, once the indigenous population is regarded as a “problem,” then it is incumbent on the political leaders to conjure-up a solution.

So, what exactly is the solution to the Arab problem?

Why fewer Arabs, of course. Which is why the idea of expelling the Palestinians has a long pedigree in Zionist thinking dating back a full five decades before the establishment of the Jewish state. As it happens, the Arabs were always a problem even when the Jews represented less than 10 percent of the population. Go figure? Check out this comment by the ideological father of political Zionism himself, Theodor Herzl, who wrote the following:

“We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

Shockingly, Herzl wrote those words in 1895, 50 years before Israel declared its statehood. And many of the Zionist leaders who followed him shared that same world view, like Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion who said:

“You are no doubt aware of the [Jewish National Fund’s] activity in this respect. Now a transfer of a completely different scope will have to be carried out. In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the Arab fellahin.” He concluded: “Jewish power [in Palestine], which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out this transfer on a large scale.” (1948)

And here’s Ben-Gurion again in 1938: “I support compulsory transfer. I don’t see anything immoral in it.”

See how far back this line of reasoning goes? The Zionists were tweaking their ethnic cleansing plans long before Israel had even become a state. And for good reason. They knew that the numbers did not support the prospects for an enduring Jewish State. The only way to square the circle was through compulsory resettlement, otherwise known as “transfer.”

And while that policy might have been repugnant to a great many Jews, a far larger number undoubtedly believed it was a cruel necessity. The preservation of the Jewish State became the highest value permitting behavior that would otherwise be disparaged as unacceptable and immoral. Here’s how Ben Shapiro summed it up in an essay titled “Transfer is Not a Dirty Word”:

The time for half measures has passed…. Some have rightly suggested that Israel be allowed to decapitate the terrorist leadership of the Palestinian Authority. But this, too, is only a half measure. The ideology of the Palestinian population is indistinguishable from that of the terrorist leadership.…

Here is the bottom line: If you believe that the Jewish state has a right to exist, then you must allow Israel to transfer the Palestinians and the Israeli-Arabs from Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Israel proper. It’s an ugly solution, but it is the only solution. And it is far less ugly than the prospect of bloody conflict ad infinitum….

The Jews don’t realize that expelling a hostile population is a commonly used and generally effective way of preventing violent entanglements. There are no gas chambers here. It’s not genocide; it’s transfer….

It’s time to stop being squeamish. Jews are not Nazis. Transfer is not genocide. And anything else isn’t a solution. Transfer is Not a Dirty Word, Narkive

The importance of the Shapiro piece can’t be overstated. First, he explicitly links the future viability of the Jewish state to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. Second, he acknowledges that transfer is “an ugly solution,” but supports the policy as a necessary evil. And, third, he justifies the implementation of the mass expulsion by putting the entire Palestinian population into the same category as the terrorists. (“The ideology of the Palestinian population is indistinguishable from that of the terrorist leadership.”)

So, in essence, Shapiro is making our case for us. He is candidly admitting that the only policy that will preserve the Jewish state is ethnic cleansing. And judging by developments on the ground, we must assume the Netanyahu government arrived at the same conclusion. The people of Gaza are being bombed, starved and terrorized all with the explicit aim of herding them in the direction of the southern border where they will be forced at gunpoint to flee their historic homeland.

Bottom line: The strategic objectives of the Israeli operation in Gaza are entirely different than the stated goal of defeating Hamas.

All of the land west of the Jordan River is now being cleared of its native occupants so it can be incorporated into Greater Israel while maintaining a sizable Jewish majority.

The demonizing of the Palestinian people –which casts the victims of this onslaught as the perpetrators– is intended to conceal the underlying policy that is based on racial discrimination. There is no doubt that if the Arabs in Gaza were of Jewish descent, they would be spared the genocide they face today.

¹⁸On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates:

¹⁹the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites,

²⁰and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaim,

²¹and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites.” Genesis 15:18-21

Posted in Islamic, Israel, Zionism

Lindsey Graham calls for bombing Iran

•December 31, 2023 • Leave a Comment

What goes around comes around. Now Lindsey Graham wants the IRGC headquarters “blown off the map”

RT News • December 28, 2023 // ZeroHedge

The US should bomb Iranian oil fields and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps HQ in retaliation for Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Thursday.

“Without Iran, there are no Houthis,” Lindsey Graham said, blow them “off the map.”

In a Fox News interview, the South Carolina Republican argued that Tehran was behind both the attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria and the harassment of Israeli-linked cargo ships in the Red Sea.

“I have been saying for six months now: Hit Iran,” Graham said. “They have oil fields out in the open, they have the Revolutionary Guard headquarters you can see from space. Blow it off the map.”

According to Graham, the Houthis in Yemen are “completely backed” by Tehran. “Without Iran, there are no Houthis,” he said.

The group that stylizes itself as the government of Yemen has openly sided with the Palestinians in the Israel-Gaza conflict and began targeting merchant ships owned by or headed for Israel in late October. Major shipping companies have rerouted their vessels around Africa in response, driving up prices.

Various groups calling themselves the “Islamic Resistance” have also launched drones and rockets at US troops in Iraq and Syria. Washington refuses to withdraw its forces from the region, even though they have long outlived Baghdad’s welcome and never had the blessing of Damascus.

Although the US launched airstrikes against three targets in Iraq on Monday, Graham accused Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin of showing “weakness” and “failing our troops in the field” by not retaliating more forcefully.

“I asked him a couple of months ago: Is there a red line? Would you tell our enemies publicly that if you kill an American, we are coming after you?” the senator told Fox News. “If you really want to protect American soldiers, make it real to the ayatollah, you attack a soldier through a proxy, we’re coming after you.”

Graham has a long history of promoting the use of force abroad, often in tandem with former Arizona Senator John McCain, who infamously sang “Bomb Iran” during his 2007 presidential campaign. He carried the torch after McCain died in 2018. Graham is a retired colonel in the US Air Force but spent his entire military career in the Judge Advocate General corps as a lawyer and then a judge.

“And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, who shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet roundabout; and I will set judgement before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgements.

“And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire” Ezekiel 23:24-25

Posted in Iran, US

Leviticus (11-12)

•December 31, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 11

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, — spoke unto Moses and Aaron; this charge is given to them jointly; to one as chief governor, and to the other as high-priest; the priest was to direct the people about the things forbidden or allowed, and the magistrate was to see the direction followed.

²“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘These are the beasts which ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. — in accordance with the division of the animal kingdom are into four principal classes: (1) the land animals, (2) the water animals, (3) the birds of the air, and (4) the swarming animals.

The foot of the ox, sheep and goat, the hoof is wholly divided below and above

³Whatsoever parteth the hoof and is cloven-footed and cheweth the cud among the beasts, that shall ye eat. — whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud; ruminating animals by the peculiar structure of their stomachs digest their food more fully than others.

⁴Nevertheless these shall ye not eat, of those that chew the cud or of those that divide the hoof: the camel, because he cheweth the cud but divideth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you;

⁵and the coney, because he cheweth the cud but divideth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you; — the coney; that is the old name for the rabbits;

⁶and the hare, because he cheweth the cud but divideth not the hoof, he is unclean unto you;

⁷and the swine, though he divide the hoof and is cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud, he is unclean to you. — and the swine; this animal is remarkable for filthiness, and for feeding on all manner of ordure, even carrion if it falls in its way;

⁸Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.

⁹“‘These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. — any fish, either from salt water or fresh, might be eaten if it had both scales and fins. but no other creature that lives in the waters;

¹⁰And all that have not fins and scales in the seas and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.

— shellfish of all kinds, whether mollusks or crustaceans, and cetaceous animals were therefore prohibited, as well as fish which appear to have no scales, like the eel; probably because they were considered unwholesome;

¹¹They shall be even an abomination unto you: ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall hold their carcasses in abomination.

— an abomination unto you, for food; this clause is added to show that they were neither abominable in their own nature, nor for the food of other nations; as Noah was asked to eat anything that moves, “Every moving thing that liveth shall be food for you;” Genesis 9:3; and Noah was an righteous man;

¹²Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you. — whatsoever hath no fins nor scales; frogs, eels, shellfish of all descriptions, were included as unclean; but locusts are clean and should be consumed;

¹³“‘And these are they which ye shall hold in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, — all such fowls and birds as are rapacious, and live upon prey, as the eagle, and its several kinds, hawks, kites, vultures, ravens, and more, are forbidden;

¹⁴and the vulture, and the kite after his kind,

¹⁵every raven after his kind,

¹⁶and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind,

¹⁷and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl,

¹⁸and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, — and the swan; other translations as “white owl” or “barn owls” or “water hen,”

The swan as bustard in the Targum Jonathan

¹⁹and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.

²⁰“‘All fowls that creep, going upon all fours, shall be an abomination unto you. — all the fowls that creep, better, all creeping things which have wings; the swarming animals or insects, especially of the reptile or insect kind, which constitute the fourth class of the Hebrew division of the animal kingdom;

²¹Yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all fours, which have legs above their feet with which to leap upon the earth; — yet these may ye eat of every flying creeping thing that goeth upon all four, which have legs above their feet;

²²even these of them ye may eat: the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. — and the bald locust, the beetle, or rather, the hopping locust.

²³But all other flying creeping things which have four feet shall be an abomination unto you.

²⁴“‘And by these ye shall be unclean. Whosoever toucheth the carcass of them shall be unclean until the evening, — shall be unclean until the even; for coming in contact with the dead body of the animals contracts defilement for the rest of the day, and till the beginning of a new day, which took place after sunset;

²⁵and whosoever beareth aught of the carcass of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. — and whosoever beareth; but he who removed the carcase out of the camp or city, or from one place to another, not only contracted defilement for the rest of the day, but had to wash the clothes which he had on;

²⁶The carcasses of every beast which divideth the hoof, and is not cloven-footed nor cheweth the cud, are unclean unto you; every one who toucheth them shall be unclean. — they were prohibited from touching their dead bodies, but not their bodies when alive: for they used camels, horses, asses, and others, for necessary service;

²⁷And whatsoever goeth upon his paws, among all manner of beasts that go on all fours, those are unclean unto you; whoso toucheth their carcass shall be unclean until the evening.

²⁸And he that beareth the carcass of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean unto you.

²⁹“‘These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth: the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind,

³⁰and the ferret, and the chameleon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole.

³¹These are unclean to you among all that creep; whosoever doth touch them when they are dead shall be unclean until the evening.

³²And upon whatsoever any of them when they are dead doth fall, it shall be unclean. Whether it be any vessel of wood or raiment or skin or sack, whatsoever vessel it be wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the evening; so it shall be cleansed.

³³And every earthen vessel whereinto any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean, and ye shall break it.

³⁴Of all meat which may be eaten, that on which such water cometh shall be unclean; and all drink that may be drunk in every such vessel shall be unclean.

³⁵And every thing whereupon any part of their carcass falleth shall be unclean. Whether it be an oven or ranges for pots, they shall be broken down; for they are unclean and shall be unclean unto you.

³⁶Nevertheless a fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean; but that which toucheth their carcass shall be unclean.

³⁷And if any part of their carcass fall upon any sowing seed which is to be sown, it shall be clean.

³⁸But if any water be put upon the seed and any part of their carcass fall thereon, it shall be unclean unto you.

³⁹“‘And if any beast of which ye may eat die, he that toucheth the carcass thereof shall be unclean until the evening. — and if any beast; that is, a clean animal, but which has not been properly slaughtered, having died from any disease or accident; the carcase, in this case, is to be regarded as the dead body of an unclean animal;

⁴⁰And he that eateth of the carcass of it shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. He also that beareth the carcass of it shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.

⁴¹“‘And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an abomination; it shall not be eaten.

⁴²Whatsoever goeth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all fours, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat, for they are an abomination.

⁴³Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby.

⁴⁴For I am the Lord your God. Ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

— ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy; that is, separate themselves from all other people, and be distinct from them, by using a different diet from theirs, as their Lord and God was different from all others;

— neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; which is repeated to keep them at the utmost distance from these things, and to fill them with an aversion to them, that they might be careful to avoid them.

⁴⁵For I am the Lord who bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. Ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.

— ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy; separate from all others as he was, living holy lives and conversations, agreeably to his will made known to them, in imitation or him who had chosen and called them to be his people; for, since holiness is his nature, it becomes them who are his house and family, his subjects and people.

⁴⁶“‘This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth, — this is the law of the beasts: clean and unclean, what were to be eaten, and what not.

⁴⁷to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.’” — make a difference between the unclean and the clean—that is, between animals used and not used for food.

Leviticus 12

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a woman have conceived seed and borne a manchild, then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.

— she shall be unclean seven days; though the issue of blood which succeeds child-birth generally only lasts three or four days, yet the period of uncleanness is extended to seven days to include exceptional cases.

³And on the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. — and in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised; or the foreskin of his flesh, that is, of the man child born according to the law.

⁴And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days. She shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary until the days of her purifying are fulfilled. — the Levitical law ascribed impurity exclusively to the mother, but in no degree to the child; why?

⁵But if she bear a maidchild, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her separation; and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.

— threescore and six days; the time in both particulars is double to that of the male, the former; the law, as some think, being adapted to an opinion that women are sooner purified after the birth of males than of females;

— perhaps, that a male infant circumcised on the eighth day, by the profusion of its own blood, bears part of the purgation; wherefore the mother, for the birth of a female, must suffer twice the time of separation; the separation is finished within two weeks, but the purgation continues sixty six days;

⁶“‘And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation unto the priest,

— but in cases of great poverty a pigeon might be substituted for the lamb (Leviticus 12:8, cf. Leviticus 5:7, Leviticus 5:11);

— for a burnt offering; in gratitude, and by way of thanksgiving for the love she had received in childbearing;

⁷who shall offer it before the Lord and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath borne a male or a female. — and make an atonement for her; for whatsoever sin in connection with or that attended childbearing;

⁸And if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for the burnt offering and the other for a sin offering, and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.’”

— then she shall bring two turtles, or two young pigeons; which was a kind and merciful provision for the poorer sort;

— and the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean; equally the same as if she had brought a lamb, instead of young pigeons, or turtledoves.

Posted in Books of Moses

Will the US Become Hispanic by 2060?

•December 30, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Will The United States Become A Hispanic Country By 2060?

“The fact is that they’ve lied to my people. They’ve said, ‘No problem; everything’s just fine,’ when things are not at all fine.” Ezekiel 13:10 (MSG)

The demographics of the United States have changed a lot over the past few decades, and with the noticeable growth of the Hispanic and Latino American population both through immigration and higher birthrates could the United States be slowly becoming a Hispanic country?

Will The United States Become A Hispanic Country By 2060?

Is America’s future hispanic? States like Texas and California already see latinos constitute a plurality of the population, and these populations will almost certainly become majorities by 2050, with some figures suggesting the United States could become majority hispanic, while more reasonable estimates suggest hispanic-americans will comprise as much as 35 percent of the total population.

What could this mean for the future of American politics? How will Hispanic-American voting patterns effect elections in America, the political power of the Republican and Democratic parties?

In analyzing and explaining this we also need to consider that while Hispanic and Latino populations are often lumped together, there is a good amount of diversity among the Hispanic demographic, with many White, Mestizo, and Black Hispanics.

We must also consider the declining birthrates seen within the domestic population of the United States, and how higher fertility rates among Hispanic-Americans will effect America’s demographics.

Will the United States become a Hispanic country by 2060?

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Esau, Latin Americas, Mexico, US

US-led Forces to Patrol the Red Sea

•December 28, 2023 • Leave a Comment

There’s a growing list of major shipping and container companies which have paralyzed transit through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea as Israel confronts attack from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, Iraq, Yemen and Iran:

Italian-Swiss giant Mediterranean Shipping Company
France’s CMA CGM
Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd
Belgium’s Euronav
oil giant BP
Denmark’s A.P Moller-Maersk
Taiwan shipping firm Evergreen
Norway-based Frontline

Houthi pirates, armed with drones and helicopter, in action on cargo ships!

This resulted in a US-led force, including the UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain to fight the Houthis in the Red Sea.

Reuters • December 19, 2023 // Sputnik International

CAIRO/GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Several countries have agreed to jointly carry out patrols in the southern Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to try to safeguard commercial shipping against attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

Yemen’s Houthis seized the ship in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen and threatening to seize all vessels owned by Israeli companies

The Iran-aligned group says the aim of its missile and drone attacks is to support the Palestinians as Israel and Hamas wage war in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi politburo, told Al Jazeera that his group will be able to confront any coalition formed by the United States that could deploy to the Red Sea.

Austin, who is on a trip to Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s headquarters in the Middle East, said participating countries led by the United States include the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain.

Multi-national Forces from the US, UK, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Seychelles and Spain arms up to fight the Houthis

“This is an international challenge that demands collective action. Therefore today I am announcing the establishment of Operation Prosperity Guardian, an important new multinational security initiative,” Austin said in a statement early on Tuesday.

Several other countries have also agreed to be involved in the operation but prefer not to be publicly named, a defense official said on the condition of anonymity to discuss additional details of the new mission that have not been publicly announced.

The mission will be coordinated by the already existing Combined Task Force 153, which was set up in April 2022 to improve maritime security in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb and the Gulf of Aden. There have been 39 member nations in CTF 153, but officials were working to determine which of them would participate in this latest effort.

In a letter to council members obtained Monday by The Associated Press, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Houthi attacks targeting commercial vessels legally transiting the international waterways continue to threaten “navigational rights and freedoms, international maritime security, and international commerce.”

The 15 council members discussed the Houthi threat behind closed doors Monday but took no immediate action.

The Houthis said earlier Monday they had attacked two “Israeli-linked” vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with Gaza, as more companies halt transit through the troubled but vital waterway.

In a statement, the Houthis said they had carried out a “military operation against two ships linked to the Zionist entity” using naval drones. They vowed to “continue to prevent all ships heading to Israeli ports… from navigating in the Arab and Red Seas” until more food and medicine is allowed into Gaza.

US warships currently operating in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf

Three US warships — the USS Carney, the USS Stethem and the USS Mason, all Navy destroyers — have been moving through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait daily to help deter and respond to attacks from the Houthis.

Posted in Canada, Islamic, Israel, UK, US

Gaza, Hamas and the continuing Zionist project

•December 27, 2023 • Leave a Comment

If we are going to understand the present Israeli – Arab conflict, we have to examine its roots.

The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save?

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. Habakkuk 1:1-3

Pearls and Irritations by John Menadue • December 19, 2023

Hamas is the excuse for the Israeli attack on Gaza. It is not the reason.

The real Israeli objective in Gaza is to drive out the population and destroy infrastructure as part of a long term plan to expel Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere.

This settler colonisation has been ongoing since 1948, starting with the Nakba. In Australia we are very familiar with settler colonisation – driving out the original inhabitants.

“I am thy shield! Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates” (Genesis 15)

In 1948 Palestinians owned 94% of all land; now Israelis own 82%. These figures tell the real story.

October 7 did not occur in a vacuum. It was the result of decades long Israeli occupation, never ending violence and oppression. The pressure cooker exploded!

The US and Australian parrott on about a two state solution but we do nothing to advance it. We use it as a fig leaf to hide our support for US policies in support of Israel.

Recognizing Palestine would be a first step in a political settlement. But the Israeli government rejects it. Netanyahu boasts that he has thwarted a Palestinian State.

Instead Israel pursues occupation of more and more land, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Even if the military defeat of Hamas was possible it would not end Palestinian resistance. It would continue in another and stronger form.

Hamas is certainly not winning in our Washington manipulated media. But it is winning overwhelmingly in the Arab street.

Netanyahu repeatedly tells us about how Hamas is a great threat to Israel. But in recent years he has been channelling financial support to Hamas.

In 2016, Netanyahu began allowing the Qataris to send money to Gaza. Netanyahu said that money was humanitarian aid. His motive for this secret funding however has been to build Hamas as the rival to Fatah and President Abbas. Netanyahu is now hoist with his own petard. And Palestinians are paying the price with high tech Israeli killing.

A recent poll by the Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) of persons in Gaza and the West Bank should be essential reading. It reports on Hamas and other key issues;

• Support for Hamas has more than tripled in the West Bank compared to three months ago. In the Gaza Strip, support for Hamas increased but not significantly. Despite the increase in its popularity, the majority in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip does not support Hamas. It is worth noting that support for Hamas usually rises temporarily during or immediately after a war and then returns to the previous level several months after the end of the war.

• Support for President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah party drops significantly. The same is true for the trust in the PA as a whole, as demand for its dissolution rises to nearly 60%, the highest percentage ever recorded in PSR polls. Demand for Abbas’s resignation is rising to around 90 percent, and even higher in the West Bank. Despite the decline in support for Fatah and Abbas, the most popular Palestinian figure remains Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader (in jail). Barghouti is still able to beat Hamas’ candidate Ismail Haniyeh or any other.

• Support for armed struggle rises ten percentage points compared to three months ago, with more than 60% saying it is the best means of ending the Israeli occupation; in the West Bank, the percentage rises further to close to 70%. Moreover, a majority in the West Bank believes that the formation of armed groups in communities subject to settler attacks is the most effective means of combating settler terrorism against towns and villages in the West Bank.

• Despite the above-mentioned reference to the lack of confidence in the seriousness of US and European talk about reviving the two-state solution and despite the increase in support for armed struggle, support for the two-state solution has not dropped in this poll. To the contrary, support for this solution has increased slightly in both the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. This increase seems to come especially from those who believe that the US and European talk about the two-state solution is indeed serious.

Asked about their degree of ‘satisfaction’ of various actors in the Gaza genocide the US was placed last.

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

so significant is this encrypted message that it is repeated

⁷ “Therefore, behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that they shall no more say, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

⁸ but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.” Jeremiah 23:7-8

Posted in Islamic, Israel, US

West has ‘backstabbed’ Ukraine

•December 26, 2023 • Leave a Comment

West has ‘backstabbed’ Ukraine – Lukashenko. “All your lovers have forgotten you!“

RT News • December 15, 2023

The promise of weapons to fight Russia “for as long as it takes” was false, the Belarusian president has claimed

Promises of support given by the US and its allies to nations that used to be parts of the USSR are empty, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday, citing Ukraine as an example of trust being betrayed.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky was promised arms and money to fight Russia, with Western leaders stating it would last “for as long as it takes” to prevail. The aid is now dwindling, proving that Kiev was misled by the West, Lukashenko noted, and leaving Ukraine “standing with its legs split off the road.”

He claimed he had warned Zelensky: “some turmoil will happen, or something else – and they (the US) will forget about you. And here you go.” The Belarusian leader was referring to the Middle East crisis and the dispute over domestic policies in the US derailing White House attempts to appropriate continued funding for Kiev in Congress. He added that Ukraine’s president is now “walking around hat in hand, poor man.”

“They backstabbed him, just like in Afghanistan,” Lukashenko said, predicting that Ukrainians “will be clinging to plane landing gear and falling” the way some Afghans did in 2020, when the US was pulling its troops out amid the takeover of Kabul by Taliban fighters.

The remarks were directed at the security chiefs and heads of intelligence agencies of members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), a post-Soviet intragovernmental organization, who had gathered in the Belarusian capital for a meeting. The host was making a case for regional integration, arguing that historical, cultural and economic reasons dictate the need for cooperation.

The West seeks to undermine this unity, and those who are tempted by its promises will get burned, Lukashenko argued. He was specifically addressing Armenia, which has been considering the US and the EU as potential security providers in the wake of the latest crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. The part of Azerbaijan existed for decades as a self-proclaimed entity called ‘Artsakh’ which was tacitly allied with Yerevan, but in September, Baku reclaimed full control over the territory.

Lukashenko urged Armenia not to hastily cut ties with its fellow members of the CIS, because rifts like that are hard to mend.

“Do not split away under any circumstances, don’t leave, because [the West] will fail you. And a dispossessed nation that gets into a hard spot, a dead-end, has but one way out. It’s given a rifle and told to go to war,” he said.

Armenia was represented in Minsk by Kristinne Grigoryan, its former human rights ombudsman who was appointed the head of the newly-created foreign intelligence service in October.

Fore more, see US has funds for only one more Ukraine aid package

“All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer care for you anymore. I have wounded you as an enemy would. I have punished you as the cruel would, because your guilt is so great, because your sins are so many” Jeremiah 30:14.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

Posted in NATO, Russia, Ukraine, US

US Bases in Finland Will Make It Less Safe

•December 25, 2023 • Leave a Comment

US Bases in Finland Will Make Nordic Nation Less Safe: Here’s Why

Sputnik International • December 16, 2023

Finland will provide the United States with access to 15 military bases under a defense pact reached following Helsinki’s move to join NATO. Far from strengthening Finland’s security, allowing US troops to set up shop on Finnish soil could make the country and region less safe. A leading Russian security analyst explains why.

Another Provocation, Finland to Give US Access to 15 Military Bases

The Finnish-US Defense Cooperation Agreement, expected to be formally signed on December 18 by Finland’s cabinet, and approved by parliament after that, has been justified by Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen on the grounds that the United States should help “protect” Finland.

“Finland’s close defense cooperation with the United States dates back to the early 1990s, and the DCA would not be possible without this long history of cooperation,” Hakkanen said.

“The signature of the DCA is not the end point, but a new step towards even closer cooperation between the defense administrations of Finland and the United States. The agreement reflects the United States’ commitment to Finland’s security and it creates the conditions for cooperation in times of crisis. Finland is not alone in defending itself, but does so as a NATO ally and together with the United States,” he added.

If approved, the pact will grant US forces access to military bases and facilities across the Nordic nation, from its Baltic Sea coastlines to remote areas of the country’s interior to a major training base in Finnish Lapland crossing the Arctic Circle.

New NATO member, Finland to Give US Access to 15 Military Bases

The US would be allowed to preposition defense equipment, supplies and materiel across the country, deploy vehicles, warships and aircraft and take measures to ensure their “protection, safety, and security,” with Helsinki also waiving “its primary right to exercise criminal jurisdiction” over American troops, a waiver other countries hosting large quantities of US servicemen have come to regret.

The Kremlin has expressed alarm over the basing agreement. “It will certainly lead [to increased tensions],” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

“We can only express regret in this regard, because we really once had excellent relations with Finland. No one threatened anyone, there were no problems or claims against one another, no one infringed on one another’s interests, there was mutual respect, and so on. Therefore, of course, now that Finland has become a member of NATO, and when NATO’s military infrastructure is going to be entering Finland, this will pose a threat to us, clearly,” Peskov said.

Finland, which shares a nearly 1,300 km long border with Russia, applied to join the US-led NATO bloc in 2022, after the Donbass crisis escalated into a full-blown NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. The country completed its entry in April, bringing an end to decades of neutrality that Finland had enjoyed since the close of WWII.

Russia has so far demonstrated a sense of “restraint” in connection with Finland’s accession to NATO and the buildup of American military power in Europe, says Institute of World Economy and International relations security analyst and researcher Dmitry Stefanovich.

Nevertheless, Moscow has been forced to react to growing threats to its northern flank. “We have all heard about the creation of two new military districts, about a new division and about the strengthening of military aviation. The most important thing is that as a result of all of these processes, the architecture of mutual deterrence is changing both in the non-nuclear and nuclear dimensions,” Stefanovich told Sputnik.

“At the same time, these processes are not very fast. If the political will is there, the trends can be changed somewhat,” the observer stressed.

“That is, we can once again realize that mutual deterrence is fraught with the constant underestimation or overestimation of threats, requires a huge infusion of resources into the military sphere that could be useful in other places, and most importantly, creates conditions for escalation, including unintentional escalation, simply by virtue of very powerful armed forces saturated with various weapons being mobilized and standing opposite one another.”

In such conditions, any flashpoint could quickly turn into large-scale fighting that could prove difficult to stop, Stefanovich said.

“The alternative is the restoration, strengthening and development of security confidence-building measures in the military sphere and the normalization of work, including through the OSCE. And in the end, a transition to something vaguely reminiscent of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe,” the researcher suggested. “In any case, some kind of regional agreements are quite possible,” as are channels of communication on a military-to-military level.

Otherwise, the basing agreement will threaten to escalate already sky-high tensions between Russia, NATO and the US, this time along a new front which did not exist even during the Cold War.

Posted in Europe, NATO, US

China wants Vietnam’s rare earths

•December 24, 2023 • Leave a Comment

China wants role in US-Vietnam rare earths plan. For more, see Rare Earth Production: Top 5 Countries

AsiaTimes by Jeff Pao • December 16, 2023

Following the conclusion of President Xi Jinping’s Hanoi trip earlier this week, China has claimed itself to be Vietnam’s best choice for trade and diplomatic partnerships in the Asia Pacific region.

According to the US Geological Survey, Vietnam’s rare earth reserves stand at 22 million metric tons; second, compared with China’s 44 million metric tons

Perhaps, but the proof will be in the pudding. Will Vietnam directly export its rare earths, as the US hopes, or send them for processing in China? Chinese pundits want to know. They also want to know whether Hanoi will lease a military port to Washington.

On Wednesday, China and Vietnam signed 36 agreements, covering the Belt and Road Initiative, development cooperation, digital economy, green development, transportation, inspection and quarantine, defense and law enforcement and maritime cooperation. But Vietnamese media said Beijing and Hanoi have failed to reach agreements on nine other issues, including metals and rare earths mining.

During his own trip to Hanoi in September, US President Joe Biden signed deals with Vietnam on semiconductors and rare earths. He encouraged US investment in rare earth exploration in Vietnam – which is ranked third in the world in its rare earths potential – to counter China’s world domination of the minerals.

Rare Earths

Some Chinese pundits said China will boost trade and investments with Vietnam as long as Hanoi continues to maintain a good relationship with Beijing. They said if Vietnam is going to use US investment to explore its rare earth reserves, it should consider shipping the deposits to China for refining.

According to the US Geological Survey, Vietnam’s rare earth reserves stand at 22 million metric tons, compared with China’s 44 million metric tons.

Rare earth deposits in Vietnam have remained largely untapped, due to the low prices that are effectively set by China, which was the largest rare-earths supplier in the world last year.

This week, Beijing said it is ready to offer grants to Vietnam to build the railway between Kunming and the Vietnamese port city of Haiphong. The railway will pass through Vietnam’s rare-earths heartland.

“If Vietnam asks China to build a railway in its territory, it’s natural for both sides to form a rare earth partnership,” a Shanxi-based columnist says in an article published on Friday. “It will be embarrassing if China is building the railway while the US is extracting the minerals in Vietnam.”

He says the proposed construction of a Sino-Vietnam cross-border railway will make it more difficult for Vietnam and the US to form a rare earth partnership. He says, even if the US starts mining, it will have to send the minerals to China for refining.

“The US offered to help Vietnam develop its mining industry in a bid to obtain its rare minerals, but such a move will only increase the cooperation between Vietnam and China,” Huang Xuan, a Heilongjiang-based writer, says in an article, adding that China is good at refining rare earths.

Often times fighting like cats and dogs in the past, now lips and teeth

‘The Outsiders’

The same writer praises Vietnam for maintaining a friendly relationship with China, for example, by importing Chinese raw materials and intermediate products, refusing to condemn Russia in the Ukraine war and supporting Palestine. She says Vietnam and China agree that maintaining stability in the South China Sea fulfills both countries’ interests.

Xi Jinping told Vietnamese President Vo Van Thuong on Wednesday that both China and Vietnam should be “alert to and oppose any attempts to mess up Asia Pacific.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry had in the past said that the US and NATO were the “outsiders” who tried to mess up Asia Pacific. It had criticized the US and Philippines for strengthening their military ties after Philippine President Bongbong Marcos took office in June 2020.

“We have to admit that the encirclement deployed by the US in the South China Sea is taking shape and posing security risks and threats to China,” a writer using the pen name “Zhenjiang” says in an article published on Friday.

“Fortunately, China has also strengthened its military power in the region over the past few decades,” he says. “If the US wants to gather its allies to cause trouble at China’s doorstep, it needs to take into consideration the naval and air power of the People’s Liberation Army.”

He says the US definitely wants to rebuild a navy base in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay, an American military port during the Cold War period. He says, if this is the case, the PLA will deploy J-20 fighter jets and launch Dongfeng-21D anti-ship ballistic missiles to punish the trouble-makers.

‘Historic Significance,’ ‘new milestone’

But, getting back to the fancy words: The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday that Xi’s visit to Vietnam on December 12-13 is of great historic significance and marks a new milestone in the two countries’ bilateral relations.

The ministry would say that, of course, especially with a view back to Biden’s meeting with Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Hanoi on September 10. Those two had agreed to elevate the US-Vietnam relationship to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” for the purposes of “peace, cooperation and sustainable development.”

Mao Ning, a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said the Vietnamese side firmly supports and will actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative proposed by Xi.

“The Vietnamese side emphasized that China is the only country that can contribute to all the priorities of Vietnamese diplomacy and growing relations with China is the top priority and strategic choice made by Vietnam, which will not be disturbed or sabotaged by any external forces,” Mao said. “This sets a solid political foundation for building a China-Vietnam community with a shared future.”

Xi’s trip to Vietnam is aimed at telling the mainland Chinese people and the West that Beijing has still had a strong influence on its neighboring countries, Huong Le Thu, deputy director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group, told the United Daily News in an interview.

“Vietnamese leaders have so far managed its relations with the US and China quite well,” she said. “They understand the challenges and opportunities created during the competition between great powers, and how to make use of Vietnam’s strategic position.”

She said the question is how long Hanoi can sustain the situation. She said Vietnamese leaders need to deal with the US and China carefully as both had fought with Vietnam in the past.

For more, see Rare Earth Production: Top 5 Countries

Posted in China, Rare Earth & Critical Materials, US

Rising China’s Naval Prowess

•December 23, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Rising Tides: China’s Naval Prowess Soars With Fourth Type 075 Assault Ship Launch

Sputnik International • December 16, 2023

China’s fourth Type 075 universal amphibious assault ship was launched at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipyard in Shanghai on December 14, 2023.

The launch ceremony marked the completion of the main construction, as the assault ship was moved out of the dry dock and placed on the outfitting quay for remaining work.

The new ship has not yet been officially christened, and there is no information on its completion date. Chinese authorities tend to keep details of achievements in military equipment secret until official announcements are made.

To date, the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) operates three assault ships of this class. The lead ship, the Hainan, is part of the South Sea Fleet. The first and second series ships, the Guangxi and Anhui, are in service with the East Sea Fleet.

Previous reports suggested that China would limit the series to three Type 075 all-purpose assault ships, but the addition of the fourth vessel suggests the possibility of additional units in the future.

The amphibious helicopter assault ships were developed entirely by Chinese designers. In terms of size, the assault ships are comparable to American counterparts such as the Tarawa, Wasp and America classes.

According to available information from Chinese sources, the length of Type 075 ships ranges from 235 to 250 meters with a total displacement of 36,000 tons. By comparison, American helicopter assault ships of the same class are 254 to 257 meters in length and have a total displacement of 40,000 to 46,000 tons.

The commissioning of the new ship, which will increase the PLAN’s combat power, comes amid renewed escalation of tensions in the South China Sea over maritime disputes between Vietnam and China. The US has accused both countries of violating the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but singled out China as the major threat to other regional players.

In an effort to counter so-called “Chinese influence” the US has engaged Vietnam through trade and military deals, including a visit by a US aircraft carrier. That prompted Beijing, in turn, to accuse Washington of stoking tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

All recent US actions, including saling drone ships near Chinese waters and increasing military spending, are just another facet of the Pentagon’s “Pacific Deterrence Initiative” which aims to continue encircling China with US military bases and offensive weapons platforms.

With the US showing “extraordinary interest” in the South China Sea by deploying warships close to Chinese borders and stoking tensions between China and other regional players by asserting the importance of “keeping the region open to global trade,” Beijing is naturally forced to increase military spending and further improve its naval defense capabilities.

Posted in China

Why are US politicians afraid of GARLIC?

•December 22, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Why are US politicians afraid of Chinese GARLIC?

Fear is Washington’s go-to tool for the centralisation of power, so it gets evoked at every opportunity

RT News by Timur Fomenko December 15, 2023

Florida Senator Rick Scott was recently ridiculed online after saying that Chinese imports of garlic to the US are a “national security threat.” It may sound funny, but it is in fact common for American politicians to make such claims about any and all things coming from China – no matter how ridiculous.

Why are US politicians afraid of Chinese garlic? — Why are American politicians going to the far end and are afraid of GARLIC?

There have been numerous examples, including a balloon, fridges, coffee machines, cranes, electric cars, subway cars, students, Confucius Institutes, Huawei, and TikTok. The list goes on and on. Rather than being something bizarre, it is in fact the norm for American senators amongst others to do this. In one way or another, everything from China is linked back in a malign way to a Communist Party conspiracy and there is no room for normality.

To understand why this is, one must recognise that American politics operates fundamentally on the medium of fear. The US is a massive federalist democracy with over 300 million people, living across very diverse regions and with polarised worldviews. The constitution entrenches this structure.

Once upon a time, the states held more power and autonomy than they have today. However, the civil war and its consequences produced a political trajectory which leaned towards the centralisation of executive power by various means.

This trend continued into the 20th century and the significant influences upon it were World Wars I and II, as well as the Great Depression. When facing such challenges, how do you keep your country together?

Not only by legal centralisation, as per the expansion of federal authority brought about in Roosevelt’s New Deal, but also through the evocation of fear to maintain unity and conformity in a nation which has always been, and especially today, bitterly divided.

Thus, starting with World War II and the expansion of radio and television technology, the US began to intensify its propaganda apparatus to be able to solidify support for its foreign policies.

Therefore, from the Cold War onwards, the weaponisation of fear became the primary American tool to legitimise its foreign policy objectives and enforce unity even amidst contentious debates at home.

The first notable expression of this was the McCarthyist era and the Red Scare. American officials learnt to weaponise, exaggerate and use irrational fear to enforce loyalty to the state by creating wild conspiracy theories of infiltration and subversion.

They also used this to close down the political debate and stifle dissent, with the degree of paranoia weaponised to prevent criticism, often by accusing the critic of being compromised by the adversary or inauthentic in some way.

The weaponisation of fear in this sense is deployed to manufacture consent for aggressive policies and scare the public into supporting them. For example, the most famous modern instance of fear weaponisation was the bogus claim that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.

The current US foreign policy priority is Beijing, and Washington subsequently returns to using anti-Communist paranoia to discredit anything Chinese that arrives in America. Washington’s grievances with Beijing are economic and trade related, and as a result American politicians use the language of “national security threats” to evoke fear over various Chinese products they dislike.

Garlic, a “national security threat” and “a severe public health concern”

Usually this is done by linking the product in question to spying in some absurdist way, though in the case of garlic, Senator Scott at least chose a more plausible avenue of attack, speaking about trade rules enforcement and “a severe public health concern” stemming from China’s allegedly unsanitary “growth practices.”

Whatever the specific accusation, the end goal of such fearmongering is to forcibly exclude the target product from the American market and then to convince allies to do the same. This is most notable in the treatment of Huawei’s participation in Western 5G networks.

Huawei was accused, without any substantial evidence, of being a security risk and spying on behalf of China. Per the American way, the accusation is repeated again and again, and then the establishment media serve a function of parroting that claim uncritically by conveying it as unbiased “concerns” without touching upon the true motive. It turns public opinion against the target and secures the desired foreign policy outcomes.

Calling garlic, of all things, a “national security threat” has been deservedly laughed at, therefore revealing the limitations of such hysteria-inducing tactics. Scott’s obvious real motive was to push for eliminating Chinese agricultural goods to protect American producers.

To some extent, successive presidential administrations have been doing the same, though their usual angle was “forced labour” as they attempted to weaponise human rights against goods like tomatoes or cotton from Xinjiang.

However, the sheer nonsense of Scott’s comments only serve to show how paranoia in US politics is deliberately opportunistic and rarely ever based on facts. The US sees fear as a very powerful weapon and tool of persuasion to push conformity and unity in an otherwise bitterly divided political order with a constitutionally limited central authority. And it works.

Balloon, TikTok, now Garlic, then maybe TOILET PAPER!

And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword, and they shall fall when none pursueth.

And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. Leviticus 26:36-38

Posted in China, US

Leviticus (9-10)

•December 21, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 9

¹ And it came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, — the consecration was to last seven days, during which time the persons to be consecrated were not to go away from the door of the tabernacle, and now is the eighth day.

²and he said unto Aaron, “Take thee a young calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.

— and Moses said unto Aaron; take thee a young calf for a sin offering; the directions in these sacred things were still given by Moses, the circumstances being extraordinary;

— and offer them before the Lord; on the altar of burnt offering, which stood in the court of the tabernacle;

³And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, ‘Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering,

— and unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak; that is, Aaron, who was now constituted high priest, was to give the orders about the sacrifices;

⁴also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a meat offering mingled with oil; for today the Lord will appear unto you.’”

— for to-day the Lord will appear unto you; that is, prepare and sanctify yourselves with these sacrifices, for the Lord is to manifest himself in an especial manner to signify his approval of the inauguration of Aaron and his family to the priesthood.

⁵And they brought that which Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord.

— and all the congregation; that is, the elders who represented the people, whom Moses summoned (see Leviticus 9:1), and as many of the people as could find room assembled before the sanctuary in the court-yard to witness the newly-installed priests officiating for the first time.

⁶And Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do, and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you.”

— and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you; the fire that should go out from him, and consume the sacrifice, which would be a demonstration of his presence with them, and of his acceptance of the sacrifice.

⁷And Moses said unto Aaron, “Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself and for the people; and offer the offering of the people and make an atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.”

— and Moses said unto Aaron; though he was now the duly-installed high priest, yet he did not approach the altar till he was solemnly called upon by Moses to do it.

⁸Aaron therefore went unto the altar and slew the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. — and slew the calf; as the sacrificer Aaron, like every ordinary offerer, slaughtered the calf himself;

⁹And the sons of Aaron brought the blood unto him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar;

— and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar; what remained after he had put what was proper on the horns of it.

¹⁰but the fat, and the kidneys and the caul above the liver of the sin offering, he burned upon the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹¹And the flesh and the hide he burned with fire outside the camp. — and the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire outside the camp; with common fire, for the fire from the Lord came only upon the altar;

¹²And he slew the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled round about upon the altar. — and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood: which they had received into a basin, when it was slain.

¹³And they presented the burnt offering unto him, with the pieces thereof and the head; and he burned them upon the altar.

¹⁴And he washed the inwards and the legs, and burned them upon the burnt offering on the altar.

¹⁵And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and slew it and offered it for sin, as the first.

¹⁶And he brought the burnt offering and offered it according to the ordinance.

¹⁷And he brought the meat offering, and took a handful thereof and burned it upon the altar beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning.

¹⁸He slew also the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of peace offerings, which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled upon the altar round about,

¹⁹and the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that which covereth the inwards, and the kidneys, and the caul above the liver.

²⁰And they put the fat upon the breasts, and he burned the fat upon the altar.

²¹And the breasts and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded.

²²And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and peace offerings.

²³And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people.

²⁴And there came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat, which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces.

— there came a fire out from the Lord; a flame emanating from that resplendent light that filled the holy place flashed upon the brazen altar and kindled the sacrifices;

— this miraculous fire; for the descent of which the people had probably been prepared, was a sign, not only of the acceptance of the offerings and of the establishment of Aaron’s authority, but of God’s actual residence in that chosen dwelling-place;

— which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces; Aaron blessing them, and the appearance of the glory of God unto them, no doubt, gave themfear, mixed with joy and pleasure, as the presence of God do to his people.

And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, met their Death

Leviticus 10

¹ And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took each of them his censer and put fire therein, and put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not. — and Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron; his two eldest sons, as seems from Exodus 6:23;

— took either of them his censer; the sin of Nadab and Abihu was of a complicated nature, and involved and consisted of several transgressions:

— (a) they each took his own censer, and not the sacred utensil of the sanctuary; (b) they both offered it together, whereas the incense was only to be offered by one; (c) they presumptuously encroached upon the functions of the high priest; for according to the Law the high priest alone burnt incense in a censer: see Leviticus 16:12-13; Numbers 17:11;

— the ordinary priests only burnt it on the golden altar in the holy place (Exodus 30:7-8), or on the brazen altar as a part of the memorial, (see Leviticus 2:2-3; Leviticus 2:16) The case of Korah and his company was an exception, since it was ordered by Moses for an especial purpose (Numbers 16:6-25); (d) they offered the incense at an unauthorised time, since it was apart from the morning and evening sacrifice;

— and offered strange fire; they filled their vessels with common fire instead of taking it from the holy fire of the altar, which was always to be used in burning incense; (Leviticus 9:24; Leviticus 16:12);

— which he commanded them not; according to a figure of speech frequently used in Hebrew, where the negative form is used for the emphatic affirmative, this phrase is better rendered, “which he had strongly forbidden them.”

²And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. — they died before the Lord; that is, in the court of the sanctuary (Leviticus 10:1), or from the most holy place, where the Lord dwelt between the cherubim; on the very spot where the sin was committed;

— and devoured them; not reduced them to ashes, for neither their bodies nor their clothes were burnt with this fire; and so the Targum of Jonathan says of these, “without destroying their bodies,” their bodies were not burnt:

³Then Moses said unto Aaron, “This is that which the Lord spoke, saying, ‘I will be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.

— and Aaron held his peace; he was in a stupor, as the Septuagint, quite amazed, thunderstruck, but silently submitted to the righteous judgment which bereft him of his two sons.

⁴And Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said unto them, “Come near; carry your brethren from before the sanctuary out of the camp.”

— the first cousins of Aaron Exodus 6:22 are selected by Moses to convey the bodies of Nadab and Abihu out of the camp and bury them, probably because they were the nearest relations who were not priests.

⁵So they went near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. — the Targum of Jonathan says “and carried them with hooks of iron in their garments, and buried them outside the camp;”

⁶And Moses said unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, “Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes, lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people; but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled.

— Aaron and his two surviving sons are forbidden to show the accustomed signs of mourning, or to leave the court of the tabernacle in order to attend the funeral;

— lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people; so very provoking to God would be any signs of mourning in Aaron and his sons, on this account;

— but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled: though Aaron and his sons might not mourn on this occasion, the whole body of the people might;

— the whole house of Israel, who are here designedly called “the brethren” of the bereaved, to show the depth of their sympathy, were allowed to mourn over the great calamity which had thus befallen them.

⁷And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” And they did according to the word of Moses.

— and ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die; that is, they were not to relinquish the service of the sanctuary, on the account of the death of these relations of theirs, and through grief for it;

⁸And the Lord spoke unto Aaron, saying,

⁹“Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die. It shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations,

— do not drink wine or strong drink; this law following upon the affair of Nadab and Abihu has caused some to think, and not without some reason, that they were drunk with wine or strong drink, when they offered strange fire;

¹⁰that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean, — and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy; that being sober they might be able to distinguish between the one and the other; which a drunken man, having his mind and senses disturbed, is not capable of;

¹¹and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses.” — and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes: laws, precepts, ordinances, which was the business of the priests to do;

¹²And Moses spoke unto Aaron and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons who were left: “Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar; for it is most holy. — for it is most holy; hence it could only be eaten by the male members of the families of the priests within the court of the sanctuary;

¹³And ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due and thy sons’ due of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire; for so I am commanded. — because it is thy due, and thy sons’ due, of the offerings of the Lord made by fire;

— and not any others; neither their wives nor daughters, nor any other related to him, or whom he might invite, as in other cases, might eat of it; this none but he and his sons might eat of, and nowhere else but in the sanctuary;

¹⁴And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place, thou, and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee; for they are thy due and thy sons’ due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel. — and the wave breast and heave shoulder; that is, of the peace offering which was offered by the nation;

— thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee; these were not restrained to him and his sons only, as the meat offerings, and the flesh of the sin offerings were, but were common to the whole family; and how about their wives?

¹⁵The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord; and it shall be thine and thy sons’ with thee by a statute for ever, as the Lord hath commanded.”

— the heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring; that is, the offerers who devoted these portions of the peace offering to the Lord, are to bring them to the officiating priests.

¹⁶And Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it was burned; and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were left alive, saying, — and Moses diligently sought the goat; that is, the flesh of the goat of the sin offering which was offered by the nation on the eighth day;

— and, behold, it was burnt, being overwhelmed with grief at the loss of their brothers, Eleazar and Ithamar could not eat, and as none but priests were allowed to partake of the flesh of the sin offering, they burnt it on the altar; they did this all the more readily since the flesh of Aaron’s sin offering was just before burnt outside the camp;

— and he was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar; when their two elder brothers were killed with lightning for doing what was not commanded, which should have made them more observant of the laws of God, to do that which was commanded them: and though they were spared, and survived their brethren;

— yet they transgressed, in burning the sin offering of the people, when they should have eaten it. Moses expressed his anger not to Aaron, but to his sons, which he did for the honour of Aaron, laying the blame not on him, who was overwhelmed with grief, but on his sons;

¹⁷“Why have ye not eaten the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy, and God hath given it to you to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord?

— ye not eaten of the sin offering in the holy place, seeing it is most holy; the sin offering was one of the most holy things, and therefore to be eaten only in the sanctuary; though this was not the fault they are here charged with that they had eat it, but not in the holy place; for they had not eaten it at all, but burnt it;

— they are reminded of the whole law concerning it, that it was to he eaten by them, that it was to be eaten in the holy place, the reason of which is given; but they had not eaten it but burnt it;

¹⁸Behold, the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place; ye should indeed have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded.”

— Moses diligently sought the goat of the sin offering, and, behold, it was burnt; in a sacrifice presented on behalf of the people, it was the duty of the priests, as typically representing them and bearing their sins, to have eaten the flesh after the blood had been sprinkled upon the altar;

— the blood of it was not brought in within the holy place; the reason was because Aaron was not yet admitted into the holy place, whither that blood should have been brought, till he had prepared the way by the sacrifices which were to be offered in the court.

¹⁹And Aaron said unto Moses, “Behold, this day have they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord, and such things have befallen me. And if I had eaten the sin offering today, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord?”

— and such things, such calamity, have befallen me; but whilst he, Eleazar, and Ithamar were thus duly performing the sacrificial rites, Nadab and Abihu, his other two sons, transgressed, and were suddenly struck down dead, thus overwhelming the survivors with sorrow, and rendering them unfit to partake of the sacrifices;

— and if I had eaten the sin offering today, should it have been accepted in the sight of the Lord? Aaron being a mourner; the high priest may offer, being a mourner, but not eat; but today, he might eat with rejoicing and thanksgiving as appears from Deuternomy 12:7, 26:14; so should this be accepted?

²⁰And when Moses heard that, he was content. — and when Moses heard that, he was content; he said no more, he did not proceed in blaming Aaron nor his sons, but was satisfied with the answer received.

Posted in Books of Moses

Putin exposed China’s leakage to US

•December 20, 2023 • Leave a Comment

In a sign of self-cleansing among Beijing’s top ranks, foreign policy and defense officials are vanishing as Xi roots out perceived enemies. Without rid of ruthless purging and self-cleansing, a country could be subjected to CIA’s strong arm of twistings and other turnarounds.

Second, why did China Suddenly Support a UN Resolution Acknowledging ‘Russian Aggression Against Ukraine’? Why a sudden turnaround? Was China subject to a blackmail? Now for one such turnaround, see a constructed example from the Philippines.

In China’s case, Putin started by exposing Foreign Minister Qin Gang for leaking military secrets to the US. And soon 70 others, mainly from the ‘Rocket Force’ were purged.

Asia Sentinel • December 14, 2023 // Pearls and Irritations

The Chinese government’s investigation of China’s Rocket Force, which includes the country’s long-range nuclear missiles capable of hitting the US, has netted at least 70 people. While corruption is one problem plaguing the rocket force, another motive for this widening investigation is suspicion that generals in the rocket force leaked China’s missile secrets to the US.

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in March, Putin disclosed to Xi that former Chinese foreign minister Qin Gang played a role in the leak of China’s missile secrets to the US, Asia Sentinel learned from several sources. Qin was sacked as foreign minister on July 25, Asia Sentinel reported.

He was last seen on June 25, while Lieutenant General Li Yuchao, then commander of China’s rocket force, was arrested around the same time, which strengthened suspicions that Qin was connected to the investigation of the rocket force, as Asia Sentinel reported on July 30.

“So far, we have been able to track down around 70 individuals who have been taken away within the larger frame of the Rocket Force investigation. As of yet, we believe, considering that procurement, and logistics are also involved, it is still too early to inquire about the results of the ongoing crackdown,” an analyst for Cercius Group, a Canadian geopolitical consulting firm, told Asia Sentinel.

The Chinese government takes its investigation of the rocket force very seriously, said the Cercius analyst. The rocket force will be the most needed force in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) should the Chinese government decide to attack Taiwan, he explained.

“Hence, it is of critical importance that the rocket force be reviewed and be ready for combat and the Chinese government needs to assess the political loyalty of the commanding chain to make sure orders are followed in times of crisis. Second, the rocket force is also in charge of stratospheric weaponry development.”

“Furthermore, corruption within the PLA’s procurement and development structure has severely impacted weapon and equipment quality and the viability of existing supply chains: rectifying this issue is of critical importance not only for Xi, but for the PLA at large, as functioning equipment is necessary for combat readiness. However, remedying these matters will no doubt take a long time, further delaying any kind of military action against Taiwan,” the analyst said.

“We are not only talking about embezzling funds or getting kickbacks from military-linked SOEs (state-owned enterprises), but also lowered quality-control standards, resulting in subpar quality weapons and military equipment being purchased and possibly used by the PLA – which includes the Rocket Force,” the analyst added.

Since China’s missile secrets have fallen into Washington’s hands, it will cost trillions of yuan (hundreds of billions of dollars) for the Chinese government to reconfigure its missile system, another analyst said. This huge amount of money could have been spent on improving the Chinese people’s livelihood, said the analyst who declined to be named.

On October 24, Xi personally gave an order to remove Qin as state councilor, a post in the Chinese government equivalent to minister, and dismiss Li Shangfu as defense minister and state councilor, Asia Sentinel reported on October 26. Li has been detained by the authorities, who need to interrogate him on contracts and suppliers in order for the PLA to review its stockpile of missiles and high-tech weaponry prior to engaging in any military action, the Cercius analyst explained.

Was former foreign minister Qin Gang executed?

Two sources told Asia Sentinel that Qin was executed a few months ago, but we have been unable to verify this. In addition to these two sources, a professor believes Qin is either executed or serving a life sentence in prison.

“We may never see old Qin and his lovely girlfriend again. Sad. They will serve at least life in prison,” a professor said.

Fu Xiaotian, a female reporter with Phoenix TV, a Chinese state-owned broadcaster, is believed to have had an affair with Qin in the US. In April, one month after Putin told Xi that Qin was involved in the leak of China’s missile secrets, Fu flew to mainland China in April ostensibly to attend a meeting and was never heard from again, a source said.

Fu’s last post on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform, was on April 11. She had made several Weibo posts that hinted Qin, a married man, had fathered a baby with her. These posts were broadcast in July around the time of Qin’s dismissal as foreign minister, despite the Chinese government’s heavy censorship of Weibo. This has aroused suspicion among some that the posts are a red herring designed to distract people from the main reason for Qin’s downfall.

“The leakage of state secrets seems the most probable reason they are serving life in prison or worse. In China, the punishment for treason is death,” said the professor who declined to be named. Although he has no evidence that Qin was executed, this outcome or life in prison was likely according to his analysis.

Normally, after a senior official is taken down for corruption in China, the Chinese government would announce details of his crimes but to date, the Chinese authorities have made no public announcement of the reasons for Li’s dismissal as defense minister and Qin as foreign minister, the professor pointed out.

“There has been no precedent for a senior official such as Qin or general Li Shangfu disappearing for so long without official explanation. Just via logical elimination, treason via leakage of state secrets to the US seems the only plausible reason left,” the professor said.

It is doubtful that Qin is dead, the Cercius analyst said.

“There is simply no valid reason for the party to sit on this information of Qin’s death for four to five months, while still playing the administrative game of removing him from positions twice during official meetings. And lest we forget, Qin, to this day, is still a member of the Central Committee,” the analyst explained.

The Central Committee consists of the 205 most senior Chinese government officials and is vested with the power to elect top Chinese officials.

“Following this logic, why publicize Li Keqiang’s death so soon? Why not wait as well?” the Cercius analyst argued.

Li Keqiang, a former Chinese prime minister, died of a heart attack after swimming in a pool in Shanghai on October 27, state media reported on the same day. The 68-year-old Li was accorded a funeral and obituary with high honors.

Qin Gang and Li Shangfu taking oaths as Foreign and Defence minister

Qin has been under detention for several months, which is far shorter than some individuals who have been taken down by the Chinese anti-graft agency years ago and still have not been completely processed by China’s judicial system, the Cercius analyst pointed out. “Are we to assume that they have been executed? We do not think so.”

The analyst raised the possibility that rumors of Qin’s execution might be a propaganda ploy by anti-Xi forces within Beijing to undermine the Chinese president.

“Competing factions have been known to mobilize foreign news outlets to spread rumors to push their agenda or undermine someone else’s,” said the analyst.

For more, see the evidence of a constructed turnaround of the Philippines.

Posted in China, US

NATO wants Asia

•December 19, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Not content with expanding its membership from the original 12 to 31 nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is making a grab for a presence in the Asia Pacific as well.

Pearls and Irritations by Alison Broinowski • December 16, 2023

From 1949, NATO’s commitment to defend any member if attacked (Article 5) applied only to the North American and European mainlands and territories north of the Tropic of Cancer, as well as modern Turkiye and ‘French Algeria’.

Now, those boundaries (Article 6) are being treated as merely semantic, and the designation ‘NATO Partner’ has been amended so that Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand can join an ‘Individual Tailored Partnership Plan.’ It looks like a prep school for joining NATO.

The Philippines and Taiwan, and perhaps India, are awaiting an invitation

Finland became the latest NATO member this year, and Sweden’s membership depends on Turkiye and Hungary joining the consensus. President Erdogan’s price is F16s from the US, while President Orban claims the delay is merely technical.

NATO’s decades-long expansion across Europe led to Russia’s eventual invasion of Ukraine. But NATO, having promised Ukraine eventual membership, still dangles that prize before President Zelensky, delaying it so that Article 5 does not apply to having to defend it.

For years, the neon sign advertising membership of NATO has flicked on and off in Australia and Japan. In July 2022 it lit up again when for the first time, leaders of the ‘AP4’ – Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea – went to the NATO summit in Madrid.

The then Director-General of ASIO, Duncan Lewis, told the ABC that NATO ‘realises that nothing is far distant any more – that its interests are invoked on the other side of the world’. That suggests China is in NATO’s sights as its next enemy. At the meeting, China was identified as ‘a new strategic concept’ for NATO.

In July this year, the AP4 again attended the NATO summit in Vilnius, but France opposed opening a NATO liaison office in Japan, and NATO’S China Strategic Concept was not prominent in discussion. That however hasn’t resolved Korean concerns that a prospective ‘Asian NATO’ will involve joint war operations against China.

The South Korea–NATO agreement already stresses interoperability, technological cooperation, and developing ‘defence and security capabilities.’. South Korean commentator Hae-won Jun complained that the people and their political representatives had not been consulted about what was being planned.

The South Korean National Assembly is obliged to approve or reject all treaties related to security, international organizations and relations, restrictions on sovereignty, the dispatch of armed forces, and the stationing of foreign forces.

South Koreans are particularly sensitive about any provocation of their northern neighbours, or efforts to align Seoul militarily with Tokyo. The conservative, pro-US government in Japan, meanwhile, wants to ‘normalise’ its military forces and its capacity to go to war.

US brings South Korea and Japan together in a landmark Camp David summit

Seeking to build an anti-China coalition, in August 2023 President Biden hosted the Japanese Prime Minister and the South Korean President at Camp David to encourage Japanese-South Korean reconciliation. The meeting produced a commitment to consult in the event of security contingencies. It read like a collective defence treaty.

After the summit however, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan denied that the trilateral security pledge represented a ‘new NATO for the Pacific.’ He was well aware that any such alliance would not attract non-aligned Southeast Asian nations, and its provocation of China would not be welcomed by those, including the AP4, which seek to maintain important trade relationships with Beijing.

Michael Green, who heads the US Studies Centre in Sydney, concluded that although China’s show of strength requires a regional alliance for the first time in seven decades, there’s no certainty about a full-fledged anti-China alliance. Yet he thought a collective security bloc suddenly looked more plausible, warning ‘Never Say Never to an Asian NATO.’

Both Korea and Japan have recently signed military cooperation agreements with Australia that might mean steps towards joining an Asian NATO. Prime Minister Albanese and Defence Minister Marles have agreed to a long succession of measures, from embedded intelligence, export controls, and technology dominance, to influential investments favouring the US and UK, as Mike Scrafton has pointed out here. (Australians need to know what lies beneath the new era of US-Australia strategic cooperation – Pearls and Irritations. 7 December 2023).

Joe Biden wants Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand in NATO

Aligning Australian and American regulatory frameworks could ‘surrender any sovereignty capability’ according to Bill Greenwalt, the former US Under Secretary for Defense and an expert on America’s defence procurement laws.

Dr Greenwalt told the ABC that in cooperating with the US, Australia will surrender to control by the US bureaucracy. Australia is left only to hope ‘that the US will remove process barriers that will allow the US to essentially steal and control Australian technology faster’.

Meanwhile, New Zealand hesitates over both AUKUS and NATO. A serious proposition for doing away with the nation’s armed forces altogether was raised in a recent book by New Zealanders Joseph Llewellyn and Richard Jackson, Abolishing the Military.

Australians might consider it before we get dragged into a war alongside our new NATO allies against our major trading partner. So should the Australian government. They ought then to transparently explain their plans for our national sovereignty to the Australian people and their elected representatives.

And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have no assurance of thy life.

In the morning thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were evening!’ and at evening thou shalt say, ‘Would God it were morning!’ for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. Deuteronomy 28:67-68

Posted in China, NATO, NATO-Pacific, US

China’s first Thorium Reactor

•December 18, 2023 • Leave a Comment

China has built the world’s first waterless reactor, which generates electricity in the desert and is extremely safe. Construction is due to start near Wuwei in China’s northern Gansu Province next year with full operation expected in 2030.

iMedia News • December 12, 2023 ~ ABC

Regarding the construction of nuclear power plants, there is a global consensus that it must be close to the water source. Because nuclear power plants generate a lot of heat energy during operation, they need water for cooling.

Therefore, the northwest desert area has never been linked to nuclear power. But the emergence of anhydrous nuclear reactors fueled by liquid thorium instead of uranium has changed this situation.

Construction is due to start near Wuwei in China’s northern Gansu Province in 2025 with full operation expected in 2030

This kind of water-free nuclear reactor is called molten salt reactor (usually abbreviated as MSR). Unlike conventional nuclear power plants driven by solid fuel rods, its coolant and fuel are molten salt mixed. This concept has actually existed since the 1940s.

It was proposed by Alvin Weinberg, the proponent of the pressurized water reactor concept, who was also the first director of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the United States. It is envisaged that the system uses graphite as a moderator to wrap molten salt, stimulate a chain reaction to generate heat, and then produce steam to power the turbine to generate electricity.

Because molten salt can reach more than 1000 degrees under atmospheric pressure and remain liquid, the system can operate at low pressure, which can reduce mechanical stress and improve safety.

And because only when the fuel is wrapped in graphite, the chain reaction can occur. Therefore, when the reactor temperature rises and the liquid expands to a certain level, the fuel will stop because of insufficient density and difficulty in maintaining the chain reaction.

And when the temperature of the liquid is too high, a special plug at the bottom of the reactor will melt, allowing the liquid to fall into the emergency dumping tank.

Even if the fuel leaks out of the circuit in some way, it will quickly cool and solidify because it cannot maintain the high temperature, and capture the radioactive material inside. The low level of thorium also means that there is less risk of nuclear proliferation.

More importantly, a typical molten salt reactor requires only about 1,000 kilograms of salt fuel for every 1 gigawatt of electricity generated each year. A traditional solid fuel nuclear reactor requires about 250 tons of enriched uranium to obtain the same energy, and most of the waste must be stored for more than 100,000 years before it can be safely released back to the earth’s environment.

On the contrary, the radioactive waste produced by molten salt reactors can be safely released after only 300 years of storage. In addition, in theory, molten salt reactors can also use waste from other nuclear reactors as a fuel source.

The waste generated in a normal reactor year can make the molten salt reactor last about 250 years. This makes them a relatively safer alternative to traditional nuclear power. However, due to technical problems, the United States has never been able to build a molten salt reactor nuclear power plant.

At first, in the few years after the concept of molten salt reactor was proposed, the main research direction of the technology in the United States was always focused on aircraft reactor tests, aiming to achieve the high power density of nuclear reactors that can be used as nuclear-powered bomber engines.

However, after studying the suitability of small nuclear power plants and bombers, and the radiation indicators of the onboard personnel of the chain reaction device based on nuclear fission, it was found that humans are not suitable for long-term flight of this type of aircraft.

The abandoned Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, built in the 60s

Then in the 1960s, the United States built a facility to test the power generation capacity of the technology, and countries such as France, the former Soviet Union, and Japan also launched similar projects.

However, these early projects all failed because they could not solve the problems of pipeline rupture caused by radioactive molten salt corrosion. Since then, all research on molten salt reactors has almost stalled. Until recent years, more and more countries began to restart molten salt reactor projects.

In addition to the United States, Russia and European countries, even Japan, even India and Indonesia have also participated. In 2011, China approved the construction of a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) prototype in Wuwei, a desert city in Gansu Province.

At the same time, teams of researchers from all over the country have also been mobilized to try to solve the technical problems that previously hindered other countries. For example, the development of an alloy that can withstand the radiation of thorium salt at temperatures close to 1,000 degrees Celsius.

According to the official plan, the [Chinese] reactor in the west will be combined with wind and solar power plants to provide a clean and stable power supply for the densely populated eastern region. Moreover, this technology can also provide new energy sources for aircraft carriers and submarines.

Although the project was slightly delayed due to the epidemic last year, the construction of TMSR is still proceeding steadily and is expected to be completed in August, and the equipment trial operation may begin as early as September.

Although the prototype can only generate 2 megawatts of energy, if it succeeds, this will be the first time the theory has been put into practice. Moreover, in the design, future commercial reactors will be able to generate up to 100 megawatts of electricity. Although not as large as uranium reactors, they are still sufficient to provide electricity for a modern residential area with 100,000 households.

A Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) in Wuwei, a desert city in Gansu Province

The most important thing is that thorium is widely distributed in the earth’s crust and is usually associated with rare earth metals. The world has proven reserves of several million tons, which is a promising energy material. And with the increasing exploration of thorium ore in various countries, the proven reserves of thorium are also increasing.

China’s thorium resources are even more abundant. According to incomplete statistics, more than 20 provinces and regions have found a considerable amount of thorium resources.

According to data from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005, the reserves of thorium in the Baiyun Obo mining area in Inner Mongolia are about 220,000 tons, accounting for 77.3% of the 286,000 tons of thorium reserves in the country. Enough to meet China’s energy needs for at least 20,000 years.

In contrast, China’s uranium reserves are the lowest among all nuclear-capable countries. The shortage of uranium will pose a serious threat to China’s energy security, which is not only related to the sustained and stable economic development, but also related to the national economy, people’s livelihood and national security.

Therefore, molten salt reactors not only represent the progress of China’s nuclear energy technology, but also a moat in the field of China’s energy security.

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

“He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

China’s Xi goes full Stalin with purge

•December 17, 2023 • Leave a Comment

In China’s case, Putin started by exposing Foreign Minister Qin Gang for leaking military secrets to the US. And soon 70 others, mainly from the ‘Rocket Force’ were purged.

POLITICO • December 6, 2023

Something is rotten in the imperial court of Chairman Xi Jinping.

After a brief stint as a vice foreign minister, Qin was named ambassador to Washington in July 2021 and foreign minister barely 18 months later — a uniquely rapid rise, but soon followed by another rapid purge!

While the world is distracted by war in the Middle East and Ukraine, a Stalin-like purge is sweeping through China’s ultra-secretive political system, with profound implications for the global economy and even the prospects for peace in the region.

The signals emanating from Beijing are unmistakable, even as China’s security services have ramped up repression to totalitarian levels, making it almost impossible to know what is really happening inside the country.

The unexplained disappearance and removal of China’s foreign and defense ministers — both Xi loyalists who were handpicked and elevated mere months before they went missing earlier this year — are just two examples.

Other high-profile victims include the generals in charge of China’s nuclear weapons program and some of the most senior officials overseeing the Chinese financial sector. Several of these former Xi acolytes have apparently died in custody.

Another ominous sign is the untimely death of Li Keqiang, China’s recently retired prime minister — No. 2 in the Communist hierarchy — who supposedly died of a heart attack in a swimming pool in Shanghai in late October, despite enjoying some of the world’s best medical care. Following his death, Xi ordered public mourning for his former rival be heavily curtailed.

In the minds of many in China, “heart attack in a swimming pool” has the same connotation that “falling out of a window” does for Russian apparatchiks who anger or offend Vladimir Putin.

Since his reign began in 2012, Xi Jinping’s endless purges have removed millions of officials — from top-ranked Communist Party “tigers” down to lowly bureaucratic “flies,” to use Xi’s evocative terminology.

What’s different today is that the officials being neutralized are not members of hostile political factions but loyalists from the inner ring of Xi’s own clique, leading to serious questions over the regime’s stability.

With such a febrile atmosphere in the celestial capital of Beijing, there are fears that an isolated and paranoid Chairman Xi could miscalculate, provoke armed conflict with one of its weaker neighbors or even launch a full-scale invasion of democratic Taiwan in order to distract from his domestic troubles.

Enemies everywhere

The political earthquakes rippling out from the old imperial leadership compound of Zhongnanhai are exacerbating the already dire state of the Chinese economy.

“We see a China domestically that is challenged; an aging society, demography, a severe housing crisis, slowing down growth, unexpected unemployment because the young generation leaving university does not find adequate jobs in the private sector anymore,”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who heads to Beijing this week with her European Council counterpart Charles Michel for the first face-to-face EU-China meeting in nearly five years, told POLITICO last week, “So quite some challenges domestically.”

Chinese financiers and businesspeople (quietly) complain they are required to spend countless hours studying “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” — a painfully turgid governing mantra that boils down to ideology-free totalitarian rule and the return of a personality cult to China.

In recent weeks, the country’s leading investment bank banned negative macroeconomic or market commentary, as well as any behavior that could suggest its bankers lead “hedonistic lifestyles.”

Not long after he ascended to chairmanship of the Communist Party in 2012, Xi began purging his real and perceived enemies in an “anti-corruption” campaign that never really ended.

Hundreds of senior officers in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), as well as thousands of top Party officials, have been arrested, disappeared or “suicided” (driven to commit suicide or killed in circumstances made to look like suicide).

The beneficiaries of this perennial purge have been provincial bureaucrats who worked with Xi earlier in his career and whose main qualification is unquestioning loyalty to the “people’s leader.”

Small town boys

These former small-town officials now make up the majority of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, which wields ultimate power in China.

One such loyal figure was Qin Gang, a former spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry whose career went stratospheric after he became China’s chief protocol officer, overseeing most of Chairman Xi’s interactions with foreign dignitaries between 2014 and 2018.

After a brief stint as a vice foreign minister, Qin was named ambassador to Washington in July 2021 and foreign minister barely 18 months later — a uniquely rapid rise that Chinese officialdom attributed to his proximity and personal favor with the “core leader.”

On June 25 this year, barely six months after becoming minister, Qin held meetings in Beijing with the foreign ministers of Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko.

Then he vanished.

According to several people with access to high-level Chinese officials, Rudenko’s real mission in Beijing was to inform Xi that his foreign minister and several top officers in the PLA had been compromised by western intelligence agencies.

Following his disappearance, lurid tales emerged of Qin’s affair with a reporter for Chinese broadcaster Phoenix TV called Fu Xiaotian, with whom he allegedly fathered a son who is a US citizen. The stories circulated widely online with the apparent consent of Chinese cyber censors.

Fu attended Cambridge University, a traditional recruiting ground for Britain’s intelligence agencies, and first met Qin more than a decade ago when he was posted to the Chinese Embassy in London.

In 2016, Churchill College, Fu’s alma mater at Cambridge, named a garden after her in gratitude for her “very rare … series of generous gifts,” reportedly adding up to at least ￡250,000, an enormous sum for most journalists.

Fu Xiaotian Garden at Churchill College, Fu’s alma mater at Cambridge

Before the foreign minister disappeared, Fu all but named Qin as the father of her child on social media.

Then, in April, she flew back to Beijing on what appears to have been a government-chartered private jet and has not been heard from since.

China’s propaganda system is strongly hinting that the affair and illegitimate American child are the reasons for Qin’s purge.

Rocket men

According to several people with access to top officials, the real reason for his abrupt disappearance was Qin’s involvement in a much more serious scandal, involving the defense minister and the generals who commanded China’s “rocket force,” which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons program.

At almost the same time Qin went missing, the top commander of the rocket force, Li Yuchao, along with his deputy Liu Guangbin and former deputy Zhang Zhenzhong, all also disappeared.

Several other senior serving and former officers from the force were likewise detained and at least one former deputy commander died of unspecified illness, according to state media reports.

The missing commanders were eventually formally fired and replaced by officers from the navy and airforce, a very rare development since top commanders of the rocket force have almost always been promoted from within the service.

Li Shangfu, the man Xi picked as China’s defense minister, now purged

Not long after the rocket force purge was officially acknowledged, Li Shangfu, the man Xi picked as China’s defense minister in March this year, also vanished. His formal dismissal was announced in late October.

Further adding to the intrigue was a terse state media report on the day before Qin was formally removed as foreign minister in July. It said Wang Shaojun, commander since 2015 of the Central Guard unit that protects China’s top leaders and oversees Chairman Xi’s personal bodyguard, had died three months earlier due to “ineffective medical treatment.”

China’s nuclear weapons program has massively expanded in recent years and, according to people with access to top Chinese officials, Russian Deputy Minister Rudenko’s message to Xi included allegations that Qin and relatives of top rocket force officers had helped pass Chinese nuclear secrets to Western intelligence agencies.

Two of these people claim that Qin died, either from suicide or torture, in late July in the military hospital in Beijing that treats China’s top leaders.

Hostile forces

Given the opacity of the Chinese system, it is impossible to confirm these accounts definitively and the Chinese government does not comment on the inner workings of the Communist Party.

Senior Western intelligence officials declined to comment or discuss the matter when asked about the purges in China.

But the sensational nature of the claims themselves make clear the feverish paranoia permeating Beijing.

Whether by accident or design, that mood was exacerbated over the summer when Director of the US Central Intelligence Agency Bill Burns said the CIA had “made progress” rebuilding its network within China and had a “strong human intelligence capability” in the country.

Director of the US CIA Bill Burns revealed that the CIA had “made progress” rebuilding its network within China, Washington Post, July 20, 2023

That paranoia extends into all parts of the bureaucracy and economy and seems to have tarnished anyone seen as too Westernized or too close to “hostile Western forces.”

One senior Chinese finance official who speaks fluent English and is a regular fixture on the international conference circuit told POLITICO by email that he could no longer attend an upcoming event outside China and was unable to speak on the phone.

He joins dozens of senior finance officials who have been removed in recent months, often after being accused of corruption.

An associate of this official said he was currently being investigated for being “too close to America” and “possibly a spy.”

This seems to be the inevitable fate of anyone who engages too eagerly with foreigners and should serve as a warning to those who still believe China is open for business with the West.

For more, see the evidence of a constructed turnaround of the Philippines.

Posted in China, Russia, UK, US

Leviticus (7-8)

•December 17, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 7

¹ “‘Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering (it is most holy): — it is most holy; wholly devoted for sacred use, either to the Lord, or to his priests; there were some things call light holy things, and others most holy in the highest degree, of this sort was the trespass offering.

²In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering; and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar.

— and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar; on the upper part of it. There was a scarlet thread that was drawn around the altar in the middle, the blood of some of the sacrifices was sprinkled below it; and some above it, as was the blood of the trespass offering.

³And he shall offer from it all the fat thereof: the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, — the fat portions only were to be burned upon the altar, viz., the same as in the sin and peace-offerings; but the flesh was to be eaten by the priests, as in the sin-offering.

⁴and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys; it shall he take away. — with the kidneys, it shall he take away; all the fat before mentioned, together with the kidneys, were to be taken away from the ram of the trespass offering, and burnt;

⁵And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the Lord: it is a trespass offering. — and the priest shall burn; these fat pieces he shall burn, as in the case of the sin offering and peace offering.

⁶Every male among the priests shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten in the holy place; it is most holy. — every male among the priests shall eat thereof; of the flesh of it, after the fat was taken off and burnt, the rest belonged to the priests and their sons, and to them only, leaving their wives and daughters bewildered;

⁷As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering; there is one law for them: the priest who maketh atonement therewith shall have it. — the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it; who by offering it made atonement for the trespass of the person that brings it;

⁸And the priest who offereth any man’s burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered. — the priest shall have to himself the skin; as the skin was the only part not consumed by the fire, in the case of the burnt offering, it fell to the share of the officiating priest.

⁹And all the meat offering that is baked in the oven, and all that is dressed in the frying pan and in the pan, shall be the priest’s who offereth it. — shall be the priest’s; with the exception of the memorial part, which was burnt upon the altar;

¹⁰And every meat offering mingled with oil, or dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another. — shall all the sons of Aaron have; that is, whether with or without oil, the remainder of this kind of raw offering is to be equally shared by all the priests.

¹¹“‘And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which he shall offer unto the Lord: — the Peace-Offering may be brought for three reasons: a. for thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:12), to commemorate deliverance from sickness or danger; b. iIn fulfilment of a vow (Leviticus 7:16); c. as a freewill offering (Leviticus 7:16) when the heart is moved by the remembrance of God’s kindness and mercies.

¹²If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil of fine flour, fried.

¹³Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.

¹⁴And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for a heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest’s who sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings. — and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings; that is, that part of the cakes and bread, which is offered as an heave offering to the Lord, was the portion of the priests;

¹⁵And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. — shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; partly by him that brought them; and what about his family? Wives and daughters?

¹⁶But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice; and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten. — and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten; some of it, if thought fit, might be kept till the day after the sacrifice, but no longer.

¹⁷But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burned with fire. — shall be burnt with fire; that it might neither corrupt, nor be put to superstitious uses, nor be of any profit in any respect;

¹⁸And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings is eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it; it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.

— it shall be an abomination; to God, the flesh being kept so long, through a sordid and stubborn disposition: and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity; it shall not be forgiven him; he shall bear the punishment of it.

¹⁹“‘And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burned with fire; and as for the flesh, all who are clean shall eat thereof. — and the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; that is, the flesh of the peace offerings;

²⁰But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. — even that soul shall be cut off from his people; be disfranchised as an Israelite, be debarred the privileges of the sanctuary, or be cut off by death before the usual time and term of man’s life;

²¹Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man or any unclean beast or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”

²²And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²³“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox or of sheep or of goat. —of ox, or of sheep, or of goats: creatures used in sacrifice; though this is not to be restrained to such of them, and the fat of them that were sacrificed, whose fat was claimed by the Lord as his, and was burnt on his altar;

²⁴And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself and the fat of that which is torn by beasts may be used in any other use, but ye shall in no wise eat of it. — and the fat of the beast that dieth of itself; of any disease, and is not regularly killed: and the fat of that which is torn with beasts;

²⁵For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. — even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people; if he did it presumptuously he incurred the penalty of excision;

²⁶Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood in any of your dwellings, whether it be of fowl or of beast.

²⁷Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.’”

²⁸And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁹“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offerings.

³⁰His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire; the fat with the breast it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. — his own hands shall bring; this act the owner himself was to perform, and it was not to be deputed to any one else.

³¹And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. — but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons; which being waved before the Lord for a wave offering, was the Lord’s, and so was given to his priests to eat of, for the service done by them;

³²And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for a heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. — and the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering; whether of an ox or a cow, a lamb or a goat.

³³He among the sons of Aaron who offereth the blood of the peace offerings and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. — shall have the right shoulder for his part; that the right shoulder was given to him that sprinkled the blood, and the breast to all the priests;

³⁴For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever, from among the children of Israel.’”

³⁵This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron and of the anointing of his sons out of the offerings to the Lord made by fire, on the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest’s office, — this is the portion of the anointing of Aaron; of his being anointed to the priestly office.

³⁶which the Lord commanded to be given them by the children of Israel on the day that He anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations. — in the day that he anointed them; or from the day they were anointed of Moses, by the direction of the Lord;

³⁷This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings,

³⁸which the Lord commanded Moses on Mount Sinai on the day that He commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord in the Wilderness of Sinai.

Leviticus 8

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

³and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

⁴And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

⁵And Moses said unto the congregation: “This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.”

⁶And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. — and washed them with water; to show that they should be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord, and offer the sacrifices of the people;

⁷And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the woven girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.

⁸And he put the breastplate upon him. Also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. — also he put in the breastplate the Urim and Thummim: that is, Moses did it, as all the rest;

⁹And he put the miter upon his head. Also upon the miter, even upon the front thereof, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹⁰And Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them. — and sanctified them; that is, by this action Moses separated them from the laity, and dedicated them to the service of God, so that they were not to come in contact with any defilement.

¹¹And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

¹²And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head and anointed him, to sanctify him.

¹³And Moses brought Aaron’s sons and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put headdresses upon them, as the Lord commanded Moses. — and Moses brought Aaron’s sons; having consecrated the father as high priest, Moses now invests Aaron’s four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, with the visible signs of the priestly office by robing them in the sacerdotal garments.

¹⁴And he brought the bullock for the sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering. — and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering; their right hands, according to the Targum of Jonathan;

¹⁵And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it. — and he slew it; in ordinary cases the offerer himself slaughtered the victim but in the case Moses performed this act.

¹⁶And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon the altar. — and Moses took all the acts here;

¹⁷But the bullock and his hide, his flesh, and his dung he burned with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.

¹⁸And he brought the ram for the burnt offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. — and Moses acting like the officiating priest;

¹⁹And he killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

²⁰And he cut the ram into pieces; and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. — and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat; even all of it, as the following verse shows.

²¹And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burned the whole ram upon the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savor, and an offering made by fire unto the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²²And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. — and he brought the other ram; that is, the second of the two rams mentioned in Leviticus 8:2.

²³And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot.

²⁴And he brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear and upon the thumbs of their right hands and upon the great toes of their right feet; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

²⁵And he took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys and their fat, and the right shoulder;

²⁶and out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened cake and a cake of oiled bread and one wafer, and put them on the fat and upon the right shoulder.

²⁷And he put all upon Aaron’s hands and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord.

²⁸And Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar upon the burnt offering. They were consecrations for a sweet savor; it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. — they were consecrated for a sweet savour; acceptable to the Lord, and so the priests, Aaron and his sons likewise, on whose account they were made.

²⁹And Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord; for of the ram of consecration, it was Moses’ part, as the Lord commanded Moses. — for the ram of consecration it was Moses’s part; the breast of it was also his;

³⁰And Moses took of the anointing oil and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron and upon his garments, and upon his sons and upon his sons’ garments with him, and sanctified Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him. — and Moses was acting like the officiating priest; —

³¹And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, “Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecrations, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ — ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it’ because this is holy: no layman or non-priest could partake of the meal;

³²And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire. — ye, that is, Aaron and his sons;

³³And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation for seven days, until the days of your consecration are at an end; for seven days shall He consecrate you. — and ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle; that is, Aaron and his sons are not to go out of the court, as the consecration was not performed within but at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

³⁴As He hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you. — to make an atonement for you, of the day of atonement; and say, that the high priest was obliged to be separate (from his own house and family) seven days;

³⁵Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not; for so I am commanded.” — during the seven days of their consecration; and the penalty being death in case of failure, was to make them more careful and cautious of transgressing; and which was the more necessary;

— for so I am commanded; that is, to declare unto them, that if they did not punctually observe the above orders, they must expect to die.

³⁶So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses. — after all these preliminaries, they had still to undergo a week’s probation in the court of the tabernacle before they obtained permission to enter into the interior of the sacred building for their official duties.

Posted in Books of Moses

US CHIPS Act hurting its Asian Allies

•December 16, 2023 • Leave a Comment

US CHIPS Act hurting its Asian partners

CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act aim to contain China but are also undermining Japan, South Korea and Taiwan’s growth and innovation

AsiaTimes by Samuel Hardwick • December 12, 2023

Though geared mainly at domestic outcomes, the rise of industrial policy in the United States is affecting global supply chains, especially in Asia.

In trying to hollow out China, Joe Biden’s CHIPS Act is hurting its Asian Allies

To the extent that they boost investment in the green transition, these policies are globally valuable. Yet they also contain discriminatory measures that harm Asian economies and, arguably, the United States itself.

One searing assessment comes from South Korea’s Hankyoreh newspaper:

“The US is morphing from a guardian of free trade into a disrupter … despite being the leader of today’s international trade order, [it] is perfectly willing to dispense with those principles when they no longer seem to serve its national interest.”

These comments refer to two controversial laws: the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the CHIPS and Science Act. The IRA offers upwards of US$360 billion in incentives, primarily tax credits, focused on electrification and green industries. These include extensive local content provisions.

For example, to obtain a $7,500 electric vehicle (EV) credit, the EV and most of its battery components must be assembled in North America. Critical minerals in the battery must also be largely sourced or refined domestically or from FTA partners.

While the policies aim to draw economic activity and supply chains away from China, they have mixed impacts on other Asia Pacific economies, such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Australia, a critical mineral mining powerhouse and US FTA partner, is well-positioned to take advantage of the package, especially in minerals with battery and EV applications. But the picture is more complex for globally integrated Australian firms.

Worldwide minerals production and processing often involves China and other nations without US FTAs, excluding them from IRA subsidies. Large capital requirements and long lead times to develop new mines and processing plants also limit the US policies’ influence.

Japan and South Korea occupy a different place in the EV value chain. Both are major players in anode and cathode materials, behind only China. All three countries are net exporters of batteries and EVs. When the IRA was announced, Japan lacked a qualifying trade agreement with the United States.

This raised concerns about the law’s impact on Japanese EV component supply. In response, the United States negotiated a critical minerals agreement with Japan, enabling Japanese firms to benefit from the IRA.

Japan also instigated its own legislation and policy for green transformation, which includes government financial support for decarbonization largely via green hydrogen initiatives.

Given the scheme’s requirement that final assembly take place in North America, EV tax credits also caused tensions with South Korea. The Biden administration partly allayed concerns by outlining a second track of credits for leased vehicles, which omits requirements on country of origin.

This second track will partially offset some of the IRA’s trade-diverting effects.

For globally integrated South Korean EV and battery firms, which source raw materials from countries without qualifying agreements with the United States, uncertainty remains. Like some global Australian firms, the extent to which these manufacturers will be eligible for IRA benefits — and the long-term effects on the country’s minerals, battery and EV industries — remains unclear.

For Taiwan, the CHIPS Act, a division of the much larger CHIPS and Science Act, is perhaps more relevant than the IRA. The CHIPS Act allocates $52.7 billion to boost US semiconductor manufacturing. Most of this expenditure is for fabrication facilities, with $11 billion for chip research and development (R&D).

There are limits to how much semiconductor, battery or EV production can be shifted to the United States from East Asia, due to divergent costs of labor, land, regulatory compliance and construction. Construction costs for US manufacturing plants alone are estimated to be “four to five times greater” than in Taiwan.

CHIPS Act subsidies are still smaller than reported Taiwanese, South Korean and Chinese support programs. Even IRA-scale financial incentives are insufficient to reorient supply chains in which China, or any country, has overwhelming advantages. Subsidies shift decisions at the margins, but some facilities will remain too expensive or the lead times too long to set up domestically.

There is also emerging evidence of skilled labor shortages in key US states associated with semiconductor manufacturing, which might have impacts on adjacent sectors, labor costs and the ability to deliver on CHIPS Act and IRA policy goals.

Many aspects of these US efforts have merit, not least the significant investment in R&D and infrastructure to address the climate crisis. The trouble with policies like the IRA and CHIPS Act is the cost and risk that come with preferences for domestic tradeable goods over cheaper or superior foreign equivalents.

For the United States, these preferences are not optimal for achieving the core objectives of bolstering national security and fighting climate change, especially over the longer term. Achieving these objectives will become even costlier if other countries launch similar provisions.

For the rest of the world, the US policies are another step away from its leadership of a functional multilateral trading system. While this system could be indispensable in building a greener global economy, in a more inward-looking world, the most effective technology and know-how for reducing emissions will take longer to spread.

There are better ways to achieve US goals. But with a potential second Trump presidency looming, are these politically realistic? The value of US industrial policies depends on how we view their flaws – as strategic blunders or unfortunate but necessary compromises.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

Posted in Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Tech Race, US

West’s ‘500-year dominance’ ending – Lavrov

•December 15, 2023 • Leave a Comment

West’s ‘500-year dominance’ ending – Lavrov

RT News • December 11, 2023

The formation of a multipolar world is the objective course of history, the Russian foreign minister said

The 500-year-long dominance of the West is coming to an end, being replaced by “a new polycentric world,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Sunday in a video address to the Doha Forum.

The minister expressed regret that certain “circumstances” prevented him from coming to the Qatari capital in person and hearing the discussions at the annual high-profile event.

“But I assume that you were discussing the multipolar world, which is emerging after 500 years of domination of what we call the ‘collective West,’” Lavrov said.

This hegemony of the US and its allies had been “based on a diverse history, including ruthless exploitation of peoples and territories of other countries,” he said.

According to the minister, the West suggested that it could use the model of globalization, which it had been building for centuries, to maintain its dominance.

“However, other countries, using exactly the principles and instruments of the Western globalization, managed to beat the West on its own turf, building the economies on the basis of national sovereignty, on the basis of balance of interests with other countries.”

New centers of economic growth and political influence have been emerging, “changing the balance of power in the world, and not to the West’s liking,” he said.

“In order to suppress this kind of development,” the US and its allies have in recent years “sacrificed” globalization in favor of the so-called ‘rules-based world order,’ Lavrov continued.

“The rules were never published, were never even announced by anyone to anyone, and they are being applied depending on what exactly the West needs at a particular moment of modern history,” he added.

The FM said that such an approach is most seen “in various conflicts, which the West ignites all over the world,” including the one in Ukraine. “Everything goes to keep the hegemony. Intervention in domestic affairs, sanctions against all the principles of competition, regime change, and of course direct military interventions, like we have seen in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and elsewhere.”

“Is there a single place where the US intervened with military force, where life has become better? I think you know the answer,” Lavrov told the forum participants.

According to the diplomat, new formats like BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN, African Union, and others will become “the bricks of the new polycentric world.”

It should be recognized, including by those in the West, that “the objective course of history… is the evolution of a multipolar world,” Lavrov insisted.

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

“He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Posted in Europe, Russia, UK, US

Leviticus (5-6)

•December 15, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Note the Five types of Offerings in Leviticus:

Leviticus 1:2 “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord

Leviticus 1:3 ‘If his offering be a burnt sacrifice
Leviticus 2:1 ‘And when any will offer a meat offering
Leviticus 3:1 ‘And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering
Leviticus 4:3 ‘If the priest … a young bullock … for a sin offering
Leviticus 5:6 ‘And he shall bring his trespass offering

Compare to the Five types of Offerings during the Millennium in Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 46:12 ‘Now when the prince prepares a voluntary burnt offering, or peace offerings unto the Lord
Ezekiel 44:29 ‘They shall eat the meat offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering

Leviticus 5

¹ “‘And if a soul sin and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it, if he does not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. — swearing; the case appears to be that of one who has been put upon his oath as a witness by a magistrate, and fails to utter all he has seen and heard;

²Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcass of an unclean beast, or a carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him, he also shall be unclean and guilty. — of unclean cattle; cattle are normally clean; became unclean perhaps by being worshipped as an idols by any of the heathens;

³Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be, that a man shall be defiled thereby, and it be hid from him, when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. — if he touch the uncleanness of man; the dead body of a man, or the bone of a dead body, or a grave, or any profluvious person:

⁴Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him, when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.

— if a soul swear; a rash oath, without duly considering the nature and consequences of the oath, perhaps inconsiderately binding himself to do anything wrong, or neglecting to perform a vow to do something good. In all such cases a person might have transgressed one of the commandments unwittingly, and have been afterwards brought to a sense of his delinquency.

⁵And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing; — it shall be, when he shall be guilty; that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing; make a voluntary acknowledgment of his sin from his own conscience, and before it come to the knowledge of the world.

⁶and he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin.

— he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord for his sins which he hath sinned; a trespass offering differed from a sin offering in the following respects: that it was appointed for persons who had either done evil unwittingly, or were in doubt as to their own criminality;

— MSG

³ “Or if you touch human uncleanness, any sort of ritually contaminating uncleanness, and you’re not aware of it at the time, but later you realize it and you’re guilty;

⁴ “Or if you impulsively swear to do something, whether good or bad—some rash oath that just pops out—and you aren’t aware of what you’ve done at the time, but later you come to realize it and you’re guilty in any of these cases;

^5-6 “When you are guilty, immediately confess the sin that you’ve committed and bring as your penalty to God for the sin you have committed a female lamb or goat from the flock for an Absolution-Offering.

“In this way, the priest will make atonement for your sin.

⁷“‘And if he is not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves or two young pigeons unto the Lord: one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering.

— one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering; one of the turtle doves or pigeons, whichsoever were brought, was offered up as a sin offering, and the other that remained was offered up as a burnt offering;

— so that the poor man had two sorts of offerings out of what he brought, when the rich had but one; and may indicate the completeness of his sacrifice, and the full atonement made by it.

⁸And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder.

⁹And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar, and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering.

— and he shall sprinkle; here again there is a striking difference between the ritual in the sacrifice and that in the case of the sin offering described in the previous chapters; the blood is simply to be thrown on the walls of the altar, whilst in the ordinary sin offering, the priest had not only to dip his finger seven times in the blood of the sacrifice, but had to put it on the horns of the altar;

¹⁰And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering according to the ordinance; and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. — a trespass offering differed from a sin offering in that it was appointed for persons who had either done evil unwittingly, or were in doubt as to their own criminality;

¹¹“‘But if he is not able to bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon, for it is a sin offering.

— the trespass offering appointed in such cases was a female lamb or kid; if unable to make such an offering, he might bring a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons; the one to be offered for a sin offering, the other for a burnt offering; or if even that was beyond his ability, the law would be satisfied with the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour without oil or frankincense.

¹²Then shall he bring it to the priest and the priest shall take his handful of it, even a memorial thereof, and burn it on the altar according to the offerings made by fire unto the Lord: it is a sin offering.

¹³And the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him; and the remnant shall be the priest’s as a meat offering.’”

¹⁴And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁵“If a soul commit a trespass and sin through ignorance in the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring for his trespass unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy valuation in shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering. — and sin through ignorance; if at the time of its committal he did not know that it was a transgression;

¹⁶And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add a fifth part thereto and give it unto the priest; and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him.

— and shall add the fifth part thereto; besides paying the principal, the fifth part of the value of the holy property thus restored is to be added to the original amount; for example, if he has had profited to the value of four shekels, now he should pay five shekels; for the fifth of the shekels they add the fifth part to the four shekels;

¹⁷“And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he knew it not, yet is he guilty and shall bear his iniquity. — yet he is guilty, and shall bear the iniquity; be chargeable with guilt, and is liable to punishment, and must make an atonement and satisfaction for it;

¹⁸And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy valuation for a trespass offering unto the priest; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and knew it not, and it shall be forgiven him.

— in the case of the trespass-offering, the animal sacrificed was usually a ram, this fact alone clearly distinguishes the trespass-offerings from the sin-offerings, for which all kinds of sacrifices were offered from an ox to a pigeon;

¹⁹It is a trespass offering; he hath certainly trespassed against the Lord.” — it is a trespass offering; that is, though the prescribed fifth part is here dispensed with, it is still a trespass offering, for his conscience tells him that he has trespassed against the Lord.

Leviticus 6

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“If a soul sin and commit a trespass against the Lord by lying unto his neighbor about that which was delivered to him to keep, or in dealings, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbor,

— or in a thing taken away by violence: without the will and knowledge of the owner; privately and secretly, but being suspected, is challenged with it, and denying it, is made to swear, which he does falsely;

³or has found that which was lost and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely — in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein, — in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein; by unfaithfulness in a trust, cheating, defrauding, lying, and false swearing.

⁴then it shall be, because he hath sinned and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, — or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten; by outwitting him, by extortion, by false accusation, or detention of wages;

⁵or all that about which he hath sworn falsely. He shall even restore the principal thereof, and shall add a fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, on the day of his trespassoffering.

⁶And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, a ram without blemish out of the flock, according to thy valuation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest. — he shall even restore it in the principal; whatsoever he has embezzled, or cheated another of, or detained from the right owner, the whole of that was to be restored: and shall add the fifth part more thereto; to the principal;

⁷And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord; and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein.” — and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord; by offering the ram he brought, by which a typical, for atonement to be presented before the Lord;

⁸And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

⁹“Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. — command Aaron and his sons; having instructed the people concerning the sacrifices to be brought by them, Moses now proceeds, at God’s command, to direct the priests respecting several parts of their official services;

— better, “This, the burnt-offering, shall be upon the fire on the altar all night unto the morning,” the meaning is, the evening burnt-offering was to be so managed and laid on piece after piece, so that the fire might be constantly maintained by it; that the morning burnt-offerings were to be kept burning all the day from morning to night also;

¹⁰And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar; and he shall put them beside the altar.

— he shall put them beside the altar; during the second Temple, a priest was appointed by lot to take off from the altar every morning at least a shovelful of ashes and carry it outside the camp, and when the ashes accumulated they were entirely removed to the same place.

¹¹And he shall take off his garments and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes outside the camp unto a clean place.

— and he shall put off his garments; that is, the priest shall change the sacred robes in which he ministered at the altar; for other garments, though less holy, were not common, since the removing of the ashes was still a sacerdotal function.

¹²And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. — the wood for the burnt-offering of the morning is kindled from the fire which has been kept in all night.

¹³The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. — the fire shall ever be burning; this fire, which first came down from heaven (Leviticus 9:24), was to be continually fed with fuel especially provided by the congregation, and with the daily burnt offerings.

¹⁴“‘And this is the law of the meat offering: The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, before the altar. — the sons of Aaron shall offer it; though in the chapter before us it literally means Aaron’s sons, the phrase is intended to comprise his lineal descendants who succeeded to the priestly office.

¹⁵And he shall take from it his handful of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor, even the memorial of it unto the Lord.

¹⁶And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat. With unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it. — the males only might eat these, because they were most holy things; whereas the daughters of Aaron might eat other holy things, Numbers 18:11.

¹⁷It shall not be baked with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of My offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering and as the trespass offering.

— be regarded as “most holy” and the way in which it was prepared was: on any meat offerings being presented, the priest carried them to the altar, and taking a handful from each of them as an oblation, he salted and burnt it on the altar; the residue became the property of the priests;

¹⁸All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the Lord made by fire. Every one who toucheth them shall be holy.’” — every one that toucheth them shall be holy; that is; the meaning is that any one who touches the sacrifices of the first order of holiness must be a descendant of Aaron and a male;

¹⁹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁰“This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the Lord in the day when he is anointed: a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a perpetual meat offering, half of it in the morning and half thereof at night.

— in the day when he is anointed; that is, when he is anointed or when his anointing ceremony is completed, and he entered upon the duties of his office;

²¹In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baked thou shalt bring it in, and the baked pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savor unto the Lord. —

as a new law, with a special formula, and is inserted here in its proper place in the sacrificial instructions given for the priests, as it would have been altogether out of place among the general laws for the laity.

²²And the priest from among his sons, who is anointed in his stead, shall offer it. It is a statute for ever unto the Lord; it shall be wholly burned.

— and the priest of his sons; that is, any one of his descendants who succeeds to the high priesthood is to do the same in all times to come, since it is a statute to last as long as the priesthood continues;

— it shall be wholly burnt; unlike the ordinary meat offerings brought by the laity, which, with the exception of a handful, was the perquisite of the officiating priest (Leviticus 2:2-3), the high priest could not eat of this because he presented it himself, since it would be unseemly both to offer it to God and at the same time eat it himself; nor was an ordinary priest allowed to eat it, because he was subordinate in rank to the officiating high priest.

²³For every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burned; it shall not be eaten.” — it shall not be eaten; no part of it shall be eaten by the priest, as it was when the offering was for the people;

²⁴And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²⁵“Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord; it is most holy. — it is most holy; sacred to the Lord, offered up to him, and accepted by him, and typical of the most pure and holy sacrifice and an offering for sin, in the room and stead of his people.

²⁶The priest who offereth it for sin shall eat it; in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. — the priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it; thereby signifying that he bore the sin of the person that brought the offering, and made atonement for it;

²⁷Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy; and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place.

— whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy; none but holy persons, such as were devoted to holy services, even the priests and their sons, might touch and eat of the flesh of the sin offering;

²⁸But the earthen vessel wherein it is boiled shall be broken; and if it is boiled in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured and rinsed in water.

— all that did so were sacred persons; and even what were the earthen vessel used in preparing and eating it, dishes and knives, were to be put to no other use, not to any common service, or for anything but holy things;

²⁹All the males among the priests shall eat thereof; it is most holy. — all the males among the priests; ot only did the officiating priest, whose perquisite the flesh of the sin offering became, and his male children, partake of it, and he could invite any other priests and their sons to the meal; but leaving their daughters a bit bewildered.

³⁰And no sin offering, from which any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation for reconcilement thereby in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burned in the fire. — it shall be burnt in the fire; none was to be eaten.

Posted in Books of Moses

US F-16 Crashes near China

•December 14, 2023 • Leave a Comment

US F-16 Crashes In Yellow Sea after some mysterious “In-Flight Emergency” following another mysterious F-35 crash in South Carolina in September, 2023.

ZeroHedge by Tyler Durden • December 11, 2023 // Yahoo News

A US General Dynamics F-16 fighter jet crashed in the Yellow Sea near South Korea’s southwestern coast on Monday, as reported by officials from the US Air Force.

The pilot managed to eject safely and was unharmed. This incident has stoked concerns about the safety of US military aircraft, especially in light of last month’s Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey crash that killed eight US airmen.

US F-16 Crashes In Yellow Sea after an unknown “In-Flight Emergency”

Kunsan Air Base, located in Gunsan, South Korea, released a statement that said the F-16 pilot is “awake and in stable condition.” He was rescued by the Republic of Korea Maritime Forces. [About 45 F-16 aircraft are stationed at the base. It is one of two major Air Force installations operated by the United States Forces Korea, the other being Osan Air Base]

USAF officials said the F-16 experienced “an in-flight emergency over the Yellow Sea” early Monday morning at approximately 8:43 am local time.

“We are grateful for the safe recovery of our Airman by our ROK Allies and that the pilot is in good condition,” said Col Matthew C Gaetke, 8th FW commander.

Would the US retire their well-armed F-16 along with all their V-22 Osprey?

The US military base at Gunsan airport is about 180km (110m) south of Seoul and has approximately 2,800 air force members, army soldiers and other officials at the installation.

It comes as North Korea on Monday criticised South Korea and the US for “walking on the path of confrontation and war” by staging joint military drills, according to Pyongyang’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.

It called the joint drills “futile” provocative acts that will only hasten the South Korea’s destruction and slammed Seoul for “recklessly” running amok to stage a war in the peninsula.

Last month’s crash of the Osprey off Yakushima, a southwestern Japanese island, which resulted in the death of eight airmen, remains fresh in everyone’s minds.

Following that, the Pentagon issued an order to ground all V-22 tiltrotor aircraft late last week. This decision was made after a preliminary investigation into the crash found a potential mechanical problem.

And they shall fall one upon another, as if it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. Leviticus 26:37

Posted in China, US

South American Gangs Target Mansions In Detroit

•December 13, 2023 • Leave a Comment

South American Gangs Target Dozens of up-market Mansions In Detroit

ZeroHedge by Tyler Durden • December 10, 2023 // The Patriot Light

Violent crime is quickly spreading to suburbia. A new report shows gangs from South America have targeted mansions in wealthy neighborhoods across the Detroit metro area. This comes as the Biden administration’s disastrous open border policies have flooded the country with millions of illegal migrants, as well as progressive cities fail to enforce ‘common sense’ law and order.

Are more of these South Americans breakins to come?

WXYZ Detroit reported at least 30 to 40 homes in upscale neighborhoods across Detroit have been targeted by “highly functional and well-trained” gangs from South America this fall.

Thieves are using high-tech “jammers” to disable WiFi home security systems. They’re primarily after cash, jewelry, and expensive handbags.

Last week, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said thieves are part of “transnational gangs” operating across the country and are targeting multi-million dollar homes.

In recent months, we have shared an emerging theme of thieves across the country targeting wealthy households:

This disturbing trend comes as illegal migrant encounters by the Customs and Border Protection on the southern border hit a record high.

South American Gangs Target Dozens of up-market Mansions in Detroit

President Biden’s disastrous open southern border has flooded the country with 9 million illegals since he took office. Also, Democrat lawmakers, some of whom are Soros-backed, fail to enforce common sense law and order, transforming some metros into lawless, crime-ridden hellholes.

Democrats are turning this nation into a third-world-like state – and now criminals, emboldened by failed progressive policies, have the rich in their crosshairs in suburbia.

The only advice for law-abiding Americans who want to defend their families and homes in suburbia, where the average police could be upwards of ten minutes or more, is to get proper firearms training from a professional.

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Esau, Latin Americas, Southern Border, US

Leviticus (3-4)

•December 13, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Leviticus 3

¹ “‘And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. — a sacrifice of peace offering; the peace offering consisted of two kinds, the peace offering from the herd (Leviticus 3:1-5), and the peace offering from the flock (Leviticus 3:6-15);

— as in the case of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:3), the ox is mentioned first, because it is most costly and more important; whether it be a male; whilst in the case of the burnt offering (Leviticus 1:3; Leviticus 1:10) only the male was allowed, there is no distinction of sex here, nor is there any limitation of age. All that was required was that it should be without any defect;

— they were called peace-offering, because in them God and his people did, as it were, feast together to ireflect prosperity and happiness generally, in token of friendship. The peace-offerings were offered by way of supplication; and “thank-offering” is sometimes used as another class of peace-offering.

²And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. — not on the north side of the altar, where the burnt-offering was killed, as also the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering, but in the very entrance of the court where the brazen altar stood;

— and Aaron’s sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about; in like manner as the blood of the burnt offering was;

³And he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord: the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

⁴and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys — it shall he take away.

⁵And Aaron’s sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

— and Aaron’s sons; after the offerer has killed the victim, taken out the choice parts and offered them to the officiating priest, the latter shall burn it, that is, the whole collection of the fat pieces described in Leviticus 3:3-4, upon the ashes of the continual burnt offering, which was the daily offering of the lamb.

⁶“‘And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord be of the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. — of the flock; that is, of sheep or goats; they might be either male or female, provided only that they were without any defect; to give to God means to give the best.

⁷If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the Lord. — if he offer a lamb for his offering; which was of the flock, it must be of the first year; this is a principle that whereever this word is used in the law, it signifies one of the first year;

⁸And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; and Aaron’s sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar. — and he, the man that brought the offering, shall lay his hand upon the head of the lamb;

⁹And he shall offer from the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord; the fat thereof and the whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone: and the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

¹⁰and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys — it shall he take away. — as in verse 4 above, livers and kidneys are always taken away; but why?

¹¹And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord.

¹²“‘And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord. — and if his offering be a goat; the directions about the goat as a peace offering are the same as those about an ox.

¹³And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation; and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about.

¹⁴And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord: the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

¹⁵and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys — it shall he take away. — as in verse 4 and 10 above, livers and kidneys are always taken away; but why? Maybe they were considered as delicacies, and God wants them to be returned so that the families of the offerers could enjoy in the celebration?

¹⁶And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savor; all the fat is the Lord’S.

¹⁷It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.’” — that is, the law not to eat the fat or blood of sheep or goats, is to be binding upon the Israelites throughout all their future generations, and is applicable to any place wherever they may dwell.—

‘If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments

Leviticus 4

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them, — if a soul sin through ignorance; the next kind of sacrifices appointed were for the expiation of particular sins, and are therefore called sin-offerings; the first sort of these were for sins of ignorance.

— and shall do against any of them; it must be something done, and not merely said: hence the Jews say, that as the neglect of circumcision, and of the Passover, does not come under this exemption, because they ought to know;

— but what about if a man eats the fat that is above the kidneys, thinking it is the fat that is above the heart; or that lies with a woman forbidden by the law, thinking her to be his wife; or that commits idolatry, by bowing to the idol, thinking that the law only forbids sacrifice, incense, and libation, but not bowing; or that profanes the Sabbath, thinking it is still before evening on Friday.

³if the priest who is anointed shall sin, bringing the sin upon the people, then let him bring for his sin which he hath sinned a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering. — even the chief priest could be a frail being, and often does, like the rest of the people; or to which he was liable as they; or “to make the people guilty” as it could be read; “so that the people sin” or “making the people to sin;”

⁴And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the bullock’s head and kill the bullock before the Lord. — and the priest shall bring the bullock; that is, the high priest himself; it is evident that God never had any infallible priest in his service upon the earth;

⁵And the priest who is anointed shall take of the bullock’s blood and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation; — and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation; out of the court where the bullock was slain, into the holy place, where were the veil that divided between the holy of holies, and the altar of sweet incense;

⁶and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. — the treatment of the blood was special in this sin-offerings; the high priest himself sprinkled the blood seven times within the tabernacle and smeared it on the horns of the altar of incense;

— seven times; a number of completeness; and prescribed here, either to show that his sins needed more than ordinary purgation, and more exercise of his efforts and repentance; before the veil; the inner veil dividing between the holy place and the holy of holies;

— whereas the other ‘inferior’ sin-offerings, it was smeared on the horns of the altar of burnt-offering outside the tabernacle; Leviticus 4:25, Leviticus 4:30, Leviticus 4:34; and no mention of sprinkling of the blood seven times;

⁷And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. — and the priest shall put; that is, the high priest. —

⁸And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering: the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

⁹and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys — it shall he take away,

¹⁰as it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. — the priest was to lift off “all the fat” from the sacrifice, that is, the same fat portions as in the peace-offering, and burn it upon the altar of burnt-offering.

¹¹And the skin of the bullock and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung” — The skin of the bullock, and all the flesh, together with the head and the shank and the entrails (Leviticus 1:9) and the dung;

— in fact the whole bullock, was to be carried out by him (the sacrificing priest) to a clean place before the camp, to which the ashes of the sacrifices were carried from the ash-heap (Leviticus 1:16), and there burnt on the wood with fire.

¹²even the whole bullock shall he carry forth outside the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire; where the ashes are poured out shall he be burned. — — outside the camp; during the Second Temple this third place is outside Jerusalem, called the place of ashes;

¹³“‘And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done something against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty,

¹⁴when the sin which they have sinned is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation.

¹⁵And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the Lord; and the bullock shall be killed before the Lord. — the elders of the congregation represent the whole congregation;

¹⁶And the priest who is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood to the tabernacle of the congregation;

¹⁷and the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord, even before the veil. — the treatment of the blood is again special in this sin-offerings; the high priest shall sprinkle the blood seven times within the tabernacle before the veil and smear it on the horns of the altar of incense;

¹⁸And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the Lord, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

¹⁹And he shall take all his fat from him and burn it upon the altar.

²⁰And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering; so shall he do with this. And the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them.

²¹And he shall carry forth the bullock outside the camp and burn him as he burned the first bullock: it is a sin offering for the congregation. — and the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock’s blood; that is, the high priest, as the Targums of Jonathan explain it:

— again, outside the camp; during the Second Temple this place is outside Jerusalem, called the place of ashes;

²²“‘When a ruler hath sinned, and done something through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord his God concerning things which should not be done, and is guilty, — when a ruler hath sinned, that is, the king, judge, or subordinate, was the party concerned in this sin;

²³or if his sin wherein he hath sinned come to his knowledge, he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish. — he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish; his offering was to be a “kid of the goats”

²⁴And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the Lord: it is a sin offering.

²⁵And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. — the priest shall sprinkle the blood; but no mention of seven times;

²⁶And he shall burn all his fat upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him.

²⁷“‘And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance while he doeth something against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty,

²⁸or if his sin which he hath sinned come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned.

²⁹And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.

³⁰And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. — the priest shall put the blood upon the horns of the altar; but no mention of any sprinking of blood;

³¹And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him.

³²“‘And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. — and if he bring a lamb; those who were unable to bring a goat might offer a female sheep as the less valuable animal, provided it was without blemish;

³³And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering.

³⁴And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.

³⁵And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the Lord; and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him.

Posted in Books of Moses

The Navy: Dead In The Water?

•December 12, 2023 • Leave a Comment

The US military is grounding all 400 of its ‘widow-maker’ Osprey V-22

RealClearWire by Brent Ramsey December 7, 2023 // ZeroHedge

“Mission: The United States is a maritime nation, and the US Navy protects America at sea. Alongside our allies and partners, we defend freedom, preserve economic prosperity, and keep the seas open and free. Our nation is engaged in long-term competition. To defend American interests around the globe, the US Navy must remain prepared to execute our timeless role, as directed by Congress and the President.” The preceding statement is from the US Navy’s website.

Dark clouds hang over whereever the US Navy and Air Force are operating

There are many indicators that the Navy is at increasing risk of mission failure.

Missing recruiting goals by thousands for two years in a row, missing its goal for FY 2023 by over 7000 new recruits. The impact of missing recruiting goals is cumulative. Its impact does not subside if in subsequent years deficits are not made up. Lack of manpower adds to the strain of a Navy struggling to meet its national priorities overseas. Failing to recruit enough people to man the Navy is a result of many factors. Since the Afghanistan debacle, the public’s faith in the military has plummeted to new lows. With relatively low unemployment, the competition for young people is high. American youth are less fit, less capable of serving in the military than at any time in our history. Fewer young people want to serve as the political left teaches them to hate our country, academia promotes socialism, and race hustlers malign our country for its supposed racism and white supremacy. Divisive ideologies like Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are now promoted vigorously up and down the chain of command in the Navy. These ideologies alienate the youth of what for generations was the most fertile recruiting grounds, white, southern, Christian Americans. This demographic is now increasingly averse to serving in our new politically correct Navy of DEI, Pride month, correct pronouns, drag queens, and transgender people. If the Navy cannot recruit now for the existing numbers of ships we have, we have no hope whatsoever of filling out the ranks of a Navy with much higher numbers of ships.
Recently, due to the international wars simultaneously in Ukraine and Israel, and high tension in the Taiwan strait/South China Sea, the US Navy had an almost unprecedented 8 Carriers at sea at the same time. The only three not at sea were unavailable due to long-term maintenance. Normally, the Navy might have three or four carriers at sea at one time. Navy ships and crews continually operating wear out rapidly. Typical deployments last 6 months. The USS Ford has been deployed for 7 months and SECDEF just extended its deployment in the eastern Med for the second time. The longer the deployment the more worn out the crew and the higher rates of equipment failures become. As deployments go on for longer and longer, the size of the crew shrinks due to illness, pregnancy, injury, and suicides. Typically ships returning to home port after a lengthy deployment are missing a substantial number of the deploying crew. This puts much more stress and strain on the remaining crewmen. The international situation with multiple wars demanding our attention simultaneously is eroding our Navy’s readiness at a high rate. When the ships and their crews wear out, there will be no alternative but to return them to port for re-fit and rest for the crews regardless of whatever pressing mission the ship is on. That the Navy does not have enough ships is now obvious to even the most casual observer when multiple hot spots in distant seas occur. When the proverbial stuff hits the fan, the very first question everyone, including the President asks is, “Where is the nearest carrier?”
The Navy’s high suicide rate over a lengthy period demonstrates the leadership’s tragically being unable to ameliorate the problem. The higher the OP tempo, the longer the deployments, the more arduous the maintenance periods are, the more inadequate berthing arrangements are for ships in long term overhaul, aggravate already high stress environments and seemingly make things unbearable for too many of our sailors. The Navy seems content to muddle along with scores of sailors killing themselves year after year and the heart-rending loss of life continuing as an unsolved problem. We Navy folk like to call ourselves warriors and most of us fit the description of selflessly putting ourselves in harm’s way for the benefit of others, for the benefit of our nation. But what does it say about our culture to have so many warriors who end their own lives because somehow our organization does not recognize their despair until it is too late, and they have taken the irreversible step and ended their own life? Considering how extremely selective the Navy is at screening those who volunteer to serve, why do such high numbers of exceptional citizens, with all that the Navy has to offer, choose to end their own lives? Are our leaders so overwhelmed by the work the Navy has them do that they cannot be close enough to their sailors to recognize those who are in extremis in time to help them?
Notable institutional leadership failures in multiple major program areas and multiple high profile operational failures are now far too common. Examples include well documented cases such as the LCS and Zumwalt ship classes, the USS Ford class’s cost overruns, lateness, and multiple of its ship systems not being fully operational (EMALS, ammo elevators, arresting gear, etc.) even years after being in commission. An egregious example of a mammoth leadership failure was the loss of the USS Bonhomme Richard, a multi-billion-dollar capital ship that due to negligence was allowed to burn at the side of a pier, a $3B loss with no replacement. A total of 45 Navy leaders were disciplined due to this one incident. The grounding of the USS Connecticut with this vital attack submarine being out of commission for years for repairs. The USS Gettysburg has been out of commission for over 8 years undergoing modernization. Four of the seven cruisers selected for modernization will instead be de-commissioned after the Navy has spent billions on upgrades. The collisions of the USS McCain and USS Fitzgerald with commercial shipping were failures of leadership that led to the deaths of 17 sailors.
In the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act the Congress established the size of the Navy to be 355 battle force ships. According to the United States Naval Institute as of 6 November 2023 there are currently 291 battle force ships in the Navy. The predictions from the Congressional Research Service are that the size of the Navy will stay relatively the same for the rest of this decade before it slowly starts to increase in size in the 2030’s. In 2022, then CNO Gilday announced that the requirement is actually much higher, in excess of 500 battle force ships. Multiple other experts’ analyses confirm those higher numbers. The PRC’s PLAN is already at 350 combatants and building at a rate at least four times that of the US.
In the FY 2023 NDAA there was a provision to establish a Commission to study the Navy and its requirements. The report of the Commission is due to the Congress by July 1, 2024. As of this writing, the commission has not even been formed. The Secretary of the Navy and the CNO should be urgently pressing Congress to get this Commission up and running. Furthermore, the Navy should be proactive in suggesting Navy advocates serve on the Commission or serve on the staff of the Commission. It is vital for the defense of the nation to have the definitive knowledge of what the Navy’s true requirements are in 2023 in the face of multiplying threats all over the world.

Conclusion: All of these factors outlined above make it clear that our Navy is in extremis. There are not enough ships to do the mission nor enough manpower to man the ships optimally. Deployments are too long, and our people and ships are wearing out.

Recruiting is stagnant. Too few ships, not enough people, not enough shipbuilding, or repair capacity have us on the brink of mission failure. To put the size of the Navy in perspective, when this officer went aboard ship in 1970 to conduct anti-submarine patrols looking for Soviet ballistic missile submarines, the Navy had 792 battle force ships in commission. We now have 291. Then we had a cold war against one adversary, the old Soviet Union.

Today we have adversaries all over the world and are trying to perform the mission quoted above with a tiny fraction of the ships we had decades ago. As a maritime nation with treaty allies all over the world coupled with our dependence upon the sea for 90% of the commerce that keeps our economy running, it is a travesty that such neglect of the Navy has occurred. Who is at fault for this neglect?

Congress is ultimately at fault as it holds the power of the purse. However, it is incumbent upon senior Navy leaders to make the case for the right size Navy. The CNO and every other Navy flag who testifies before Congress should be sounding the alarm about the imminent failure of the Navy to perform its mission now in “peacetime” with multiple hots spots in Europe, the Middle East, and in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, and even more importantly in the next actual fighting war.

Someone long since should have laid his stars on the table to make the point to politicians that we need more ships and more manpower for the survival of our nation. Our way of life and our very lives are at stake if we do not rebuild our Navy to an adequate size to perform its vital worldwide mission.

The US military is grounding all 400 of its ‘widow-maker’ Osprey V-22

“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Deuteronomy 28:28-29

“And they shall fall one upon another, as if it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies” Leviticus 26:37

Posted in US

Leviticus (1-2)

•December 11, 2023 • Leave a Comment

The Targum Jonathan provides a good preamble to the book of Leviticus:

And it was when Mosheh had completed to erect the tabernacle that Mosheh reasoned and judged in his heart, and said:

“To Mount Sinai, whose excellency is the excellence only of an hour and its holiness the holiness but of three days, I could not ascend till the time that the word was spoken to me; but the excellence of this the tabernacle of ordinance is an eternal excellency, and its holiness an everlasting holiness; therefore is it right that I should not enter within it until the time that I am spoken with from before the Lord.”

“If his offering a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish”

Leviticus 1

¹ And the Lord called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,

— when the Lord first communicated to Moses that He was about to deliver the Israelites from Egypt, “He called unto him” from the burning bush (Exodus 3:4). When the Lord was about to give to Moses the Ten Commandments for the people of Israel, “He called unto him” from the top of Sinai (Exodus 19:3; Exodus 19:20);

— and now when the Lord is about to give to His chosen people, through His servant Moses, the laws by which their Divine worship is to be regulated, “He called unto him” from the tent of meeting (Leviticus 1:1).

²“Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock.

— the act of offering was to be voluntary on the part of the worshipper, but the mode of doing it was in every point defined by the Law; and any member of the congregation might bring his voluntary offering if he could afford.

³“‘If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. — without blemish; or perfect, having no part wanting, nor any part superfluous, nor any spot upon it

⁴And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. — and he, the offer of the offering, shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering to make atonement for him; this phrase belongs more especially to the sin-offerings and the trespass-offerings;

— the high priest, Aaron, would be more concerned with other duties: another daily ‘burnt offering’ stands first in Leviticus for several reasons; it was offered twice daily, besides on other occasions;

⁵And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

— and he shall kill the bullock; the sacrificer himself, the offerer, not by the priest, slaughtered the animal on the north side of the altar, by cutting its throat, while a priest or an assistant held a bowl under the neck to receive the blood;

— in later times, however, the offering was generally performed by Levites; sprinkle the blood; this was to be done by the priests, by Aaron’s sons initially.

⁶And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into his pieces.

⁷And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon the fire.

⁸And the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar;

⁹but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. — a sweet savour, or a soothing odour; the word ‘savour’ in old English is applied to the smell as well as the taste of a thing.

¹⁰“‘And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish. — those who could not offer a bullock, were to bring a sheep or a goat; and those who were not able to do that, were accepted of God, if they brought a turtle-dove, or a pigeon.

If they are poor they could bring a turtle-dove or a pigeon, or a pair

¹¹And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord; and the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar.

¹²And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat; and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar,

¹³but he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water. And the priest shall bring it all and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

¹⁴“‘And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or of young pigeons. — those who could not offer a bullock or a sheep or a goat; they are to bring turtle-doves or pigeons; a single pigeon or turtle-dove formed a sacrifice, but they are often offered in pairs; and there are no rule in respect to sex;

¹⁵And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar.

¹⁶And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes.

¹⁷And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

Leviticus 2

¹ “‘And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense thereon. — the old use of the word “meat” in the sense of “food,” in contrast to “flesh,” creates some confusion of thought;

— to make a sweet odour in the court of the tabernacle, on a part of it; which otherwise would have been bad odour, by reason of the blood that was sprinkled and the flesh that was burned there daily;

— second; and put frankincense thereon; various spices: stacte, onycha and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense; are holy to the Lord, and to be used for him only; Exodus 30:34;

²And he shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; and he shall take from it his handful of the flour thereof and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

— and he, the offer of the food offering, shall bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests; the high priest, Aaron, would be more concerned with other duties: involves in daily ‘burnt offering’ which was offered twice everyday;

— a sweet savour, or a soothing odour; the word ‘savour’ in old English is applied to the smell as well as the taste of the food.

Incense: stacte, onycha, galbanum; these spices with pure frankincense

³And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire. — a offering most holy; offerings consisted of two classes, the (just) holy and the most holy;

— the wave offerings (Leviticus 23:20; Numbers 6:20), the firstborn of sacrificed animals, the firstlings of oil, wine, and corn, (Numbers 18:17); and the paschal sacrifices, belonged to the holy, and might be eaten entirely or partially in any place within the holy city by the officiating priests and their families.

— the incense offering, the shew-bread (Exodus 30:26-29; Leviticus 24:9), the sin and trespass offerings (Leviticus 6:25-29; Leviticus 7:1; Leviticus 7:6; Leviticus 14:13), and the meat offerings here described, belonged to the most holy. They could be eaten in the court of the sanctuary only by the priests, (Leviticus 10:12-14).

⁴“‘And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.

⁵And if thy oblation be a meat offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour, unleavened, mingled with oil.

⁶Thou shalt part it in pieces and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.

⁷And if thy oblation be a meat offering baked in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

⁸And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord; and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar.

⁹And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

¹⁰And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’: it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. — the term meat was and is properly given to any kind of provision, and the greater part of this offering was to be eaten for food, not burned; they of the most holy.

¹¹“‘No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven; for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire. — leaven, in this instance, is the emblem of pride, malice, and hypocrisy, and honey of sensual pleasure.

¹²As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet savor.

¹³And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou allow the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. — with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt; every animal offering was to be accompanied by salt;

— salt was used in meat offerings, and in all others, because it was a symbol of the perpetuity of the covenant, which from thence is called a covenant of salt forever, Numbers 18:19 namely, the covenant of the priesthood, to which these sacrifices belonged;

— hence the Targum of Jonathan says, “because the twenty and four gifts of the priests are appointed with a covenant of salt; therefore salt shalt thou offer with all thy oblations.”

¹⁴And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.

¹⁵And thou shalt put oil upon it and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.

¹⁶And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

— every independent meat-offering was to be prepared without leaven, and a portion given to the Lord as fire-food, for a savour of satisfaction upon the altar; and the rest was to be scrupulously kept away from being used by the offerer, as a most holy thing, and to be eaten at the holy place by the priests only;

— it is unfortunate that while the law was given the children of Israel were travelling throught the desert for the next thirty-nine years or so, with their main food, the manna, and only offerings of animal sacrifices could be offered; they could not practice the first-fruit offerings; but the law was provided here when the crossed the Jordan and became settled cultivators.

Posted in Books of Moses

Sharp Decline in Maths Skill in OECD

•December 10, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Teenage math and reading skills show ‘unprecedented drop’ – study

PISA 2018: The Top Rated Countries

RT World News • December 6, 2023 // World Population Review

The sharp decline in arithmetic scores is particularly significant in five European countries, OECD research has found

A study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) of the academic performance of teenagers from 81 countries has found that their performance in reading and math has plummeted. It also shows that students from European countries have the lowest math scores, while Asian participants have the highest.

Nearly 700,000 15-year-olds were tested in math, reading, and science as part of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 to assess learning before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the OECD on Tuesday, the results of the study, which was focused on math, show an “unprecedented drop” in academic performance, with average scores down 10 points in reading and nearly 15 points in math compared to 2018. Science scores “did not change significantly,” the document said.

The research found the sharp decline in math achievement to be “three times larger” than any previous change and was most significant in Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland. Participants from Singapore, China, Japan, and South Korea outperformed the others. In reading, Ireland, Estonia, Japan, and South Korea performed strongly.

The study also shows the impact of digital devices on students’ academic performance – moderate use of gadgets in school is associated with better grades. However, this depends on whether technology is used to support learning rather than distract from it.

The downward trend in reading, math, and science scores was evident before 2018, suggesting that only part of the decline in achievement can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, the OECD said.

The international PISA survey in these three disciplines is conducted every three years among 15-year-old students. Originally scheduled for 2021, the study was postponed due to the pandemic. All participating countries are OECD partners.

And it shall come to pass on 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 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. Amos 8:9-10

“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. Amos 9:8

Posted in Europe

Mysterious aircraft crashes in year 2023

•December 9, 2023 • Leave a Comment

At least 30 American troops have died in a spate of mysterious US military helicopter and tiltrotor aircraft crashes this year. Now the US military has grounded its entire fleet of Osprey aircraft and Japan has also grounded its fleet of 14 Ospreys after the crash.

The US military is grounding all of its ‘widow-maker’ Osprey V-22

Business Insider • December 5, 2023 // Yahoo

A US Air Force Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan on November 29, killing all eight Airmen aboard.
It’s the latest in a string of helicopter and tiltrotor crashes this year.
Seven crashes have left 30 American soldiers dead and injured over 40 more.

It’s been a deadly year for US military helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft. Seven crashes around the world have so far killed at least 30 American service members and injured over 40 more.

None of these incidents occurred during combat or were the result of enemy fire; almost all took place during some sort of training mission. Two branches of the military grounded flights in response to crashes and the resulting loss of life.

Dark clouds hang over where the US Navy and Air Force are operating

Here’s a timeline of these crashes and what we know about their causes:

February 15: UH-60 Blackhawk crashed in Alabama

A Tennessee National Guard helicopter crashed during a training flight near Huntsville, killing the two pilots. According to a statement from the Tennessee Department of Military, the aircraft was approaching a local airport when it “rapidly descended and impacted the ground.”

March 29: HH-60 Black Hawks collide in Kentucky

Two US Army helicopters crashed into each other during a training “accident” near Fort Campbell, the 101st Airborne Division said, killing all nine soldiers who were on board. The aircraft were conducing a routine mission and were operating in “multi-ship formation” using night-vision goggles. They crashed into an open field across from a residential area.

April 27: AH-64 Apaches collide in Alaska

Two helicopters returning from a training mission crashed into each other near Healy, killing three soldiers and injuring a fourth, the 11th Airborne Division said. After this incident, the US Army temporarily grounded all aircraft except those participating in “critical missions.”

June 11: MH-47 Chinook crashed in Syria

A US military helicopter with a faulty rotor crashed as it was landing at a staging base in the northeast, injuring 22 soldiers. A Pentagon spokesperson said at the time that the incident was under investigation, but all troops involved — including some who had to be evacuated to facilities outside the US Central Command’s area of responsibility in the Middle East — were in stable condition.

August 27: MV-22B Osprey crashed in Australia

A US Marine Corps Osprey crashed on Melville Island during a training exercise, killing three soldiers and injuring another 20. Marine Rotational Force — Darwin said at the time that the cause was under investigation. This incident marked the second in a string of three “aviation mishaps” during August and September that eventually led the Marines to pause all flights for several days.

November 10: MH-60 Blackhawk crashed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea

Five US Army Special Operations aviation soldiers were killed after their helicopter experienced an “in-flight emergency” during aerial refueling training and crashed into the water, the Pentagon said. It added that there were “no indications” the crash was the result of hostile actions, amid soaring regional tensions as a result of the Israel-Hamas war.

November 29: CV-22B Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan

A US Air Force Osprey was involved in an unknown “aircraft mishap” during a routine training mission off the coast of Yakushima Island, killing all eight crew members aboard. Air Force Special Operations Command said on December 5 that a search and recovery mission was still underway to locate the remains of two Airmen.

The US military is grounding all 400 of its ‘widow-maker’ Osprey V-22

“The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart; and thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness” Deuteronomy 28:28-29

“And they shall fall one upon another, as if it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies” Leviticus 26:37

Posted in Okinawa, US

Exodus (39-40)

•December 9, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

~~~~

Exodus 39

¹ And of the blue and purple and scarlet they made clothes of service to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²And he made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen.

³And they beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires to work it in the blue and in the purple and in the scarlet and in the fine linen, with skillful work.

⁴They made shoulder pieces for it to couple it together; by the two edges was it coupled together.

⁵And the embroidered girdle of his ephod that was upon it was of the same, according to the work thereof: of gold, blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen, as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁶And they wrought onyx stones enclosed in clasps of gold, graven as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel. — the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are not specified here; question remains whether Joseph has two portions? If so who gives way; Dan or Levi?

⁷And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel, as the Lord commanded Moses.

⁸And he made the breastplate of skillful work, like the work of the ephod: of gold, blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen.

⁹It was foursquare. They made the breastplate double: a span was the length thereof and a span the breadth thereof, being doubled.

¹⁰And they set in it four rows of stones: the first row was a sardius, a topaz and a carbuncle; this was the first row; — the Targum Jonathan adds the names of three tribes, Reuben, Shimeon, and Levi and Targum Jerusalem says the same in chapter 28:17 Reuben, Shemeon, Levi;

¹¹and the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; — there are some differences of opinions from here: the Targum Jonathan adds the names of the three tribes, Jehudah, Dan, and Naphtali; whereas Targum Jerusalem says Jehudah, Issakar, and Zebulon;

¹²and the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst; — the Targum Jonathan adds the names of the three tribes, Gad, Asher, and Issakar; but Targum Jerusalem says Dan, Naphtali, and Gad;

¹³and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in clasps of gold in their enclosings. — the Targum Jonathan adds the names of the three tribes, Zebulon, Joseph, and Benjamin; but Targum Jerusalem says Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin;

The tribe of Dan disappears when Joseph is allocated two portions

¹⁴And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel — twelve, according to their names like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name according to the twelve tribes.

¹⁵And they made upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathed work of pure gold. — no mention is made of the Urim and Thummim, perhaps they are incorporated inside or behind the ephod;

The Urim and Thummim, perhaps they are incorporated inside the ephod

¹⁶And they made two clasps of gold and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

¹⁷And they put the two wreathed chains of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate;

¹⁸and the two ends of the two wreathed chains they fastened in the two clasps, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front.

¹⁹And they made two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, upon the border of it which was on the side of the ephod inward;

²⁰and they made two other golden rings and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the front of it over against the other coupling thereof, above the embroidered girdle of the ephod.

²¹And they bound the breastplate by his rings unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be above the embroidered girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²²And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.

²³And there was a hole in the midst of the robe, as the hole of a jacket of mail, with a band round about the hole, that it should not rend.

²⁴And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet, and twined linen.

²⁵And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe, round about between the pomegranates:

²⁶a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁷And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron and for his sons,

²⁸and a miter of fine linen and goodly bonnets of fine linen, and linen breeches of finetwined linen,

²⁹and a girdle of finetwined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet needlework, as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁰And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like the engravings of a signet: Holiness to the Lord.

³¹And they tied unto it a lace of blue to fasten it on high upon the miter, as the Lord commanded Moses.

³²Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished, and the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses; so did they.

³³And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses: the tent and all his furniture, his clasps, his boards, his bars and his pillars and his sockets;

³⁴and the covering of rams’ skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers’ skins, and the veil of the covering;

³⁵the ark of the Testimony and the staves thereof, and the mercy seat;

³⁶the table and all the vessels thereof, and the showbread;

³⁷the pure candlestick with the lamps thereof, even with the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for light;

³⁸and the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door;

³⁹the brazen altar and his grate of brass, his staves and all his vessels, the laver and his foot;

Joseph is allocated two placements but the Levi were the Lord’s

⁴⁰the hangings of the court, his pillars and his sockets, and the hanging for the court gate, his cords and his pegs, and all the vessels of the service of the tabernacle for the tent of the congregation;

⁴¹the clothes of service to do service in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest and his sons’ garments to minister in the priest’s office.

⁴²According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work.

⁴³And Moses looked upon all the work, and behold, they had done it as the Lord had commanded; even so had they done it. And Moses blessed them.

Exodus 40

~~~~

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation. — the new year was now approaching, and as it was approaching, its first day on the month of Nisan was naturally chosen as most fit for the inauguration of the new structure.

³And thou shalt put therein the ark of the Testimony, and cover the ark with the veil.

⁴And thou shalt bring in the table and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick and light the lamps thereof.

⁵And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the Testimony, and put up the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.

⁶And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.

⁷And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.

⁸And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate.

⁹And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle and all that is therein, and shalt hallow it and all the vessels thereof; and it shall be holy.

¹⁰And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar; and it shall be an altar most holy.

¹¹And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.

¹²And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.

¹³And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him and sanctify him, that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office.

¹⁴And thou shalt bring his sons and clothe them with coats;

¹⁵and thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto Me in the priest’s office. For their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.”

¹⁶Thus did Moses: according to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he.

¹⁷And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first day of the month, that the tabernacle was reared up.

¹⁸And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof and reared up his pillars.

¹⁹And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁰And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark.

²¹And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the covering and covered the ark of the Testimony, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²²And he put the table in the tent of the congregation upon the side of the tabernacle northward, outside the veil.

²³And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

²⁴And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation opposite the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.

²⁵And he lighted the lamps before the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁶And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil;

²⁷and he burned sweet incense thereon, as the Lord commanded Moses.

²⁸And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle.

²⁹And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering, as the Lord commanded Moses.

³⁰And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there for washing.

³¹And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat.

³²When they went into the tent of the congregation and when they came near unto the altar, they washed, as the Lord commanded Moses.

³³And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

³⁴Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

³⁵And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

³⁶And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys;

³⁷but if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not until the day that it was taken up.

³⁸For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

— throughout the book of Exodus the term, “Urim and Thummim” is not used; the earliest encounter is in Leviticus 8:8: “And he [Moses] put the breastplate upon him [Aaron]. Also he [Moses] put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.” Hence the Urim and the Thummim are incorporated inside the ephod with the breastplate of twelve previous stones.

Posted in Books of Moses

Why being a friend of the US is ‘fatal’?

•December 8, 2023 • Leave a Comment

“To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”
― Henry Kissinger

News analysis: Why being a friend of the United States is ‘fatal’?

CGTN • October 23, 2023

US President Joe Biden has pledged an “unprecedented” package of aid to support its “ironclad” ally in Middle East – Israel, which is entangled in a fresh round of conflict with its old foe Palestine. Besides, the White House also vowed to back Ukraine “as long as it takes” in its fight against Russia.

The funding for Israel and Ukraine that the US government has asked for, amounted to almost $106 billion. Will this be a credible commitment or just another empty promise?

“It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal,” former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once remarked. And the US has proven him right. Time and again, the US has showed that it is not a reliable ally in global affairs.

Sitting across the pond, making huge profits

Economist Pierre de Gaulle, grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle, told the French newspaper Le Parisien that the US provoked a conflict in Ukraine to “turn Europe into a vassal” and has managed to use the Ukraine crisis to “destabilize Europe.”

In terms of energy, security, economy, refugees, etc, Europe is paying a heavy price in the crisis while the US is enjoying the most benefits and still fanning the flames to prolong and expand the Ukraine crisis.

“This is while the United States, sitting across the pond, watching on and observing, is making huge profits,” Modern Diplomacy magazine commented on its website when describing the Ukraine crisis.

For instance, American energy companies are making a fortune during the crisis, as The Wall Street Journal bluntly stated, “A big winner from the energy crisis in Europe: the US economy.”

The EU imported around 94.73 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2022, compared to 57.27 million tonnes in 2021. The US represented 41 percent of the supply in all of 2022 and remained to be the EU’s top LNG supplier, surpassing Russia for the first time, according to a report by the research firm Kpler. In the first half of this year, the EU remained the primary buyer of US LNG, which constitutes more than half of the EU LNG import market.

Unfortunately, the price to move away from Russian energy is not cheap for the European side. The natural gas price frenzy in Europe shows no signs of easing. For instance, in France last year, energy prices alone increased by 23.1 percent yearly, followed by 6.8 percent for food and 3 percent for manufactured goods and services.

Europe’s interests have never been America’s concern. In 2021, the US hastily withdrew from Kabul, Afghanistan, leaving its European allies stunned and unprepared. The US also forged the AUKUS with the UK and Australia, blatantly breaking the Australia-France submarine deal.

Coercive diplomacy

The US applied coercive diplomacy with East Asian allies with no mercy.

In 1986, in response to the rise of Japan’s semiconductor industry, the US forced Japan to sign the “US-Japan Semiconductor Agreement,” initiated a “Section 301 Investigation” against Japan, and imposed trade sanctions on a variety of Japanese products such as semiconductors and computers, which undermined the competitiveness and potential of Japan’s semiconductor industry, seeing its market share fall from 50 percent of the global market to about 10 percent in 2019.

In recent years, the US has been wielding the tariff stick against Japan because of its dissatisfaction with Japan’s longstanding trade surplus with the US. In March 2018, the US imposed tariffs of up to 25 percent and 10 percent on imported steel and aluminum products under the Trade Expansion Act, temporarily “exempting” the Five Eyes countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, but charging Japan the same.

The US’ ally South Korea is chewing on the same thing. The US passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, eliminating federal tax credits for electric vehicles made outside North America, meaning companies including South Korea’s Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Corp will no longer be eligible for such subsidies.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol hoped talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden would resolve Seoul’s concerns over the Act during his visit to New York in September 2022. However, Yoon was only granted a 48-second spontaneous chat with Biden.

Since 1991, South Korea has shared the upkeep cost for US soldiers, including costs for South Korean civilians hired by the US Forces Korea (USFK), construction of military installations and logistics support.

Under the 10th Special Measures Agreement (SMA), South Korea paid 1.04 trillion won (about $890 million) for the stationing of US troops. When the 10th SMA was about to expire at the end of 2019, the US reportedly threatened to pull troops if South Korean didn’t pay $5 billion to the US for a new deal.

No wonder former European Council President Donald Tusk once commented on the US’ move, “with friends like that, who needs enemies?”

“All your lovers have forgotten you; they no longer care for you anymore. I have wounded you as an enemy would. I have punished you as the cruel would, because your guilt is so great, because your sins are so many” Jeremiah 30:14.

“Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated. I will even gather them round about against thee and will uncover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness” Ezekiel 16:37

“And I will spread My net upon him, and he shall be taken in My [not China’s nor Russia’s] snare” Ezekiel 17:20

Posted in US

Exodus (37-38)

•December 7, 2023 • Leave a Comment

“To be an enemy of the US is dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal”
― Henry Kissinger

Q. Could one unexpected day the Jews bring out the Ark of the Covenant and cause both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse?

Exodus 37

¹ And Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood. Two cubits and a half was the length of it, and a cubit and a half the breadth of it, and a cubit and a half the height of it.

²And he overlaid it with pure gold within and without, and made a crown of gold for it round about.

³And he cast for it four rings of gold to be set in the four corners of it: even two rings upon the one side of it, and two rings upon the other side of it.

⁴And he made staves of shittim wood and overlaid them with gold.

⁵And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the ark, to bear the ark.

⁶And he made the mercy seat of pure gold. Two cubits and a half was the length thereof, and one cubit and a half the breadth thereof.

⁷And he made two cherubims of gold. Beaten out of one piece made he them on the two ends of the mercy seat:

Two cherubims of pure gold over the Mercy Seat also of pure gold

⁸one cherub on the end on this side, and another cherub on the other end on that side; out of the mercy seat made he the cherubims on the two ends thereof.

⁹And the cherubims spread out their wings on high, and covered over the mercy seat with their wings with their faces one toward another; even toward the mercy seat were the faces of the cherubims.

¹⁰And he made the table of shittim wood. Two cubits was the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof.

¹¹And he overlaid it with pure gold, and made thereunto a crown of gold round about.

¹²Also he made thereunto a border of a handbreadth round about, and made a crown of gold for the border thereof round about.

¹³And he cast for it four rings of gold, and put the rings upon the four corners that were in the four feet thereof.

¹⁴Over against the border were the rings, the places for the staves to bear the table.

¹⁵And he made the staves of shittim wood to bear the table, and overlaid them with gold.

¹⁶And he made the vessels which were upon the table — his dishes and his spoons and his bowls and his covers for covering — of pure gold.

Seven candlestick of pure gold, each with a bowl, buds and flowers

¹⁷And he made the candlestick of pure gold; of beaten work made he the candlestick. His shaft, and his branch, his bowls, his buds and his flowers were of the same.

¹⁸And six branches came out of the sides thereof: three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof.

¹⁹Three bowls were made after the fashion of almonds on one branch, with a bud and a flower, and three bowls were made like almonds on another branch, with a bud and a flower — so throughout the six branches going out of the candlestick.

²⁰And on the candlestick were four bowls made like almonds, with his buds and his flowers,

²¹and a bud under two branches of the same, and a bud under two branches of the same, and a bud under two branches of the same, according to the six branches going out of it.

²²Their buds and their branches were of the same; all of it was one beaten work of pure gold.

Seven golden branches of candlesticks each with buds and flowers

²³And he made his seven lamps and his snuffers and his snuff dishes of pure gold.

²⁴Of a talent of pure gold made he it, and all the vessels thereof.

²⁵And he made the incense altar of shittim wood. The length of it was a cubit and the breadth of it a cubit; it was foursquare, and two cubits was the height of it. The horns thereof were of the same.

²⁶And he overlaid it with pure gold, both the top of it and the sides thereof round about, and the horns of it; also he made for it a crown of gold round about.

²⁷And he made two rings of gold for it under the crown thereof, by the two corners of it, upon the two sides thereof, to be places for the staves to bear it.

²⁸And he made the staves of shittim wood and overlaid them with gold.

²⁹And he made the holy anointing oil and the pure incense of sweet spices, according to the work of the perfumer.

Exodus 38

~~~~

¹ And he made the altar of burnt offering of shittim wood; five cubits was the length thereof and five cubits the breadth thereof; it was foursquare, and three cubits the height thereof.

²And he made the horns thereof on the four corners of it; the horns thereof were of the same, and he overlaid it with brass.

³And he made all the vessels of the altar: the pots and the shovels and the basins, and the fleshhooks and the firepans; all the vessels thereof made he of brass.

⁴And he made for the altar a brazen grate of network, under the rim thereof beneath, unto the midst of it.

⁵And he cast four rings for the four ends of the grate of brass, to be places for the staves.

⁶And he made the staves of shittim wood and overlaid them with brass.

⁷And he put the staves into the rings on the sides of the altar to bear it; he made the altar hollow with boards.

⁸And he made the laver of brass and the foot of it from brass, from the looking glasses of the women assembling, who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

⁹And he made the court: on the south side southward the hangings of the court were of finetwined linen, a hundred cubits.

¹⁰Their pillars were twenty and their brazen sockets twenty; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets were of silver.

¹¹And for the north side the hangings were a hundred cubits. Their pillars were twenty and their sockets of brass twenty, the hooks of the pillars and their fillets, of silver.

¹²And for the west side were hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten and their sockets ten, the hooks of the pillars and their fillets, of silver.

¹³And for the east side eastward, fifty cubits.

¹⁴The hangings of the one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, their pillars three and their sockets three.

¹⁵And for the other side of the court gate, on this side and that side, were hangings of fifteen cubits, their pillars three and their sockets three.

¹⁶All the hangings of the court round about were of finetwined linen.

¹⁷And the sockets for the pillars were of brass, the hooks of the pillars and their fillets, of silver; and the overlaying of their capitals, of silver, and all the pillars of the court were filleted with silver.

¹⁸And the hanging for the gate of the court was needlework: of blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen; and twenty cubits was the length, and the height in the breadth was five cubits, corresponding to the hangings of the court.

¹⁹And their pillars were four and their sockets of brass four; their hooks, of silver, and the overlaying of their capitals and their fillets, of silver.

²⁰And all the pegs of the tabernacle and of the court round about were of brass.

²¹This is the account of the tabernacle, even of the tabernacle of testimony, as it was counted according to the commandment of Moses for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.

²²And Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses.

²³And with him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and a skillful workman, and an embroiderer in blue and in purple and in scarlet, and fine linen.

²⁴All the gold that was used for the work in all the work of the holy place, even the gold of the offering, was twenty and nine talents, and seven hundred and thirty shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

²⁵And the silver of those who were numbered in the congregation was a hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and threescore and fifteen shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary:

²⁶a bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one who went to be numbered from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men.

²⁷And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil: a hundred sockets from the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.

²⁸And of the thousand seven hundred seventy and five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and overlaid their capitals and filleted them.

²⁹And the brass from the offering was seventy talents, and two thousand and four hundred shekels.

³⁰And therewith he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the brazen altar and the brazen grate for it, and all the vessels of the altar,

³¹and the sockets of the court round about, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs of the court round about.

Posted in Books of Moses

Would 2024 be the Last US Election?

•December 6, 2023 • Leave a Comment

If Donald Trump is re-elected, would he become a dictator?

Liz Cheney says ‘there’s no question’ Trump would refuse to leave office if elected again. A vote for Donald Trump “may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in.”

Today by Scott Strump • December 5, 2023 // Sputnik International

Former congresswoman Liz Cheney believes Donald Trump would refuse to leave office after a second presidential term if he is reelected and that a vote for him “may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in.”

Cheney, a lifelong Republican who broke with the party after leading the House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, spoke with Savannah Guthrie on TODAY on Dec. 4 about the threat she sees from a second Trump presidential term.

She writes in her new book, “Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning,” that the 2024 election will be about whether or not we will still have a democracy.

“It certainly is,” she said. “And Donald Trump has told us exactly what he will do. He will not abide by the rulings of the courts. He will certainly appoint people to office whether or not they can be confirmed by the Senate.

“He has talked about using the military in terms that really are fundamentally un-American. … So it’s a very dangerous moment, and it’s a moment for people to understand that that cannot be the path that we go down as a country.”

The daughter of former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney believes Trump would install himself as a permanent president and refuse to leave office after the mandated two-term limit if he is reelected.

“There’s no question,” she said. “Absolutely. He’s already done it once. … He’s already attempted to seize power, and he was stopped, thankfully, and for the good of the nation and the republic. But he said he will do it again. He’s expressed no remorse for what he did.”

A potential election between Trump and President Joe Biden could come down to a small sliver of undecided voters in swing states. Cheney was asked about voters who may think a vote for Trump won’t have any long-lasting effects on democracy.

“I think that’s a real problem, and I think that the challenge is to make sure that those people understand and recognize that a Trump vote is not acceptable,” she said. “I hope that there are options and alternatives that reflect the important challenges that we’re facing, and that reflect leadership to meet those challenges, but that choice can never be Donald Trump because a vote for Donald Trump may mean the last election that you ever get to vote in.

“And again, I don’t say that lightly, and I think it’s heartbreaking that that’s where we are, but people have to recognize that a vote for Donald Trump is a vote against the Constitution.”

Cheney, 57, called the possibility of Trump becoming a dictator “a very, very real threat and concern.”

Even as someone who has dedicated her life to Republican politics, Cheney said she “will never vote for Donald Trump” and “will do whatever it takes to make sure that Donald Trump is defeated in 2024.”

And she continued, “and he’s so dangerous. If you have a president who is unwilling to abide by the rulings of the courts, who’s unwilling to uphold the Constitution, then there are no guardrails who can stop him.”

Recent polls show former US President Donald Trump besting his White House successor in five out of six battleground states, making a second Trump presidency a real legitimate possibility.

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,

a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young.

And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until thou be destroyed; he also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy cattle, or flocks of thy sheep until he have destroyed thee. Deuteronomy 28:49-51

Posted in Trump, US

Exodus (35-36)

•December 5, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

Exodus 35

¹And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together and said unto them, “These are the words which the Lord hath commanded, that ye should do them: — the narrative of what relates to the construction of the sanctuary is now resumed from Exodus 31:18.

²Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be for you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord. Whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. — six days shall work be done; work for the tabernacle, but on the seventh day they must not strike a stroke, no, not at the tabernacle work; the honour of the sabbath was above that of the sanctuary;

— shall be put to death; the Targum of Jonathan adds, by the casting of stones, stoning outside the camp being the punishment of sabbath breakers, Numbers 15:35.

³Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the Sabbath day.” — ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day; this law seems the need to be emphasized, again and again; continuing; it is said to be throughout their generations as elsewhere, where the law of the sabbath is repeated;

God raise up Bezaleel and Aholiab for the crafting of his vessels and edifices

⁴And Moses spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, “This is the thing which the Lord commanded, saying,

⁵‘Take ye from among you an offering unto the Lord. Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring it, an offering of the Lord: gold and silver and brass; — let him bring it, an offering of the Lord; or an offering to him, otherwise not; if brought stubborn and grudgingly it would not be acceptable, for God loves a willing and cheerful giver: gold, silver, and brass;

⁶and blue and purple and scarlet, and fine linen and goats’ hair;

⁷and rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood;

⁸and oil for the light, and spices for anointing oil and for the sweet incense;

⁹and onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate.

¹⁰“‘And every wisehearted among you shall come and make all that the Lord hath commanded:

¹¹the tabernacle, his tent and his covering, his clasps, and his boards, his bars, his pillars and his sockets;

¹²the ark and the staves thereof, with the mercy seat and the veil of the covering;

¹³the table and his staves and all his vessels, and the showbread;

¹⁴the candlestick also for the light, and his furniture and his lamps with the oil for the light;

¹⁵and the incense altar and his staves, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle;

¹⁶the altar of burnt offering with his brazen grate, his staves and all his vessels, the laver and his foot;

¹⁷the hangings of the court, his pillars and their sockets, and the hanging for the door of the court;

¹⁸the pegs of the tabernacle, and the pegs of the court and their cords;

¹⁹the clothes of service to do service in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons to minister in the priest’s office.’”

Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be for you a holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord

²⁰And all the congregation of the children of Israel departed from the presence of Moses.

²¹And they came every one whose heart stirred him up, and every one whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord’S offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service and for the holy garments.

²²And they came, both men and women, as many as were willinghearted, and brought bracelets and earrings, and rings and tablets, all jewels of gold; and every man who offered, offered an offering of gold unto the Lord.

²³And every man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet, and fine linen and goats’ hair, and red skins of rams and badgers’ skins, brought them.

²⁴Every one who offered an offering of silver and brass brought the Lord’S offering; and every man with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service brought it.

²⁵And all the women who were wisehearted spun with their hands and brought that which they had spun, both of blue and of purple, and of scarlet and of fine linen.

²⁶And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats’ hair.

²⁷And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate,

²⁸and spices, and oil for the light and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.

²⁹The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.

³⁰And Moses said unto the children of Israel, “See, the Lord hath called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur of the tribe of Judah. — both Bezalee and Aholiab; Aholiab, though subordinate to Bezaleel, was the director of his own department, that of weaving and embroidery (Exodus 38:23), and had to instruct in it as Bezaleel had in his.

³¹And He hath filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom, in understanding and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, — God hath filled Bezaleel with his Spirit, in wisdom, in understanding;

³²and to devise skillful works, to work in gold and in silver and in brass,

³³and in the cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of wood to make any manner of skillful work.

³⁴And He hath put in his heart that he may teach, both he and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach of the tribe of Dan. — and he hath put in his heart that he may teach; instruct others in the things be had knowledge of; the Lord not only gave him gifts of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge, to devise and contrive curious works;

³⁵Them hath He filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work of the engraver and of the skilled workman, and of the embroiderer in blue and in purple, in scarlet and in fine linen, and of the weaver —even of those who do any work and of those who devise skillful work.”

Exodus 36

¹Then Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wisehearted man in whom the Lord put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary, wrought according to all that the Lord had commanded.

²And Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every wisehearted man in whose heart the Lord had put wisdom, even every one whose heart stirred him up, to come unto the work to do it.

³And they received from Moses all the offering which the children of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, to make it thereby. And they brought yet unto him freewill offerings every morning.

Whosoever doeth work on the Sabbath therein shall be put to death

⁴And all the wise men who wrought all the work of the sanctuary came every man from his work which they made,

⁵and they spoke unto Moses, saying, “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work which the Lord commanded to make.”

⁶And Moses gave a commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, “Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary.” So the people were restrained from bringing,

⁷for the supply they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.

⁸And every wisehearted man among them who wrought the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of finetwined linen, and blue and purple and scarlet; with cherubims of skillful work made he them.

⁹The length of one curtain was twenty and eight cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits; the curtains were all of one size.

¹⁰And he coupled the five curtains one unto another, and the other five curtains he coupled one unto another.

¹¹And he made loops of blue on the edge of one curtain from the selvage in the coupling. Likewise he made in the outermost side of another curtain, in the coupling of the second.

¹²Fifty loops made he in one curtain, and fifty loops made he in the edge of the curtain which was in the coupling of the second; the loops held one curtain to another.

¹³And he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one unto another with the clasps. So it became one tabernacle.

¹⁴And he made curtains of goats’ hair for the tent over the tabernacle; eleven curtains he made them.

¹⁵The length of one curtain was thirty cubits, and four cubits was the breadth of one curtain; the eleven curtains were of one size.

¹⁶And he coupled five curtains by themselves and six curtains by themselves.

¹⁷And he made fifty loops upon the outermost edge of the curtain in the coupling, and fifty loops made he upon the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second.

¹⁸And he made fifty clasps of brass to couple the tent together, that it might be one.

¹⁹And he made a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers’ skins above that.

²⁰And he made boards for the tabernacle of shittim wood, standing upright.

²¹The length of a board was ten cubits, and the breadth of a board one cubit and a half.

²²One board had two tenons equally distant one from another. Thus did he make for all the boards of the tabernacle.

²³And he made boards for the tabernacle, twenty boards for the south side southward.

²⁴And forty sockets of silver he made under the twenty boards: two sockets under one board for his two tenons, and two sockets under another board for his two tenons.

²⁵And for the other side of the tabernacle, which is toward the north corner, he made twenty boards

²⁶and their forty sockets of silver: two sockets under one board, and two sockets under another board.

²⁷And for the sides of the tabernacle westward he made six boards.

²⁸And two boards made he for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. — —

²⁹And they were coupled beneath and coupled together at the head thereof to one ring; thus he did to both of them in both the corners.

³⁰And there were eight boards, and their sockets were sixteen sockets of silver, under every board two sockets.

³¹And he made bars of shittim wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,

³²and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the tabernacle for the sides westward.

³³And he made the middle bar to extend through the boards from the one end to the other.

³⁴And he overlaid the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to be places for the bars, and overlaid the bars with gold.

³⁵And he made a veil of blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen; with cherubims he made it of skillful work.

³⁶And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood and overlaid them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast for them four sockets of silver.

³⁷And he made a hanging for the tabernacle door of blue and purple and scarlet, and finetwined linen, of needlework,

³⁸and the five pillars of it with their hooks. And he overlaid their capitals and their fillets with gold, but their five sockets were of brass.

Posted in Books of Moses

US Osprey crashes in Okinawa

•December 4, 2023 • Leave a Comment

US military aircraft suffers fatal crash in Okinawa, some 2 miles off Yakushima island.

RT News • November 29, 2023 // Politico

Authorities on the Island of Okinawa want the US’ V-22 Osprey fleet grounded after the incident

And they shall fall one upon another as if it were before a sword when none pursueth

At least one remains (24-year-old Staff Sgt Jacob M Galliher of Pittsfield, Massachusetts) have been recovered and seven others their status ‘unknown’ after a V-22 Osprey aircraft operated by the US military crashed off Yakushima Island in southwestern Japan on Wednesday. The crash is the latest in a series of accidents involving the tilt-rotor aircraft.

The vertical-take-off plane, which was assigned to the Yokota Air Base in Tokyo, disappeared from radar while en route to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Japanese Defense Ministry.

The Japanese Coast Guard said that it received a distress call moments before the Osprey crashed into the sea, several hundred kilometers north of Okinawa. One of the eight people aboard the aircraft was found dead at the scene, the coast guard said, while a group of local fishermen told Reuters that three others were found nearby in unknown condition.

A wreck found near the Osprey that crashed into the sea off Yakushima Island

Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki told reporters that he would seek the suspension of all US Osprey flights in Japan “until the cause of the accident is identified.” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, a close partner of Washington, said that he would not push for a grounding until the crash is investigated.

In service since 2007, the V-22 Osprey can take off like a helicopter, before tilting its twin rotors forward and flying like a conventional turboprop plane. The US and Japanese militaries are the world’s only operators of the aircraft.

The crash is the second such incident in Japan involving an Osprey. A crash landing onto an Okinawa reef in 2016 enraged locals, who were already furious over two cases of rape and murder by US troops earlier that year.

Of the US’ 54,000 troops in Japan, the majority are stationed on Okinawa. Locals stage annual protests against their presence, with this year’s demonstrations drawing large crowds amid Japan’s ongoing remilitarization and growing tensions between the US and China.

Dark clouds hang over where the US Navy and Air Force were operating

Aside from the two crashes in Japan, the US has lost 11 Ospreys to crashes and malfunctions since 2007. Three US Marines were killed and 20 injured when the Osprey they were traveling on crashed during a training exercise in Australia in August, while five Marines died when their Osprey crashed near Glamis, California last June.

An undisclosed number of Ospreys were grounded in February over a clutch issue that was blamed for at least four incidents since 2017.

And they shall fall one upon another, as if it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. Leviticus 26:37

Posted in Japan, Okinawa, US

Pentagon says “We’re broke!”

•December 3, 2023 • Leave a Comment

‘We’re taking it out of hide’: Pentagon says it has no money for Middle East buildup

Politico • November 28, 2023 // RT News

The Defense Department has ordered an additional aircraft carrier strike group, air defenses, fighter jets and hundreds of troops to the Middle East since the surprise terrorist attacks on Israel on Oct 7, in an effort to prevent the conflict from spiraling into a regional war.

The US Navy’s USS Gerald R Ford supercarrier plying in the Mediterranean

The problem: Congressional dysfunction means the Pentagon has no money to pay for the buildup.

The military, like the rest of the federal government, is operating under a temporary funding measure that freezes spending at the previous year’s levels. And because the Middle East troop movements weren’t planned, the Pentagon has had to pull money from existing operations and maintenance accounts, DOD spokesperson Chris Sherwood said.

President Joe Biden signed the stopgap measure this month to keep the government open until lawmakers can agree on a full-year spending bill.

Because DOD had to hunt for funds, that means less money for training, exercises and deployments the military had already planned for the year. Some contractual payments could be delayed, Sherwood said.

“Current events have revised some of the operational assumptions used to develop the FY 2024 President’s Budget request. Specifically, neither the base budget request nor the FY 2024 supplemental request included funding for US operations related to Israel,” he said.

“We’re taking it out of hide,” Sherwood added.

The buildup in the Middle East — which has included extending the deployment of the Gerald R Ford Carrier Strike Group operating off the coast of Israel — has therefore forced the military departments and US Central Command to reassess the requirements for current and future operations based on the developing conflict, he said.

The Dwight D Eisenhower alongside the Gerald R Ford in the Mediterranean

As of Tuesday afternoon, DOD said it was still working on releasing an estimate of the total cost of the US support for Israel.

Top Pentagon officials warn year after year about the harm that temporary funding measures have on military readiness. Operating under a stopgap measure prevents the department from starting any new programs or paying for anything above the previous year’s levels.

That burden is now weighing heavier than usual on DOD, as the Pentagon supports two wars at once: in Ukraine and in Israel.

“We’ve gotten used to getting by, CR to CR, but it’s with significant consequence,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said during a Nov 21 event in Washington, using the abbreviation for continuing resolution. “That has a cost. You can’t buy back the time. You just can’t.”

Hicks estimated the impact of keeping the Pentagon under the stopgap effectively means the department takes a $35 billion cut.

“We have a responsibility to build trust with Congress — to get done what we want to get done,” Hicks said. “But the truth of the matter is, trust is a two-way street, and we are really being challenged to trust that our partners in Congress can get done what they need to do for us to achieve those ends.”

Once the continuing resolution runs out Feb 2, it’s up to lawmakers to pass a full-year spending bill. But if the bickering drags on through April, the Pentagon and other federal agencies will face a 1 percent across-the-board spending cut.

And they shall fall one upon another, as if it were before a sword, when none pursueth; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. Leviticus 26:37

Posted in Israel, Ukraine, US

Exodus (33-34)

•December 2, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

“I am thy shield!” the Lord said, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river [Nile] of Egypt unto the great river, the River Euphrates” (Genesis 15)

Exodus 33

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Depart and go up hence, thou and the people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘Unto thy seed will I give it.’

— the land which I swore unto Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob; saying, unto thy seed will I give it: meaning the land between the two great rivers, which as he had promised with an oath to their fathers to give it to them, he would faithfully observe it, though they were unworthy of such a favour.

²And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite” — and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; who were now the inhabitants of the land, and these he promises drive out, to make way for their possession of it;

— and that “by his hand” as the Targum of Jonathan interprets it, by the hand of the angel. Only six nations are mentioned, though there were seven; the Girgashite is omitted, but added in the Septuagint version.

³unto a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up in the midst of thee, for thou art a stiffnecked people, lest I consume thee on the way.” — unto a land flowing with milk and honey; abounding with all the necessaries and good things of life;

— for I will not go up in the midst of thee; lest I consume thee, for “God is a consuming fire” Exodus 32:10; Leviticus 10:2; Hebrews 12:29;

⁴And when the people heard these evil tidings they mourned, and no man put on his ornaments. — when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; it was something that these sinful people felt the tidings to be “evil” to shrink from the presence of God;

— his near presence, by day and by night, constantly (Exodus 13:22), and they dreaded a change, which they felt must involve a loss, and one the extent of which they could not measure; “an angel” they thought, is a poor consolation when we are craving for God himself!

⁵For the Lord had said unto Moses, “Say unto the children of Israel, ‘Ye are a stiffnecked people. I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee. Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.’” — I will come up; that is, If I were to go up for one moment in the midst of thee, I should consume thee;

— therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee; put them aside altogether; show thy penitence by giving up their use; denies them the tokens of his presence they had been blessed with; token of their sorrow the Lord required of his offending people; and mourn for their sin.

— that I may know what to do unto thee; that I may either inflict my judgments, or suspend them, as thou art penitent or impenitent.

⁶And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by Mount Horeb. — and the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments; that is, left off their ornaments, ceased to wear them altogether.

⁷And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass that every one who sought the Lord went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was outside the camp.

— perhaps this tabernacle was a model of the tabernacle that had already been erected, this, a hasty draft from the pattern showed him in the mount, designed for direction to the workmen, and used in the mean time as a tabernacle of meeting between God and Moses about public affairs;

— or, did Moses, with the help of a few hundreds of the Levites among the thousands available, moved the sanctuary and pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the camp; to signify to them that they were unworthy of close proximity;

— the Targum of Jonathan says “the tabernacle he took away from thence” seems like this tabernacle was the original taken away; and pitched outside the camp;

— the King James and Geneva Study Bible versions say “without the camp” such old English usage is misleading; hence better to use the 21st Century King James Version or KJ21.

⁸And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle. — when Moses went out; all the people rose up; probably Moses “went out” at set times each day;

— and the people watched for his going, and “rose up,” as a mark of respect and reverence. They felt that he went to the tent mainly to pray for them;

— the Targum of Jonathan says adversely about the people being wicked: “that all the wicked people arose, and stood, every man at the door of his tent, and looked with the evil eye after Mosheh, when he entered the tabernacle.”

⁹And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. — and as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended; that is, from the top of Mount Sinai in which the Lord was;

— and all the people rose up and worshipped, everyman in his tent door; it was awesome sight, so they bowed, not to Moses, for he was gone into the tabernacle out of sight, but a deep fear and adorating bow to the Lord in the pillar of cloud.

“Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live.”

¹¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he returned again into the camp; but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.

— face to face, or, mouth to mouth, as Numbers 12:8; not that God hath face or mouth, or that Moses could behold it, which is denied, Exodus 33:20; but the sense is, he spake with him freely and familiarly, plainly, cordially, openly, not by an angel in a dream or vision, as he did to other prophets;

— but his servant Joshua departed not out of the tabernacle; probably Joshua abode there to assist and direct those who resorted thither to seek God in Moses’s absence; and Joshua seems to be appointed for this work rather than Aaron, or any other of the elders, because they had one way or other been guilty of the idolatry; and he was the general of the army at the battle with Amalek;

¹²And Moses said unto the Lord, “See, Thou sayest unto me, ‘Bring up this people,’ and Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me. Yet Thou hast said, ‘I know thee by name, and thou hast also found grace in My sight.’

— I know thee by name; God had shown this knowledge when He called on Moses out of the burning bush (Exodus 3:4), and again, probably, when he “called unto him out of the midst of the cloud” (Exodus 24:16); it implies a very high degree of Divine favour. God “knows by name” only those whom he greatly regards.

¹³Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight; and consider that this nation is Thy people.” — shew me now thy way: either the way which he himself would take, the way of his providence in bringing the children of Israel into the land of Canaan;

¹⁴And He said, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” — my presence shall go with thee; or before thee, both with Moses and before the people; meaning the Angel of his presence he had before promised;

¹⁵And he said unto Him, “If Thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. — that is, Let us rather die in the wilderness with thy presence and favour, than go into Canaan without God’s presence;

¹⁶For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found grace in Thy sight? Is it not in that Thou goest with us? So shall we be separated, I and Thy people, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” — and if thou wilt lead the people up to Canaan, consider that we are thine own people, to whom thou must acknowledge thyself as our God.

¹⁷And the Lord said unto Moses, “I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken; for thou hast found grace in My sight, and I know thee by name.” — and I know thee by name; he owns the truth of the thing, on which Moses had formed his plan, and what can be a greater blessing than to partake of the special plan of God, and to be personally known to him;

¹⁸And he said, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.” — Moses repeats, in a more definite form, his request above in verse 13 “show me now Thy way.” He asks to be allowed to see Gods’s glory; but is told in reply that he cannot see this in its fulness;

¹⁹And He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee; and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

²⁰And He said, “Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me and live.” — thou canst not see my face; the full display of his glory, that light inaccessible, before which the angels stand, but which would be insufferable to mortal eyes; this no man can see and live.

²¹And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.

²²And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by;

²³and I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts, but My face shall not be seen.”

— MSG

God said, “Look, here is a place right beside me. Put yourself on this rock. When my Glory passes by, I’ll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I’ve passed by. Then I’ll take my hand away and you’ll see my back. But you won’t see my face.”

Exodus 34

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets which thou brokest. — hew thee two tables; something is always lost by sin, even when it is forgiven. The first tables were “the work of God” (Exodus 32:16). the second were hewn by the hand of Moses.

²And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thyself there to Me on the top of the mount. — and present thyself there to me on the top of the mount; where the pillar of cloud stood, and near it Moses was to stand and wait to hear what would be said unto him, and to see what would be made to pass before him.

³And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.” — neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount; or over against it, or rather “near” it; Moses was to be alone, and no one was to be seen in any part of the mount.

⁴And he hewed two tablets of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tablets of stone. —and Moses rose up early in the morning: and went up unto Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him; which was the third time of his going there, and every time he continued forty days and forty nights;

⁵And the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. — and the Lord descended in the cloud; the same with the cloudy pillar, which had gone up from the door of the tabernacle, and was on high in the air over the mount, and on which the Lord now descended in it;

⁶And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, — the Lord, the Lord God proclaims, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. . . ”

⁷keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

— MSG

So Moses cut two tablets of stone just like the originals. He got up early in the morning and climbed Mount Sinai as God had commanded him, carrying the two tablets of stone. God descended in the cloud and took up his position there beside him and called out the name, God. God passed in front of him and called out,

“God, God, a God of mercy and grace, endlessly patient—so much love, so deeply true—loyal in love for a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Still, he doesn’t ignore sin. He holds sons and grandsons responsible for a father’s sins to the third and even fourth generation.”

— Targum of Jonathan

And he hewed two tables of stone like the former: and Mosheh arose in the morning and ascended Mount Sinai, as the Lord had instructed him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. And the Lord made His Shekinah to pass by before his face, and proclaimed,

The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and nigh in mercies, abounding to exercise compassion and truth; keeping mercy and bounty for thousands of generations, absolving and remitting guilt, passing by rebellions, and covering sins; pardoning them who convert unto the law, but holding not guiltless in the great day of judgment those who will not convert; visiting the sins of fathers upon rebellious children upon the third and upon the fourth generation.

⁸And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. — Moses made haste, and bowed his head; as the Divine glory passed before him, Moses bowed his head in adoration, worshipping God, and not daring to look until the glory had gone by.

⁹And he said, “If now I have found grace in Thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray Thee, go among us, for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Thine inheritance.” — O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go amongst us;

— as the Lord had signified as if he would not go among them, but leave them to the conduct of a an angel; and Moses had before prayed that his presence or face might go with them;

¹⁰And He said, “Behold, I make a covenant. Before all thy people I will do marvels such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation; and all the people among whom thou art shall see the work of the Lord, for it is a fearsome thing that I will do with thee.

— for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee; restrains this to Moses and interprets this of the wonderful shining of the skin of his face, when he came down from the mount, which made the children of Israel afraid to come nigh him;

¹¹Observe thou that which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite, and the Hittite and the Perizzite, and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

— the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite; six nations are only mentioned, though there were seven, the Girgashites being omitted, because either they left the land before; or because they were subjugated by the others; but they are retained in the Septuagint version.

¹²Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. — lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee; be the means of drawing them into the same sinful practices with themselves, especially into idolatrous ones, and so of bringing ruin and destruction on them.

¹³But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their Asherah poles. — and cut down their groves; which were clusters of trees, where they had their temples and their idols, and did service to them, and where, besides idolatry, many impurities were committed.

¹⁴For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God, — whose name is Jealous; who hath made himself known by, and glories in that name; the jealous God, who cannot endure any competitor or corrival; whereas the false and puny gods of the heathens were contented with multitudes of partners.

¹⁵lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee and thou eat of his sacrifice, — and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; invite to eat of what remained, that was offered to the idol: hence it appears, that having feasts at sacrifices, and eating things offered to idols in a festival way, are very ancient practices;

¹⁶and thou take their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. — and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods; by the means of tempting and drawing them into idolatrous practices, as the wives of Solomon were a snare to him.

¹⁷“Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. — thou shalt make thee no molten gods; it is just possible that the Israelites when they worshipped the golden calf may have conceived that they were not breaking the second commandment, which forbade the adoration of any “graven image.” An express law was therefore made against “molten images.”

¹⁸“The Feast of Unleavened Bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of Abib; for in the month of Abib thou camest out from Egypt. — the feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep; which was instituted at the time of their coming out of Egypt, and on that account, and then observed, Exodus 12:15 and afterwards repeated, and the month expressed in which they were to keep it;

¹⁹“All that openeth the womb is Mine, and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male. — all that openeth “the womb” is mine, and every firstling among thy cattle, whether ox or sheep, that is male, shall be sanctified, and set apart for his use;

²⁰But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou redeem him not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before Me empty. — and none shall appear before me empty; at the grand festivals, the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles;

²¹“Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest; in plowing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. — in earing and in harvest thou shall rest; that is, in the time of ploughing, and in the time of reaping and gathering in the harvest;

²²And thou shalt observe the Feast of Weeks of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. — the feast of weeks; called in Exodus 23:16, “the feast of harvest,” and in the New Testament “the day of Pentecost”

²³Thrice in the year shall all your menchildren appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. — the God of Israel; who had chosen them to be his special people, had redeemed them out of Egypt, and done great things for them since; had made a covenant with them.

²⁴For I will cast out the nations before thee and enlarge thy borders; neither shall any man desire thy land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. — neither shall any man desire thy land; I will not only tie their hands, that they shall make no invasion upon you, but I will take off their thoughts and affections from such an enterprise, which it was very easy for God to effect many ways.

²⁵“Thou shalt not offer the blood of My sacrifice with leaven, neither shall the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover be left until the morning. — thou shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; that is, not to kill the passover while there was any leaven in their houses; so the Targum of Jonathan says “You shall not sacrifice the victim of My passover before you have done away with leaven;”

²⁶The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in his mother’s milk.” — the first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring; this, and another law in this verse, concerning not seething a kid in his mother’s milk, are repeated from Exodus 23:19.

²⁷And the Lord said unto Moses, “Write thou these words, for according to the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.” — write for thee these words, that is, put them in writing for thine own use and the use of thy people.

God wrote the two tablets of testimony in Paleo-Hebrew, not square script Hebrew

²⁹And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses knew not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.

— the skin of his face shone, while he talked with him: the Targum of Jonathan is, “Mosheh knew not that the visage (form) of his face shone with the splendour which had come upon him from the brightness of the glory of the Lord’s Shekinah in the time of His speaking with him.”

³⁰And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come nigh him. — behold, the skin of Moses’ face shone; darted out rays of light and glory all around him, Aaron and the people were afraid to go near Moses when they saw the brightness of his face.

— they were afraid, their fear arose from a sense of guilt; the beaming radiance of his countenance made him appear to their awe-struck consciences of a flaming sword from heaven.

³¹And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him; and Moses talked with them. — and Moses talked with them; after he had put a vail on his face, of which there is an account in the following verses;

— he talked with them friendly, and told them all that had happened to him in the mount; what a glorious sight he had been indulged with; what a proclamation of the grace and goodness of God had been made to him; and what laws and ordinances God had enjoined him and their observance.

Later the two tablets of testimony were placed in the Ark of the Covenant

³²And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai.

— and afterward all the children of Israel came near; that is, after Aaron and the rulers had had a conversation with Moses, then the whole body of the people by turns were admitted to come before him, and hear the laws of God from him;

³³And until Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. — and till Moses had finished speaking with them, he had a veil over his face.

³⁴But when Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he took the veil off until he came out. And he came out, and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded.

— and he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded; out of the tabernacle with the law and commands now given, for these he had already declared;

— but after times, and all such times when he went in to the Lord to inquire of him his mind and will concerning certain things, in which the people wanted information, when, upon his return, he acquainted them with whatsoever the Lord ordered to be done.

³⁵And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone; and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

— and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with him; this he did from time to time, when he came out from the Lord he put on his veil, and when he went in again, he takes it off.

— MSG

When Moses finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face, but when he went into the presence of God to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out.

When he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, they would see Moses’ face, its skin glowing, and then he would again put the veil on his face until he went back in to speak with God.

Posted in Books of Moses

The “Leading 200 Science Cities” list

•December 1, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Chinese cities soar in science ranking while US and European rivals drop

South China Morning Post • November 24, 2023

Beijing is once again world’s top city for high-quality research output according to annual Nature Index, while Shanghai comes in third place

The other 18 Chinese metro areas among the top 50 jump up the list, with up-and-comer Hefei beating out London and Los Angeles

Chinese cities are rapidly growing in high-quality scientific research while American and European rivals are dropping, according to a global ranking of top science cities by Nature Index released on Wednesday.

The “Leading 200 Science Cities” list – maintained by the academic journal Nature – tracks research output by measuring contributions to academic articles published in 82 of the world’s most influential natural science journals from 2015 to 2022.

A total of 32 cities in mainland China made the 2023 list, and almost all of them climbed up the rankings compared to their positions on last year’s list, with only one exception: Taiyuan, an inland city located in central China.

Five out of the top 10 cities on the 2023 list are in mainland China, and Beijing once again ranks as the top science city in the world.

The top five cities – Beijing, New York, Shanghai, Boston, and the San Francisco Bay Area – remained unchanged.

But there were some notable shifts among the rest of the top-ranked cities. The other 18 mainland Chinese cities that made the top 50 jumped to a higher ranking compared to last year, while most major cities outside China, including Tokyo, Paris and London, fell. The only exception was Seoul, which rose two spots.

The Nature Index measures two different scores – “count” and “share.” A city receives a count value of one for each article with at least one author affiliated with an institution in that city. The sum of these values is the city’s count score.

For the share score, each article is assigned a value of one, which is split equally among all authors. For instance, for an article with 10 authors, each author receives a share value of 0.1. Each city’s share score is calculated by adding up the share values of the authors in that city.

According to both indicators, Beijing overwhelmingly outperformed runner-up New York. The Chinese capital’s share score was 3,734.62 and its count score was 7,841 in the most recent ranking, whereas the figures for New York were 1,924.53 and 4,693 respectively.

A growing number of Chinese cities showed strong upwards momentum compared to the previous year, edging out other international research hubs.

For instance, the eastern city of Nanjing moved from eighth to sixth place, surpassing both Baltimore-Washington and the Tokyo metropolitan area. The southern metropolis of Guangzhou climbed from 10th to eighth place, displacing Paris, which fell from the ninth to the 11th spot.

The city of Hefei in southeast China surpassed both Los Angeles and London in its share score – the number that ultimately determines the Nature Index rankings – rising by three places to 13th place on this year’s list.

When Nature first launched the global science city ranking in 2018, just 10 Chinese cities ranked among the top 50. Six years later, that number has already doubled.

“Beijing and other Asian cities are rapidly rising in the field of science, technology and innovation,” said Zeng Rong, vice-president of Tsinghua University in Beijing, in an interview with state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday. “There is a greater need for them to play an important role in international cooperation in the field.”

Major Chinese cities have increasingly poured money into science and technology, which they consider to be one of the crucial driving forces behind urban development.

For example, Hefei’s financial investment in science and technology increased from 4 per cent of the city’s general public expenditure to 14.2 per cent in the decade from 2012 to 2022.

The number of national hi-tech enterprises in the city grew from 615 to 4,578 over the same period.

“We are the city that is most willing to invest in technology,” Hefei officials were quoted as saying by local media last year.

According to the latest official data, Hefei is now home to 12 large scientific facilities, and four national key laboratories have been approved this year, which will bring the city’s total to six.

Hefei is also home to the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), where scientists like Pan Jianwei are leading China’s research and development in quantum technology. The university’s laboratories have led to the establishment of several hi-tech firms in the city.

In another Nature Index ranking released in June, USTC ranked fourth among institutions globally, just behind Stanford University, in terms of high-quality scientific research output.

Rank	City/Metro area	Country
1	Beijing	China
2	New York	United States
3	Shanghai	China
4	Boston	United States
5	San Francisco Bay	United States
6	Baltimore-Washington	United States
7	Tokyo	Japan
8	Nanjing	China
9	Paris	France
10	Guangzhou	China
11	Wuhan	China
12	Los Angeles	United States
13	London	United Kingdom
14	Seoul	South Korea
15	Chicago	United States
16	Hefei	China
17	Zürich	Switzerland
18	Singapore	Singapore
19	Hangzhou	China
20	Tianjin	China
21	San Diego	United States
22	Cambridge	United Kingdom
23	Hong Kong	China
24	Munich	Germany
25	Philadelphia	United States
26	Oxford	United Kingdom
27	Berlin	Germany
28	Shenzhen	China
29	Xi’an	China
30	Chengdu	China
31	Houston	United States
32	Seattle	United States
33	Melbourne	Australia
34	Changsha	China
35	Changchun	China
36	Jinan	China
37	Atlanta	United States
38	Ann Arbor	United States
39	Toronto	Canada
40	Sydney	Australia
41	Daejeon	South Korea
42	Lausanne	Switzerland
43	Kyoto	Japan
44	Ithaca	United States
45	Barcelona	Spain
46	Copenhagen	Denmark
47	Moscow	Russia
48	Suzhou	China
49	Dalian	China
50	Fuzhou	China
51	Chongqing	China
52	Madrid	Spain
53	Osaka	Japan
54	Stockholm	Sweden
55	Montreal	Canada
56	Dallas–Fort Worth	United States
57	Tsukuba	Japan
58	Vienna	Austria
59	Taipei	Taiwan
60	St Louis	United States
61	Boulder	United States
62	Austin	United States
63	Xiamen	China
64	Pittsburgh	United States
65	Heidelberg	Germany
66	Urbana	United States
67	Lanzhou	China
68	Qingdao	China
69	Nagoya	Japan
70	Brisbane	Australia
71	Vancouver	Canada
72	Dresden	Germany
73	Amsterdam	Netherlands
74	Minneapolis–Saint Paul	United States
75	Madison	United States
76	Göttingen	Germany
77	Durham	United States
78	State College	United States
79	Hamburg	Germany
80	Milan	Italy
81	Rehovot	Israel
82	Santa Barbara	United States
83	Edinburgh	United Kingdom
84	Chapel Hill	United States
85	Harbin	China
86	Geneva	Switzerland
87	Grenoble	France
88	Bengaluru	India
89	Leuven	Belgium
90	Münster	Germany
91	Manchester	United Kingdom
92	Davis	United States
93	Rome	Italy
94	Irvine	United States
95	Bristol	United Kingdom
96	Zhengzhou	China
97	Utrecht	Netherlands
98	College Station	United States
99	Jerusalem	Israel
100	Tel Aviv	Israel

From Wikipedia: The top 100 cities and metropolitan areas with the highest share of articles published in scientific journals in 2021 according to the Nature Index 2022

2022 Statistics: China 24; US 28; Germany 7; UK 6; Japan 5; Switzerland 3; Australia 3; Canada 3; Israel 3; Netherland 2; France 2; Spain 2; Italy 2; South Korea 2; Belgium 1; Sweden 1; Denmark 1; Austria 1; Singapore 1; Taiwan 1; Russia 1; India 1

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

China’s Fujian carrier flexes tech race

•November 30, 2023 • Leave a Comment

China’s Fujian carrier flexes next-gen launch tech

China’s latest aircraft carrier is testing an advanced electromagnetic launch system, marking a great leap forward for its naval power projection

AsiaTimes by Gabriel Honrada • November 28, 2023 // The EurAsian Times

China’s Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier has commenced testing its state-of-the-art electromagnetic catapults for launching jet fighters, marking a new era in Chinese naval power.

The Chinese carrier displaces over 80,000 tons, measures approximately 316 meters in length and can carry 70 aircraft including J-15 fighters and Z-9C anti-submarine helicopters.

The Chinese aircraft carrier Fujian, in a new era of Chinese naval power

This month, Naval News reported that China’s Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier has started testing its electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS), a significant upgrade from traditional steam catapults which use steam piped from the ship’s turbines to launch aircraft.

Electromagnetic catapults can launch heavier aircraft, meaning more types can be launched from a carrier while each fighter aircraft can carry more fuel and weapons. It is also said to be gentler on the jet airframes, reducing maintenance downtime.

Naval News shows footage from social media with the carrier conducting dead load launch tests, a standard procedure for carriers equipped with catapults. The source mentions this testing phase involves launching test vehicles from the carrier’s catapults to validate their functionality.

It notes that the Fujian was observed moving away from its berth, sparking speculation about an imminent sea trial linked to the catapult testing. However, Naval News says the timeframe for further testing remains uncertain but a sea trial may happen shortly.

The Naval News report notes that the Fujian represents a significant advancement for the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) as the first Chinese carrier equipped with EMALS and featuring several technological firsts.

The US Navy’s USS Gerald R Ford supercarrier is now plying in the Mediterranean

It says the Fujian’s development, construction and testing phases are being closely monitored with frequent updates shared through overflight and satellite imagery on social media.

Naval News compares the Fujian with the US Navy’s USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78), which is also equipped with EMALS. Despite the similarities, however, the Chinese system differs technically from the American EMALS.

The report says that the USS Gerald R Ford’s testing timelines and challenges might only provide a broad reference for Fujian’s progress as the Chinese carrier faces unique challenges.

The USS Gerald R Ford experienced multiple delays before entering service linked to constant redesigns and rebuilds from incorporating multiple advanced technologies on a carrier for the first time, such as the EMALS, Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and Advanced Weapon Elevator (AWE).

The Fujian, the first PLA-N carrier of its size and capabilities, began construction some time before 2018 and was launched in June 2022. It is expected to undergo extensive trials and testing, potentially leading to commissioning in 2025.

China’s carrier fleet is set for rapid expansion. In a June 2023 article for Aviation Week Network, Bradley Perrett notes that the Fujian’s successful sea trials would pave the way for a fourth Chinese nuclear-powered carrier and up to six carriers by 2040. Perrett also predicts that China’s shipborne fighter numbers will quadruple over the coming decade.

Perrett says Fujian took around six years to construct while the Shandong was completed in just 4.5 years, although it was not put into operation until 1.6 years later.

The Fujian is technically more advanced than the other Chinese carriers

He mentions China could have five carriers by 2030 if it starts building fourth and fifth ships soon, possibly by next year. Perrett notes that one of the upcoming carriers could be made by Dalian Shipbuilding, the shipyard in northeast China that constructed the Liaoning and Shandong. He suggests Shanghai Jiangnan, Fujian’s builder, could build the other simultaneously.

China’s first carrier, Liaoning, is based in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, near the East China Sea, Yellow Sea, and Bohai Sea. The second carrier, Shandong, is based in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province, near the South China Sea. The homeport of Fujian is not yet known.

China is also reportedly exploring the acquisition of more nuclear-powered carriers, a development that would eliminate the requirement for frequent refueling, enhancing the carrier’s operational endurance and autonomy.

“The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high, and thou shalt come down very low.

“He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him. He shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail” Deuteronomy 28:43-44

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

Exodus (31-32)

•November 30, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

Q. Could one unexpected day the Jews bring out the Ark of the Covenant and cause both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse?

Exodus 31

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²“See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. — I have called by name. God “calls by name” only those whom he appoints to some high office, as Moses (Exodus 3:4; Exodus 33:12), Cyrus (Isaiah 45:3, 4), and here Bezaleel and Aholiab;

³And I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of workmanship, — I have filled him with the spirit of God; wisdom, understanding and knowledge; and in all manner of artistic workmanship;

⁴to devise skillful works: to work in gold and in silver and in brass, — to be skillful goldsmiths or brasiers;

⁵and in cutting of stones to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. — to be a first-class artisan, competent to take charge of both the plain and ornamental work, which the building of any sacred edifice required;

⁶And I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are wisehearted I have put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee: — Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan; to be a partner with Bezaleel, as Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Zerubbabel,

⁷the tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the Testimony and the mercy seat that is thereupon, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,

⁸and the table and his furniture, and the pure candlestick with all his furniture, and the altar of incense,

⁹and the altar of burnt offering with all his furniture, and the laver and his foot,

¹⁰and the clothes of service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons to minister in the priest’s office,

¹¹and the anointing oil and sweet incense for the holy place. According to all that I have commanded thee shall they do.”

¹³“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. — it is a sign between me and you; throughout your generations; a token of the covenant between them, of his being their God and they his people in a peculiar sense;

— one which no other nations of the world observe; of his sanctifying and separating them from all other people; for this was not a sign between him and other nations, but between him and the people of Israel only; and was to be observed throughout their ages;

¹⁴Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy unto you. Every one who defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. — for it is holy unto you; a day that was set apart of God for holy exercises, and by doing any servile work upon it, or not observing it in a religious way, shall surely be put to death;

— every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; this is a serious enactment, and must be regarded in conjunction with the dignity attached to Sabbath observance by its having become the special covenant sign between God and His people;

¹⁵Six days may work be done, but on the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord. Whosoever doeth any work on the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

— but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest; from worldly labour, and was typical of spiritual rest here, and holy to the Lord; separated from other days, and entirely devoted to the worship and service of God, and to be kept holy to the Lord in all holy and religious exercises, as hearing and studying the word, and praying;

¹⁶Therefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations for a perpetual covenant. — for a perpetual covenant, or by a perpetual covenant, or it is a perpetual covenant, that is, not to be obsolete but a perpetual agreement.

¹⁷It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’” — t is a sign, repeated for emphasis as a sign of the covenant between God and Israel;

¹⁸And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. — written with the finger of God, that is, by God himself, and not by an angel; but with the power or Spirit of God;

The two tablets of testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God

Exodus 32

¹ And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, “Arise, make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.”

— how ridiculous the assertion that “the people” did not know what had become of Moses! They knew that he was up there with God. The elders, Aaron, Joshua and Hur, would have told them that; the fire on the mount would have burned in on all minds the confirmation. They were just rebellious!

²And Aaron said unto them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.” — Aaron’s compliance just a reflection of his cowardice; he knew as well as what he should have said, but, like many another man in influential position, when beset by popular cries, he was frightened, and yielded when he should have ‘set his face like a flint.’

³And all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. — all the people brake off the golden earrings; Aaron had miscalculated the strength of the people’s fanaticism; ot the slightest resistance was offered to his requirement. “All the people,” with one accord, surrendered their earrings ready for idol worship.

⁴And he received them from their hand, and fashioned it with an engraving tool after he had made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!” — a molten calf; it has been usual to regard the selection of the “calf” form for the image as due to Egyptian influences;

— a sacred bull, called Apis, was worshipped at Memphis, and another, called Mnevis, at Heliopolis, both being regarded as actual incarnate deities.

⁵And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” — and when Aaron saw the molten calf, he made proclamation, “tomorrow is a feast to the Lord;”

— the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, “and Aaron saw Hur slain before him,” for reproving them of their idolatry, that is, Aaron, fearing they would also take away his life if he opposed them, he quickly grant his approval of idol worship;

⁶And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. — they rose up early; to show their zeal these idolaters began early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings; and to play; to dance and sing, as was done by the Egyptians in the worship of their Apis or Ox;

⁷And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go, get thee down; for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. — the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; Moses was, of course, wholly ignorant of all that had occurred in the camp. The thick cloud which covered the top of Sinai had prevented his seeing what occurred in the plain below;

— for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves; their works, their ways and their manners; their minds, the imaginations of their hearts, were first corrupted, and this led on to a corruption of actions, and defiled themselves yet more and more, and made themselves abominable in the sight of God;

⁸They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto and said, ‘These are thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt!’”

— they have turned aside quickly, quickly after the law was given them, and they had promised to obey it; quickly after God had done such great things for them, and declared his kind intentions to do greater.

⁹And the Lord said unto Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people. — it is a stiff-necked people; it is generally explained as “obstinate,” but rather means “perverse,” the metaphor being taken from the horse that stiffens his neck against the pull of the rein, and will not be guided by the rider.

¹⁰Now therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.” — now, therefore, let me alone, the Targum of Jonathan says, “and now leave off thy prayer, and do not cry for them before me;” as the Prophet Jeremiah was often bid not to pray for this people in his time, which was a token of God’s great displeasure with them;

— full text from Targum of Jonathan

And now, cease from thy prayer, and cry not for them before Me; for I will let My anger burn like strong fire against them, and consume them, and I will make thee a great people.

¹¹And Moses besought the Lord his God and said, “Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, whom Thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? — and Moses besought the Lord his God; if God would not be called the God of Israel, yet he hoped he might address him as his own God.

¹²Why should the Egyptians speak and say, ‘For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people.

— turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people; not that there is any turning or any change of his mind, or any such passions and affections in him as expressed here; but this is said after the manner of men concerning him, when he alters the course of his dealings with men according to his unalterable will.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants to whom Thou sworest by Thine own self and saidst unto them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.’” — to whom thou swarest by thine own self; which he did, because he could swear by no greater; and for the confirmation of his covenant and promise, Genesis 22:16.

¹⁴And the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people. — and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people; he did not do what he threatened to do, but a change of mind and did what Moses desired he would;

¹⁵And Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. — Moses carries them in both hands, being of stone; Targum of Jonathan says “and the two tables of the testimony were in his hands,”

¹⁶And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tablets. — and the tables were the work of God; not of angels or men; the stones were made and formed by God into the shape they were; and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables;

¹⁷And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” — Joshua had waited upon the middle of the mount for Moses, and so knew neither what the people had done, nor heard what God had said to Moses;

— and when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted; dancing about the calf: when Moses went up into the mount, Joshua went with him, and tarried in a middle part of the mount all the forty days until he returned;

¹⁸And Moses said, “It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome; but the noise of them that sing do I hear.” — but the noise of them that sing do I hear; as at a merry entertainment; Moses, who knew what the children of Israel had done, and what they were about, could better judge of the nature of the sound he heard than Joshua could, who knew nothing of what was transacting;

¹⁹And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. — and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount of Sinai; at the foot of it:

— he brought the tables, told them what they were, and writing them with his own fingers, engraving them himself on such tables of stone; and then broke them to pieces, to denote that they had broken these laws, and deserved to be broke in pieces and destroyed themselves; and this he did before their eyes;

²⁰And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it. — ground it to powder; melted it either into one great mass, or rather into divers little fragments, which afterwards by a the or other instruments he, by the help of many others, might soon grind to powder, or dust of gold.

²¹And Moses said unto Aaron, “What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?” — and Moses said unto Aaron; having destroyed the calf, and thereby expressed his abhorrence of their idolatry, he examines the cause and reason of it; and begins with Aaron, though his own brother, with whom he had committed the government of the people during his absence; —

²²And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. — and Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot; Aaron cuts a poor figure, making a shuffling excuse and betraying more dread of the anger of Moses than of the Lord.

²³For they said unto me, ‘Make us gods which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.’ — we wot not what is become of him; their words because they carried in them some reflection on Moses for staying so long in the mount;

— and as if that contributed much to this affair, and which put the people on forming such a scheme, they concluding he must be dead by then, as the Targum of Jonathan says, be consumed in the mountain, by the flaming fire from before the Lord.

²⁴And I said unto them, ‘Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.” — and there came out this calf; he speaks of it as if the gold became in the form of a calf without any design, or without using any methods to put it in this form; as if done by the work of magic;

— the Targum of Jonathan says,

And I said to them, Whoever hath gold, let him deliver and give it to me; and I cast it into the fire, and Satana entered into it, and there came out of it the similitude of this calf!

²⁵And when Moses saw that the people were naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies), — Moses saw that the people were naked; the obvious meaning of the word פרע, parua (unrestrained) used here; it is the sense they were stripped of their ornament and armour, besides their jewels; and gotten out of control;

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’S side? Let him come unto me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him. — the tribe of Levi, Moses’ own tribe, now distinguished itself by immediately returning to its allegiance and obeying the call to fight on the side of Moses;

²⁷And he said unto them, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: ‘Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’”

— and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp; not into the tents, where good men might be bemoaning their sins, but throughout the streets, where many were loitering, they showed no sign of any remorse by these idolaters;

— and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour; who were idolaters; none were to be spared on account of relation, friendship or acquaintance.

²⁸And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. — about 3000 men fell by their sword on that day; and if Levi stood the test, how did Aaron escape his penalty?

— the Levites were to slay those of this wickedness; yet escaped being executed but those who openly stood forth; those who persisted in shouting and dancing, after night were dying, even into the morning; these sinners feel secure and jovial in their sin.

²⁹For Moses had said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing this day.” — consecrate yourselves; that is, offer a sacrifice, “and make atonement for yourselves before the Lord,” as the Targum of Jonathan says;

³⁰And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, “Ye have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up unto the Lord. Perhaps I shall make an atonement for your sin.” — and I will go up unto the Lord: on the top of Mount Sinai: and I shall make atonement for your sin; not by any sacrifice offered, but to intercede on their behalf for God to forgive their sin;

God wrote them with his fingers in Paleo-Hebrew, not square script Hebrew

³¹And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold. — Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin; he had labored to show the people the heinous nature of their sin, and to bring them to repentance.

³²Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin — and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written!” — as a true mediator of his people, Moses was ready to stake his own life for the deliverance of the nation, and not just to live before God himself.

³³And the Lord said unto Moses, “Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. — whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out: Ezekiel 18:4; “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

³⁴Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee; behold, Mine angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.”

— my angel shall go before thee; the promise is, as nearly as possible, a repetition of the original one, “Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared” Exodus 23:20;

³⁵And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made. — the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf; no immediate judgements were inflicted, but this early lapse into idolatry was always mentioned as an aggravation of their subsequent apostasies;

— the Lord plagued the people; I will visit their sin upon them; when I shall punish them for their other sins, which I foresee they will commit; and I will remember and punish this also.

Posted in Books of Moses

“Who are the children of Esau?” (Genesis 36)

•November 29, 2023 • Leave a Comment

Who is Edom — that name Edom perpetuated the remembrance of the foolish bargain Esau made when he sold his birthright for that red pottage.

~~~~

However the book of Obadiah identifies the posterity of Esau today as Spain.

Genesis 36

¹ Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom. — it seem not only that Esau had lost his birthrights, but his name as well;

— now Edom is used in place of the name Esau, which he received at his birth, because the former became the national designation of his descendants; the Edomites; others are Idumeans, Hasmonean; and from his famed grandson, Amalek, the Amalekites;

— these are the generations of Esau; who has the honour of having an account of his posterity recorded, for the sake of his progenitors, Abraham and Isaac, and because the Edomites, his descendants, were neighbours to Israel, and their genealogy would be of use to cast light on the following relations of what passed between them at latter years.

²Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;

— the names of Esau’s three wives differ from those given in the previous accounts (Genesis 26:34: Judith and Basemath both are Hittites; and Genesis 28:9: Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael), and in one instance the father’s name as well;

— perhaps Esau might have five wives:

(1) Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite;
(2) Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite;
(3) Basemath, the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth;
(4) Judith, the daughter of Beeri the Hittite;
(5) Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, and sister of Nebaioth;

— unlike Jacob, who went back and took wives from his kinsmen, Esau took wives from the local ‘natives’ which displeased both his parents, Isaac and Rebecca. Esau’s descendents are a mixtures of Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, known to be among the posterity of Ham; and Ishmaelites, a mix with the Egyptians;

— further, according to the Midrash and Aggadah, Esau’s first two wives, Adah and Judith, are described as adulterous and idolatrous.

³and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, sister of Nebajoth. — Basemath was listed as a Hittite in Genesis 26:34;

⁴And Adah bore to Esau, Eliphaz; and Basemath bore Reuel;

⁵and Aholibamah bore Jeush and Jaalam and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born unto him in the land of Canaan. — these are the sons of Esau, who were born unto him in the land of Canaan; perhaps his fourth and fifth wives, their sons were born after they left Canaan.

— Rashi: Oholibamah bore…and Korah: This Korah was illegitimate. He was the son of Eliphaz, who had been intimate with his father’s wife, Oholibamah, the wife of Esau. This is evidenced by the fact that he [Korah] is [also] listed among the chieftains of Eliphaz at the end of this chapter. — [from Gen. Rabbah 82:12]

⁶And Esau took his wives, and his sons and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle and all his beasts, and all his substance which he had gotten in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the face of his brother Jacob.

— Esau sought a home further south in Seir, because he knew that Jacob, as the heir, would enter upon the family possessions, so without waiting till Jacob returned, he actually took possession further south;

— “because of Jacob” perhaps for fear of him, as the Targum of Jonathan, which paraphrases the words, “for there fell upon him a fear of Jakob his brother;” because he knew, by the blessing of his father, and the oracle of God, and his concurring providence in all things, that the land of Canaan belonged to Jacob,

— Rashi:

and the land of their sojournings could not: provide [sufficient] pasture for their animals. The Midrash Aggadah (Gen. Rabbah 82:13), however, explains “because of his brother Jacob,” [as follows:] Because of the note of obligation of the decree: “that your seed will be strangers” (Gen. 15: 13), which was put upon the descendants of Isaac.

He (Esau) said, “I will get out of here. I have neither a share in the gift-for the land has been given to him-nor in the payment of the debt.” [He left] also on account of the shame that [he felt because] he had sold his birthright. — [from Gen. Rabbah 82:13]

⁷For their riches were more than that they might dwell together, and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle. — the land wherein they were strangers; the large growth of their wealth made the separation of Esau and Jacob as inevitable;

⁸Thus dwelt Esau in Mount Seir. Esau is Edom. — Mount Seir; the land of Idumea extends from the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Elath, and consists of a chain of mountains running parallel to the Akaba, or continuation of the deep depression through which the Jordan flows till it loses itself in the Dead Sea.

— Esau is Edom, so called from the red pottage he had of Jacob, which is repeated to fix the odium of that transaction upon him, as well as for the sake of what follows, showing the reason why his posterity were called Edomites.

⁹And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in Mount Seir.

¹⁰These are the names of Esau’s sons: Eliphaz the son of Adah the wife of Esau, Reuel the son of Basemath the wife of Esau.

¹¹And the sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz.

¹²And Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau’s son, and she bore to Eliphaz, Amalek: these were the sons of Adah, Esau’s wife. — among the sons of Eliphaz we find Amalek, whose mother was Timna, the concubine of Eliphaz; the ancestor of the Amalekites, who attacked the Israelites at Horeb as they came out of Egypt under Moses (Exodus 17:8);

— more about Timna, the mother of Amalek, from Rashi:

And Timna was a concubine: [This passage is here] to proclaim the greatness of Abraham-how much [people] longed to attach themselves to his descendants. This Timna was a daughter of chieftains, as it is said: “and the sister of Lotan was Timna” (below verse 22).

Lotan was one of the chieftains of the inhabitants of Seir, from the Horites, who had dwelt there before. She said, “I may not be worthy of marrying you, but if only I could be [your] concubine” (Gen. Rabbah 82:14). In (I) Chronicles (1:36) [the Chronicler] enumerates her among the children of Eliphaz [here she is counted as the daughter of Seir the Horite, and the concubine of Eliphaz].

This teaches [us] that he (Eliphaz) was intimate with the wife of Seir, and Timna emerged from between them (Seir’s wife and Eliphaz), and when she grew up, she became his (Eliphaz’s) concubine. That is the meaning of “and the sister of Lotan was Timna.” [Scripture] did not count her with the sons of Seir, because she was his (Lotan’s) sister through his mother but not through his father. — [from Tanchuma Vayeshev 1]

¹³And these are the sons of Reuel: Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah: these were the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

¹⁴And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon, Esau’s wife; and she bore to Esau: Jeush and Jaalam and Korah.

¹⁵These were chiefs of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau: Chief Teman, Chief Omar, Chief Zepho, Chief Kenaz, — Eliphaz, as he was Esau’s first-born, so he had more than a double portion, his six sons being made dukes;

— another term for Chief is Duke; or like the sheiks or emirs of the modern East; or like the Nasi or Prince among the Israelite; that is, these men given the titles Chiefs meant that they had rose to a position of prominance to distinguish themselves from their peers;

¹⁶Chief Korah, Chief Gatam, and Chief Amalek: these are the chiefs who came of Eliphaz in the land of Edom; these were the sons of Adah. — Amalek rose from the position of a grandson and separated himself from the rest of the Edomites by being given the title of a Chief.

¹⁷And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau’s son: Chief Nahath, Chief Zerah, Chief Shammah, Chief Mizzah: these are the chiefs who came of Reuel in the land of Edom; these are the sons of Basemath, Esau’s wife.

¹⁸And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau’s wife: Chief Jeush, Chief Jaalam, Chief Korah: these were the chiefs who came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau’s wife.

— these would make fourteen Dukes or Chiefs, whereas it appears from the closing verses of the chapter that there were only eleven:

Verses 15 to 18: 1. Chief Teman, 2. Chief Omar, 3. Chief Zepho, 4. Chief Kenaz, 5. Chief Korah, 6. Chief Gatam, 7. Chief Amalek, 8. Chief Nahath, 9. Chief Zerah, 10. Chief Shammah, 11. Chief Mizzah, 12. Chief Jeush, 13. Chief Jaalam, 14. Chief Korah
Verses 29 to 30: 1. Chief Lotan, 2. Chief Shobal, 3. Chief Zibeon, 4. Chief Anah, 5. Chief Dishon, 6. Chief Ezer, 7. Chief Dishan
Verses 40 to 43: 1. Chief Timnah, 2. Chief Alvah, 3. Chief Jetheth, 4. Chief Aholibamah, 5. Chief Elah, 6. Chief Pinon, 7. Chief Kenaz, 8. Chief Teman, 9. Chief Mibzar, 10. Chief Magdiel, 11. Chief Iram

¹⁹These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their chiefs.

²⁰These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who inhabited the land: Lotan and Shobal, and Zibeon and Anah, — Mount Seir is called the land of their possession. Canaan was at this time only the land of promise. Seir was in the possession of the Edomites;

— “Seir the Horite,” the Horites Genesis 14:6, were cave-dweller, and probably got the name from the cave hewn out of the solid rock in which he was accustomed to dwell; Sela being a city of such excavated dwellings;

— Rashi:

the inhabitants of the land: They were its inhabitants before Esau came there. Our Rabbis explain [that they were called, “inhabitants of the land”] (Shab. 85a) because they were skilled in making the land habitable.

[They would say,] “The length of this [measuring] stick is [good] for [planting] olives; the length of this [measuring] stick is [good] for [planting] grapevines,” for they would taste [the soil] and know what was suitable to plant in it.

²¹and Dishon and Ezer and Dishan: these are the chiefs of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.

²²And the children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam; and Lotan’s sister was Timna.

²³And the children of Shobal were these: Alvan and Manahath and Ebal, Shepho and Onam.

²⁴And these are the children of Zibeon: both Ajah and Anah; this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father.

— Rashi:

who found the mules in the wilderness: Heb. הַיֵמִם, mules. He mated a donkey with a mare (female horse), and it gave birth to a mule. He (Anah) was illegitimate, and he brought illegitimate offspring into the world (Gen. Rabbah 82:15).

Why were they called יֵמִם (signifying “dreaded beings”)? Because their dread (אֵימָתָן) was cast upon people; Rabbi Hanina said, “In all my days no one has ever recovered from a wound from a white female mule.” (But we see that [those bitten by white female mules] do live.

Do not read: “who has lived (וְהָיָה) ,” but “that was healed (וְחָיתָה) ,” because [such a] wound will never heal. — [from an old Rashi manuscript]) It was unnecessary to list the genealogy of the Horites except to mention Timna, and thereby inform us of the greatness of Abraham, as I explained above (verse 12). [from Chullin 7b]

²⁵And the children of Anah were these: Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah.

²⁶And these are the children of Dishon: Hemdan and Eshban, and Ithran and Cheran.

²⁷The children of Ezer are these: Bilhan and Zaavan and Akan.

²⁸The children of Dishan are these: Uz and Aran.

²⁹These are the chiefs who came of the Horites: Chief Lotan, Chief Shobal, Chief Zibeon, Chief Anah,

³⁰Chief Dishon, Chief Ezer, Chief Dishan: these are the chiefs who came of the Horites, among their chiefs in the land of Seir.

³¹And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel.

— Rashi:

And these are the kings, etc.: They were eight, and, corresponding to them, Jacob set up [eight kings] and nullified the kingdom of Esau during their time. They are the following (kings): Saul, Ish-bosheth, David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat.

During the days of his (Jehoshaphat’s) son Joram, however, it is written: “In his days, Edom revolted from under the power of Judah, and they appointed a king over themselves” (II Kings 8:20), [whereas] during Saul’s days it is written: “There was no king in Edom; a governor was king” (I Kings 22:48). [from Gen. Rabbah 83:2]

³²And Bela the son of Beor reigned in Edom; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

³³And Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah reigned in his stead.

³⁴And Jobab died, and Husham of the land of the Temanites reigned in his stead.

³⁵And Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad (who smote Midian in the field of Moab) reigned in his stead; and the name of his city was Avith.

— Rashi: who defeated Moab in the field of Midian: For Midian came against Moab to wage war, and the king of Edom went to aid Moab. From here we learn that Midian and Moab were quarreling with one another, and in the days of Balaam they made peace, [in order] to band together against Israel. — [from Tanchuma Balak 3]

³⁶And Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah reigned in his stead.

³⁷And Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river reigned in his stead.

³⁸And Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor reigned in his stead.

³⁹And Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar reigned in his stead; and the name of his city was Pau; and his wife’s name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.

⁴⁰And these are the names of the chiefs who came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names: Chief Timnah, Chief Alvah, Chief Jetheth,

— Rashi: And these are the names of the chieftains of Esau: who were called by the names of their provinces after Hadar died and their kingdom had ceased. The first ones mentioned above (verses 15-19) are the names of their generations, and so it is delineated in (I Chronicles 1: 51): And Hadar [sic] died, and the chiefs of Edom were Chief Timna, etc.”

⁴¹Chief Aholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon,

⁴²Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar,

⁴³Chief Magdiel, Chief Iram: these are the chiefs of Edom, according to their habitations in the land of their possession; he is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

— Rashi: Magdiel: This is Rome. — [From Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, ch. 38]

In summary, Esau took wives from the local ‘natives’ which displeased both his parents. Hence Esau’s descendents are a mixtures of Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, known to be among the posterity of Ham; and Ishmaelites, a mix with the Egyptians. Often, many of their childen are spiritually illegitimate!

Spain at its Peak, including large parts of the Americas; scattered parts of Italy

Centuries later, the Spanish are also known to have taken wives from the natives, starting with Mexico and have mixed marriages all over South America.

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Books of Moses, Esau, Latin Americas

Europe’s anti-semitism Rising

•November 28, 2023 • Leave a Comment

With antisemitism rising as the Israel-Hamas war rages, Europe’s Jews worry; and many will be taking Aliyah to the State of Israel. The next few years may see Israel increasing its population by 3 to 4 millions.

Yahoo News • November 26, 2023 // The Times of Israel // CNN

GENEVA (AP) — As he sits in Geneva, Michel Dreifuss does not feel all that far away from the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza. The ripples are rolling through Europe and upending assumptions both global and intimate — including those about his personal safety as a Jew.

Thousands gather for a march against antisemitism in Paris, France, on Nov 12, 2023. Antisemitism is spiking across Europe after Hamas’ Oct 7 massacre and Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, worrying Jews from London to Geneva and Berlin.

“Yesterday I bought a tear-gas spray canister at a military-equipment surplus store,” the 64-year-old retired tech sector worker said recently at a rally to mark a month since the Hamas killings. The choice, he says, is a “precaution,” driven by a surge of antisemitism in Europe.

Last month’s slayings of about 1,200 people in Israel by armed Palestinian militants represented the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The fallout from it, and from Israel’s intense military response that health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, has extended to Europe. In doing so, it has shaken a continent all too familiar with deadly anti-Jewish hatred for centuries.

Aliyah flight brings back recruits to Israeli army, among others

The past century is of particular note, of course. Concern about rising antisemitism in Europe is fueled in part by what happened to Jews before and during World War II, and that makes it particularly fearsome for those who may be only one or two generations removed from people who were the victims of riots against Jews and Nazi brutality.

What most chills many Jews interviewed is what they see as the lack of empathy for the Israelis killed during the early morning massacre and for the relatives of the hostages — about 30 of whom are children — suspended in an agonizing limbo.

“What really upsets me,” said Holocaust survivor Herbert Traube said at a Paris event commemorating the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 government-backed pogroms against Jews in Germany and Austria, “is to see that there isn’t a massive popular reaction against this.”

ACTS OF ANTISEMITISM — AND HOW THAT’S DEFINED

Antisemitism is broadly defined as hatred of Jews. But a debate has been raging for years over what actions and words should be labeled antisemitic.

Criticism of Israel’s policies and antisemitism have long been conflated by Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by some watchdog groups. Critics say that blurring helps undermine opposition to the country’s policies and amps up perceptions that any utterance or incident against Israeli policy is antisemitic.

Some language — whether for or against Israel or the Palestinians – “makes it sound like a football match,” says Susan Neiman of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. “We are perpetuating the idea that you’ve got to be on one side or the other instead of being on the side of human rights and justice,” she said.

Others argue that antisemites often use criticism of Israel as a placeholder for expressing their views.

The list of examples of anti-Jewish sentiment since the Oct 7 attacks is long and documented by governments and watchdog groups across Europe.

—Little more than a month after the attack in Israel, the French Interior Ministry said 1,247 antisemitic incidents had been reported since Oct 7, nearly three times the total for all of 2022.

—Denmark’s main Jewish association said cases were up 24 times from the average of the last nine months.

—The Community Security Trust, which tracks antisemitic incidents in Britain, reported more than 1,000 such events — the most ever recorded for a 28-day period.

That all comes despite widespread denunciations of anti-Jewish hatred — and support for Israel — from leaders in Europe since the attack.

Some of Europe’s Jews say they see it on the streets and the news. Jewish schoolchildren face bullying on their way to class, or — in one instance — have been asked to explain Israel’s actions, according to Britain’s Community Security Trust. There’s been talk of blending in better: covering skullcaps in public and perhaps hiding mezuzahs, the traditional symbol on doorposts of Jewish homes.

In Russia, a riot broke out at an airport in which there were some antisemitic chants and posters from a crowd of men looking for passengers who had arrived from Israel. A Berlin synagogue was firebombed. An assailant stabbed a Jewish woman twice in the stomach at her home in Lyon, France, according to her lawyer.

In Prague’s Little Quarter last month, staffers at the well-known Hippopotamus bar refused to serve beer to several tourists from Israel and their Czech guides, and some patrons served up insults. Police had to step in. In Berlin, Jews are still reeling from an attempted firebombing of a synagogue last month.

“Some of us are in a state of panic,” said Anna Segal, 37, the manager of the Kahal Adass Jisroel in Berlin, a community of 450 members.

COMING TO GRIPS WITH A FEELING OF DREAD

Some community members are changing how they live, Segal said. Students no longer wear uniforms. Kindergarten classes don’t leave the building for field trips or the playground next door. Some members no longer call taxis, or they hesitate to order deliveries to their homes. Hebrew-speaking in public is fading. Some wonder if they should move to Israel.

“I hear more and more from people from the Jewish community who say they feel safer and more comfortable in Israel now than in Germany, despite the war and all the rockets,” Segal said. “Because they don’t have to hide there.”

And in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, some protesters are shouting, “ from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” Some say that’s a call for Palestinian freedom and is not anti-Jewish but anti-Israel; the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea includes not only Israel, but also the West Bank and east Jerusalem, where Palestinians have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. Many Jews, though, say the chant is inherently anti-Jewish and calls for the destruction of Israel.

Faced with fears that antisemitism will spread, communities are taking action. A hotline has been set up in France to help provide psychological support for Jews. The Community Security Trust, which aims to protect the Jewish community and foster good relations with others, has joined with the British government to distribute primers on how to address antisemitism in primary and secondary schools.

Peggy Hicks, a director at the UN human rights office, says the actions of governments and political movements are fair game for criticism but warned against discrimination, which the Geneva-based office has long battled. In the chaos of the past weeks, she sees reason to hope.

The Star of David waving between Two Great Rivers

“I’ve been amazed in the course of my working in human rights about the amount of compassion and the resilience of of human beings,” Hicks said. “People who have lost children and come together on both sides of a conflict, who have shared a loss — but from opposing sides — and who have found a way to get past the fact that they should actually be enemies.”

She added: “I don’t think everybody has the ability to show that kind of courage. But the fact that it exists, I think, gives us all something to aspire to.”

“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,’

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 (repeated in Jeremiah 23:7-8)

Posted in Europe, Islamic, Israel, Zionism

Exodus (29-30)

•November 28, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

Q. Could on one unexpected day the Jews bring out the Ark of the Covenant and cause both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse?

Exodus 29

~~~~

This chapter deals with Aaron and his son, the purification and anointing

¹ “And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto Me in the priest’s office: Take one young bullock and two rams without blemish, — this is the thing that thou shalt do unto the priests; that is, Aaron and his sons; their consecration had been commanded in the preceding chapter;

²and unleavened bread and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil — of wheat flour shalt thou make them — unleavened bread; unleavened bread, as used to be eaten at the time of the Passover, seems to have been required as purer than leavened, since fermentation was viewed as a species of corruption.

³and thou shalt put them into one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams. — in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams; along with the bread, cakes, and wafers; ãnd to be brought to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to the altar, in order to be slain and sacrificed.

⁴And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. — and shalt wash Aaron and his sons; water is so natural a symbol of purity, and ablution so apt a representative of the purging from sin; also to signify that they must be clean who bear the vessels and work of the Lord;

⁵And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate, and gird him with the embroidered girdle of the ephod. — and the robe of the ephod: which was all of blue, and had pomegranates and golden bells at the hem of it; this was put over the broidered coat;

— and the breastplate; with the Urim and Thummim in it, or the twelve precious stones on which were engraven the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, which hung down over the breast by wreathen chains of gold, from the shoulder pieces of the ephod;

⁶And thou shalt put the miter upon his head and put the holy crown upon the miter. — and Moses shall put the holy crown upon the mitre; the holy crown was a plate of gold or a diadem which had these words, “holiness to the Lord” engraven on it;

— and says the Targum of Jonathan, “And thou shalt set the mitre on his head, and put the diadem upon which is engraven the Name of Holiness upon the mitre;” the mitre was on top of Aaron’s head, and upon his forehead;

⁷Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head and anoint him. — and Moses shall pour the oil upon Aaron’s head, between his eyebrows; and anoint him;

— the Investiture of Aaron’s sons; they do not seem to have been anointed, as Aaron was, by having the holy oil poured upon their heads, but only by having some of it sprinkled upon their garments.

⁹And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them. And the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute; and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. — and thou shall consecrate Aaron and his sons; or “fill the hand of them” that is, with sacrifices to offer for themselves and others;

¹⁰“And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock. — “to be brought before the tabernacle” means outside the tabernacle; and thus the altar was a much larger one;

— and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock; not Aaron first alone, and then his sons, but all together, not one after another;

¹¹And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. — and thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord; that is, Moses being ordered to do it, who now officiated as a priest; Aaron and his sons not yet completely invested with that office, or thoroughly consecrated to it, yet;

¹²And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood alongside the bottom of the altar. — that some of the victim’s blood should be smeared upon the altar’s horns; and the remainder should be poured at its base;

¹³And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.

¹⁴But the flesh of the bullock and his skin and his dung shalt thou burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering. — shalt thou burn with fire outside the camp; so the Messiah, the antitype, suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem a most painful and shameful death;

¹⁵“Thou shalt also take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. — and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram; confessing their sins, acknowledging their guilt, and by this act transferring the same to the ram, which was to be a burnt offering, and was typical of the imputation of sin to the Messiah, or the Son of God, the Christ;

¹⁶And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. — and thou shall take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar; the blood being received into a basin, it was not to be put upon the altar with the finger, as the blood of the bullock, but was to be sprinkled probably with a bunch of hyssop, round about upon the altar;

— this may signify that his blood has its virtue and efficacy from that, to make atonement for the sins of men, and to cleanse men from their sins.

¹⁷And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him and his legs, and put them on top of his pieces and on top of his head; — and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head; lay them together, so that they might be entirely consumed at once;

¹⁸and thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar. It is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. — for a smell of sweet savour, or a sweet smelling savour; an offering pleasing to God;

¹⁹“And thou shalt take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. —and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram, as they were to do, and did, upon the head of the other;

²⁰Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.

— and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons; upon the great toe of their right foot, it sanctified their whole walk in life, their “going out,” and their “coming in;” and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about; as was done with the blood of the other ram;

²¹And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron and upon his garments, and upon his sons and upon the garments of his sons with him; and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

²²“Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder (for it is a ram of consecration),

²³and one loaf of bread and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord.

²⁴And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. — and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: which was waved or shook to and fro, from east to west, and from north to south, to or before him, whose are the four winds of the world;

— this was done by Moses and Aaron; “both were employed in waving, both the owners and the priest, how? the priest put his hand under the hand of the owner and waved, and in this Aaron and his sons were the owners and Moses the priest.”

²⁵And thou shalt receive them from their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor before the Lord. It is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. — for a sweet savour before the Lord; that it might be pleasing and acceptable to him;

²⁶“And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord; and it shall be thy part.

²⁷And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron and of that which is for his sons.

²⁸And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons’ by a statute for ever from the children of Israel, for it is a heave offering; and it shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the Lord.

²⁹“And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons’ after him, to be anointed therein and to be consecrated in them. — and the holy garments of Aaron shall be his son’s after him; the son that succeeded him in the priesthood; for the priesthood continued in Aaron’s family by succession, the eldest son being high priest;

³⁰And that son who is priest in his stead shall put them on seven days, when he cometh into the tabernacle of the congregation to minister in the holy place. — shall put them on seven days; the next successor was to wear the garments seven days running;

³¹“And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration and boil his flesh in the holy place. — in the courtyard at the door of the tabernacle, where it was both boiled and eaten;

³²And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

³³And they shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy. —but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy;

— meaning not just one of another nation, but of another family, though an Israelite; the Targum of Jonathan renders it, a profane or common person, a layman, one that was not a priest; who, though he was of the seed of Israel, yet not being of the seed of Aaron, as he might not eat of the above things, because they were devoted to holy uses;

³⁴And if aught of the flesh of the consecrations or of the bread remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy. — it was not to be given to a stranger, nor to be cast to dogs;

³⁵“And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron and to his sons, according to all things which I have commanded thee. Seven days shalt thou consecrate them. — to make it the more solemn and efficacious, the entire sacrifice and ceremony are to be repeated every day for seven days;

³⁶And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement; and thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it to sanctify it. — and thou shall offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement; that is, every day of the seven days of consecration;

³⁷Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it; and it shall be an altar most holy. Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy. — whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy; that is, must be holy; nothing which is not holy must touch it;

— that such should be holy who were of the sons of Aaron, but of the rest of the people it was not lawful for them to draw nigh; the Targum of Jonathan adds “lest they be burned with the fiery flame which cometh from the holy place.”

³⁸“Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar: two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. — two lambs day by day continually; which is the daily sacrifice;

³⁹The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening. — a lamb offered upon the altar every morning, and the other every evening “between the two evenings” hā·‘ar·bā·yim.

⁴⁰And with the one lamb a tenth part of flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

⁴¹And the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening, and shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

⁴²“This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto thee. — this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations; to be offered up morning and evening in every age; at “the tabernacle of meeting, where I will meet you.”

⁴³And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and [the tabernacle] shall be sanctified by My glory. — and there will I meet with the children of Israel; not only with Moses or with Aaron, and his sons, but with the people themselves, by granting them his gracious presence in public ordinances; “and (Israel) shall be sanctified through My glory.”

— “the tabernacle” is added, since they are not in the original; but it makes more sense to substitute the space with Israel, that is, the people that are sanctified by his glory;

⁴⁴And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me in the priest’s office. — the tabernacle and the altar were sanctified, or set apart for holy uses, as well as cleansed and expiated by sacrifices;

— I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to me in the priest’s office;

⁴⁵And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. — I will dwell among the children of Israel; it is the fulfilment of this promise by the presence of the Shekinah within the Tabernacle; will watch over them as a nation, by a peculiar providence;

⁴⁶And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. — I am the Lord their God; of which he had given full proof and evidence by what he had done for them, and would yet give more; and to have the Lord our God with the greatest protection and happiness that can be enjoyed.

Exodus 30

The tabernacle, and subsequently the Temple, were arranged in three compartments: the outermost court, which was accessible to all Israelites; the second, which could only be trodden by the priests alone; and the third, where the Shekinah dwelt in solitude, broken only once a year by the foot of the High Priest.

¹ “And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon; of shittim wood shalt thou make it. — an altar to burn incense; not an altar to burn sacrifices: cows bulls, lambs and others; here it is called the incense of spices or perfumes;

²A cubit shall be the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof. Foursquare shall it be, and two cubits shall be the height thereof. The horns thereof shall be part of the same. — the main altar outside for sacrifices is much larger, five cubits square and three cubit in height;

³And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about. — the top thereof, and the sides thereof, and the horns thereof: all and each of them were covered with gold; this altar had a top;

⁴And two golden rings shalt thou make for it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof; upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it.

⁵And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood and overlay them with gold. — and thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood; that is, of the same wood the altar itself was made;

⁶And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the Testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with thee. — this altar to burn incense is to be placed in the sanctuary just before the veil; between the candlestick and the table of shewbread, outside the Holy of Holies;

⁷And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning. When he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. — Aaron was to burn sweet incense upon this altar every morning and every evening;

⁸And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. — a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations; no “strange incense” was to be offered upon it;

⁹Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. — burnt sacrifice and meat offering are offered in another larger altar outside the sancturay;

¹⁰And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements. Once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations. It is most holy unto the Lord.” — this atonement made on the Day of Atonement; once in the year; the tenth day of the seventh month;

¹¹And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹²“When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel according to their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numberest them, that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them.

— that there be no plague among them; if a man did not feel his need of “ransom,” and gladly pay the small sum at which the ransom was fixed, he would show himself so proud and presumptuous that he might well provoke a Divine “plague,” or punishment;

¹³This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs); a half shekel shall be the offering to the Lord. — king David offended in not demanding payment of this tribute or atonement-tax when he numbered the people.

¹⁴Every one who passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the Lord.

¹⁵The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your souls.

¹⁶And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel, and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.”

— MSG

God spoke to Moses: “When you take a head count of the Israelites to keep track of them, all must pay an atonement-tax to God for their life at the time of being registered so that nothing bad will happen because of the registration.

“Everyone who gets counted is to give a half-shekel (using the standard Sanctuary shekel of a fifth of an ounce to the shekel)—a half-shekel offering to God. Everyone counted, age twenty and up, is to make the offering to God.

“The rich are not to pay more nor the poor less than the half-shekel offering to God, the atonement-tax for your lives. Take the atonement-tax money from the Israelites and put it to the maintenance of the Tent of Meeting. It will be a memorial fund for the Israelites in honor of God, making atonement for your lives.”

¹⁷And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

¹⁸“Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, with his foot also of brass, for washing; and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. — a round, cauldron-shaped vessel for use by the officiating priests to wash before their entrance on their ministry; and denotes in general the necessity of purity;

A laver of brass for washing between the tabernacle and the altar

¹⁹For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.

²⁰When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not. Or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord,

²¹so they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not. And it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.”

²²Moreover the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying,

²³“Take thou also unto thee principal spices: of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half as much (even two hundred and fifty shekels), and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, — details and directions are here given for making the holy anointing oil, and the incense to be used in the service of the tabernacle.

²⁴and of cassia five hundred shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil a hin.

²⁵And thou shalt make from it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound according to the art of the perfumer; it shall be a holy anointing oil.

²⁶And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the Testimony,

²⁷and the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense,

²⁸and the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot;

²⁹and thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy. Whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. — the Targum of Jonathan interprets it of persons that approach these holy places, and things so anointed, shall be sanctified, while others would be consumed, paraphrasing the words thus;

“and consecrate them, and they shall be most holy. Every one of the priests who approacheth to them shall be sanctified; but of the rest of the tribes, (whoever toucheth them) shall be consumed by the fiery flame from before the Lord.”

Whosoever shall make like to smell thereof, shall be put death

³⁰And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest’s office.

³¹And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘This shall be a holy anointing oil unto Me throughout your generations.

³²Upon man’s flesh shall it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, according to the composition of it. It is holy, and it shall be holy unto you.

³³Whosoever compoundeth any like it, or whosoever putteth any of it upon a stranger, shall even be cut off from his people.’”

— the word stranger is commonly used to imply the Gentiles, or such as were not an Israelite; but sometimes it indicates those that are not of the priestly line, and is shown here; as the Targum of Jonathan says: one that is not of the seed of Aaron;

³⁴And the Lord said unto Moses, “Take unto thee sweet spices: stacte and onycha and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense, of each shall there be a like weight. — various spices: stacte, onycha and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense; are holy to the Lord;

³⁵And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection according to the art of the perfumer, tempered together, pure and holy.

³⁶And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation where I will meet with thee; it shall be unto you most holy.

— thou shalt . . . put it before the testimony; some pieces of the incense were to be continually before the ark of the covenant, that is, upon the altar of incense; it was to be put there in order to be burnt, and to be smelled to.

³⁷And as for the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make it for yourselves according to the composition thereof; it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. — ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof; that is, for your own use, for the scenting of your rooms, or to snuff up, or smell to;

³⁸Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people.” — the recipe for the incense as well as for the oil in the tabernacle “it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord;” that is, are sort off copyrighted by the Most High; anyone who duplicate this recipe and use it for themselves would be put to death.

Posted in Books of Moses

China’s new Subs and Sonars Challenge

•November 27, 2023 • Leave a Comment

China’s New Subs and Sonars Challenge Supremacy of US Silent Hunter Fleets

Sputnik International • November 22, 2023

The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) surpassed the US Navy in total number of warships in late 2021. Technologically too, China has made major strides, including in the area of submarine construction and detection. These advances have sparked concerns from observers that America’s powerful fleets could be left dead in the water in a crisis.

The PLAN’s military and technological prowess against the US Navy in the field of submarine construction and anti-submarine warfare is progressing apace, and the “era of total US submarine dominance” over the People’s Republic of China is reaching its end.

That’s the conclusion reached by one of America’s top cited business newspapers in a piece focused on the Asian nation’s scientific and industrial advances for naval warfare. China, the paper pointed out, is gradually “narrowing” the gap between itself and the United States in the highly complex fields of submarine technology and undersea detection.

These developments not only threaten the Pentagon’s regional strategy of hemming China into its home ports, but could challenge US naval supremacy globally over the long term.

Earlier this year, for instance, research by the US Naval War College’s China Maritime Studies Institute pointed to Chinese advances in efficient nuclear reactors, quiet-running pump-jet propulsion systems and internal quieting devices, the latter based on “imitative innovation” of Russian technology, predicting that the PLAN’s latest nuclear-powered subs will be much harder to track than before.

Nature Index: China Surpassed US in Science Research

Additionally, analyses of satellite photos of the Huludao Shipyard in Liaoning, northeastern China taken last year showed the construction of sections of submarine hulls larger than anything US analysts have ever seen in a Chinese sub, along with what seemed to be plans to increase production capacity.

US media citing leaked US Navy intelligence already sounded the alarm about China’s impressive shipbuilding capacity this past fall, which at 23.2 million tons per year, compared with 100,000 tons per year in the US, gives the People’s Republic the ability to build warships at a rate some 200 times greater than the US in a pinch.

On top of that, the PLAN’s rapid construction of a vast network of underwater sensors in the South China Sea and other areas along the Chinese coast known as the “Underwater Great Wall”, to look out for sub, surface warship and aerial activity, means that the Pentagon will find it more difficult to place its warships, subs and aircraft in areas around the Asian nation. The Underwater Great Wall’s construction is reportedly nearing its completion, and includes a vast network of passive and active sonar sensors, plus remote controlled underwater and surface drones which can look out for enemy activity.

China is reportedly also “getting better” at finding silent-running US attack and cruise missile subs sneaking around near its home waters, combining buoy and drone-based monitoring with the use of patrol aircraft and helicopters, for example.

In addition are the PLAN’s growing number of exercises with Russia, which, it can be assumed not only increases the Chinese Navy’s ability to coordinate with its northern neighbor in the event of an emergency, but allows it to learn from the Russian Navy’s half century-plus year experience as a major global naval power rivaled only to the US.

Posted in China, Tech Race, US

Australian divers shiver over Chinese sonar pulses

•November 26, 2023 • Leave a Comment

HMAS Toowoomba naval divers forced to exit water over Chinese warship sonar pulses

What are your thoughts on the recent incident where a Chinese navy destroyer used active sonar to harass a disabled Australian frigate conducting underwater repairs in international waters?

For more about the issue in Australian perspective, see ABC News • November 18, 2023

Another view presented in Quora by Aya Shawan

Not long ago, Western media were promoting “the Chinese Air Force intercepted a Canadian aircraft.” But they don’t tell you that this interception took place in the northern part of the Taiwan Strait, only dozens of kilometers away from the coast of China.

Now, the Western media is once again propagating that “the Chinese Navy is unprofessional towards Australian warships.” Okay, let’s look at the truth of the matter again.

The “exclusive economic zones” of China and Japan overlap on a large scale, and the overlapping area is closer to China’s territorial waters.

First, Australia claimed that “the warship is located within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.” It seems to tell us that they are near Japanese territorial waters. But is this true?

Let’s take a look at how big Japan’s “exclusive economic zone” is. As we all know, Japan’s “exclusive economic zone” was set unilaterally by Japan. It has a large number of overlapping areas with mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, and North Korea, and is not recognized at all in East Asia.

Therefore, the fact that the Australian warship is “located within Japan’s exclusive economic zone” does not mean that it is “close to Japan.” On the contrary, it is likely to be close to China’s territorial waters, has entered China’s exclusive economic zone or even approached China’s territorial waters. This is also the reason for this type of incident. normal. The Chinese almost never go far from their shores on such missions.

Secondly, the news that the Chinese Navy’s use of “sonar” caused “slight injuries” to divers is not credible at all. According to news reports, the warship that intercepted the Australian Navy was the Chinese Navy No. 139 Ningbo Ship. This is a modern-class destroyer with a full load displacement of 8,500 tons and an old Soviet warship.

According to public information, the sonar equipped on this destroyer is the MGK-335 hull-acoustic hull sonar. This is an active high-power sonar designed for deep-sea nuclear submarines, with a peak operating power of hundreds of kilowatts.

The shock waves it emits can hit the submarine’s hull several kilometers away and detect the echoes. There is no point in turning on sonar for surface ship monitoring.

Because this type of sonar is powerful enough to cause injury to large marine life such as dolphins and whales, it is generally not turned on. When the warships of both sides are approaching, if the Chinese Navy really turns on this sonar, then the diver will not suffer just a “slight injury,” it will shatter people’s internal organs.

Therefore, the real situation may be that the diver suffered minor injuries due to other reasons in the process of rushing to shore. After all, the Australian Toowoomba is just a 3,600-ton frigate. When facing an 8,500-ton Chinese warship, a hasty retreat is a normal reaction.

There are a few more noteworthy keywords

1. Sanctions tasks of the United Nations

This statement is the same as that of the Canadian military aircraft, which also claimed to be carrying out “UN sanctions supervision against North Korea.” But they flew to the northern part of the Taiwan Strait.

China has publicly stated many times that the United Nations has never authorized such a mission. As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council, China’s statement is credible, and other countries have not raised any objections.

Therefore, the Australian warship’s so-called “implementation of United Nations sanctions and supervision of North Korea” is just a farce written and directed by several countries led by the United States.

The incident took place so far away from Australia. What was the Australian Navy thinking when it sent a warship to the coast of a superpower to show off? If the opponent was the United States or Russia, they would have been sunk long ago.

2. The fishing net entangled the propeller

It shows that the Australian warship has entered the fishing area instead of the normal route. This will cause disruption to both Chinese and Japanese fishermen. Whether it is Japan’s exclusive economic zone or China’s exclusive economic zone, it is undeniable that it is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Australia. That is China’s doorstep, not Australia’s.

3. Unprofessional

The Chinese Navy’s approach to foreign warships approaching China’s territorial waters has always been to “identify, warn and drive away.” This is their “professionalism.” There was no warning of weapons and no active collision, indicating that the Chinese navy was restrained. It makes no sense for the Australians to use the excuse “sonar harms divers” to divert attention.

“I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel,” Hosea 6:10

“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

“Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke; among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be” Hosea 5:9

Posted in Australia, China

Who are the Amalekites?

•November 26, 2023 • Leave a Comment

The Israelites fought the Amalekites numerous times; so who are the Amalekites?

(1i) Exodus 17 • on the Plain of Rephidim (ii) Deuteronomy 25; (2) I Samuel 15 • during the reign of King Saul (3) I Samuel 30 • during the reign of King David (4) Esther 3 • Haman and Mordecai (5) Ezekiel 38 • Gog and Magog

Jewish Women’s Archive by Tamar Kadari

Timna, concubine of Eliphaz: Midrash and Aggadah

In Brief

After being denied conversion by the men of Abraham’s household, Timna becomes the concubine of Eliphaz. The Rabbis portray this action as proof of her genuine desire to convert, and Israel is punished for the Patriarch’s actions. Another midrash uses Timna to clarify an issue of lineage, ultimately showing that Esau’s descendants were born of adultery.

Timna was the sister of Lotan, one of Esau’s chiefs, and therefore the daughter of royalty. The Rabbis relate that she sought to convert and join Abraham’s household. She went to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but since they would not accept her, she went and became the concubine of Eliphaz. She declared: “Better for me to be a handmaiden to this nation [Israel], and not a noblewoman of that nation [the chiefs of Esau]” (Midrash Tannaim on Deut., 32:47).

The Rabbis assert that Timna’s willingness to exchange her status of noblewoman for that of concubine attests to her pure intent to convert. The Patriarchs did not understand her true aim; instead of rejecting her, they should have drawn her to the bosom of Judaism. They were accordingly punished, for her union with Eliphaz produced Amalek, who would cause Israel to suffer (BT Sanhedrin 99b).

According to another tradition (Tanhuma, Vayeshev 1), the description of Eliphaz’s “marriage” to Timna teaches of corruption and degeneration among the descendants of Seir. This midrash is based on the inconsistency concerning Timna’s lineage between Gen. 36:20–22, in which she is presented as the sister of Lotan (the son of Seir), and I Chron. 1:36, that mentions her as the daughter of Eliphaz.

The Rabbis reconcile this discrepancy by explaining that Timna was indeed Eliphaz’s daughter, as a result of his adulterous relations with Seir’s wife; to compound his sin, Eliphaz took his own daughter as his concubine. The Torah charts the lineage of Esau’s descendants at length, in order to show that this lineage was founded in adultery.

(1) Exodus 17

When the Israelites had just came out of Egypt

⁸Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. — then came Amalek, a grandson of Esau; the Amalekites had not been previously (except in the anticipatory flashforwarding in Genesis 14:7) mentioned as a tribe or nation;

— their hatred could be the old grudge of the children of Esau returning against the children of Israel; because of the affair of the birthright and blessing which Jacob stole from Esau, who were now on their march for the land of Canaan, claiming their birthright land which came to children of Esau thereby;

⁹And Moses said unto Joshua, “Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.” — Joshua; he was a prince of the tribe of Ephraim; chosen as a leader to fight the Amalekites;

¹⁰So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

— Hur; according to Josephus (Ant. Jud., iii. 2, § 4) Hur was the husband of Miriam, and so the brother-in-law of Moses and Aaron. He was a descendant of Judah through Pharez and Hezron;

— to the top of the hill; to the top of Mount Sinai or Horeb, not so much to see the battle fought, as to be seen by Joshua and his warriors;

¹¹And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. — Moses was getting old and was tired; his strongest arm will fail with being long held out; but it is God only whose hand is stretched out still;

¹²But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

— both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words, “when Moses lift up his hands in prayer, the house of Israel prevailed, but when he restrained his hands from prayer, the house of Amalek prevailed.”

¹³And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. — Amalek being distinguished from “his people” has established a strong sense that Amalek was the title of their king, or chief of the army (hence Chief Amalek in Genesis 36:16), and that it was a common title to the kings of that nation of the Amalekites, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt, or Caesar to Rome;

— that’s a significant truth; a truth during Moses time during the Exodus; more probable, later, is that the name Agag had evolved into a title for their king in place of Amalek; as stated by Balaam, employed by the king of the Moabites, to pronounce a ‘curse:’

“He (the children of Israel) shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag (hence, used in this way, it is more likely that Agag is the title of a king rather than the name of one king; and Agag was named as the king of the Amalekites in Samuel’s experience: 1 Samuel 15:8), and his kingdom (of Israel) shall be exalted” Numbers 24:7.

¹⁴And the Lord said unto Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and recount it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” — I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek; the extermination of Amalek, here prophesied, was partly accomplished in part by Saul (1 Samuel 15:8) and David (1 Samuel 30:17);

— Moses must write what had been done, what Amalek had done against Israel; write their bitter hatred; write their cruel attempts; let them never be forgotten, nor what God had done for Israel in saving them from Amalek.

¹⁵And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi [that is, The Lord my banner]; — Moses built an altar; primarily, no doubt, to sacrifice thank-offerings upon it, as an acknowledgment of the Divine help in giving Israel the victory.

¹⁶for he said, “Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” — the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation; until they are utterly destroyed; and so in fact he had, and thus it was;

— the Targum of Jonathan is, “he by his word will make war against those that are of the house of Amalek, and destroy them to three generations, from the generation of this world, from the generation of the Messiah, and from the generation of the world to come.”

(ii) Deuteronomy 25

¹⁷“Remember what Amalek did unto thee on the way, when ye had come forth out of Egypt,

¹⁸how he met thee on the way and smote the hindmost of thee, even all who were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God.

¹⁹Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

(2) I Samuel 15

During the reign of King Saul

¹ Samuel also said unto Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.

²Thus saith the Lord of hosts: ‘I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he lay in wait for him on the way when he came up from Egypt.

³Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.’”

⁴And Saul gathered the people together and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen and ten thousand men of Judah.

⁵And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.

⁶And Saul said unto the Kenites, “Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

⁷And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, which is over against Egypt.

⁸And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.

⁹But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen, and of the fatlings and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.

¹⁰Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying,

¹¹“I repent that I have set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following Me and hath not performed My commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night.

¹²And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set him up a place, and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal.”

¹³And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said unto him, “Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.”

¹⁴And Samuel said, “What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?”

¹⁵And Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”

¹⁶Then Samuel said unto Saul, “Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night.” And he said unto him, “Say on.”

¹⁷And Samuel said, “When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?

¹⁸And the Lord sent thee on a journey and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.’

¹⁹Why then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst leap upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?”

²⁰And Saul said unto Samuel, “Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

²¹But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal.”

²²And 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.

²³For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king.”

²⁴And Saul said unto Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and thy words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

²⁵Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord.”

²⁶And Samuel said unto Saul, “I will not return with thee; for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel.”

²⁷And as Samuel turned about to go away, he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent.

²⁸And Samuel said unto him, “The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbor of thine, who is better than thou.

²⁹And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.”

³⁰Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now, I pray thee, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord thy God.”

³¹So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

³²Then said Samuel, “Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came unto him charily; and Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”

³³And Samuel said, “As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

³⁴Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul; and the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.

(3) I Samuel 30

During the reign of King David

¹ And it came to pass, when David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire,

²and had taken the women captive, who were therein. They slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way.

³So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captive.

⁴Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

⁵And David’s two wives were taken captive: Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

⁶And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters; but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

⁷And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, “I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod.” And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David.

⁸And David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them?” And He answered him, “Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them and without fail recover all.”

⁹So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him, and came to the Brook Besor, where those who were left behind stayed.

¹⁰But David pursued, he and four hundred men; for two hundred remained behind, who were so faint that they could not go over the Brook Besor.

¹¹And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David and gave him bread, and he ate; and they made him drink water.

¹²And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins; and when he had eaten his spirit came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any water three days and three nights.

¹³And David said unto him, “To whom belongest thou, and from whence art thou?” And he said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I fell sick.

¹⁴We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the border which belongeth to Judah and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire.”

¹⁶And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines and out of the land of Judah.

¹⁷And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day; and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men who rode upon camels and fled.

¹⁸And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.

¹⁹And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil nor any thing that they had taken from them; David recovered all.

²⁰And David took all the flocks and the herds which they drove before those other cattle, and said, “This is David’s spoil.”

²¹And David came to the two hundred men who were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to remain at the Brook Besor; and they went forth to meet David and to meet the people who were with him. And when David came near to the people, he saluted them.

²²Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial of those who went with David, and said, “Because they went not with us, we will not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away and depart.”

²³Then said David, “Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company that came against us into our hand.

²⁴For who will hearken unto you in this matter? But as his part is who goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be who tarrieth by the supplies: they shall divide alike.”

²⁵And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.

²⁶And when David came to Ziklag, he sent a portion of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, “Behold, a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the Lord”—

²⁷to those who were in Bethel, and to those who were in South Ramoth, and to those who were in Jattir;

²⁸and to those who were in Aroer, and to those who were in Siphmoth, and to those who were in Eshtemoa,

²⁹and to those who were in Rachal, and to those who were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those who were in the cities of the Kenites;

³⁰and to those who were in Hormah, and to those who were in Chorashan, and to those who were in Athach;

³¹and to those who were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.

(4) Esther 3 • Haman and Mordecai

¹ After these things did King Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all the princes who were with him. — Haman was a direct descendant of Agag in the sixteenth generation and consequently an Amalekite (Targ. Sheni; Josephus, “Ant.” xi. 6, § 5).

²And all the king’s servants who were in the king’s gate bowed and reverenced Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

³Then the king’s servants, who were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, “Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment?”

⁴Now it came to pass, when they spoke daily unto him and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand; for he had told them that he was a Jew.

⁵And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.

<< Esther 3 to Esther 7 >>

“The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.”

Esther 7

⁵Then King Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, “Who is he, and where is he, who dared presume in his heart to do so?”

⁶And Esther said, “The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.” Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.

⁷And the king, arising from the banquet of wine in his wrath, went into the palace garden; and Haman stood up to make request for his life to Esther the queen, for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king.

⁸Then the king returned from the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine, and Haman had fallen upon the bed whereon Esther was. Then said the king, “Will he force the queen also before me in the house?” As the word went out of the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.

Haman and his ten sons were hanged upon the gallows, Esther 9:14

⁹And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, “Behold also the gallows fifty cubits high which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman.” Then the king said, “Hang him thereon!”

¹⁰So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then was the king’s wrath pacified.

(5) Ezekiel 38 • Gog and Magog

Ezekiel 38:2 “Son of man, set thy face against Gog, in the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him — Gog¹⁴⁶³ גוג (Agag ⁹⁰אגג) of the land of Magog, is an abbreviated expression for “Gog from the land of Magog;”

— Magog, Meshech and Tubal, these are the sons of Japheth; Gomer, and his son, Togarmah, are mentioned later in verse 6; omitting the Japhetic tribes of Madai, Javan and Tiras; Genesis 10:2), and led by their chief, Gog, Russia; and Gog is acting as their Chief; their Prince;

The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. ³And the sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz and Riphath and Togarmah ⁴And the sons of Javan: Elishah and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim. Genesis 10:2-4

— in Revelation 20:8, after the thousand years are over, “Gog and Magog” might be a term adopted by John either as mystical names or symbolic names of rebellious nations against the eminence of those ruling from Jerusalem; or rebelling “against the mountains of Israel” with Jerusalem as its Capital;

— second, could the term chief or title “Gog” be translated as Agag or as the Amalekitish kings instead? The name Gog occurs only in connection with Magog, except in 1 Chronicles 5:4.

In Numbers 24:7 it was translated as “Gog” in the Septuagint in place of Agag. Thus it strengthens the view that “Agag” was a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, a grandson of Esau; just as Pharaoh was used as a dynastic name for the ancient Egyptians; Caesar for Rome and of more modern times, the Czar of Russia;

There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. Numbers 24:7 (Septuagint) “Agag” in the Masoretic; throughout history there is no concept of any “kingdom of Gog” but a “kingdom of Agag” could easily be conceptualized as the kingdom of the Amalekites.

— a third opinion says the countries of Gog and Magog, which they call Gug and Mungug; from hence came the Turks, even from Tartary; Josephus (Antiqu.l.1.c.6.sect.1) says that the posterity of Magog are called Scythians, and these inhabited Tartary; so some commentaries make Gog to be the general of the Ishmaelites or Edomites or Turks. This land of Magog is the same with Cathaia or Scythia, that part of Tartary from whence the Turks came; Joel Richardson is of this opinion.

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

Posted in Books of Moses, Esau, Latin Americas

Exodus (27-28)

•November 25, 2023 • Leave a Comment

~~~~

Q. Could on one unexpected day the Jews bring out the Ark of the Covenant and cause both the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque to collapse?

Exodus 27

~~~~

¹ “And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare, and the height thereof shall be three cubits. — ñot of gold but of brass; the height thereof shall be three cubits; a proper height for a man to minister at;

²And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof. His horns shall be of the same, and thou shalt overlay it with brass. — his horns shall be of the same; these horns were projections pointing upward in the form either of a small obelisk, or of the horn of an ox; they were projections at the four top comers, probably not unlike the horns of bulls, whence their name; the length of the horns is not specified;

³And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels and his basins and his fleshhooks and his firepans. All the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. — and his basins: to receive the blood of the sacrifice, and out of which it was sprinkled, as the word signifies, and may be rendered sprinkling basin;

— and his fire pans; which were a kind of censers in which coals of fire were taken off from the altar of burnt offering, and carried to the altar of incense, all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass; as being fittest for the use of this altar.

⁴And thou shalt make for it a grate, a network of brass; and upon the network shalt thou make four brazen rings at the four corners thereof.

⁵And thou shalt put it under the rim of the altar beneath, that the network may be even to the middle of the altar.

⁶And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass.

⁷And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar to bear it.

⁸Hollow with boards shalt thou make it. As it was shown thee on the mount, so shall they make it.

⁹“And thou shalt make the court of the tabernacle: For the south side southward there shall be hangings for the court of fine twined linen of a hundred cubits long for one side.

¹⁰And the twenty pillars thereof and their twenty sockets shall be of brass; the hooks of the pillars and their fillets shall be of silver.

¹¹And likewise for the north side, in length there shall be hangings of a hundred cubits long, and his twenty pillars with their twenty sockets of brass, and the hooks of the pillars and their fillets of silver.

¹²And for the breadth of the court on the west side shall be hangings of fifty cubits, their pillars ten and their sockets ten.

¹³And the breadth of the court on the east side eastward shall be fifty cubits.

¹⁴The hangings on one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, their pillars three and their sockets three.

¹⁵And on the other side shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, their pillars three and their sockets three.

¹⁶And for the gate of the court shall be a hanging of twenty cubits of blue and purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen wrought with needlework; and their pillars shall be four and their sockets four.

¹⁷All the pillars round about the court shall be filleted with silver; their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of brass.

¹⁸The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty everywhere, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.

¹⁹All the vessels of the tabernacle for all the service thereof, and all the pins thereof, and all the pins of the court, shall be of brass.

²⁰“And thou shalt command the children of Israel that they bring thee pure oil of beaten olives for the light to cause the lamp to burn always.

²¹In the tabernacle of the congregation outside the veil, which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening (‘ereḇ) to morning before the Lord (יְהוָ֑ה). It shall be a statute for ever unto their generations on behalf of the children of Israel.

Exodus 28

~~~~

¹ “And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, with Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

²And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory and for beauty.

³And thou shalt speak unto all who are wisehearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office.

“And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him,” Exodus 28:1

⁴And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate and an ephod, and a robe and an embroidered coat, a miter and a girdle; and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother and his sons, that he may minister unto Me in the priest’s office.

⁵“And they shall take gold and blue and purple and scarlet, and fine linen;

⁶and they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and of purple, of scarlet and fine twined linen, with skillful work.

⁷It shall have the two shoulder pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof, and so it shall be joined together.

⁸And the embroidered girdle of the ephod which is upon it shall be of the same, according to the work thereof: even of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet and fine twined linen.

⁹And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the children of Israel:

¹⁰six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth.

¹¹With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel. Thou shalt make them to be set in clasps of gold.

¹²And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of theephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel; and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial.

¹³And thou shalt make clasps of gold,

¹⁴and two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathed work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathed chains to the clasps.

¹⁵“And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with skillful work; according to the work of the ephod thou shalt make it: of gold, of blue and of purple, and of scarlet and of finetwined linen shalt thou make it.

¹⁶Foursquare it shall be, and doubled: a span shall be the length thereof and a span shall be the breadth thereof.

¹⁷And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; this shall be the first row.

¹⁸And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond;

¹⁹and the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst;

²⁰and the fourth row a beryl and an onyx and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in their enclosings.

²¹And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes.

²²And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends, of wreathed work of pure gold.

²³And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.

²⁴And thou shalt put the two wreathed chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate.

²⁵And the other two ends of the two wreathed chains thou shalt fasten in the two clasps, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod at the front of it.

²⁶And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is on the inner side of the ephod.

²⁷And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shalt put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the embroidered girdle of the ephod.

²⁸And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the embroidered girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod.

²⁹And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel on the breastplate of judgment upon his heart when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.

³¹“And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue;

³²and there shall be a hole in the top of it, in the middle thereof. It shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of a jacket of mail, that it be not rent.

³³And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue and of purple and of scarlet round about the hem thereof, and bells of gold between them round about:

³⁴a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.

³⁵And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers; and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord and when he cometh out, that he die not.

³⁶“And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: Holiness to the Lord.

³⁷And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the miter; upon the forefront of the miter it shall be. — a mitre is a type of a headgear, a turban, almost like an imperial crown.

³⁸And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.

³⁹“And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the miter of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.

⁴⁰“And for Aaron’s sons thou shalt make coats, and thou shalt make for them girdles, and bonnets shalt thou make for them, for glory and for beauty.

⁴¹And thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother and his sons with him; and shalt anoint them and consecrate them and sanctify them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest’s office.

⁴²And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach.

⁴³And they shall be upon Aaron and upon his sons when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place, that they bear not iniquity and die. It shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him.

Posted in Books of Moses