Texts in Conversation
Isaiah 30 promises future healing and light, with the sun shining “seven times brighter.” The Aramaic Targum expands this, saying the sun’s brightness will be “343 times more”, an expression that equates to seven times seven times seven times brighter.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 30:26
Hebrew Bible
25 On every high mountain and every high hill there will be streams flowing with water, at the time of great slaughter when the fortified towers collapse. 26 The light of the full moon will be like the sun’s glare, and the sun’s glare will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, when the Lord binds up his people’s fractured bones and heals their severe wound. 27 Look, the name of the Lord comes from a distant place in raging anger and awesome splendor. He speaks angrily, and his word is like destructive fire.
Jonathan Isaiah 30:26
Targum
25 And there will be on every high mountain and on every high and lofty hill rivers flowing with water, at the time of the ruin of the kings and their armies, in the day of the great slaughter, when the princes fall. 26 Moreover the light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will shine in the future three hundred and forty-three times more brightly, like the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD will turn back the captivity of His people and heal the sickness caused by His blow. 27 The Name of the LORD will be revealed, as the prophets of old prophesied concerning Him; His wrath is mighty and too heavy to bear. His curse will go forth from before Him upon the wicked, and His Memra like a consuming fire.
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Notes and References
"... The “deliverance” which awaits “the righteous” (verse 18) is expressed in terms of the permanent presence of the Shekhinah in the Temple, a presence which assures their “prayer” is answered (verses 19-20, compare 1:15). But even in the midst of such positive statements, the meturgeman feels compelled to mention the “stumbling” of enemy “armies” and their “kings” (v. 25). God's return of the exiles is to be a supernatural event; the light of the sun will not only be “sevenfold” (as in the Masoretic text), but seven cubed (“three hundred forty-three times more,” verse 26) ..."
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