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Sunday, January 31, 2010
The call of the prophet.
My apologies for the lack of posting. School has me quite busy.
I found this study of the language in Jeremiah 20:7 by [none other than] Abraham Heschel to be absolutely fascinating, and therefore I pass it on to you.
According to the increasingly popular English Standard Version, Jeremiah 20:7 reads:
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
According to the Jewish Publication Society’s translation, it reads:
and I was enticed;
You overpowered me
and You prevailed.
I have become a constant laughingstock
Everyone jeers at me.
According to Heschel, it should be translated:
Thou has seduced me;
And I am seduced;
Thou hast raped me
And I am overcome.
Just so we’re all on the same page: the battle is over the meanings of entice vs. seduce vs. deceive, and overpower/stronger than/prevail vs. rape.
The beginning of the passage relies on the Hebrew word patah. Literally in the text the Hebrew is פּתיתני [pitiytiniy, the alteration/extra letters are due to the “me” (ending -iy) and tense].
Heschel makes his case for the “seduce” translation:
In short, patah denotes seduction or enticement, with the ESV tending to stick with “entice.”
The second word is chazakh, and in Jeremiah 20:7 it is written חזקתני [ḥazaq(e)taniy].
Heschel defends his “rape” translation in this way:
Simply put, this word involves violence. The II Samuel example is the story of ye olde Amnon and Tamar.
shudder.
Heschel continues:
The call to be a prophet is more than an invitation. It is first of all a feeling of being enticed, of acquiescence or willing surrender. But this winsome feeling is only one aspect of the experience. The other aspect is a sense of being ravished or carried away by violence, of yielding to overpowering force against one’s own will. He is conscious of both voluntary identification and forced capitulation.
To be a prophet, one of the nivi’im, is an incredibly difficult calling, and it’s not one that’s optional. God says, “Do this,” and one can either respond positively - i.e. do it, or ignore the Word and be miserable/die while He finds someone else.
It’s God’s way or the wrong way, and God’s way tends to be a touch forceful if you know what I mean. Hosea was working away as a baker guy when he was told to marry a wife of whoredom for his call, while Jeremiah spends his first few chapters freaking out about his vocation.
Before you were born, I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations.
I (Jeremiah) replied:
Ah, Lord God!
I don’t know how to speak,
For I am still a boy.
And the Lord said to me:
Do not say, “I am still a boy,”
But go where I send you
And speak whatever I command you.
Have no fear of them,
For I am with you to deliver you
-Declares the Lord. [Jer. 1:5-8]
Later God soothes Jeremiah (well, sort of) telling him not to “break down before them.” Thanks for the tip! I mean, He does follow this up by saying: “I make you (Jeremiah) this day a fortified city, and an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land ...They will attack you, but they shall not overcome you; for I am with you - declares the Lord - to save you.”
I’d be freaking out too.
But can you see a little humor in it? “Oh, by the way, don’t break down or anything. Get ready to be attacked, but don’t worry because I’m God and I rule.”
The prophet is rejected by pretty much everybody with power. The priests, the politicians, they’re going to call him a heretic, they’re going to brand him a radical, they’re going to disown and distance themselves from him.
But in the end, even if the navi is crucified, God ultimately wins out.
Because He’s God.
Y’know.
As an aside, I got this for my twenty first birthday and I love it. It’s even huge frum size!
That is all/end brag.
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