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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Isaiah 53: in his death?
  • Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 10:22:28 -0500

Dear Vadim,

> HH: Some interpreters suggest that wickedness and richness are often
associated together, such as in the Prophets.

Tanakh NEVER associates rich and evil. This association is a socialist
invention. Even Jesus does not: recall that he suggested to the young man
distributing his property as a way to perfection, not of avoiding evil. He
suggested this only after the fellow said he wants to be even more good than
he is know, and at first Jesus conceded that the commandments' observance is
sufficient.

HH: Scripture does not assert that to be rich is to be evil, if that's what you mean. The Lord makes people rich:

1Sam. 2:7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

HH: But the Prophets show that it is often the rich who are oppressing the poor and taking their belongings:

Jer. 5:27 Like cages full of birds, their houses are full of deceit; they have become rich and powerful
Mic. 6:12 Her rich men are violent; her people are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully.
Zech. 11:5 Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, 'Praise the LORD, I am rich!' Their own shepherds do not spare them.

Is. 5:7 The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
Is. 5:8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.
Is. 5:9 ΒΆ The LORD Almighty has declared in my hearing: "Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.

The NT also suggests that they had a tendency to persecute the believers:

James 2:6 But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court?

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






Tanakh criticizes greed, evil riches, but NEVER rich as a class in Marxist
sense. In ancient society, it was honorable to be rich.

He was assigned with the rich in his death because he had not
done violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.<
It's a joke, right? He was executed for a crime, but because he had done no
crime, buried honorably?


Best regards,

Vadim Cherny

> HH: Some interpreters suggest that wickedness and richness are often
> associated together, such as in the Prophets. But others object that
when it comes to burials, being with the rich implies a good burial.
So they take the verse to describe a two-stage assignment. It was
intended that the person be buried with the wicked, but when he
actually died he was put with the rich. "In his death" comes to have
a sequential force. The reason would then be given in the following
clause. He was assigned with the rich in his death because he had not
done violence and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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