Isaiah 13 is framed by explicit references to Babylon (vv. 1, 19), but the structure extends into chapter 14. A new section begins in 14:4, with another reference to “Babylon” and the introduction to the taunt song over the king of Babylon. When we include 14:1-3, we get a neat . . . . Continue Reading »
Isaiah 13 moves forward in part by regular puns. One thread of wordplay works with the tzb- combination. When the Medes come, Isaiah says, men will scatter like roebucks, like tzebyi (v. 14). The very same word is translated as “glory” or “beauty” in verse 19. Babel is the . . . . Continue Reading »
Yahweh threatens to “visit on the world evil and on the wicked their iniquity” (Isaiah 13:11). When Yahweh comes for a visit, things get sorted. And things get shut down. The next clause of 13:11 says that the Lord will “cause to cease” the arrogance of the proud. The verb . . . . Continue Reading »
When Babel is judged, Isaiah says - for the fist time in the Bible, that stars will go out. The way he says it, though, is interesting. “The stars and their constellations will not flash forth their light” is the way the NASB puts it, not badly. But the verb “flash forth” is . . . . Continue Reading »
In Isaiah 13:3, Yahweh commands and calls His holy warriors to go into battle. They are commanded and called to “My anger,” but they are called to this as those who are “jubilant in My height.” This last phrase is badly mistranslated in the NASB as “proudly exalting . . . . Continue Reading »
The Hebrew word “burden” ( massa ) can refer to a literal load that carried by an animal or person (Exodus 23:5; 2 Kings 5:17; 8:9). It is used in the literal sense of the Levitical crews that carry around the tabernacle and its furnishings (9x in Numbers 4). The Levites are . . . . Continue Reading »
Douglas Farrow is making a career out of the ascension. Not a bad thing to make a career of. In his freshly published sequel to Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology , entitled simply Ascension Theology , Farrow defends . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors , Harvard’s Charles Maier describes the trade-off that other countries have established with the “empire of consumption” that is the US. Why, he asks, do other countries, especially China, continue to extend credit to . . . . Continue Reading »
Commenting on John 1:12-13, Calvin says “Some think that an indirect reference is here made to the preposterous confidence of the Jews, and I willingly adopt that opinion. They had continually in their mouth the nobleness of their lineage, as if, because they were descended from a holy stock, . . . . Continue Reading »
The harlot’s sins are piled up as high as heaven (Revelation 18:5), like the evils of Sodom and the sins of Israel. The specific language draws on 2 Kings 3:3, which (in the LXX) speaks of the piling-up of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin and is the only text in the . . . . Continue Reading »
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