TL:DR: The Genesis Question part twenty-five

Hi, Everybody!

Sunday: FUNday!

16 Ramadan 1235 AH

Hi Troy & Mia; David & Marie:

Ezekiel 24

As I read it, this continues the motif of the Lord GOD -- God -- introducing a subject as a prompt and then the YHWH responding to that prompt by elaborating on the subject. Very much like the psychiatric gambit of "word association".  So, in verse 3 God says

Utter a parable unto the rebellious house, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Set on a pot, set on and also pour water into it.

The concept is "shared judgement" on Israel and Judah, but also judgement upon the YHWH -- the rebellious house, rebellious against God and seeking to usurp God's stature and position.  As with word association you can see that it could go any number of ways.  It could be cooking pot (which is what the YHWH infers) or it could be a wash pot, the water could be being heated for a bath, for cleansing, for purification.  The YHWH elaborates:

Gather the pieces thereof into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with the choice bones.  Take the choice of the flock and burn also the bones under it, make it boil well, and let him seethe the bones of it therein. 

So the YHWH is inferring that this is the YHWH's own Levitical instructions for animal sacrifice.  Which is accurate but, for the YHWH, inopportune.  So, Lord GOD -- God -- says, basically, "Okay, here's where we are with that":

Wherefore thus saith the Lord  GOD, Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum therein, and whose scum is not gone out of it; bring it out piece by piece, let no lot fall upon it.

That is, again invoking the "issue of horses" -- "Thou shalt drink of thy sister's cup deep and large" -- the point of which is, indeed, scum.  That scum isn't a byproduct in the mess the YHWH has created, scum is the point.  Scummy behaviour, scummy thinking.  Horse ejaculate.  Which is why the observation has struck such a deep chord with the YHWH. It's ON everything and IN everything. "Let no lot fall upon it":  that is, you can't roll the dice or consult the Urim and the Thummim or any other kind of "casting of lots" and give it a "get out of jail free" card. 

So the YHWH elaborates:

For her blood is in the midst of her: she set it upon the top of a rock, she poured it upon the ground to cover it with dust

This is again self-indictment (PARTIAL self-indictment, the YHWH has specifically switched genders to the female). This is the YHWH's Levitical instructions for our (quite literally) bloodthirsty earth: the idea behind kosher food, that you're not supposed to consume the blood with the meat.  "For the blood is the life thereof".  You are "to pour it out like water on the ground" and then cover it with dust. It was an elaborate ruse by which the YHWH, the earth, could consume blood in vast quantities so long as the ritual sacrifice lasted.

that it might cause fury to come up to take vengeance: I have set her blood upon the top of a rock, that it should not be covered

That is, the YHWH is not concealing the ruse anymore and sees it AS a ruse.  It's still only PARTIAL self-indictment.  The YHWH is attempting to make it external: according to the YHWH this is Israel and Judah's doing (conveniently ignoring that it was done on the YHWH's instructions).  God provides another word association prompt:

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD Woe to the bloody city, I will even make the pile for fire great

Again, a lot of different  directions you could take that.  The YHWH goes this way with it:

Heap on wood, kindle the fire, consume the flesh and spice it well and let the bones be burnt

If you are burning the bones, you have the original Hebrew definition of holocaust, a completely burnt sacrifice:

Then set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot and may burn and that the filthiness of it may be molten in it, that the scum of it may be consumed. 

This, as I read it, definitely causes -- not unexpectedly -- a schismatic reaction within the YHWH:

She hath wearied with lies, and her great scum went not forth out of her: her scum in the fire. 

Pretty definitive as judgements go, it would seem, which then turns into a "mixed bag":

In thy filthiness, lewdness, because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my fury to rest upon thee. 

Is "she" purged or isn't "she"?  The YHWH's full vengeance seems to have been inflicted…and then is suddenly being held in abeyance.  Perhaps the YHWH suddenly saw that self-indictment aspect and shied away from it.  Or attempted to.  And then…just as suddenly…seems to have developed the necessary resolve:

I the YHWH have spoken, it shall come to pass and I will do.  I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent,

"neither will I repent" of what?  It can be read two ways:  the YHWH will not repent of the judgement pronounced on "she" or the "she" aspect of the YHWH will not repent of her scummy behaviours.  Which, as I read it, leads Lord GOD -- God -- to pronounce

according to thy ways and according to thy doings shall they judge thee, saith the Lord GOD.

Which is a very neat bit of phraseology in addressing he/she/it.  They.  The "thy ways" and "thy doings" apply in two directions:  what the "she" chooses to do -- her ways and her doings -- and what the YHWH chooses to do -- the YHWH's ways and the YHWH's doings.  It closes off the option of dissociation for the YHWH.  He has to judge the ways and doings of  "she" as "she" and "it" will judge he, the YHWH.  It eliminates the ability to shift back and forth on the question of WHO judgement is being pronounced upon and makes it a situation of the YHWH and the YHWH's mirror image.  Which are both, of course, the YHWH.

Which then leads to a very unhappy episode for Ezekiel:

Also, the word of the YHWH came unto me, saying: Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn, nor weep, neither shall thy tears go.  Be silent, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thine upper lip and eat not the bread of men.  So I spake unto the people in the morning, and at even my wife died, and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

So, as I read it, the YHWH POSSIBLY evades part of the judgement by killing Ezekiel's wife.  I suspect not as much of an evasion as the YHWH had hoped for: a vital part of the YHWH…or a female aspect or entity connected to the YHWH…has been sacrificed at the YHWH's behest.  It's definitely "tough love", made all the tougher by the command not to mourn or weep or shed tears.  It takes place at least at twin levels:  the YHWH has suffered what Ezekiel is made to suffer.  It's traumatic but, presumably, therapeutic.  All the more because of how unusual it seemed to the people ministered to by Ezekiel (there's some question as to whether that was the captives or the soon-to-be captives:  I would suspect that latter). Ezekiel answers them:

Then I answered them, The word of the YHWH came unto me saying, Speak unto the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes and the pity of your soul and your sons and your daughters whom you have left shall fall by the sword.  And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your upper lip nor eat the bread of men.  And your tires upon your heads and your shoes upon your feet, ye shall not mourn nor weep but ye shall pine away for your iniquities and mourn one toward an other. 

Which is fine, except for the attribution -- "Thus saith the Lord GOD" -- which is evasive of the fact that this is the YHWH's judgement, making it sound as if God is victimizing the YHWH, the YHWH's "she" aspect, Ezekiel, Ezekiel's wife, the Hebrew people and their sons and their daughters when, in fact, it's the YHWH who has done so.  Which God then corrects:

Thus Ezekiel is unto you a sign, according to all that he hath done, shall ye do: and when this cometh ye shall know that I, the Lord GOD.

That is, the attribution hasn't escaped God's attention and God is aware that the YHWH is perceiving of it as an escape hatch out of self-judgement:

Also, thou son of man, not in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes and the lifting up of the soul, their sons and their daughters: that he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee to cause to hear it with ears?  In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped and thou shalt speak & be no more dumb and thou shalt be a sign unto them and they shall know that I, the YHWH.

That is, "she" YHWH has been sacrificed:  the "she" that was as close to the YHWH as Ezekiel's wife is to Ezekiel -- which is to say close but not the person themselves.  Ezekiel's wife isn't Ezekiel.  The sons and daughters of the Jerusalemites are not the Jerusalemites themselves. 

The YHWH vows a resurrection "that he that escapeth in that day…"  -- that is the day when the verdict upon the "she" YHWH has come to pass and the deaths of the sons and daughters of the Jerusalemites, presumably the YHWH -- "…shall come unto thee to cause to hear it with ears".

Which anticipates the coming of the Synoptic Jesus -- the YHWH's "Christ" -- and his recurring phrase "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Ezekiel 25-29

This chapter I read as God "batting clean-up":  having obviously gotten under the YHWH's skin in a big way, He can be pretty confident that the YHWH will now have to vent somewhere, which the YHWH does -- with timely prompts from God -- pronouncing doom upon the Ammonites, Rabbah, Moab, Seir, Beth-ieshimoth, Baal-meon, Kiriathaim, Edom, Teman, the Palestinians (excuse me -- the Philistines  :)) the Cherethims,   Since YHWH is pretty much the apex of "Not God" this is all to the good.

The culmination of this indictment of "Not God" -- that is, the various permutations of the YHWH -- comes in Ezekiel 28, as I read it, where God pronounces doom, specifically, upon "the prince of Tyrus" but more generally upon "Not God", again as a prompt for the YHWH: 

Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD: Because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said I a god, I sit in the seat of God in heart of the seas, yet thou a man not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. 

Behold thou wiser than Daniel: there is no secret that they can hide from thee.

This strikes me as being tongue-in-cheek on God's part:  directed at the YHWH's own overweening vanity.  If the YHWH WAS "wiser than Daniel", the YHWH wouldn't leap so readily at self-indictment through the prince of Tyrus as his proxy, having just escaped from self-indictment in chapter 24:

With thy wisdom and thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures.  By the greatness of thy wisdom, by thy traffic hast thou increased thy riches and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches.  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom & they shall defile thy brightness.  They shall bring thee down to the pit and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the seas.  Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I, God?  but thou a man, and no God in the hand of him that slayeth thee.  Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken, saith the Lord GOD.

The YHWH -- his/her/its own vanity offended that someone BESIDES the YHWH would claim "I, God" -- goes right along with it, reiterating God's doom pronounced upon Tyrus, a central trading capitol in the "Not God" context.  And then gets really carried away and pronounces doom against Zidon without any prompting from God. 

Which allows Lord GOD -- God -- to say

And there shall be no more a pricking briar unto the house of Israel nor grieving thorn [a sly reference to the YHWH's doom pronounced upon A Dam in Genesis 3:18] of all that round about them that despised them and they shall know that I, the Lord GOD.  Thus saith the Lord GOD, When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land, that I have given to my servant Jacob.  And they shall dwell safely therein and shall build houses and plant vineyards, yea they shall dwell with confidence when I have executed judgement upon all those that despise them round about them and they shall know that I, the Lord their GOD.

Ezekiel 29

And then the YHWH gets really carried away and pronounces a comparable doom against Egypt in verses 1-12 -- a doom which is so severe Lord GOD -- God -- needs to interrupt and scale it back a little in verses 13-21.  Egypt will be needed long-term, I think, as evidenced by the fact that Egypt is still with us today.

Okay, as I said before, that's as far as I got in Ezekiel before Ramadan began, so I'm going to take a break and get back to the Koran with the rest of my Sabbath today and over the next couple of Sundays and then get back to commenting on Ezekiel 30 -- God willing -- August 3rd.

Thanks for your letter, David, which I'll answer separately.  Enclosed please find a disk with all of my "Dear Pastor John" commentaries on SOUL REVOLUTION.  I agree the cover image is kind of disturbing, but, then looking at the future always tends to be.  There are days I feel like the last non-tattooed person in Kitchener.

Best,

Dave

Next Time: Free stuff! (Or not, "past" Matt.)

Auctiony stuffs

Hi, Everybody!

What do I got today?

Well, the Vark Wars continues. (You'll see how in the next week or so.) If you want in, all submissions to: thevarkwars@gmail.com

What else?

Anybody got any money? Neat stuff at Heritage Auctions:

Dave Sim Friends of Cerebus Fan Club Certificate Illustration Original Art

Dave Sim Cerebus #3 Inside Back Cover Splash Page Original Art

Dave Sim Cerebus the Newsletter #1 Cover Original Art

Dave Sim Cerebus #21 Cover Recreation Original Art 

And Everybody's Friend (and Superman's Frenemy,): David Birdsong sent in:

Boy, that Dave Sim sure gets around.

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

If you go to the video, it's actually "Dave Sime." But it's still kinda funny.

Next Time: Dave SIM (no "e") discusses the Genesis Question

New auctions, continued... (Dave's Weekly Update #258)

Hi, Everybody!

Heeeeeere's Dave:

Problems viewing this video? Watch directly on YouTube...

And if you wanna get in on the Vark Wars (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), I ain't gonna stop ya. All submissions to thevarkwars@gmail.com

Next Time: Do you have a moment (heh.) to talk about the War between the Varks?

The OTHER Vark Wars cover!

Benjamin Hobbs:

At some point in 2017, I sent Dave a BIG stack of in-progress covers, one of which was VARK WARS. Dave tentatively approved the VARK WARS cover and then we both promptly forgot about it.  I present it now for your viewing pleasure.

Next Week: LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY CEREBI #1: ON SALE AT YOUR LCS!

Vark Wars 5: The Final Frontier

Hi, Everybody!

The Vark Wars: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and now: this one:

So, here's the last of what the Vark Wars team did:
(For "biggerness" click.)

So there you have it. I'm supposed to remind everybody that wants to send in a submission to thevarkwars@gmail.com, to, "Remind contributors that they need to include after-gags or their name is going to be in really small print."

If you want in on this, send your submissions to: thevarkwars@gmail.com That's thevarkwars@gmail.com

Next Time: Superman?

TL:DR: The Genesis Question part twenty-four

Hi, Everybody!

Sunday:

Even though it's drawn by Gerhard, this is the FIRST actual Aardvark in Cerebus the Aardvark

9 Ramadan 1235 AH

Hi Troy and Mia, David and Marie:

Ezekiel 21

As I read it, verses 1 to 5 are the YHWH -- I don't really picture God as having a sword, metaphorical or otherwise.

verses 6-7, as I read it, is God sighing in resignation:  "Here we go." 

verses 8-12, as I read it, is the YHWH.  Verse 10, it seems to me, is an early incarnation of the idea of God having a son, which seems to me strategic on the part of the YHWH who sees God as being the YHWH's son so that -- even if the inverse is true: the YHWH is God's son -- the YHWH has an unassailable high rank. 

It condemneth the rod of my son, every tree.

OR

It is the rod of my son, it despitheth every tree.

I suspect the KJV translators are trying to force a meaning here -- believing as they do that God and YHWH are the same being.  As is usually the case, the supplementary marginal translations seem to me to follow an actual narrative -- the original Hebrew -- whereas I can't really understand what the KJV text, a lot of times, is even trying to say. 

Verse 13, KJV:  Because is is a trial and what if [interpolated: the sword] condemn even the rod?  It shall be no [interpolated: more] saith the Lord GOD. 

Verse 13 marginal translation:  When the trial hath been, what then? Shall they not also belong to the despising rod?

This, to me, is God calling into question the YHWH's overall purpose.  Yes, you can demand that there be a "despising rod", a glittering sword of vengeance, that's where this is going. This is the reason God is sighing.  But after the sword has taken its vengeance, what is the net effect?  The Hebrew people -- the slain and the survivors -- still belong to God and the YHWH.  They are both God's Chosen People and the YHWH's Chosen People. 

With resignation, God instructs Ezekiel:

Thou, therefore, son of man, prophecy and smite hand to hand and let the sword be doubled the third time, the sword of the slain, it the sword of the great men that are slain which entereth into their privy chambers. I have set the point of the sword against all their gates that heart may faint and their ruins be multiplied.  Ah, it is made bright, it is sharpened for the slaughter.  Go thee one way or other, either on the right hand set thyself or on the left, whithersoever thy face is set.

That is, all of the victims aren't equal in merit in the eyes of God.  When you set about to commit indiscriminate slaughter -- which the YHWH purposes to do -- you are going to kill great men as well as not-so-great men.  You can kill them secretly and in secret places but it still constitutes injustice.  So they will have their own sword, ultimately, and the YHWH will have to deal with that when the time comes.  But, for the moment, left or right, let the slaughter begin.

(this anticipates the sword with which Peter cuts off the ear of one of the arresting authorities in the Garden of Gethsemane both in the Synoptic and Johannine Jesus accounts: the sword of the great men, coming back the other way)

The YHWH responds to this, getting a clear mental picture of what it is in which indiscriminate slaughter -- cutting both ways -- is apt to result:

I will also smite my hands together and I will cause my fury to rest: I the YHWH have said.

It's a nice intention but -- as George says to Martha in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? "You can't quit just when you get enough blood in your mouth".  The point where the YHWH will "cause my fury to rest" will prove to be too late and a bridge too far.  It's not that controllable when set in motion.

The YHWH tries shaping the narrative by addressing Ezekiel and suggesting that the "cutting both ways" can be accounted for by directing it against Rabbath of the Ammonites AND Judah in Jerusalem:

Also, thou son of man, appoint thee two ways, that the sword of the king of Babylon may come: both twain shall come forth out of one land: and choose thou a place, choose it at the head of the way to the city.  Appoint a way, that the sword may come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah in Jerusalem the defenced. 

The YHWHistic rationalization being:

For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way [significantly, the original Hebrew has it as "the mother of the way"] at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with seraphim [images] he looked in the liver [searching for auguries in the liver of a slaughtered animal] .  At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint against the gates, to cast a mount, to build a fort.

And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight  [to them that have sworn oaths/for the oaths made unto them]: but he will call to remembrance the iniquity that they may be taken.

That is, trying to get "the point of the sword against all their gates" cited by God to point against the Ammonites as pagans and Judah as failed monotheists and to pronounce this at "the mother of the way" where the king of Babylon had used divination against Judah.  Basically to get the sword away from the YHWH's gate.

Nice try, says God:

Therefore, thus saith the Lord GOD, because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are discovered, so that in all your doings your sins do appear:  because that ye are come to remembrance, ye shall be taken with the hand.

That is, YOU are the motivating force behind the king of Babylon AND behind everything that is Not God and anti-God, YHWH.  Addressing the king of Judah and the YHWH simultaneously -- the two ways that the sword will cut:

And thou, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is come, when iniquity an end, thus saith the Lord GOD, Remove the diadem and take off the crown: this not the same:

It's translated as "when iniquity shall have an end", but I think that misses the point of what God is saying.  This is all the YHWH's construct.  God has commented from time to time, but everything is the result of what the YHWH has chosen and instructed:  iniquity is fast becoming -- and will become -- an end in itself.  That's the inevitable end point of the YHWH's "teachings".

And reminding the YHWH of the YHWH's own rendered judgement upon him/her/its self:

exalt him that is low and abase him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn it and it shall be no more, until he come whose right it is and I will give it him.

The original Hebrew has it as:  "Perverted, perverted, perverted will I make it" which the KJV translators clearly had a problem facing head-on.  Would God really pervert something?  In the context of the dialogue, it makes sense:  God's ultimate purpose is to allow the YHWH to fully develop the YHWH's own construct.  He has been doing so for about 3,500 years in our current epoch to this point.  It is, however, coming to an end by the time of Ezekiel.  When all is iniquity, all that is left as an option is to pervert, pervert, pervert iniquity -- or overturn, overturn, overturn -- until everything that has been turned upside down by the YHWH has been turned right-side up by God. 

And thou, son of man, prophecy and say, thus sayeth the Lord GOD concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach:  Even say thou, the sword, the sword is drawn, for the slaughter it is furbished, to consume because of the glittering: whilst they see vanity unto thee, whilst they divine a lie unto thee, to bring thee upon the necks of them that are slain, of the wicked whose day is come, when their iniquity an end. 

That is, the judgement of the YHWH is left to stand and will come upon the Ammonites, but Ezekiel (as I read it) is actually addressing the sword here.  Which is interesting, because the YHWH thinks of it as the YHWH's sword.  What God seems to be saying is, No, the sword is an entity unto itself which recognizes vanity and recognizes a lie.  It WILL kill indiscriminately as it has been instructed to do but it won't just be upon the necks of the slain -- the great and the not-great -- but also on the necks "of the wicked whose days is come, when their iniquity, an end."  (Basically, "I'm looking at YOU, YHWH").

Which, I suspect, the YHWH recognizes and then rejoins:

Shall I cause it to return into his sheath?  I will judge thee in the place where thou wast created, in the land of thy nativity. 

Basically attempting to assert the YHWH's self-perceived stature as the creator of God -- or, at least, the creator of Israel and Judah or, at least, the creator of Ezekiel:

And I will pour out my indignation upon thee, I will blow against thee in the fire of my wrath, and deliver thee into the hand of [KJV: brutish; Hebrew: burning] men skillful to destroy.  Thou shalt be for fuel to the fire: thy blood shall be in the midst of the land, thou shalt be no remembered: for I, the YHWH, have spoken.

Chapter 22

I read Chapter 22 as basically a continuation of the discussion to that point which illustrates that God and YHWH both agree that the end point has been reached and that iniquity has become an end in itself.  The YHWH opens with:

Now, thou son of man, wilt thou [KJV: judge/ Hebrew: plead for -- I think the Hebrew would be the more accurate, invoking the pleading of Abraham with the YHWH over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Are you going to plead with me for Jerusalem as Abraham did for Sodom?]  wilt thou judge the city of bloods? 

That is, which are you going to do?  Plead for Jerusalem or judge Jerusalem?

Yea, thou shalt [KJV: show her/ Hebrew: make her know] all her abominations. 

God, as I read it, then interjects with a strong subtext which is directed against Jerusalem but also directed, personally, against the YHWH:

Then say thou, thus sayeth the Lord GOD: the city sheddeth blood in the midst of it, that her time may come, and maketh idols against herself to defile herself. Thou art become guilty in thy blood that thou has shed and hast defiled thyself in thine idols, which thou hast made, and thou hast caused thy days to draw near and art come even unto thy years: therefore have I made thee a reproach unto the heathen and a mocking to all countries.  Those that be near and those that be far from thee, shall mock thee, Polluted of Name and Much in Vexation.

(The KJV has this as "which art infamous and much vexed".  I don't think that really conveys what God is communicating to the YHWH here: the YHWH has permanently polluted his/her/its own name -- it is considered a reproach by heathens and a name to be mocked in all countries -- which has, naturally, made the YHWH "much in vexation":  the YHWH keeps trying to figure out how to turn all this around and re-achieve the YHWH's preeminence.  No, there are things that -- once broken -- stay broken.]

Behold the princes of Israel, every one were in thee to their arm to shed blood.

This becomes the recurring indictment of the YHWH, personally, centring on the term "in thee":  this all happened INSIDE the YHWH's context:

In thee, have they set light by father and mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by oppression with the stranger; in thee have they vexed the fatherless and the widow.

The YHWH attempts an unattributed evasion, an attempt to overturn the overturning:  It's God's fault and Israel's fault because:

Thou hast despised my holy things & hast profaned my sabbaths.

But God is relentless in his judgement:

In thee are men of slanders to shed blood; and in thee they eat upon the mountains; in the midst of thee they commit lewdness.  In thee have they discovered their father's nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was set apart for pollution.  And one hath committed abomination with his neighbour's wife and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law, and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter.  In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood:  thou hast taken usury and increase and thou has greedily gained of thy neighbours by extortion and has hast forgotten me, saith the Lord GOD.

The YHWH, again, attempts to invert the judgement.  Instead of Judah being indicted for what Judah has done IN YHWH and the YHWH being indicted personally by God, YHWH indicts Judah and God for what Judah has done IN God:

Behold therefore, I have smitten my hand at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made, and at thy blood which hath been in the midst of thee.  Can thy heart endure, can thy hands be strong [this appears to me to be a reference to God's reference in  21:24 that the YHWH will be "taken with the hand")  in the days that I shall deal with thee?  I, the YHWH have spoken and will do.  And I will scatter thee among the heathen and disperse thee in the countries and will consume thy filthiness out of thee.  And thou shalt take thine inheritance in thy self in sight of the heathen and thou shalt know that I, the YHWH. 

The YHWH isn't quite finished, however:

And the word of the YHWH came unto me, saying, Son of man, the house of Israel is to me become dross: all they brass and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace: they are the drosses of silver. 

Its a species of self-awareness:  the YHWH is basically indicting his/her/its self, so God prompts the YHWH with an uncompleted thought:

Therefore, thus saith the Lord GOD, Because ye are all become dross, behold therefore I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem...

The YHWH picks up on it right away.  The translators had a little trouble with this.  The Hebrew they have as "according to the gathering" with "according" interpolated.  The KJV has it "as they gather" with "as" interpolated, missing, it seems to me, the point that God is prompting the YHWH and the YHWH is just continuing the thought (at, as it turns out, considerable length):

…to the gathering of silver, and brass and iron and lead and tin into the midst of the furnace to blow the fire upon it, to melt, so will I gather in mine anger and in my fury and I will leave and melt you.  Yea, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of my wrath and ye shall be melted in the midst thereof.  And ye shall know that I the YHWH have poured out my fury upon you.  And the word of the YHWH came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.  A conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof like a roaring lion, ravening the prey: they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof.  Her priests have offered violence to my law and have profaned my holy things:  they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths and I am profaned among them.  Her princes in the midst thereof like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.  And her prophets have daubed them with untempered, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the YHWH hath not spoken. 

(An artful little attempted nuance there:  If the Lord GOD is being quoted, naturally "the YHWH hath not spoken".)

The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy: yea they have oppressed the stranger without right.  And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them, I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath.

And, as I read it, at that point, God "bookends" the YHWH's extended monologue, returning to His own observation that began with "Because ye are all become dross, behold therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem…" and which now concludes:

 

…their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.

Chapter 23

In my own reading of Chapter 23, the YHWH is finding self-accusation inescapable.  The Hebrew people, Judah, Israel and Jerusalem are all dross.  And if they're all dross, that means the YHWH is dross.  So, interestingly, the YHWH circles all the way back to the subject of whoredom.  In one sense it seems to be an attempted evasion -- like dragging the Ammonites into the judgment upon Judah -- but in a deeper sense it is, as the Koran puts it, "the self-accusing soul" of YHWH acknowledging he/she/its "she" aspect in verses 1 to 17.  It gets particularly interesting when the YHWH asserts, in verse 17

And the children of Babel came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them and her mind was [the Hebrew offers "tossed" or "disjointed"; the KJV offers "alienated"] from them.

Emphasizing (to me, anyway) that this is a YHWHistic enactment, in verse 18, the YHWH adds

So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness; then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister

And as (I would suggest) the YHWH's mind was now "tossed"/"disjointed"/"alienated" in response to what Lord GOD had said in the previous chapter: the inescapable insight that ALL of this was now dross -- including the YHWH -- and that what the YHWH was experiencing was being "recompensed" by God upon his/her/its own head.  That is, the YHWH is enunciating the history of Aholah (Samaria) and Aholibah (Jerusalem) as an analogous experience.  There comes a breaking point…but the plain fact of the matter...the YHWH adds almost wonderingly:

Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 

I say "wonderingly" because there's obviously a distinction between "playing the harlot"…ACTING like a whore…and "multiplying whoredoms"…BEING a whore many times over.  And just to emphasize the "dross" part (i.e. that this wasn't a matter of untoward curiosity that, once satisfied, could be and was repented of and that the mental alienation the YHWH experienced was persistent)

For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh the flesh of asses and whose issue the issue of horses.

The KJV translators have trouble facing this head-on as well and interpolate into the text "whose flesh IS AS the flesh of asses, and whose issue IS LIKE the issue of horses".  But, no, it's worse than that, that's the point of the confession, the point of the extent of the "alienation" and "disjointed" and "tossed" mental response the YHWH experienced.  The women of Samaria and Jerusalem -- the "their" possessive used in the verse -- recognized that their whoredom with Egyptians and with the Babylonians, the children of Babel, was like having sex with beasts of burden.  And. They. Kept. Doing. It. 

The balance of the chapter, to me, is the YHWH pronouncing judgement on his/her/its self in recognition and self-acknowledgement of all this, with Lord GOD interjecting in verses 22, 28, 32, 35, 46 and 49.  Interjecting in the same way that He did previously: prompting the YHWH by making an introductory assertion that the YHWH then finishes.  The YHWH's self-indictment and penalties are pretty gruesome stuff.  All God says, sequentially, is

22. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated and I will bring them against thee on every side

28. For thus saith the Lord GOD, I will deliver thee into the hand whom thou hatest; into the hand from whom thy mind is alienated

[the KJV interpolates "into the hand OF THEM whom thou hatest; into the hand OF THEM from whom thy mind is alienated") but, as I've said before, God is often represented as a hand in the actual God narratives so I think the interpolations are inaccurate.  I think what He's saying here is "the problem isn't that you are alienated/tossed/disjointed in your mind from the Babylonians or the Egyptians or your whorish incarnations. The problem is that you are alienated from Me, that you hate Me and you hate the Hand of God]

32.  For thus saith the Lord GOD, Thou shalt drink of thy sisters' cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision. It containeth much.

[34. is attributed to Lord GOD:  "Thou shalt even drink it and suck it out and thou shalt break the shards thereof and pluck off thine own breasts: for I have spoken, saith the Lord GOD" but I think this is really an extreme enactment of the YHWH's unacknowledged female aspects(s) who have, in a way, risen up in self-accusation in this chapter.  The "issue of horses" is a pretty extreme remembrance of their whoredom experience.  Drinking from a cup "deep and large" containing the "issue of horses", I suspect, pushed them -- the female aspects and the YHWH -- over the edge not only into promised self-mutilation but also into blasphemously attributing that punishment to Lord GOD.  Which God, as I read it, then immediately corrects:)

35. Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, because thou hast forgotten Me and cast Me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

That is, if you want to smash the cup and use the shards to cut off your own breasts, that's up to you.  All God is saying is that you have to bear the consequences of your own lewdness and your own whoredoms.

(it's worth noting I think that the Whore of Babylon in John's Revelations is also depicting as having a "cup of her fornications".  It's an enduring concept as a means of punishing whoredom, I think)

46.  For thus saith the Lord GOD I will bring up a company upon them and will give them for a removing and spoil.

49.  And they shall recompense your lewdness upon you and ye shall bear the sins of your idols and ye shall know that I, the Lord GOD

All of the unattributed verses -- and verse 34 -- I would chalk up to YHWHistic histrionics. 

Again:  enough with the YHWH and Aholah and Aholibah, here in the sacred month.  I feel as if I need to take a long, hot shower. And read aloud from the Koran.

Best,

  

Dave

Next Time: Maybe Kevin starts up "Reading Cerebus" again?