{"id":74739,"date":"2020-05-16T10:07:57","date_gmt":"2020-05-16T07:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=74739"},"modified":"2020-05-16T10:07:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T07:07:57","slug":"mighty-monster-sprawling-in-your-channels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/mighty-monster-sprawling-in-your-channels\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMighty Monster Sprawling in Your Channels\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"74739","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"481","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Pharaoh\u2019s crocodilian alter-ego\r\n\r\n","content":"

In our <\/span>comments to Chapter 26<\/span><\/a>, we cited Moshe Greenberg to the effect that Nebuchadnezzar sought \u201cto secure his hold on Syria-Palestine by subjugating Egypt.\u201d In this chapter, we learn that Ezekiel was instructed to prophesy to Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and foretell his doom. In so doing, he referred to Pharaoh as a \u201cmighty monster\u201d (3), using the Hebrew word <\/span>tanim<\/span><\/em>, which is an alternate form of the more frequently used <\/span>tanin<\/span><\/em>, signifying a serpent (see Exodus 7:9), or <\/span>taninim<\/span><\/em>, sea creatures (Genesis 1:21).<\/span><\/p>\n

Its use here seems to be most consistent with its appearance in Isaiah 51:9: \u201cAwake, awake, clothe yourself with splendor O arm of the LORD! Awake as in days of old, as in former ages! It was you that hacked Rahab in pieces, that pierced the Dragon (<\/span>tanin<\/span><\/em>).\u201d There, it is a mythological creature defeated by God in a primeval battle with the forces of evil whose defeat made creation possible. Those same forces, represented by the same creatures, are destined to be defeated, once again, at the end of days, ushering in the Messianic Age. To quote Isaiah: \u201cIn that day the LORD will punish, with His great, cruel, mighty sword Leviathan the Elusive Serpent\u2014 Leviathan the Twisting Serpent; He will slay the Dragon (<\/span>tanin<\/span><\/em>) of the sea\u201d (27:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

In our case, more specifically, the monster\/dragon is likely the crocodile, and serves here as the alter-ego of Pharaoh, who declared of himself: \u201cMy Nile is my own, I made it for myself\u201d (3), whose somewhat awkward syntactic structure is highly reminiscent of the Psalmist\u2019s attribution of creation to God: \u201cHis is the sea and He fashioned it\u201d (95:5). When said of a mortal it is the quintessence of hubris. The recurrence of this phrase in v.9, albeit with a syntactic swerve, was explained by Moshe Greenberg as follows: \u201cThis reformulation of Pharaoh\u2019s boast is translatable: \u201cI have a Nile\u201d with the nuance: I am secure in possession of my life source. To this corresponds the doom of drought announced in the following verse\u201d (Anchor Bible, <\/span>Ezekiel<\/span><\/i>, 605).<\/span><\/p>\n

To conclude with a geographical connection: \u201cI will reduce the land of Egypt to utter ruin and desolation, from Migdol to Syene (<\/span>S\u2019vene<\/span><\/em>), all the way to the border of Nubia\u201d (verse 10). S\u2019vene is cognate with Aswan, site of Egypt\u2019s High Dam,\u00a0 and, indeed, it traditionally marked the border between Egypt and its southern neighbor, Nubia, biblical Kush, just as Migdol (literally, fortress) stood on Egypt\u2019s northern frontier (see Exodus 12:2).<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":74740,"id":74740,"title":"ez29-crocodile","filename":"ez29-crocodile.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/ez29-crocodile.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/mighty-monster-sprawling-in-your-channels\/ez29-crocodile\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez29-crocodile","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":74739,"date":"2020-05-16 07:07:42","modified":"2020-05-16 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