Biblical Hebrew Forum

["B. M. Rocine" <brocine AT twcny.rr.com>]

B-Haverim,

The list server had some problems for a few days,so I am sending this 
post a second time.  The original made it into the archives, but I think 
it may not have been mailed out to the list.  Forgive me if this is the 
second time you are receiving it.

**********

When Isaiah says that YHWH creates xoshek and ra`, he means that YHWH 
has created the disaster for Israel at the hands of the Babylonians.  In 
other words, YHWH creates devastating judgment.

As to the origin of this figure in the Gen creation account, there are 
indications that Isaiah (and Jeremiah and others) thought of the dark 
and watery world of Gen 1:2 as being the result of God's judgment.  See 
Isaiah 34:8-16 (and Jeremiah 4).  If so, there was pre-existent light 
that God had darkened as judgment.  "Create darkness" in the code means 
"judge."

The Bible is not meant to be a physics textbook, so the hang-up on 
darkness being the absence of light is really off the track.

I think an appropriate translation in Isa 45:7 is "disaster."

Shalom,
Bryan

--
B. M. Rocine
Living Word Church
6101 Court St. Rd.
Syracuse, NY 13026
(W): 315.437.6744