THE SCRIPTURES FOR THE WHOLE HOUSE OF ISRAEL
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Sample from the Torah:

THE FOUNDATIONAL CHAPTERS:
Genesis (B'reyshith) 1-5


CHAPTER 1

1. Originally [b'reyshith], Elohim brought the heavens and earth into existence [from nothing, and set them in perfect, finished order].

Originally: at first, or "in the former state"; literally "in beginning". Elohim: the name emphasizing the Creator's justice, but also any "mighty ones", whether in the spiritual realm or human judges. Another form of the word for "create" or "bring into existence" means "to make fat". Compare this with the note on verse 2. The actual Hebrew word order could translate as, "[The One who was] in the beginning created Elohim, Aleph-Tav of the heavens, and Aleph-Tav of the earth." Aleph and Tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, spelling a word which grammatically marks a direct object following it, but when we remember that Y'shua was called the "Alpha and the Omega", the Greek equivalent of the Aleph and Tav, we have a parallel to the Renewed Covenant statements that he is in the category of elohim (Yochanan 20:28), having proceeded from the Father (as the light in v. 3) and participated (as His Word, which is lesser than Him, yet of the same essence, expressing His thoughts precisely) in the remainder of creation (Yoch. 1:1-5); that he is the firstborn of creation (Colossians 1:15); and that he is the "beginning [first in a series or leader] of the creation of YHWH" (Rev. 3:14).

2. But the earth became a ruin and a desolation, and an obscuring darkness [hung] over the surface of the primeval depth; and a mighty wind was fluttering intensely over the surface of the waters.

The primeval depth: often used for an ocean or a surging mass of water, but translated "abyss" (a scene of disaster or place of punishment) in the Greek Septuagint. Apparently there is a gap here between the original creation and a reconstitution after some sort of cataclysm--probably related to Satan and his accomplices' being cast down to earth and judged. This age of the reign of a now-disembodied race of spirit beings may explain the appearance that the earth is more ancient than the 6,000-year history of mankind. "A mighty [or god-like] wind fluttered... over...": Alt., a spirit of Elohim intervened deliberately upon..." On another level, "a ruin and desolation" could be trans-lated "empty space and a void", and the mystical retelling continues: the Endless One, wanting to share Himself yet being All in all, created a "vacuum"--a space within Himself, yet that was "not Himself", so He could fill it with creatures who could know and enjoy Him. A mother's womb is an excellent illustration of this idea. Into this empty space, He sent a single point of light, the maximum amount of His nature that this new universe could tolerate:

3. Then Elohim said, "Let there be light", and light came into existence.

This "light shining in darkness" is the description of creation within mystical Judaism, which correlates well with the Renewed Covenant's "In the beginning was the word...with Elohim...In him was life, and the life was the light of men... The light shone in darkness... (Yochanan 1:1-5). "Light" as conceived in Hebrew could just as well be translated "energy".

4. And Elohim gazed at the light, because it was good, and Elohim distinguished the light from the darkness.

5. And Elohim called the light "day", and the darkness He called "night". And the evening [setting or folding back] and the morning [dawning, daybreak] together constituted one day.

* * *
6. And Elohim said, "Let there come to be a space between the waters; let it divide the waters above from the waters below."

Space: vault, dome, attenuated substance "beaten out very thin"; i.e., atmosphere.

7. And Elohim organized this expanse and divided the waters which were under it from the waters which were above it, and so it came to be.

Possibly a crystalline "window" of ice in a heat sink 11 miles above the earth's surface, where extra water was held in reserve for a special contingency, 7:11. It would also act as a receiver for the "music of the spheres", screen out much of the sun's harmful radiation and produce a stable, "hothouse" climate, even-tempered throughout the world; these allowed for the radically-longer lives seen in the chapters ahead.

8. And Elohim called the space "Heavens", and there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

9. And Elohim said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let dry land appear." And so it came to be.

10. And Elohim called the dry land "Earth", and the collection of waters He called "the Sea", and Elohim saw that it was good.


11. And Elohim said, "Let the Earth bring forth tender sprouts, herbs yielding seed, and fruit trees producing fruit akin to itself on the earth. And so it was.

12. And the earth bore tender sprouts, the herb yielding seed according to its own kind, and the tree producing its fruit which has its seed in it, according to its kind. And Elohim saw that it was good.

13. And the evening and the morning became a third day.

* * *

14. And Elohim said, "Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs [15:5; Psalm 19:1; Rev. 12:1] and for seasons [appointments, Lev. 23:2], and for days and years.

15. "And let them come to be for lights in the expanse of the heavens to illuminate the earth", and this is exactly what happened.


16. Moreover, Elohim appointed the two great luminaries, the greater one to to govern the day, and the lesser one to govern the night, and also the stars.

Lesser one: possibly not the moon, which is not always visible, but a softer, more diffused "lighting effect" refracted by the "waters above", which would act as a natural tranquilizer.

17. And Elohim set them in the heavens to give light on the earth
18. and to regulate the day and night, and to make a distinction between the light and the darkness; and Elohim saw that it was good.

19. And the evening and the morning became the fourth day.

The creation week is often seen as a microcosm of human history, in which each "day is as a thousand years" (Ps. 90:5); the Messiah, the Light of the World, entered the human scene at the end of the "fourth day" of this "world week". A 6,000-year-old universe need not conflict with the appearance of age. Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield compared 163 measures of the speed of light through the centuries and found it (well beyond the expected margins of error) to be slowing down in a cosecant-squared curve. Graphs of "light-year"- based accounting and earth-revolution-based time converge about that long ago by this measure. The electric permittivity of space has not changed, but the magentic permeability has been "stretched out" (cf. Yeshayahu/Isaiah 42:5; Yirmiyahu/ Jeremiah 10:12). The "red shift" may be caused by this decay in the speed of light. The reason for such universal entropy is found in Gen. 3:17ff.

* * *

20. And Elohim said, "Let the waters teem with an abundance of lively animals, and let birds fly over the face of the expanse of the heavens.

Lively animals: "swarmers having a soul of life, with the nuance of merriment.

21. Elohim also created the great reptiles, and every amphibian [living soul that creeps] with which the waters swarmed, each according to its category, and every species of winged bird according to its kind.

Cross-bred species are possible but last only one generation, being sterile.

And Elohim saw that it was good.

22. And Elohim blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth."

23. And there were evening and morning, the fifth day.

* * *

24. And Elohim said, "Let the earth bring forth living animals as befits its nature: quadrupeds, creeping things, and, from the earth, its living things, each after its own kind. And so it happened.

25. And Elohim fashioned from the earth its living things, and likewise the beasts, as well as everything that moves on the ground, each reproducing true to its own kind, and Elohim saw that it was good.

26. And Elohim said, "Let Us make Man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and the beasts, and all the earth, and all the living things that crawl upon the earth."

Us: Elohim is a plural word with singular verbs (Yochanan/John 1:1ff; 10:30, etc., make it clear that while what Philo called "the lesser or second YHWH" was not entirely separable from "the" YHWH (the "One without end" in mystical terms), still he was subordinate to the Father, whom no one could ever survive seeing. He is called YHWH's "branch" or "arm", and makes known to us as much about the Father as our finite beings can tolerate, Yoch. 1:18, so that Y'shua can indeed say "He who has seen me has seen the Father" without contradicting the fact that he was sent by the Father, worships the Father as his Elohim, and promises to one day raise us to his level, 1 Yochanan 3:2). In our image: able to relate to "Us". Likeness: resemblance of moral character. Rule over: guide toward the fullest potential and benefit of all.

27. So Elohim created Man in His own image. In the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them.

It seems there may be two "Elohim" beings spoken of here, one being Y'shua, and the other being YHWH Himself, whose image could only be seen as reflected through Y'shua. The "Ancient Adam" once bore the full image of the Godhead", which has in it both masculine and feminine qualities, until the two were separated (see below) in order to be able to voluntarily come back together. Some of this image was lost (ch. 3), but at the right time in history the messenger and Message of YHWH was "made flesh" (by YHWH) and there again existed a Man "in whom the fullness of the 'Godhead' dwelt bodily", who could rightfully be called "the image of the invisible Elohim" (Colossians 1:15; 2:9), who revealed and manifested as far as possible the One no one can ever see. (Yochanan 1:18) His obedience (at the precise point at which the first Adam failed, see Philippians 2:6) made it possible for others to have the certainty of sharing the restoration in the Day in which we see him. (1 Yochanan 3:2)

28. And Elohim blessed them, and told them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and bring it into subjection to yourselves, and rule over the fish of the sea, and the birds of the heavens, and over all living things that crawl on the earth."

29. And Elohim said, "Here, I have given you every seed-bearing herb on the face of the earth, and every tree on which there is seed-bearing fruit [or with its seed in itself--themselves a source of protein and an anti-disease agent]; this will be your food

Seed-bearing fruit: or "fruit with its seed in itself", seeds themselves being a source of protein and an anti-disease agent. A vegetarian state lasted until the Deluge, 9:3, and it appears we will return to such a condition in the "time of the restitution of all things", Yeshayahu/Isaiah 11:1-9. After the Flood, meat was permitted, but later in the Torah limits are also placed on which types of meat the righteous and discerning person will eat (See also 7:2).

30. "and the food of every earthly creature, and for every bird of the heavens, and for every creeping thing in which there is a living soul." And so it was.

31. And Elohim looked at everything He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And evening and morning became a sixth day.

Parallels between the two sets of three days:
Day 1 - lights Day 4 - light bearers
Day 2 - heavens & waters Day 5 - their inhabitants
Day 3 - land Day 6 - its inhabitants


CHAPTER 2

1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished with all things necessary to them.

2. On the seventh day, Elohim completed the workmanship [message] which He had been constructing, so He ceased on the seventh day from setting everything in order.

3. And Elohim gave the seventh day His blessing and set it apart from the others, since on this day He had rested from the work involved in creating and appointing everything.

The holiness of the Sabbath was established from the very start.


[YEAR 1 / 4000 BC]

4. This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the Day when YHWH set them in readiness,

YHWH: or Yahweh, the name by which He revealed Himself to Moshe (Moses) and the prophets.

5. and there was not yet any shrub of the field on the earth, nor had any plant of the field sprung up, for YHWH (Elohim) had not yet sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to till the soil.

6. And a mist ascended from the earth and watered all the face of the ground.

Mist ascendeed: or a surge welled up, probably from the "fountains" reserved for the event in 7:11; 2 Kefa/Peter 3:5-7.

7. And YHWH (Elohim) formed the man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit [breath] of life, and the man came to be a living soul.

Spirit of life: included the direct image of Elohim, distinct from the kind of soul that animated other creatures.

8. And YHWH (Elohim) planted a garden to the east of Eden ["luxury, delight"], and there He placed the man whom He had formed.

Garden: "Paradise" in the Septuagint (LXX), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.

9. And YHWH (Elohim) caused to spring up from the ground every kind of tree that is aesthetically pleasing, and good for food. The Tree of Life was in the middle of the garden, as was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

10. And a river went out from Eden to water the garden, and from there it was divided and became four heads.

The imagery of four heads shows up often in Scripture: notably the appearance of the angelic beings called cheruvim, Yechezqel/ Ezekiel 1:6; 10:14; Rev. 4:7. Note that the garden is not in Eden, but east of it. A river that divides rather than converging show us something of the different physics that may have been in operation in the antediluvian order. We will see the same type ofthing restored after Messiah returns, flowing both east and west from his throne.

11. The name of the first was Pishon ["spreader"]. (It is the one that makes a circuit encompassing the land of Chavilah [India, 10:7], where there is gold,

12. and the gold of that land is good; there are also bdellium gum resin and onyx stone there.)

Onyx is a priestly stone (Ex. 28:20) first worn by Lucifer--in Eden (Yechezqel/Ezek. 28:13ff; cf. Gen. 3:1).
13. And the name of the second river is Gihon ["Gusher"]. (It is the one that surrounds the whole land of Kush).

The Gihon surfaced just to the east of Yerushalayim/ Jerusalem. Chizqiyhahu/Hezekiah channeled it into city to form the Pool of Shiloah, where healing was found--Yoch./ John 9:7. This internal water source that enabled the city to withstand an Assyrian siege is a picture of the Holy Spirit, which can provide for us illumination on the "water" of YHWH's Word within in any circumstance, Ps. 87:7; Yoch./John 7:38.

14. And the name of the third is Chiddeqel [Tigris] (it is the one going east of Assyria), and the fourth river is the Ferath [Euphrates]. [See 3:24.]


15. And YHWH (Elohim) took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to cultivate it and care for it.

16. And YHWH (Elohim) gave the man orders, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden,

17. "but of the Tree of the [Experiential] Knowledge of Good and Evil you may not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you will certainly die."

While Adam and Chavvah did not fall over dead during the same 24-hour period, the process of physical death did begin, along with the immediate psychological fragmentation evidenced by their shame, terror of Elohim, and blame of one another. They died spiritually, separated from their Source like an unplugged electrical appliance. But by the logic of Ps. 90:4 and 2 Kefa/ Peter 3:8, man cannot live more than 1,000 years. Though pre-Deluge conditions allowed very long lives, no one surpassed 1,000 years.

18. And YHWH (Elohim) said, "It is not good, the man being alone. I will make a helper suited [fitting, correlated] to him."

19. So out of the ground YHWH (Elohim) fashioned every living being of the field and every bird of the heavens, and brought each to the man, to see what he would call it.

20. And the man gave names to every animal and bird of the heavens, and every being that lives in the field, but as for Adam ["a human being"], no helper suited to him could be found.

The memory and insight required in classifying so many creatures demonstrates Adam's pre-fallen mental capacity. Naming also implies authority over the one named. But Elohim's main purpose here was to show Adam that he had no counterpart as each of the animals had. His realization of this is evident in v. 23.

21. And YHWH (Elohim) caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs.

Ribs: or "sides". Deep sleep: trance, stupor, numbing of senses.

22. Then YHWH (Elohim) formed the rib that He had taken from Adam into a woman, and brought her to the man.

The Second Adam, too, had part of His Body separated from Himself in a spiritual sense, and they will be reunited again in the end of days. They both have the same name (Yirmiyahu/Jeremiah 23:6; 33:16). The "sleep" of Messiah was also necessary for His bride to be formed. Romans 11:8 shows how the Gentiles similarly benefit from such a "sleep" (the same exact word in Hebrew) coming over the House of Israel. The same term is used in verse 8 for "deep sleep" is used in Yesh./Isaiah 29:10, the verse that Sha'ul quotes in Romans 11:8 in speaking of the "spirit of insensibility" that came over Israel so that another intent of YHWH could be accomplished.

23. And the man said, "[This time] At last, this is now bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! For this one, the name shall be 'Woman', because this one has been taken out of man!"

Woman: Hebrew, ishah, the feminine form of ish (male human being).

24. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cling closely to his wife, and the two of them shall be turned into one unit of flesh.

25. And neither the man nor his wife wore clothing, yet they were not ashamed.

They were vulnerable (another meaning of the word for "naked" in Hebrew) but neither did anything shameful, not "knowing evil" (v. 17) nor even seeing any potential for the kinds of abuse that now ruin nearly every attempt to express the aesthetic beauty of the uncovered human body. (See 3:7.)




CHAPTER 3

1. Now the serpent was more crafty [subtle] than every [other] living creature of the field which YHWH (Elohim) had made. And he said to the woman, "Is it really true that Elohim has said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"

Serpent: "shining one", a dazzlingly impressive creature at that time (Yechezqel/Ezek. 28:133ff). Another animal speaks in Numbers 22:28-31, but here Chavvah/Eve does not seem surprised; in an uncursed world there may have been nothing unusual about talking animals, but apparently this one was either inhabited or influenced by Satan (the Adversary), the former archangel and "cheruv who covers", Lucifer, who had become the sworn enemy of Elohim and who was jealous of mankind's being given the rulership of earth which he had once possessed. His craftiness is shown in his reframing of the prohibition in an exaggerated form, throwing her off balance and influencing her to overreact.

1. And the woman told the serpent, "We may eat from the trees of the garden,

3. "but from the tree which is in the center of the garden, Elohim has said, "You shall not eat from it, nor shall you reach out to touch it, or else you'll die."

She added a "fence" to what Elohim said, a common human trait that breeds discontentment with Elohim's protective commands, making us forget all that we really are offered and opening us to the temptation to seek greater fulfillment through going outside the bounds He truly has set.

4. And the serpent said to the woman, "You won't really die as in 'death',

5. "because Elohim knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Elohim, understanding good and evil.

We would expect half-truths from Satan. While Elohim "understands" evil better than anyone (since it is anything that is contrary to His nature), He has never experienced it in the way Adam's race does now.

6. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that to the eyes it aroused a craving, and that the tree was intensely desirable to bring insight, she took some of its fruit and ate it, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with [beside] her, and he ate it.

Good to the eyes...insight: Compare these three areas of temptation as seen in Matt. 4:2-10 and 1 Yoch./John 2:16. Satan took advantage of the innate traits in the woman that were necessary for sympathetic mothering, but her husband, who had been placed in authority over her to protect this area of vulnerability, knew better, and thus bore the greater guilt. Perhaps he loved her enough to wish rather to be condemned along with her than to retain his purity but lose her to Elohim's judgment.

7. And the eyes of both of them were indeed opened, but [only in such a way that] they realized that they were naked. And they sewed together leaves from a fig tree, and made for themselves loin coverings.

Some aspects of Elohim's image (1:27) were lost, so there may have been a perceptible change in their appearance. (See note on v. 21.) Satan's rule of the earth had been justly removed from him and given to Adam, but now he had usurped it again. But the Kingdom of Elohim could not be given to Satan; it was withdrawn to heaven until another Man could win it back (see 3:15). Until that happened, the Holy Spirit could only come upon people temporarily, for sin had not been completely atoned for.

8. And they heard the sound of YHWH (Elohim) walking around in the garden in the breezy part of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the face of YHWH (Elohim) among the trees of the garden.

9. And YHWH (Elohim) called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?"

10. And he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked, so I hid myself."

"I am...": not "was", though he was now physically clothed. He knew he was still vulnerable. Every aspect of his being came to be out of balance. "The light shone in darkness, but the darkness did not overcome it (or admit it)." (Yochanan 1:1-5) Either is true, but a failure to "admit" the light would parallel another (pure) kabbalistic metaphor, that of golden light being poured into earthen vessels (a metaphor for humanity, cf. 2 Corinthians 4:7) and causing them to shatter because it is to intense. Adam and Chavvah desired something that they could not contain. The job of Israel, the mystics say, is to regather the millions of shards of light from wherever they are found and reassemble the fallen Adam (which means "humanity"). They couch this idea in another metaphor, that of the "Primeval Adam", a symbolic "body" built of all the isolated aspects of "Godhead", or Elohim's image--that "point of light" (in 1:2, 3) refracted into many different colors so we could know Him in many ways. But although "all the king's men" have tried unsuccessfully to do put him back together again, "Israel" (the entity ordained to bring the restoration) is also one title of the Messiah (promised in v. 15 below), who would indeed make this regathering of Adam's seed possible. Understanding this imagery makes Rav Sha'ul (Paul)'s deep teachings understandable, for he ties all of these metaphors together by describing Y'shua the Messiah as "the second Man" (1 Cor. 15:47) and "the last Adam" (15:45), as well as the "firstfruits" and the "head of the body, those called out" (Col. 1:18). The head is what is born first, and the word "first" in Hebrew is based on "head". After him comes the rest of the body, who become, in a way, his "descendants" (Isa. 53:10), completing the picture as this new "race" recovers what Adam lost. This is the theme of the rest of Scripture, which is on fast forward until it reaches the beginning-point of Israel, the exception to the rule of "vanity of vanities" which began here in the garden, and the embodiment of YHWH's glorious solution to this tragedy. He finishes His work of repair by again pouring the same "light that shone out of darkness" into once-shattered human hearts (2 Cor. 4:6; see notes on 3:10ff below). The darkness at the time of Y'shua's crucifixion was also a harbinger of this "reconstitution" of the human race, the light that again shone out of this darkness.

11. And He said, "Who told you that you are naked? Have you eaten from the tree about which I gave you orders so as to prevent you from eating?"

His fatherly prohibition had been intended to preclude such a predicament, not to withhold anything good from them.

12. And the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me"--she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it."

13. So YHWH (Elohim) said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent enticed me, and I ate."

14. So YHWH (Elohim) said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than every beast, and more than every animal of the field.

15. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed: He will bruise your head, though you shall bruise His heel."

The myth of Achilles' heel probably originated from a memory of this promise. In crucifixion, one's heel was literally worn away as he pushed himself up to breathe. Note the picture of the crushed head in the story of Yael and Sisera (Judg. 4:21), and the reference to the serpent's seed in Matt. 3:7 and Yoch./John 8:44. The serpent's seed almost crowded out the human, but Elohim preserved it (Gen. 6:4, 9), The seed normally comes from the male, but Messiah did not have the seed of man in him. Geneticists have found that the reproductive cells carried by women are actually immortal until they are "poisoned" by fertilization, possibly due to a mutation acquired from the forbidden fruit itself which affects both genders but is carried only by the male. Only by being the "seed of woman" apart from a man (virgin-born) could the Messiah be truly the Second Adam, bearing the complete image of Elohim and thus capable of becoming fully righteous after passing the same tests Adam failed. When Satan the usurper was allowed to kill this Second Man, he lost his legal rights to earth, for he had become a murderer by killing one who had no sentence of death on him, since he had not sinned. Thus the legal deed to the earth could be given back to a Man. We can inherit His "spiritual genes" (1 Yoch./John 3:9; Isaiah 53:10, 11; Romans 8:29; Heb. 2:10).

16. To the woman He said, "I will greatly increase your pain and your [frequency of] conception: in pain you will bear sons, and your husband shall be your desire, but he will have authority over you.

Increase: since, due to the presence of death, mankind would now have to replace itself each generation, not just fill the earth once.



"Desire" can mean "ambition"; she would strive for dominance over him--for his position--but would not achieve it. In Messiah, this is ameliorated as she is given an equal position, but practical subordination must remain until our redemption is complete and abuse is rendered impossible.

17. And He said to the man, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it', the ground shall be cursed because of you; you shall eat from it in hard labor all the days of your life.

18. "And it shall bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you shall eat the herbs by means of agriculture.

The thorns seem more to be a statement about the course nature must now take, rather than a curse in themselves. They only result when an area once cultivated by man is abandoned again to nature. Elohim's mercy does shine through in that He did not rescind provision of food, but it would no longer come with the ease or joy he knew in the garden.

19. "By the sweat of your face shall you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you have been taken, because you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Unfallen man, with no fears or emotional stress and a perfect physical efficiency, must have had a slower metabolic rate and hence little need for sweat. Animals react to us with hostility chiefly because they detect sweat, whereas they are more friendly toward children who do not know enough yet to fear them. Linen garments, which symbolize purity, do not produce sweat, and that is what will be given to the saints in the resurrection. The intensity of the Messiah's sweat (Luk. 22:44) made the true bread (Yoch./John 6:50ff) available to us without the need for our own rigors.

20. And the man called his wife's name Chavvah ["life-giver"], because she became the mother of all who are alive.

21. And YHWH made garments of skins for the man and his wife, and thus He clothed them.

Skins of animals that He slaughtered so their blood could provide temporary atonement, or simply skin as we now know it, because formerly what ran through their veins was more like light, and their bodies held a glow which was now missing. Blood as we now know it, which carries the soul in it, is the corrupted form of this light which bore Elohim's image in a much fuller way.

22. Then YHWH (Elohim) said, "Look! the man has become like one of Us, able to know good and evil, therefore, so he doesn't stretch forth his hand and take from the Tree of Life also, and eat, and live forever."

23. YHWH (Elohim) sent him out of the Garden of Eden as well, to work the ground out of which he was taken,

24. and He drove the man out. And He stationed the cheruvim from the east to the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword whirling around, to guard the way to the Tree of Life.

Cheruvim: a class of angels associated with guarding holy places--more like winged sphinxes than the unthreatening baby "cherubs" of Western art. Notice YHWH's mercy in not allowing mankind's bodies to become immortal while their spirits remained fallen. He thus gave them hope of regaining their lost estate when they would die physically. Since the Chiddeqel and the Ferath are "east of Eden", though the topography had evidently changed, and judging by where the Gihon (2:10-14) still originates, we can surmise that Eden may have been at the location of none other than Yerusahalayim/Jerusalem. The idea that "Yerushalayim is a city compacted together" or "joined to itself" (Psalm 122:3) is generally interpreted as meaning "the place where heaven and earth meet". Revelation 21 speaks of a Heavenly Jerusalem, and Hebrews 9:8-24 tells us that the Temple on earth was a copy or shadow of the one above it. Thus YHWH would have shown His greatest pictures of redemption--the provision of a ram in place of Yitzhaq (22:8-14) and the Temple sacrifices (an exact replica of what is in heaven, Heb. 8:5)--at the same location, and finally solved the sin problem once and for all on another "tree" at the site of Eden itself. In this regard, it is fascinating that the eastern gate to the city is now closed, awaiting Messiah's return to reopen the rivers of Eden (Yechzq./Ezkl. 44:1-3) but it is visible from another garden directly east of the city, where the real battle for the salvation of the world was won, Markos 14:32-36.


CHAPTER 4

1. And the man [intimately] knew his wife Chavvah, and she conceived and bore Qayin, and said, "I have acquired a man with YHWH!"

With YHWH: i.e., with His help, or perhaps "toward [the promise of] YHWH": she thought he might already be the redeeming seed promised in 3:15, but the right time was not to come for another 4,000 years. Qayin means "possession", and is related to the word "acquired" here.

2. And she continued to bear his brother, Hevel. And Hevel became a keeper of flocks, and Qayin a tiller of the soil.

Hevel means "a breath", "vapor", or "vanity", perhaps a prophecy of the fleetingness of his life. It seems Qayin took up his father's occupation, and Hevel his mother's (if being called "mother of all living" in 3:20 before
she bore children meant she practiced animal husbandry). This parallels with
another set of twins: Esau, the elder, whose occupation pleased his father
but not YHWH, and Yaaqov, a "man of tents" (symbolically one who learned all
he could about the way of righteousness) who was favored by both his mother
and YHWH. A "keeper of flocks" also symbolically means one who watches over
the welfare of others, while Qayin was literally a "servant of the ground"
(see v. 5).

3. And in the course of time, it happened that Qayin brought a grain offering
to YHWH from the fruit of the ground,

Course of time: a term used for a bar mitzvah; literally, "from the
utmost end of days", so this is a prophecy of something future as well. As
the expansion seen in chapters 1-2 is now beginning to reverse, unity is the
byword of our day, and it will happen on both the "heavenly" and "earthly"
levels, so that while all of true Israel unites, all that is not Israel will
also unify against it, so that in the end there are only two real entities,
symbolized here by these two brothers, one of whom has his eyes on YHWH, and
the other who worships the earth and his own skilfulness. This is the
essence of the "beast" of Revelation. "From the fruit...": not necessarily
the firstfruits or the best (like Hevel's), but just a sampling or token, so
to speak. In the Temple, grain offerings were either not the main thing
required, but an added gift, supplementary to the blood slaughter,
contributions really to the priests and not to YHWH, or at best only accepted
from those who could not afford anything better (being thus the lowest of
offerings). Thus Qayin's gift was like one who washes his hands to come into
a king's presence while the rest of his body is still filthy. There was no
atonement in it. It was not even the fruit of a tree, but from directly on
the ground, which is precisely what was cursed.

4. And as for Hevel, he also brought an offering from the firstlings of his
flocks, indeed, the finest of them. And YHWH had regard for Hevel and his
offering,

Had regard: paid attention to, respected, gazed long upon (with
satisfaction).

5. but He did not show regard for Qayin or his offering. So Qayin burned
greatly with anger, and his face was downcast.

Although Qayin was not a shepherd like Hevel, both had to shed blood
(Heb. 9:22). Nothing originating from earth can substitute for the payment
of the soul, which is given by Elohim, and contained in the blood (Lev.
17:11). Downcast: toward not toward YHWH but toward the ground that he served
(v. 2). He took his eyes off the giver and onto the gift--the classic root
of all idolatry, which does not always despise YHWH, but sidelines Him.

6. So YHWH asked Qayin, "Why are you so furious, and why is your face
downcast?

7. "If you do what pleases Me, [isn't there] a higher position [for you]? But
if you do not do what is pleasing, sin is crouching at the door; its desire
is to [overwhelm] you, but you can take dominion over it."

Higher position:or exaltation/majesty, but the Hebrew term is also used
of the swelling of skin on a leper (Lev. 13:2), who had a diseasegiven as a
punishment when one sought a position that was not rightfully his. Yehudah
(Jude) 11 ties Qayin's sin to Bilaam's greediness and Korach's slander of
properly-constituted authority. The door was the place on which the lamb's
blood was later applied in order to keep the death angel from one's house
(Exodus 12:7). Sin also crouches at the doorways to our lives: our eyes,
ears, mouths, and sexual organs, so YHWH posted beards, peoth (hair on the
sides of our faces), and tzitziyoth (regulation tassels) at each to remind us
to screen what approaches them. Note the similarity of the last phrase to
3:16.

8. But Qayin challenged Hevel his brother, and while they were in the field,
Qayin rose up against his brother Hevel, and killed him.

9. Then YHWH said to Qayin, "Where is your brother Hevel?" And he said, "I
don't know; am I my brother's keeper [as in, shepherd]?"

10. And He said, "Don't you realize what you have done? The voice of your
brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.

Such an outcry is seen again in 6:13 and 18:20.

11. "And now you are cursed in a worse way than the ground which [at least]
opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.

Cursed in a worse way: or "cursed from the ground", since it would no
longer even respond to him (v. 12) --a far worse punishment than that given
his fathein regard to the soil (3:19).

12. "When you till the soil, it will no longer yield its potential to you.
You will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth.

13. And Qayin said to YHWH, "My punishment is more than I can bear. See here,
You have evicted me from the land, and I will be banished from Your very
presence! On top of this I will be a vagabond and a fugitive on the earth.
And anyone who finds me will kill me, for sure!"

Anyone: literally, "everyone"! Of course, he might live to see many more
people born, but who was there at this time but his own parents? They would
have to be his judges, and like Rivqah (27:45), they would have to do justice
and thus see both of their sons die the same day.

15. And YHWH said to him, "If anyone kills Qayin, he will be avenged
sevenfold." And YHWH set a mark on Qayin, so that anyone who found him should
not kill him.

A mark on the forehead is seen as a special seal of protection in Song of
Songs 8:6; Yochanan/John 6:27; 2 Tim. 2:19; Eph. 4:13; Rev. 7:3. In
Y'Hezq'el/Ezekiel 8 and 9, the mark of protection is given to those who do
not participate in the prototypes of "Easter" sunrise services, but rather
lament them, and they are passed over like those spared at Passover when
YHWH's wrath came on the idolaters. Thus Qayin, the man who would not kill a
lamb for atonement had to be marked, or taught the "way of Passover".

16. And Qayin went out from the presence of YHWH, and dwelt in the land of
Nod, east of Eden.

Presence of YHWH: geographically, the place bearing His name (Deut. 26:2;
2 Chron. 6:20). Nod: vagrancy, exile, wandering.


17. And Qayin knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Chanoch.

The gene pool was still relatively unblemished, and inbreeding with his
sister (5:4)--the only possible source of a wife at that time--would not be a
problem. It was not overtly forbidden until Moshe's time.


And he built a city, and he called the city by the same name as his son,
Chanoch.

Early cities were often named for their first settler, 11:32. Near
eastern documents added a cuneiform notation to a proper name if it referred
to a city, except in the case of Unuk, which is linguistically similar to
Chanoch (Enoch). If it were the only city in existence when built, no such
classifier would have been needed. This name also ties directly to the word
for city in earlier languages (Uruk > Ur > Ir). The Deluge would have
destroyed the original, but it was common to rebuild on an ancient site.

18. And Irad was born to Chanoch, and Irad fathered Mechuya'el ["smitten of
Elohim"], and Mechuya'el fathered Methusha'el ["one of the few men associated
with Elohim"], and Methusha'el fathered Lamech ["Despairing"].

19. And Lamech took two wives to himself: the name of the first was Adah
["Ornament"], and the name of the second was Tsillah ["Shade"].

20. And Adah gave birth to Yaval ["Conduct", "Lead along"]; he was the father
of those who live in tents and possess livestock.

21. And his brother's name was Yuval; he was the father of all of those who
play the harp and the pipe.

Yuval: the root word for "jubilation" and the year of release; probably
tied more to lively music here. Pipe: probably the bagpipe.

22. And Tsillah also gave birth to Thuval-Qayin, the hammerer of every
engraving tool of bronze and iron.

The relative strength of the earliest patriarchs would make them seem
like gods to "descendants" who were showing signs of the
gradually-debilitating fall into sin. THUVAL-QAYIN was probably the real
personage behind the legend of Vulcan, the god of fire and metal-forge, the
smith of the Roman TUBIListrum. Qayin means "smith", and near eastern smiths
even today refer to iron splinters struck off the anvil as "TUBAL". The
Sumerian word for "iron" is BARZILLU, the Assyro-Babylonian way to say "son
of Tsillah".

23. And Lamech said to his wives Adah and Tsillah, "Hear my voice, you wives
of Lamech! Listen to my words, for I have killed a man for wounding me, and a
young lad for hurting me,

Tradition says the man he killed was Qayin (perhaps the reason for his
statement in v. 24).

24. "for Qayin is avenged sevenfold, but Lamech seventy-sevenfold!"

25. And Adam knew his wife again, and she gave birth to a son, and she called
his name Sheth [granted or appointed]"because Elohim has appointed to me
another seed in place of Hevel" (since Qayin had killed him).

A replacement is now granted for the one that was killed. This goes
along very well with the Jewish tradition that the first Messiah would be
killed in battle (in his case, spiritual battle), and a second Messiah would
come and reign permanently. In Y'shua's case they are one and the same
(since Mary is dead, and both Messiahs, according to this foreshadowing, have
to come from the same mother!), but Hevel and Sheth played out a rehearsal of
this theme. Paul also often compares Y'shua to Adam, since he took the place
of the one who fell and thus "died" to any right he had to rule the earth.
Y'shua is called "the second man" and the "last Adam" (1 Cor. 15:45-47).
Elohim is the title used here, unlike YHWH in v. 1 at Qayin's birth, because
Elohim is the name used when emphasizing His judgment and justice.

[Year 235 / 3765 BC]

26. And a son was also born to Sheth, and he called his name Enosh. Then was
it [that people] began to call on the name of YHWH.

"Call on": or call out, as in worship, or "call by" as in profaning it,
or using His name to refer to idols. The latter fits better with the
scenario of chapter 6. But instead (or also) it could mean those who had not
had a direct experience of YHWH (as Adam and Chavvah had) began to call on
His name as a result of Sheth naming his son Enosh (which means "mortal",
"frail", or "fragile"). Those who recognize their frailty commonly do turn
to the help that He provides. Calling on His name particularly as YHWH has
only been widely restored in the past few years. What momentous results will
this have spiritually?


CHAPTER 5


1. This is [has been] the book of the genealogies of Adam.

The repeated use of this term "genealogy"--also translatable as
"account", "generation", or "history"(throughout the book and in Num. 3:1, a
special usage in Ruth 4:18, and Matt. 1:1) may indicate that what preceded
each one was an account appended by the person named therein (Adam wrote
chapters 1-4, etc.), with the possible exception of notations later added to
Terach's, perhaps by Avraham. Moshe, the redactor and editor, would simply
have completed the account. In other words, most of Genesis was written by
eyewitnesses. Josephus writes, "Those who then lived...noted...with great
accuracy, both the births and deaths of illustrious men."

* * *

A Complete Translation of the Torah with our commentary can be found at
www.torahforthewholehouseofisrael.20m.com

  Sample from the
B'RITH CHADASHAH
(Renewed Covenant):
MATITHYAHU (Matthew)


Background: Mattithyahu ben Chalfai, a Levite, was a tax collector hired by Rome who became Y'shua's disciple very spontaneously. (Markos 2:1-4) His emphasis is on the Messiah's kingship. Papias, Eusebius, and Jerome quote from a Hebrew version; for centuries, only their quotes were known to be extant, but among Hebrew texts confiscated in Rome by the Inquisitor General in 1553 was found a manuscript of Mattithyahu salvaged by a French priest, Jean du Tillet. Two other Hebrew versions are known, the Munster text, which the publisher claimed was received from the Jews in 1537 with many holes in the manuscript, and the one Shem Tov Ben Yitzhaq Ben Shaprut transcribed into his 1380 apologetic work, Even Bohan.

The Greek manuscripts may have been written separately by Mattithyahu with the additional explanatory notes needed by non-Jewish readers. But some expert scholars believe the Hebrew version underlies the Greek. James Trimm, a Nazarene Jewish scholar, argues that the variations among the Greek Synoptic Gospels (Mattithyahu, Markos, and Lukas) results from different readings of the same Hebrew phrases. He points out that, according to contemporary historian Josephus, Greek, though the lingua franca of the time, was not spoken widely enough in Judea even by the time the Temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, and the Romans had to translate their request for surrender into Hebrew. Thus a Greek version would have been adequate only in the diaspora. Ireneus, Origen, and other 2nd-4th century "church fathers" all acknowledged that Mattithyahu had written first in Hebrew, and an eighth-century commentary by Isho'dad claims that this was still common knowledge in his
day. The book begins c. 2-4 B.C., or 4000 years after creation.


CHAPTER 2

1. Now after Y'shua had been born in Beyth-Lechem, [a city] of Yehudah, in the days of Herodus the king, behold, Magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem,

Beyth-Lechem: "house of bread", a town five miles south of Yerushalayim in the Judean hills. This is not without significance: Y'shua called himself the "bread of life" (Yochanan 6:35). Yehudah: the tribal land of Judah; the Roman name for the province was Judea. Magi: a high caste in the Persian, then Parthian, empires, who served as both priests and as the highest magistrates, and chose kings according to signs in the stars. DuTillet has machshufim--"sorcerers" or "enchanters"; Shem Tov, "stargazers" or "astrologers". Some believe Dani'el was the founder of this order, since he is called "Rab Mag", or "chief of magi" (used also in Yirm./Jer. 39:3, 13), so it is no surprise that they had access to Hebrew prophecies. Zoroaster is thought to have been Dani'el's own student. These astrologers (whom Shem-Tov calls "seers in the stars, linked to angelology") who came (to "confirm Yeshua's calling" before their own countrymen?), would notice this star that Herodus did not seem aware of. This was Herodus the Great, son of Antipater II, who lived from c. 73 to 3 or 4 BCE and came to the throne in c. 37 BCE. He tried to endear himself to the Jews by lavish building projects, most
notably the Temple reconstruction and enlargement, but he had also built temples to pagan deities outside of Judea, and was always considered a foreign ruler.

2. asking, "Where is he who is born King of the Yehudim? --because we saw his star in the east and have come to pay him homage."

Julius Caesar had appointed Herodus' father procurator of Judea in 47 BCE. When the Parthians invaded and set the Hasmonean Antigonus, Antony and the Roman senate appointed Herodus "King of the Jews". He married into the Hasmonean family, but due to suspicion of those who aspired to power, he ended up killing his wife and all the remaining Hasmoneans one by one. His sons raised his suspicions against their brothers, and he executed three of them, which led to the quip that (as Herodus ate kosher to please his subjects) it was safer to be Herodus' pig than his son. His suspicion reached obsessive proportions, and this is the backdrop for his suspicion of another who was called "King of the Jews". "His star": Genesis 1:14 reveals that
stars were designed as a means to convey signs of special importance, and traditionally Judaism interprets the "star" in Numbers 24:17 to be a reference to the Messiah. To pay him homage: i.e., as king. Shem Tov, "with important gifts to bow before him".

3. But Herodus the king was disturbed when he heard this; all of Jerusalem with him [were], too.

The Hebrew says he was filled with rage; in Aramaic, "he shook".

4. And, gathering all of the chief cohanim [priests] and Torah scribes of The People together, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

Messiah: Heb., Mashiach--"anointed one". The term applies in a broad sense to anyone selected for a special task, but in a special sense to one particular servant of YHWH. Writings from this period show that Messianic fervor was very high, largely because Daniel's prophecy indicated the precise time the Messiah was to be revealed, and it was only 33 years away. So when such a momentous entourage appeared, King Herodus feared the worst, assuming that a Jewish king would certainly take precedence over himself, as he was a "Jew" for pragmatic reasons only, and a descendant of Edom (Esau). His people, the Idumeans, had been forced to convert to Judaism during the
Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynasty, and he had ascended to the throne through a deal made with the Romans. He knew that he was not a rightful king according to the conditions laid down by YHWH for David's royal line. Cohanim: priests, or "officiators" in Hebrew, usually over the sacrificial ceremonies in theTemple. Scribes: not just copyists, but in this era, the prominent students and teachers of the Torah. (Stern)

5. And they told him, "In Beyth-Lechem of Yehudah, for this is how it has been written by the prophet:

Beyth-Lechem: "House of Bread". Interestingly, Y'shua later referred to himself as the "Bread of Life". (Yochanan 6:35) The town is five miles southwest of Yerushalayim. Micha 4:8 specifies even more precisely the Tower of the Flock, which the Mishnah tells us was the limit of a perimeter around Yerushalayim within which sacrificial lambs sold by the priests for Temple use had to be born.

6. "'As for you, Beyth-Lechem in the land of Judea, though [you] are least among the clans of Yehudah, for out of you shall come forth to Me one who is to rule in Israel.'"

Micha 5:2,; the Greek Septuagint reads "are few in number to be reckoned among the thousands of Yehudah". The Aramaic and Greek versions, as well as the DuTillet Heb., say, "you are by no means least as pertaining to the governors of Yehudah, for out of you..." The Aramaic targum (a contemporary translation in the near eastern lingua franca, which included a paraphrase of the interpretation most common in that day) adds "who will shepherd My people", which then appears in the Aramaic and Greek versions of Matthew. The targum also links this to Genesis 49:24, identifying it as a Messianic prophecy. Least: "insignificant" or "lightly esteemed". Clans: or
"thousands".

7. Then secretly summoning the Magi, Herodus questioned them diligently as to the exact time the star had appeared [to them].

Questioned them diligently: Gk., "ascertained from them".

8. And, sending them to Beyth-Lechem, he said, "As you journey, search diligently for the little boy, and when you find[him], report back to me, so that I may come and pay him homage, too."

9. When they had heard the king's words, they departed. And, lo and behold, the star which they had seen in the east was going on ahead of them until it had come and stood still over the place where the young boy was.

The word "star" in ancient cultures referred to any heavenly body. In 3 B.C. (Possibly the year Herodus died, as the dates are not considered precisely accurate), there was a series of conjunctions of Jupiter (identified by the Hebrews with Tzedeq or righteousness) and Venus (Nogah, or dawn-star, in Hebrew). Some of them took place within the constellation of Virgo--the Virgin (called Bethulah in Hebrew long before), who, incidentally, was seen as in a position of childbirth, faced by a dragon, and "crowned" by a cluster of stars--at a time when the moon was below her feet in the sky and the sun where her clothing would be (Rev. 12 calls this a sign in heaven,
which is what Magi would be looking for). The Midrash Rabbah interprets Yeshayahu/Isa. 41:2 ("Who has raised up the Righteous one from the east? He
called him to His foot...") to be saying the planet Tzedeq would illuminate the Messiah's path! Another conjunction took place in the constellation Leo, the Lion, calling up memories of the prophecies of the Lion of the Tribe of Yehudah. It was right beside the star Regulus (the Ruler) in the lion's forepaw, reminiscent of the prophecy in Gen. 49:10. Stood still over: or "stopped in front of". Avi ben Mordechai goes into great detail in his book, Signs in the Heavens: A Jewish Messianic Perspective of the Last Days &
Coming Millennium.

10. And when they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with exuberant joy,

Because earth revolves around the sun faster than Jupiter, it appeared to stop, reverse, then again move forward to a third conjunction, coming to a standstill right over Beyth-Lechem! No wonder the Magi rejoiced when they saw the "star" again! In Aramaic, they "cheered a great cheer."

11. and, having come into the house, they saw the child with his mother Miryam, and falling down, they bowed before him in homage. And opening their treasure-boxes, they presented him with gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

Homage: deep-seated fealty to a king, especially one to be installed by YHWH Himself. The three gifts symbolize his kingship, his priestly calling, and his death and burial for the sins of mankind. Gold often speaks of purity from sin as well. Frankincense is a ground white spice required to garnish the grain offerings which had nothing to do with sin, but with drawing closer to YHWH. Indeed, in Aramaic, "gifts" here is the word used for the "drawing-near" offerings in the Temple. It is also one of the spices mixed into the special Temple incense which is not to be imitated anywhere
else. Myrrh is a costly antiseptic balsam resin used as a perfume and for embalming.

12. And while they were fast asleep, a messenger appeared to them, saying, "Beware of going back to Herodus in Yerushalayiom." So they went back to their own country by another route.

13. And when they had departed, a messenger of YHWH appeared to Yoseyf in a dream, saying, "Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and live there. That is where you must stay until I return [and tell] you, because Herodus is about to search for the child in order to kill him."

Kill him: Greek, "get him out of the way".

14. So, being roused from sleep, he did as the messenger had told him and took the child and his mother by night, and withdrew into Egypt,

"Did as the messenger told him" does not appear in the Greek and Aramaic
versions.

15. And he stayed there until Herodus' demise, so that what YHWH had spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt I have called My Son."

The most literal reference of this quote from Hoshea 11:1 was to the whole nation of Israel, but this is in keeping with traditional Hebrew hermeneutics, in which there are four levels on which every Scripture can be validly interpreted. As in Yeshayahu/Isaiah 52-53, the Messiah is seen as a microcosm of all Israel, because, as a virgin-born second Adam he embodied the "firstfruits" of a second race of humanity, which parallels Avraham's being called out from his ancestral culture to form a completely new culture which ran counter to the direction the majority of humanity was taken.
Whether by ancestry or adoption, all of his "descendants" will constitute Israel in the truest sense.

16. Then Herodus became extremely furious, seeing that he had been tricked by
the Magi, and he sent and had all the boys in Beyth-Lechem and all its environs who were two years of age or under put to death--according to the time which he had discerned from the Magi.

Tricked: "trifled with" or "deceived"; Aramaic, "mocked". Two years of age: A Jewish child in those days was considered a year old when born; after all, he has been alive for ten cycles of the moon. So this would translate to those under about one year to fourteen months old in modern terminology.

17. Thus that which was spoken by Yirmeyahu the prophet (peace be upon him)
was fulfilled, saying,

"Fulfilled" has more of the sense of "established" in Hebrew--i.e., not only brought to its fullest meaning, but also confirmed and rendered steadfast and sure--vindicating him as not having been a false prophet.

18. "A voice will be heard in Ramah, wailing, bitter weeping, and great mourning--Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they were no more."

Ramah: Alone it means "height", but it was commonly used with another noun to describe different "heights". There was a Ramah not far from Beyth-Lechem, but the best-known is Ramathayim Tsofim, Shmuel the prophet's birthplace and the site of his tomb, though that is on the far side of Yerushalayim and the outcry would have to be miraculously loud if it were to reach so far. However, Beyth-Lechem was in Yehudah, which is not the tribal land of either of Rachel's sons, so what is the connection? Rachel was buried at Beyth-Lechem, "while there was still some ways to go to Efrath".
(Gen. 35:16) Efrath (which means "fruitfulness") links us to the name Efrayim, which means "doubly fruitful", but this fulfillment was still future as well. Ramah was in the hills of Efrayim, son of Yoseyf (1 Shmuel 1:1). And Efrayim led the straying of the "Lost Sheep of the House of Israel" (cf. 10:6; Yirmeyahu 50:6), whom Y'shua specifically had come to regather from among the nations--which is specifically the context of the verses
immediately surrounding Yirmeyahu 31:15, the passage quoted here! She is told to stop weeping, because they will return--thanks to the little boy who survived this massacre. (Compare Yeshayahu/Isaiah 49:20ff; 54:1-10)

19. But when Herodus had died, a messenger of YHWH appeared to Yoseyf in
Egypt through a dream,

20. saying, "Get up, and take the child and his mother, and cross into the
land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life have died."

21. So he rose up and took the child and his mother with him, and came into the land of Israel.

Land of Israel: Stern points out that the Renewed Covenant does not call it Palestine, as the Romans did (in honor of the Filistines, to blot out the memory of Yehudah) and as so many still try to do today.

22. But hearing that Arkhelaos was now the ruler over Judea in place of his father Herodus, he was afraid to go there. And, being warned through a dream, he went instead into the region of the Galil,

Arkhelaos:also known as "Herod the Ethnarch", Herodus' elder son who reigned after his father, but without the title of king. He was a repressive tyrant as well, leading the Judean and Samaritan aristocracy to warn Caesar Augustus that there would be a major revolt unless he were removed from power. So he was deposed and banished, after which Judea no longer had even half-Jewish rulers, but prefects appointed by the roman emperor. Galil: or Galilee, some sixty miles north of Judea. A Jewish mystical authority writes: "In the time of the resurrection of the dead, many camps will arise in the Land of the Galil, because that is where the Messiah is going to be first revealed". (Zohar, Vayakhel 220a). Indeed he was!

23. and came and settled in a city called Natzereth, to fulfill what the prophets had spoken: "He shall be called [a] 'Natzereth.'"

Fulfill: here the Hebrew term means "fill up", i.e., give its fullest meaning. A Natzereth: The precise reference is uncertain. The Greek uses the term for Nazirite (a separated one) in connection with being from the city of Natzereth, but there is no evidence that Y'shua, accused of being a winebibber, unlike Yochanan (11:19), ever took such a vow until after his final Passover. The Hebrew term seems a derivative of Netzer ("branch" as in Yeshayahu 11:1), a prophetic title for the Messiah. A midrash also says all Natzerenes would be called "despised" (cf. Yochanan 1:46)--an allusion to Psalm 22 and Yeshayahu 53:3. A similar Hebrew word "naatz" means "scorned". At that time, Natzereth, situated on a cliff overlooking the Yezre'el Valley near Mt. Tavor, was the tiny suburb of a large, up-and-coming city called Tzippori (Sepphoris).



Other selected portions from the New Testament
from a Hebraic perspective can be found at
www.renewedcovenant.20m.com

Includes portions of Matithyahu, Yochanan, Acts, Romans, and Galatians.

Most commentary is a result of weekly Sabbath discussions involving all adult members of Congregation Beth Lechem, South Carolina, USA, especially congregational leader Web Hulon. Several members have visited the Land of Israel, enhancing their understanding of Biblical geography and archaeology, which adds much light to the test. The SCriptural text itself is also a fresh translation from the original languages by a member of Beth Lechem who has studied Bible, Biblical languages, and linguistics.

 

Sample from the Prophets:

YESHAYAHU (Isaiah)
Chapters 6-9
Introduction: Yeshayahu means "YHWH is salvation"--the same meaning as Yehoshua, but with the phrasing in the reverse order. And YHWH's salvation through the Messiah Yehoshua fills a major part of his prophecy. Yeshayahu was probably from the tribe of Yehudah. A contemporary of Micha and Hoshea, he prophesied more than 200 years after the division of Israel, beginning c. 740 B.C.E. (Just prior to King Uzziyahu's death in 739), or about 18 years prior to the fall of the Northern Kingdom. But he mainly addresses the southern kingdom of Yehudah, which was now in decline as well, following the same pattern of apostasy that Israel had taken. Since he records the death of Sennacheriv, it is estimated that he continued to prophesy for some 60 year, until about 680B.C.E., when by tradition he was executed by being sawn in two. As with all the prophets, his main theme is, "Come back to the Torah!"


CHAPTER 6

1. In the year of the death of King Uzziyahu, [that is] when I had a vision of YHWH seated upon a throne--high and lifted up--and the train of His [robes] filled the Temple [building].

Uzziyahu: A king held up as the paradigm of what a good king was like (2 Kings 15:34), he brought Israel great gains, but let it go to his head; he overstepped his limits and usurped the role of the priests, ignoring their rebuke. He was struck with leprosy and quarantined until he died. (2 Chron. 26) Here, the imagery is of a king in His sedan chair, reminding us that, even with such a disappointment, YHWH is still on the throne and in control. YHWH: The Masoretic text says "Adonai", but this and vv. 8 and 11 are some of the 134 times the Scribes admitted to having changed "YHWH" to "Adonai". Train of his robes: or bottom edge of His throne". Temple: or palace, especially in this context of royalty.

2. Burning six-winged [angels] took their positions above it--each one having six wings: with two [each] concealed his face, and with two he concealed his feet, and with two he flew.

Burning angels: Heb., s'rafim.

3. This one called out to that one and said, "Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of Armies! The whole earth is filled with His splendor!"

Holy: in a separate class of His own. The famous complete Isaiah scroll found at Qumran says "Qadosh" (holy) only twice. Perhaps this is why it was found intact; if it was a copyist's error, it would have been "buried" in a geniza, or "graveyard" for scrolls that had YHWH's name on them. They would never be destroyed, but would not be used after a mistake was discovered, so
it would survive longer than one that had been worn out. Earth: or Land (i.e., of Israel).

4. The supporting-posts of the threshold shook at the sound of the one who called out, and the House was filled with smoke.

5. And I said, "Alas for me, because I am finished, since I myself am a man of impure lips, and I live among a nation of impure lips--since my eyes have seen the King, YHWH of Armies!"

Lips: or "language". Perhaps he heard them speaking perfect Hebrew, and after Israel had allowed so much influence from the nations to enter the Land that even the Hebrew they spoke was no longer pure. Finished: brought to an end, undone, cut off--perhaps "doomed". In common terms, "a goner". He realized he had no way of communicating with YHWH, though He was standing right in front of him! Impure: with the connotation of selfish, as it is the term for "ritually unclean". Yaaqov (James) tells us the same mouth should not bless YHWH and curse those who are in His image. Among: as part of.

6. Then one of the burning [angels] flew toward me, with a live coal in his hand, taken with tongs from atop the altar,

Live coal: or a hot stone.In his hand: thus the tongs were not due to its heat, but because he must not touch the altar. The altar was always the first

7. and he touched it to my mouth, and said, "Here, this has touched your lips, so your guilt is averted, and a covering has been effected over your sin."

Similarly, Yochanan the Immerser said Y'shua would bring a "baptism of fire".

8. Then I heard the voice of YHWH saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" So I said, "Here I am! Send me!"

9. So He said, "Go, and tell this people, ‘Listen, hearing, but do not distinguish! And look, seeing, but do not perceive!

Perceive: come to know or be intmiately acquainted with. Perhaps the indistinctness is due to the Hebraic nature of the revelation, which we cannot fully understand in a translation. We must not forget that the existence of many languages came about as the result of a curse, and the fact
that we do not understand Hebrew is a reminder of our continued exile.

10. "Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and smear its eyes over, lest it [should] see with its eyes or hear with its ears, and make a distinction with its heart, and repent, and someone [should] heal it."

Y'shua's parables had the same purpose (Mat. 13:13), since he had a work to do which he could not accomplish if Israel repented too soon. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 11:8, and relates it to Israel. In fact, this verse is quoted six more times in Scripture, meaning that it appears a total of seven times. But chapter 10 had asked how the scattered "lost sheep of Israel"
would be able to hear unless someone was sent to teach them. These "smeared eyes" parallel the man Y'shua healed of blindness, but he viewed men as if they were trees. There were two stages of healing. He could see enough to avoid --much as the House of Israel has met Y'shua as Savior (thus having the most essential factor) yet missed the context in which He is best understood. When he was sent to the Pool of Shiloach ("sent") his vision was completely
restored. Those sent to regather the rest of the House will see more than those who merely bask in what we have received, since the focus is no longer on self. (The context here mainly addresses Yehudah, but still applies to both houses, since Uzziyahu died before the Northern Kingdom was fully scattered.) Lest it should: what follows is the order of the journey back after this curse is rescinded, and that is the stage where we are today; we must follow these steps very carefully.

11. So I said, "Until when, YHWH?" And He said, "Until the cities may crumble into ruins without inhabitant, and houses are without a human being, and the soil becomes a deserted wasteland.

12. "But when YHWH has removed the human [population] far away, and the abandonment of the land is abundant,

The human [population]: simply "the Adam" in Hebrew.

13. "still, there will be a tithe within it, and it will come back, though it is consumed, like a terebinth or an oak that, even when felled, [still have a memorial] stump to them. The holy seed is its stump.

A tithe: a tenth, a remnant reserved for YHWH's special use, untouched by this curse. Yaaqov promised that he would give YHWH a tenth of all that was his (Gen. 28:22), so a tenth of his descendants belong to YHWH in a special way. Holy seed: in a broad sense, the descendants of Avraham. In a narrow sense, as a lead-up to the virgin birth spoken of in the next chapter, this
is a "seed" in a class of its own (one way of describing what "holy" means). It was promised in Gen. 3:15 as being the seed of a woman--an anomaly in itself, and thus a signal of the deep significance this phrase holds. Arthur Custance's research showed that the woman carries "immortal" eggs, which begin the process of corruption and death only when fertilized by male sperm. The female lineage preserves the same seed through a series of such "perfect" eggs, so Adam's pre-fallen state was still preserved as long as Miryam's "seed" was not fertilized. Thus, though all humanity, and most specifically, Israel and the line of David in particular, were all gone astray and under a curse, still, true and complete life remained within this "stump", and could thus send forth a new shoot, and the pristine Adam could be revived. Y'shua is described as the Head of this "last Adam", and we who join ourselves to him are the rest of the Body, which will all be rejuvenated once it is brought completely together.


CHAPTER 7

1. Now in the days of Achaz, the son of Yotham, the son of Uzziyahu, king of
Yehudah, R'tzin the king of Aram went up to Yerushalayim with Peqach the son
of Remalyahu, king of Israel, to make war against it, but they were unable to
prevail over it.

Achaz began his reign at age 20 in the seventeenth year of Peqach's
reign. [c. 735 B.C.E.] So Peqach was substantially older. The story is
detailed in 2 Kings 16. R'tzin means "firm", and Remalyahu,
"wealth/abundance of YHWH".

2. And the house of David was informed, "Aram is resting on Efrayim." Then
his heart and the heart of his people wavered as the trees of the forest are
shaken by the wind.

House of David: the current king of Yehudah, Achaz. "Resting on": an
idiom for encamping on Efrayim (the Northern Kingdom)'s land, or being allied
with them. Wavered: being double-minded with fear, they were" unstable in
all their ways" (Yaaqov/James 1:8).

3. But YHWH told Yeshayahu, "Go out now to meet Achaz--you and your son
Sh'ar-Yashuv--to the end of the conduit of the upper pool of the launderers'
field toward the highway,

Sh'ar-Yashuv means "a remnant will return". This is part of his message
to the king. (See 8:18) Though he is about to prophesy the fall of the
Northern Kingdom, he prefaces it, for those with ears to hear, with this
promise that keeps the severity of the punishment in perspective. The upper
pool: the same place the Assyrians would later meet King Hizqiyahu (36:2; 2
Kings 18:17) Launderers': or "fullers"--cleansing the fibers of cloth of
their natural oils and bleaching them before dyeing them.Sometimes the dyeing
was done by the same man.

4. "and tell him, ‘Make sure you stay calm. Don't be afraid, and don't let
your heart go soft from these two stumps of smoking firebrands, because of
the burning anger of Retzin, Aram, and the son of Remalyahu,

Nehemyah understood this principle better than Achaz. Stay calm: or
"quiet"; keeping one's mouth shut is closely tied to being unafraid. By
voicing "what if's", we erode the rock that YHWH sets us on, convince
ourselves of the worst scenario, and get others thinking fearfully. This
misdirected energy creates additional problems that were not really there to
start with. Fear is an invitation to evil spirits, if not an actual act of
worshipping them. Smoking firebrands: compare 65:5.

5. "on account of the fact that Aram has given Efrayim and the son of
Remalyahu evil advice, saying,

Efrayim (the scattered Northern Kingdom while it was out of fellowship
with Yehudah) under Peqach (meaning "open") teamed up with Aram, the nation
of Lavan ("the white one" and a "relative" of Israel, thus a picture of the
institutional Gentile church) and together they persecuted the Jews, not
realizing that they were closer relatives than the pagans who masquerade as
friendly, but really seek only their own advantage. By being "open" to their
influence, Israel came very close to destroying his true brothers.

6. "'Let's go up against Yehudah and terrorize it, and cause a division in her for our own benefit, and set the son of Tav'el up to reign as king within her!'"

Terrorize: Heb., cause to feel a sickening dread. Tav'el: means "El has
been good", or "Elohim is pleasing"--a clue as to whose son the Counterfeit
Messiah is seen as. ("The good Lord"?) But it is also a code name for
Remalyahu through a form of Hebrew encryption in which one letter is
substituted for another by substituting letters from the first half of the
alphabet for those in the second half. (Missler)

7. "Thus says the Master, YHWH: 'It will not stand; it's not going to happen,

8. "'because the capital of Aram is Dameseq, and the head of Dameseq is
R'tzin, and within sixty-five years, Efrayim will be broken from [being] a
people,

Dameseq was where Achaz went to meet the king of Ashur (Assyria), on
whose help he called in this crisis. (2 Kings 16:7) But that king then
attacked Israel, taking many captive. (2 Kings 15:27) Sixty-five years: long
after the fall of the Northern Kingdom, which came only about 10 to 15 years
after this prophecy.

9. "'Moreover, the capital of Efrayim is Shomron, and the head of Shomron is
Remalyahu's son; if you will not believe it, it is because you are not to be
established.'"

Believe: or "stand firm". Shomron: Samaria. Not to be established:
Because he turned out to call on the help of a human king, and ended up
giving away the Temple treasury in order to pay him, rather than simply
asking YHWH for help.

10. Then YHWH spoke to Achaz yet again, saying,

11. "Ask for a sign for yourself from YHWH your Elohim; make the request
[as] deep [as you wish], or make it from as high above [as you wish]!"

Sign: in Heb., "what distinguishes"--i.e., something clear-cut. This was
a merciful offer to a king who lacked assurance of YHWH's good intentions
toward Yehudah.

12. But Achaz said, "[No], I won't ask; I don't [want to] put YHWH to the
test."

Put to the test: or tempt. YHWH responded favorably to one of the
greatest tests ever given Him, that of Eliyahu's soaked sacrifices on Mount
Karmel. (1 Kings 18) Achaz had the opposite of this spirit of faith. Since
he proved that he would not be established, Yeshayahu broadens the scope of
his audience:

13. So he [Yeshayahu] said, "Then listen, O house of David! Is it too small
[a thing] for you to try the patience of mortal men? Must you try the
patience of my Elohim too?

He had been commanded to ask; "to obey is better than sacrifice"! This
was not true humility. Apparently it was mainly the prophet he did not
trust, because he thought he knew these two armies well enough to predict
what they would do.

14. "Therefore, Adonai Himself will give you a sign: Behold! The young woman
has conceived and is giving birth to a son, and she will call his name
Immanu-El.

Young woman: of marriageable age, in the broadest sense of the term. It
probably has an immediate point of reference to a particular young woman
present to Yeshayahu and the king (especially in context of v. 16, perhaps
even a betrothed of the king himself, who was quite young. But how would
that be an unmistakable sign of something contrary to Achaz's expectations?
What would be so special or miraculous about a young woman conceiving a son?
The term is translated by the LXX (some 200 years prior to the birth of
Y'shua and thus long before the controversy about the virgin birth) as
parthenos, a term contrasted in 1 Cor. 7:28 with a married woman, hence, a
virgin. Thus, perhaps there was even a virgin birth at the time of Achaz,
because how would an event 700 years later serve as a sign to Achaz? The
other signs Y'shua did had been done before by prophets, even raising the
dead. Ecclesiastes says that "what has happened once will happen again." But
prophecies usually have a two-pronged reference: a partial fulfillment in the
prophet's own day, and a fuller one relating to the Messiah, which includes
the same elements as the prior fulfillment, but more. Also, Matithyahu
(1:23) takes the prophecy as relating to a virgin birth, as it is explicitly
stated that Yoseyf did not have relations with Miryam until after Y'shua was
born (1:25; cf. Luk. 1:27). He did not take this verse out of context, for
the preservation of the royal Davidic line is also Matithyahu's theme.
Immanu-El means "El [is] with us". This was meant to comfort the king, and
is repeated in 8:10. Avi Ben Mordechai reports that El is a name sometimes
correlated with YHWH's attribute of mercy or lovingkindness, and this is the
aspect of His nature that He incarnated in Y'shua's first coming. (In
contrast, for example, Elohim is a name that emphasizes YHWH's judgment.)
Y'shua indeed said that whoever saw Him had seen the Father (Yochanan 14:9),
though of course, no one has ever seen the Father Himself. (Yochanan 1:18;
6:46) So the entirety of YHWH was not present when Y'shua walked the earth.
Indeed, He drew some clear distinctions between himself and the Father (e.g.,
Yochanan 14:28), probably to counter the deductions that would one day be
made about his deity when the Gospels and Paul were interpreted through
Gentile grids. Everything he did perfectly communicated exactly what the
Father was like; if the Father Himself were to become visible, no one could
have survived the intensity of His presence. So He sent us a Mediator,
fleshing out His Word, which is Himself in a way, yet is a separate entity.

15. "He will eat butter and honey, so he may learn to know [how] to refuse
the evil and choose the good,

Butter and honey: in the context of the House of David (v. 13), it is
interesting that some of the foods chosen to strengthen David's people when
they were especially weary. (2 Shmuel 17:29) Y'shua, too, would strengthen
the House of David, being the only way it is preserved from extinction. See
also v. 22.

16. "because before the lad knows how to refuse the evil and choose the
good, the ground that you are dreading will be abandoned by both of her kings.

Both of her kings: Aram apparently was considered to own the Land due to
a treaty.

17. "YHWH will bring upon you and upon your people, as well as upon your
father's house, days that have not come since the day that Efrayim departed
from Yehudah--[namely] the king of Ashur [Assyria].

18. "Now what will happen in that day [is that] YHWH will whistle for the
[stinging] fly that is at the farthest reaches of the rivers of Egypt, and
the bee that is in the land of Ashur,

19. "and they will all come and lie down in the steep ravines and in the
clefts of the crags, and among all the thornbushes and among all the pastures
[with watering places].

YHWH is telling Achaz, "You do not have to worry about stopping these two
kings; I already have someone else lined up to deal with them. You just
learn from what is going to happen to the House of Israel."

20. "In that day, with a razor hired beyond the river--the king of
Ashur--YHWH will shave the head and the leg-hair, and it will also sweep away
the beard.

Shave the head: normally not allowable, except in the cases of cleansed
lepers, Nazirites terminating their period of being set apart by a vow;
otherwise, only pagans did so. But it would serve as a sign of the
humiliation coming for a people who had disregarded YHWH's Torah. In Hebrew,
the term for "legs" is also used for the pilgrimage festivals YHWH
prescribed. (E.g., Ex. 23:14) The Talmud explains that the beard is the
glory of a male. "Glory" in Hebrew really has the sense of "weightiness",
"importance", and thus "authority". So having the beard shaved symbolizes a
loss of authority or self-rule, as well as the fact that they were no longer
a set apart as a people, and that they were essentially becoming pagans.
(Hoshea 7:8 vouches for this.)

21. "And what will happen on that day is that a man will preserve a cow and
two sheep alive,

On that day: a common idiom that shifts the frame of reference also to
the Messianic Kingdom.

22. "and because of the abundance of milk they produce, he will eat butter,
because butter and honey [is what] all who are left in the midst of the Land
will eat.

Left in the midst: who remain in the "inner part" alive after the
"opening scene", and who are not among those in the "outer darkness", but are
favored by YHWH to inhabit the Land of Israel.

23. "And what will happen on that day [is that] every place where there are
a thousand vines [worth] a thousand [pieces of] silver will turn into [a
place] for briars and thornbushes.

A thousand vines: an allusion back to the parable in chapter 5.

24. "He will come there with arrows and the bow, because the whole land will
become briars and thornbushes,

I.e., it would be so overgrown that it would become a game-hunting ground.

25. "and [as for] all the mountains that will be dug with a hoe, you will
not come there for fear of briars and thorns; rather, it will be [a place] to
send oxen out to pasture, and for flocks to trample down."

Compare Y'shua's parable of the thorns and weeds that choke out his
words. (Mat. 13:22)


CHAPTER 8

1. Then YHWH told me, "Take a large flat surface for yourself and write on it with a mortal man's engraving tool, 'For Maher-Shalal-Chash-Baz'."

Maher-Shalal-Chash-Baz means "Plunder hurries, spoils come quickly". The context continues to be the overthrow of the Northern Kingdom and Aram by Ashur (Assyria).

2. So I summoned to myself reliable witnesses, Uriyah the priest and Z'charyah the son of Y'verechyahu.

Uriyah means "YHWH is my light"; Z'charyah, "YHWH has remembered", and Y'verechyahu, "May YHWH bless".

3. Then I approached the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and YHWH told me, "Declare that his name is Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,

4. "because before the lad knows how to cry, "My daddy!" or "My mommy!", the strength of Dameseq and the plunder of Shomron will be carried off in front of the king of Ashur."

My daddy...My mommy: Much easier to say in Hebrew than in English ("avi" and "imi"), thus the child would not need to be very old at all. They could very well be his forst words.

5. And YHWH continued to tell me still more:

6. "On account of this people despising the waters of Shiloach which proceed gently, and being excited about R'tzin and Remalyahu's son,

7. "therefore, behold, YHWH is bringing up over them the waters of the River, strong and numerous--the king of Assyria, and al his glory! And he will go up over his channels, and proceed over all his banks,

His banks: the proper boundaries of his empire.

8. "and he will trespass into Yehudah, and he will overflow and cross over. He will reach all the way to the neck, and when his wings are spread out they will fill the whole breadth of your Land, O Immanuel!"

Your Land: YHWH has deeded it specifically to him (Y'shua), but this also suggests that the immediate reference may be to someone in whose hands the Land would be in the immediate context--perhaps Hizqiyahu, the next king? In his days, the Assyrians did try to capture Yerushalayim. (2 Kings 18:13) Hizqiyahu means "YHWH is my Strength". His wings: compare 18:1.

9. Break in pieces, O peoples, then be shattered! And cup your ear, all who are from the far-off parts of the earth. Equip yourselves, then be broken in pieces! Gird yourselves [for war], but you will be shattered!

10. Take counsel and [make your] plan, but it will be frustrated. Speak a word, but it shall not stand, because El is with us--

El is with us: Heb., Immanu-El.

11. because this is what YHWH said to me with the strength of the hand, when correcting me from walking in the way of this nation:

12. "Do not say, 'A conspiracy!' for everything that this nation calls a conspiracy. Don't be afraid of what they are afraid of, and don't be terrified.

13. "YHWH of Armies--He is the One to treat as in a separate category. Let Him be the one you respect, and let Him be the One you makes you tremble with awe!

I.e., concentrate on Him, not on what men are doing. These things have to take place, much like the New World Order we see usurping our nations today, since a unified world is prophesied for the last days. He is still in control. The scattering of the Northern Kingdom was from Him (1 Kings 12:24)--part of an "expansion" that started when YHWH separated Chavvah from
Adam, and continued through Bavel and Israel's dispersion until the "fullness of time", when Y'shua appeared (Gal. 4:4), and began to "let the rubber band snap back". He initiated the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3:21) by sending his apostles out to start regathering the "lost sheep of the House of Israel". After we have become a cohesive people, we will again be rejoined with Yehudah (Hos. 1:11), and keep continuing back through the repetition of what happened before (Eccles. 3:15; 6:10) in the "contraction" which will culminate in the "birthpangs" of one new Man (Eph. 4:13). History thus goes through a "mirror image" until Eden itself is restored. Paul speaks of seeing Y'shua as in a mirror and becoming like him. (2 Cor. 3:18; cf. 1
Yochanan 3:2) Yaaqov (James 1:23) says that mirror is the Torah, the perfect law of liberty, because Y'shua is the "word made flesh" and thus by reading YHWH's instruction, we see what He looked like and what we really are as well. Adam ("Man" in Hebrew) and Eden itself will be restored. When all is put under Messiah (the "Last Adam")'s feet, we will continue back even to the day when YHWH was "all in all" (1 Cor. 12:6; 15:28; Eph. 1:23). That is what He is doing in our day, and this is where we must put our energy, rather than focusing on the apparent physical threats.

14. "And He shall become as a sanctuary, a stone to strike and a rock that causes stumbling for both Houses of Israel, as a trap and a snare to the one who dwells in Yerushalayim.

Sanctuary: a set-apart place. The teachings inherent in the Temple are the "snare" that YHWH promised to use to regather the Northern Kingdom and recapture our hearts (Y'hezq'el/Ezk. 43). It corresponds with Y'shua, our sanctuary, who is indeed described as "a stumbling-stone" (Luk. 2:34; Rom. 9:33; 1 Kefa/Peter 2:8)

15. "And many among them will stumble and fall, and become crippled, entrapped, and captured."

16. Tie up the confirmation; fix a seal on instruction to the ones I have taught,

17. and I will wait for YHWH, who causes His face to be hidden from the House of Yaaqov, and I will watch for Him with eager expectation.

18. Indeed, I and the children YHWH has given me are [to serve] as distinguishing signs and tokens in Israel from YHWH of Armies, who dwells in Mount Tsion.

19. "And since they tell you, 'Consult those who invoke the dead or those who have familiar spirits, who chirp and mutter', shouldn't a nation consult its Elohim, rather than the living praying to the dead?

20. "To instruction and confirmation! If they do not speak in agreement with this, it is because there is no dawning in them!

Instruction: Heb., Torah. This is the way we must weight and test the words of any prophec, and any proper interpretation of the Renewed Covenant will only confirm what it already says. (Mat. 5:17-18; Rom. 3:31) Why look for new revelation, when He has already written His down? What He's told us before is the truth. The main point of any prophecy is to explain the Word
that has already been given.

21. "And they will pass through it, hard-pressed and hungry. And because they are hungry, what will happen is that he will work himself into a rage, and have contempt on his king and his Elohim, and turn his face upward.

22. "And they shall turn their attention toward the Land, and behold distress and darkness, and gloom from anguish, and they will be thrust into calamity.

Calamity: or "thick darkness", from a word meaning that the sun had set on something. Compare 9:1.

23. "Yet the covering of darkness will not be what she had the distress about, like the first time He brought contempt on the land of Z'vulun and the land of Nafthali, as afterwards He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea beyond the Yarden--Galil of the Nations.

I.e., the distress would make things turn out well for those YHWH favored. (cf. Rom. 8:28) All through the epistles to the Thessalonians, Paul speaks of how the events that will come as a surprise to those who are in darkness will only benefit those who belong to the Light. Way of the Sea: a major trade route running from Mesopotamia, through the Yarden Valley, then through the Yezre'el Valley and past Megiddo, across the Karmel range, and down along the coast to Egypt. Galil of the Nations: west of Lake Kinnereth, a hilly region that by Y'shua's time had been under Gentile control, then resettled by both Jews and other Israelites, but had a strong Gentile
influence. This makes it abundantly clear that these prophecies are Messianic. Galil, the tribal lands of Z'vulun and Nafthali, would be made very important because that is where Y'shua the Messiah would spend most of his life and public ministry. (Mat. 4:13-17) In some English Bibles this verse is 9:1.


CHAPTER 9

1. The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light! A light has shone on those who dwell in the shadow of death!

Note all the imagery of the feast of Sukkoth (Booths) in this chapter: great lights, joy, harvest, release from oppression, the birth of Y'shua, and his Kingdom.

2. You have greatly increased the nation. No, You have magnified the joy! They have rejoiced before You like the joy of harvest, like the gladness in distributing the plunder,

The joy of YHWH seems to transcend our limitations; growth is not always lateral. When He deepens our capacity, we still grow larger. But it is only so we can hold more of what He wants to pour out to others, like the widow who fed Eliyahu (1 Kings 17).

3. because You have shattered the yoke of his burden and the staff of his shoulder, and the scepter of the one who oppresses them [through tyranny], like the day of Midyan,

Day of Midyan: or "a day of strife".

4. because every boot of a trampler is in commotion, and a garment is rolled in blood, and it will become fuel to keep a fire burning,

In commotion: or "shaking, quaking, trembling, confused noise". A garment rolled in blood: perhaps a reference to the day of Y'shua's execution, when the earth quaked and the Adversary's yoke was thrown off anyone who joins the Second Adam's restored race.

5. because a child is born to us! A son is given to us, and the dominion will be on his shoulder! And his name is proclaimed [to be] "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty Prevailing Judge, Founder of [Eternal] Continuity, Prince of Peace.

Dominion: The position must belong to someone from the tribe of Yehudah and a descendant in particular of David. The word carries the connotation of having fought for it. This may refer to a physical end-time battle and/or Y'shua's having won back the dominion Adam had over the earth before he surrendered it to the taskmaster mentioned above. Y'shua removed haSatan's
right to the earth by allowing haSatan to kill him unjustly. HaSatan had a right to kill anyone else, but became a murderer through Y'shua's death, since he had done nothing deserving of death. Shoulder: Heb. sh'chem, the name of the city Levi and Shim'on destroyed, which Yoseyf deeded to Yoseyf and where he is buried (Nablus today). It was also the city where Y'shua met the Samaritan woman at the well, beginning to take his bride from the lost sheep of the House of Israel, just as Moshe and Yaaqov had met their wives at wells. (Yochanan 4) Wonderful: This identifies Y'shua as the Messenger who brought the news of Shimshon (Samson)'s birth (Judges 13:18), since he said his name was "wonderful" (a related form of the word, which means
"incomprehensible and hard to understand). Counselor: or advisor, consultant.
Prevailing judge: indeed he defeated the Adversary. The word "judge" is again El. The term ranges from human judges (Ps. 82:6) to angelic beings to YHWH Himself. Thoma recognized that Y'shua was this type of judge (Yochanan 20:28) after he proved his doubting to have been erroneous. As Yoseyf was given Pharaoh's signet ring and was for nearly all intents and purposes treated as if he were Pharaoh himself, this "son" would have a unique association with YHWH, which to some extent is "incomprehensible". He would be YHWH's deputy and representative, having been given all authority (Mat. 28:18) by the One greater than He. Continuity: from a word meaning "to advance onward", and Y'shua was the "founder" of this opportunity for Adam, the restored human race, to continue into eternity rather than be burned up
like the garments and boots in v. 4. Peace: Y'shua's Kingdom will be the first time true peace is known on earth, and it will be enforced with a "rod of iron". But the word "shalom" means more--complete soundness, total well-being, security, and prosperity of every type.

6. There is no end of the increase of his dominion and of peace, on the throne of David, and over his realm, to set it in order and to sustain it with a legal system and righteousness from now on and forever. Jealousy [for] YHWH of Armies will accomplish this.

Set it in order: build a "skeletal" framework on which righteousness can be fleshed out. We cannot keep the Torah in all its fullness until we have the community of Israel again, under Messiah. Though Y'shua initiated it and made it possible, YHWH cannot ratify the Renewed Covenant with the two houses of Israel (Yirmiyahu/Jer. 31:31) until there is again a House of Israel to cut the covenant with! When there is a throne established, Y'shua can take his rightful place. He is beginning to build this framework again, but we need to trust the leaders He is again setting in place as there were under Moshe. Sustain: or establish, support. Jealousy for YHWH: exemplified well through Pin'chas (Num. 25:7), the Maccabees, and Y'shua (Yochanan 2:15), who single-handedly took on large-scale opposition to YHWH while others stood idly by. This type of heroic choices will again be part of what establishes the coming Kingdom. Notice the connection with armies, as they may be utilized in setting up this Kingdom.

7. Adonai sent a word into Yaaqov, and it has come down to Israel,

8. and they will know--all of them: Efrayim and the inhabitant of Shomron, in her arrogance and greatness of heart, saying,

9. "Bricks have fallen, but we will build with cut stones; sycamores are cut down, but we will replace them with cedars!"

In their arrogance, they did not recognize YHWH's punishment, and simply began to rebuild things in their own way, saying they could do even better this time. Cut stones: symbolizing being shaped by men's doctrines--the antithesis of the altars that could not have any human tool applied (Ex. 20:25), but had to be built with stones shaped only by running water, a symbol of YHWH's pure, unadulterated Word. Compare the Tower of Bavel, which also substituted humanly-processed materials for those in their natural form.

10. But YHWH has raised up the oppressors of R'tzin against him, and his enemies--

11. Aram in front, Filistines behind--and they devour Israel with the whole mouth.

Israel: In this context, only the Northern Kingdom.

12. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out, yet the people are not returning to Him who is striking them, and they do not carefully seek out YHWH of Armies.

Despite all this...: This phrase is repeated twice below as a "refrain", showing more clearly how prophets usually sang out their messages. Returning to Him who is striking them: for "whom YHWH loves He disciplines" (Prov. 3:12). Here He seems surprised that they would not come back for more correction; it only shows that they do not wish to be the best they can be. Perhaps the concept of "turning the other cheek" relates to this context of submitting to further sharpening.

13. So YHWH will cut off from Israel head and tail, frond and reed [in] one day.

14. An elder or honored one--he is the head, and the prophet who teaches falsehood, he is the tail,

Honored one: literally, "lifted of face".

15. and this people's guides will be the ones who lead them astray, and the ones in it who are led along are swallowed up.

16. Therefore, Adonai will not rejoice over its young men, nor will He have compassion on their orphans or widows, for everyone is profane and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks foolishness. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out,

Profane: or a hypocrite.

17. for wickedness burns like a fire; it devours briars and thornbushes, and it sets the thickets of the forest ablaze, and they shall billow up like a column of smoke.

18. The Land is scorched by YHWH's outburst, and the people will become like the fire's fuel; no man will even spare his brother,

19. and he will cut off on the right hand, yet be hungry; he will eat on the left, yet they will not be satisfied. Each man will eat the flesh of his own arm.

Eat the flesh of his own arm: This may include the practice of transubstantiation, in which some claim to actually eat the body of the one called YHWH's "right arm". Having a distorted view of Him, they are still hungry, and cannibalize the Body they too are a part of, rather than asking
YHWH Himself for added sustenance.

20. Menashe [devours] Efrayim, and Efrayim, Menashe; together they [will come] against Yehudah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned back, but His hand is still stretched out.


* * * *

Isaiah, Hosea, and portions of Jeremiah (in progress) and Daniel can be read at
www.prophetsforthewholehouseofisrael.20m.com

  Sample from the Writings:

TEHILLIM (Psalm) 19

To the chief musician;
A psalm of David.

1. The Heavens
recount YHWH's glory;
The expanse [of the sky]
sets forth the work of His hands.

2. Day after day
speech pours forth;
Night after night
knowledge is revealed.

3. There is no [articulate] speech
Nor are there words;
Inaudible
is their voice.

4. Their measuring line has gone forth
throughout all the earth,
And their testimony
to the remotest parts of the
inhabited world.

5. For the sun He has set up
a dwelling place in them
and it is like a bridegroom
leaving his wedding canopy;
like a strong athlete, it is
enthusiastic to run its course.

6. The far reaches of the heavens
are its starting block; and
his circuit comes around
all the way to their other end.
and nothing is hidden from its heat.

7. The instruction of Yahweh
is complete,
bringing the soul back again.
The scroll of Yahweh's prophecies
is trustworthy,
making the open-minded wise.


Its precision of fulfillment shatters the notion that nothing is certain and one should therefore tolerate all beliefs. He learns instead
to be wise and choose the one Word that is "firmly established in the heavens" (119:89).

8. The rules by which He cares for us
fit us properly,
making our hearts rejoice!
Yahweh's [individual] orders
are clearcut,
enlightening [one's] eyes.

9. The reverential fear of Yahweh
is undefiled;
it stands forever.
His decisions
are true and just [when they are]
all [considered] together.

10. [They are] more desirable than gold,
even tons of pure, refined gold!
[They are] also sweeter than honey
and the drippings of a honeycomb.

11. Moreover, your servant
is forewarned by them;
in observing them
[there lies] a great reward.

12. Who is able to perceive [it]
whenever he makes an error?
[Please] don't punish me
for the faults I can't recognize!

13. But also restrain Your servant
from acting presumptuously on
sudden urges.
Don't let them take control of me;
then I will be perfect, and
emptied of great transgressions.

14. Let the words of my mouth
as well as [all] the musings of my heart
be well-pleasing before You,
O Yahweh,
My Rock and
My Redeemer!


Bullinger [Witness of the Stars] points out how this second stanza (vv. 7-14) parallels the first (vv. 1-6) in describing two forms of YHWH's revelation. "He has not left Himself without witness" (Envoys 14:17) anywhere in the world. The stars, created in order to be signs (Gen. 1:14) have communicated YHWH's glory (His crowning work, the promise redemption through the Messiah) since the beginning of time. The matzaroth (Iyov 38:32),
of which the modern signs of the zodiac are a corruption, gave many details about what He would accomplish, through the names of the individual stars (147:4; Yeshay. 40:26) and the ordering of the constellations' positions. But now David says, YHWH's Torah (instruction) completes the revelation, "restoring one's soul", i.e., reviving it again with the assurance that YHWH has not left us to our fallen state, but along with the promise of redemption He has given us a manner of life through which we can keep the effects of sin at bay until the visible restoration is complete.



The book of Ruth and some additional Psalms can be read at
www.writings.20m.com


The southern steps, by which all but the priests
entered the Temple complex in Y'shua's day.
When Neil Armstrong was told that Y'shua would
certainly have walked up these very steps,
he said it was a more awesome experience
than being on the moon had been.



Summary of Scripture web sites:

www.torahforthewholehouseofisrael.20m.com
www.prophetsforthewholehouseofisrael.20m.com
www.writings.20m.com
www.renewedcovenant.20m.com
www.torahforchildren.20m.com


A children's version of the Torah
can be viewed in part at
www.torahforchildren.20m.com