{"id":66222,"date":"2019-11-26T12:21:15","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T10:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=66222"},"modified":"2023-05-22T17:08:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-22T14:08:47","slug":"the-last-survivors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-last-survivors\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Survivors"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[953,506,663],"acf":{"old_id":"66222","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64700,"related_cahpter":"338","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"The holy few","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This short chapter focuses us on a key motif found throughout the book, a critical prediction and later historical detail about the Assyrian conquest of Israel. Many of the conquests of the land of Israel resulted in political defeat, but with relatively little loss of life. Yes, the Jewish king or governor might be deposed \u2013 but after regime change, the average Israelite continued to live in the same home as they always did, now paying taxes to a foreign leader. The Assyrian conquest is different. On the one hand, there is no political change in the South: the Judean king remains on his throne and the capital city Jerusalem retains its sovereignty. However, there is a dramatic loss of human life, and but a small remnant will remain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The book\u2019s first chapter compared Jerusalem to a lonely watchman\u2019s hut in a vineyard (1:8), one lonely remaining city in a wide land of destruction. Only \u201c<em>me\u2019at<\/em>\u201d &#8211; a little bit &#8211; remains (1:9), otherwise the people would be totally destroyed like the cities of Sodom. Later, the prophet will use two other metaphors to capture this idea: the tree in winter (6:13) which loses all its leaves and has but the small, slim branches left; and the cascading river that threatens to drown (8:8). Indeed, the Assyrians take virtually the entirety of the Southern kingdom, (2 Kings 18:13) \u2013 essentially only leaving the small population of Jerusalem to survive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fourth chapter (4:2) also speaks to the fate of the small number of survivors. Those select few who will remain when the sin is washed away will be called \u201choly,\u201d and will have the protection of God\u2019s Sukkah upon their heads. The Sukkah-metaphor of destruction in chapter 1 is inverted to become a Sukkah of redemption. The survivors live an exalted life of meaning and Divine connection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This chapter of course invites the question whether the ideal religious outcome is the destruction of most of the population and the survival of a small number. As idyllic a view as this chapter provides for the survivors, one imagines the goal of the prophecy is to motivate a full repentance by the entire population. Yet, this bittersweet chapter appears to be resigned to the fact that this isn\u2019t likely to happen. Instead, the sinners will perish, and the righteous will survive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Image: Assyrian soldier, using a dagger, about to behead a prisoner from the city of Lachish. dating to the reign of Sennacherib, 700-692 BCE. From the South-West Palace at Nineveh, modern-day Iraq, British Museum, London.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":66223,"id":66223,"title":"is4-assyrian conquest","filename":"is4-assyrian-conquest.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/is4-assyrian-conquest.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-last-survivors\/is4-assyrian-conquest\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is4-assyrian-conquest","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":66222,"date":"2019-11-26 10:20:56","modified":"2023-05-05 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