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Jonathan Isaiah

About this book
Chapter 30

1 Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, who take counsel, but not from my Memra, who form a plan but do not ask my prophets, so that they add sin to the sins of their soul. 2 who go down into Egypt but do not ask the words of my prophets, to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt. 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your confusion, and confidence in the shadow of Egypt your disgrace. 4 For their princes were in Tanis, and their messengers have reached Tahpanhes. 5 All of them go to a people who will bring them shame, a people that will not profit them, who will be of no help and of no profit, but only a shame and a reproach. 6 They carry their goods on their beasts of burden by the way southward, into a land of oppression and distress, a place of the lion and the whelps of the lionesses, of serpents and flying vipers; they carry their treasures on the shoulders of their young donkeys, and they bring whatever is in their storehouses on the humps of camels, to a people that will not profit them. 7 And as for the Egyptians, their help is empty and worthless; therefore I will meet many of them slain; I will bring armed men upon them. 8 Now go, write it among them on a tablet, and inscribe it on the lines of a book, that it may be a witness before me in the day of judgment forever: 9 that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children who will not receive the instruction of the Torah of the LORD: 10 who say to the prophets, “Do not prophesy; and as for teachings, do not teach us the teaching of the Torah; speak to us with smooth words, relate to us deceptions; 11 Turn us from the right path, make us cease from tradition; put far away from us the Memra of the Holy One of Israel.” 12 Therefore thus says the Holy One of Israel, “Because you have despised this word and trust in deceit and oppression and rely on them, 13 therefore this sin will be to you like a city laid waste and made a ruinous heap, like a bulging wall whose collapse comes very suddenly. 14 And its collapse will be like the shattering of a potter’s clay vessel, shattered without mercy, and among its fragments there will not be found a potsherd to take fire from the hearth or to draw water from the cistern.” 15 For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “I have said, ‘If you return to my Torah, you will have rest, and you will be redeemed; you will be quiet, and you will dwell in safety and be mighty’; but you would not.” 16 And you said, “No, but we will flee on horses”; therefore you will flee. And, “We will ride on swift horses”; therefore those who pursue you will be swift. 17 One thousand of you will flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you will flee, until you are left like a signal-fire on the top of a mountain and like a beacon on a high hill. 18 And therefore the LORD will show you pity, and He who is mighty will have compassion on you; for the LORD is the God who does judgment; blessed are the righteous who wait for His salvation. 19 For the people of Zion will dwell in Jerusalem; you will weep no more. He will surely show you compassion; the voice of your prayer He will hear, and He will answer your plea. 20 And the LORD will give you the treasures of the enemy and the spoil of the oppressor, and He will no longer take away His Shekinah from the house of the sanctuary, and your eyes will see my Shekinah in the house of the sanctuary. 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the right way, walk in it, and do not turn from it to the right or to the left.” 22 And you will defile the covering of your idols of silver and the ornament of your molten images of gold; you will loathe them as one loathes the impurity of a menstruous woman; so you will loathe them. 23 Then He will give rain for your seed, with which you will sow the ground, and grain and fruit will increase in the land, and there will be sustenance and goodness; and at that time the just will be nourished from their cattle, with the marrow of the tender and the fat ones. 24 And the oxen and the donkeys with which they plow the ground will eat seasoned fodder that has been winnowed with the shovel and the fork. 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. 28 And His Memra is like an overwhelming river reaching to the neck; He will slay the mighty; He will surely shake the nations with the shaking of worthlessness, and there will be a bridle of error in the jaws of the peoples. 29 You will have a song as in the night, as in the night when the festival is sanctified, with joy of heart, as when they march with thanksgivings and the pipe to enter the holy mountain of the LORD, to appear before the mighty One of Israel. 30 And the LORD will proclaim the brightness of the voice of His Memra, and He will reveal the strength of His arm in the fury of His anger, in flames of fire, destroying the graven images with scattering, storm, and hailstones. 31 For through the voice of the Memra of the LORD the Assyrian will be broken, he who struck with his power. 32 And the LORD will bring down the vengeance of His might at every passing of their princes and mighty ones, even among them. The house of Israel will praise with tambourines and harps, because of the mighty war that will be waged for them against the nations. 33 For hell is made ready from eternity on account of their sins; the eternal King has prepared it deep and wide;⁠ a fiery pyre with abundance of fuel burns in it; the Memra of the LORD, like an overwhelming torrent of brimstone, will kindle it.

Texts in conversation

Compare Isaiah 30:26 and Jonathan Isaiah 30:26

Hebrew Bible · Targum

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Summary

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.

Passages

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.
740–450 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Isaiah

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.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

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) ..."
Bruce D. Chilton, The Isaiah Targum: Introduction, Translation, Apparatus and Notes, ArBib 11 (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987), 61.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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