{"id":64342,"date":"2019-10-15T00:06:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T21:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64342"},"modified":"2023-05-08T18:33:14","modified_gmt":"2023-05-08T15:33:14","slug":"a-cryptic-message-for-a-literary-prophet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-cryptic-message-for-a-literary-prophet\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cryptic Message For A Literary Prophet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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19:3 And they said to him, \u2018Thus said Hezekiah: \u201cA day of distress and chastisement and insult is this day. For children have come to the birthstool, and there is no strength to give birth.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The poetic style makes these words seem initially cryptic, but the obvious meaning is that the children about to be born cannot emerge because when the mothers come to the birthstool, they do not have the strength to push the babies out. The delegation from the king may want to speak to the prophet in his own characteristic language by first addressing him in a line of verse. In any case, the line forcefully frames their message to Isaiah with an image of desperate impotence that represents the plight of the people. As in the previous chapter, this entire episode is taken, with only minor textual variants, from the Book of Isaiah (Chapter 37). Isaiah in this narrative resembles Elijah and Elisha in being seen by others as a holy man who has the power to intercede on their behalf with God. Unlike them, however, he is a \u201cliterary prophet\u201d who delivers his prophecies in the form of poetry, as he does here in the poem that runs from verse 21 to verse 28.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Robert Alter, <\/span>The Hebrew Bible<\/span><\/i>, vol. 2: Prophets, W. W. Norton & Co., 2019, ad loc. By permission of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54890,"id":54890,"title":"Alter-Cover","filename":"Alter-Cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Alter-Cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/welcome-to-the-book-of-judges-unbridled-lust-implacable-hostility-mutual-mayhem\/alter-cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alter-cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54889,"date":"2019-05-05 07:18:18","modified":"2022-01-31 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