Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? They are as high as the heavens; what can you do? Deeper than Sheol; what can you know? Job 11:7-8 NASB Depths of God – First, let’s put the emphasis in the right place. To do that, we need to read Hebrew…
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; with [a]hard labor you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Genesis 3:17 NASB Listened…
Are You not from time everlasting, Lord, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. Habakkuk 1:12a NASB We – What is a tiqun sofrim? As you might guess, it is a written restoration, a place where a scribe corrected the text because of the theological implication. In this case, the Masoretic text reads “we,”…
How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and yet You do not listen? I scream “outrage” to You, and You do not rescue! Habakkuk 1:2 Robert Alter Outrage – Taken directly from the Psalms, the prophet Habakkuk applies David’s words to his circumstances. We might do exactly the same. “How long?” That’s the real…
“Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank. Numbers 20:10b-11 NASB Struck – We know this story from Sunday school days. The ensuing punishment given…
And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed. Genesis 2:25 NASB Naked – Camile Paglia made this observation about the Bible: There are no sexual personae in the Bible, except among harlots. Biblical character is unitary and homogenous. Psychic splits are of the ‘whited sepulcher’ kind, where the self…
But with an overflowing flood He will make a complete end of [a]its site, And will pursue His enemies into darkness. Nahum 1:8 NASB Of its site – As you know, virtually all contemporary translations of the Tanakh rely on the Tiberian Masoretic text. This Hebrew text from about the 10th century CE added vowel points and standardized the reading. …
who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Exodus 34:7 NASB Yet by no means leave – This is a bit tricky, so pay attention. Here is…
Our Father, our King, we have no King but You. Our Father, our King, act [benevolently] with us for the sake of Your Name. Avinu Malkeinu For the sake – According to Gordon Tucker’s comment in Abraham Heschel’s work, Heavenly Torah, these first two lines of the prayer Avinu Malkeinu are attributed to Rabbi Akiva. …
