Prophet Pearls #43 – Masei (Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4)
In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson discuss the Prophets portion for Masei covering Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4. Gordon gives eyewitness accounts of the springs and cisterns of Israel—springs that are sources and fountains of living water … Continue reading →
In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson discuss the Prophets portion for Masei covering Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4. Gordon gives eyewitness accounts of the springs and cisterns of Israel—springs that are sources and fountains of living water and man-made cisterns that can be rendered worthless. We learn that the “makor” (mem, qoof, reish), the “spring” with which Jeremiah was most familiar, still exists today.
The word-of-the-week is "E'evod" (אעבד) which provides a play on words (via the aleph) when Israel calls to “my father”—the mighty one. Whether Jeremiah wrote “I will not serve” or “I will not transgress” is an issue for the “Qere/Ketiv”—an exacting system that compares margin notes left by scribes to determine if words should be read differently than they were written. While some scholars profess that reading Adonai instead of the written “yud-hei-vav-hei” is a Qere/Ketiv issue, Gordon maintains the meticulousness of a scribe.
Photo by Nehemia Gordon of Ein Perat, a spring of living water in the Judean Desert near Anatot, the ancient home town of the Prophet Jeremiah.
"For My people... They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters..." Jeremiah 2:13
I look forward to reading your comments!
Transcript
Prophet Pearls #43 – Masei (Jeremiah 2:4-28; 3:4)
You are listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Nehemia: Shalom, and welcome to Prophet Pearls, recorded live in the city of the prophets, Yerushalayim, Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel and the Jewish people. This is Nehemia Gordon, deep down in the basement of the safe house, with Keith Johnson. Now, I know, Keith, you don’t like my intro, you want me to do the special “Previously on Prophet Pearls.” You want me to do the TV introduction. I’m here in the city of the prophets! I’m just overwhelmed that we’re going to be talking about the words of Jeremiah in the very city, where 2,600 years ago he preached these words. And you want me to do something from Law and Order.
Keith: No, no. Listen, listen. You get your turn, I get my turn, let’s just keep doing this. It is fun. I do want to say that this is Part 2, I don’t care what you call it, I’m calling this it Part 2 because this is the first time in Prophet Pearls, the first time in Prophet Pearls where we actually started in a section and we get to continue in the section and in context, and so…
Nehemia: In other words, it’s two weeks, one after the other, and they’re contiguous. But that’s actually not true, because we did Episodes 22 and 23 as one episode. We did that as a double-header, and we could have done this as a double-header, there is so much in it.
Keith: It’s also a part two for the Maccabees, they’re actually two in a row. Thanks, you guys!
Together: Maccabees, whoo!
Keith: Whoo! [laughing] So, Nehemia, it starts out pretty cool. Do you want to start at 2:4?
Nehemia: Go for it.
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Comments
And…to add to your point. A lactating mother is reminded of her baby several times a day when her milk lets down. Making it impossible to Forget her suckling babe!!
I looked up the word from Jer 3:4 for mighty one, aluf, champion. A piel form means trainer, coach. it seemed to me that could be appropriate too.
I had to pause just a minute and 41 seconds in, because Keith asked about difference between house of Jacob and house of Israel. Nehemia did not think any difference. Nehemia, are you sure? Have you considered that “maybe” Yehovah was neither stuttering or repeating Himself? But rather giving a means to identify prophecies meant for Judah, from prophecies meant for the lost tribes of Israel?
Isa 48:1 (JPS) “…house of Jacob,…are come forth out of the fountain of Judah…
Then what was skipped in-between, who are called (by the world) by the name of Israel. Is it possible that in PROPHECY, (prophecy ONLY,) Jacob is Judah and companions, while Ephraim, and “house of Israel, are prophecies for the lost 10 tribes?
I could quote many, many more scriptures, that point to this possible conclusion, but for the sake of brevity, I’ll leave it to you and Keith to investigate.
Started reading Jeremiah and will follow with all the podcast you have done of the book.
Reconsidering this, I see that the point really isn’t that relevant since the Israelites did still sacrifice to God in His temple (and elsewhere), they just added in a tonne of other gods and blended their worship with the worship of the one true God. It’s funny what you don’t notice sometimes!
Reconsidering this
A beautiful, descriptive explanation of your ministry and the meaning of makor.
1960’s the Feminist movement was teaching women (younger) that marriage was a man’s idea of slavery and that they need to leave their husbands and go find who they really are and Be somebody. Many females did leave their husbands and children, some infants. This was begnning of breaking up family system; which is the strength of any nation. I was very unnatural, that’s the degree of how it was so evil.
Re. the comment on rhetorical questions and expected no answers in the bible, I just wanted to point out that the expected answer may still be ‘no’ in this instance — I may be wrong, but even when nations switched out their gods for others, they tended to keep the old ones. They just added to their collection, so to speak, and over time the roles played by different ones (or the names they chose to give them) altered. Even in China, don’t they still have mini shrines to the ancestors and local deities before they get to the more ‘major’ deities in their temples? I’m not trying to fit all examples of this into the one interpretive box, but that’s my understanding in this particular instance.
bells, I understand your point, but I think the point of the particular verse you cited is that a woman could be expected to never forget her suckling child, it’s wired into her to be compassionate and to be aware of her child’s needs. It reads to me as just an added point of emphasis, a reminder of his eternal, complete compassion, mercy and determination to have relationship. Even if a woman forgets her child (definitely an unlikely and certainly an unnatural occurrence), God never will forge His people. So, it’s still kind of an expected ‘no’, but then he challenges that expected answer to reinforce God’s surpassing love for His people.
Concerning minutes 12:00-13:22, There are other parts in the biblical Hebrew where God asks a rhetorical question and the answer is yes e.g
Isaiah 49:15.
Can a woman forget her sucking child,
That she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Yea, these may forget,
Yet will not I forget thee
This indicates that when God ask a rhetorical question in the bible, we shouldn’t assume that the correct answer is no. it is just that, a question; and not necessarily an answer posed as a question. Which implies that rhetorical questions from God don’t necessarily suggest that a response with “no” is the right answer.
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