Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

Dear Vadim,
> 
> Dear Liz,
> 
> Not to delve in the correct translation of every word, here it is:
> 
> 10. He has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations.
> All the ends of the earth have seen it! -- the saving power 
> of our God!
> 11. Depart! Depart! Get out from there!
> Touch no unclean thing.
> Get out from the midst of it! Purify yourselves, you who 
> carry YHWH's clei (earthen vessels, or weapons).
> 
> prepare to be the holy warriors, in a sense

Clei are used in Ezra to refer to the vessels from YHWH"s temple.
They are used in the Mesha inscription to refer to the vessels
from YHWH's temple in Moab.
What is your problem in seeing them here? Why bring in some
extraneous thing when the whole point of Deutero-Isaiah is to
get the people to leave Babylon and go to Israel to rebuild the
temple and to install YHWH"s vessels in it?
> 
> 
> Isaiah is comprised of many themes, with various 
> interpolations. That he speaks about Cyrus chapters ago, 
> doesn't mean he speaks of him here. How ouwl you weigh 
> 52:13-15? As ugly Cyrus?
I don't know. 
It is Cyrus again in Isaiah 61 tho.
And it is Cyrus in 42, in 48:14ff, in 49 (not in 50, unless he is
the servant mentioned in 50:10), and in 61, as I said.


On the matter of shared guilt, I think you miss my point.
On the day of atonement, the high priest purges the 
sanctuary on behalf of himself and on behalf of the 
community. He is carrying out his responsibility for their
sin. This doesn't mean that he didn't sin himself or that
he did. It doesn't deal with that at all. Their sin becomes
his responsibility. It's a legal obligation, not a moral one.
When Truman said "the buck stops here," he meant he
was the one who was ultimately responsible, not that
he was guilty (and not that he wasn't guilty).
Best,
Liz
> 
>