[b-hebrew] "blood of Jezreel" and "day of Jezreel"
Gabe Eisenstein
gabe at cascadeaccess.com
Wed Aug 6 14:30:04 EDT 2008
Leonard,
I'm responding even though I'm not a Hebrew scholar. What I can't see is
how the grammatical point makes a difference. Even if "Jezreel" is a
personification analogous to "Israel", wouldn't it stand for a group of
people, Jezreelites, who were dominated by the royal retinue and
employees, and who were massacred by Jehu? In other words, it seems to
me that "blood of Jezreel" (as in KJ) or even "blood of the Jezreelites"
would still most plausibly point to the massacre.
The idea that the "blood" has not yet been spilled, that it refers only
to a future invasion of Israel by foreigners and not to crimes committed
in the past by the house of Jehu, requires a strange reading of
paqadthi, does it not? It would have to be that God will "visit" (rather
than "avenge") a punishment on Jeroboam that will consist of bloodshed
in Jezreel -- why? Both the Bible and archaeology suggest that the royal
residence in Jezreel was short-lived, and not used by Jeroboam. If it
isn't a matter of avenging what Jehu did, what's the point?
There is one thing that makes the question intriguing for me, and that
is perhaps part of your hypothesis? "Great the day of Jezreel", which
seems to be part of an addendum in verses 10-11, and refers not to any
massacre OR invasion, but rather to a reunification of Israel and Judah.
Anybody know how to make sense of it?
Gabe Eisenstein
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