symbolic name

September 26, 2017

The daughter was called Lo-ruhamah (Hos 1:6-1:6)

“Gomer conceived again.

She bore a daughter.

Then Yahweh said to Hosea.

‘Name her Lo-ruhamah!

I will no longer

Have pity

On the house

Of Israel!

I will no longer

Forgive them.’”

Gomer once again became pregnant. This time she bore a daughter. Yahweh spoke directly with Hosea. This daughter was to be named Lo-ruhamah, another symbolic name that means not pitied or not loved anymore. Then Yahweh explained that he was not going to have pity on the house of Israel any more. He was not going to forgive them for what they had done.

August 12, 2016

Ariel (Isa 29:1-29:4)

“Woe to you!

Ariel!

Ariel!

This is the city

Where David encamped!

Add year to year!

Let the festivals run their round!

Yet I will distress Ariel!

There shall be moaning!

There shall be lamentation!

Jerusalem shall be to me

Like an altar hearth.

Like David,

I will encamp against you.

I will besiege you with towers.

I will raise siege works against you.

Then deep from the earth,

You shall speak.

From low in the dust,

Your words shall come.

Your voice shall come from the ground

Like the voice of a ghost.

Your speech shall whisper

Out of the dust.”

Ariel is a symbolic name for Jerusalem and its altar. Yahweh, via Isaiah, warns Jerusalem about what is going to happen to it. Perhaps this is before the siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE. Jerusalem was where King David had lived and where festivals continued on an annual basis. However, Yahweh was going to encamp against it and set up siege works against it. They would be able to speak only from below the earth and the dust. Their voices would be reduced to a whisper, like a ghost in the middle of this dust pile.

August 3, 2016

Oracle about the sentinel watching from Mount Seir (Isa 21:11-21:12)

“The oracle concerning Dumah.

One is calling to me

From Seir.

‘Sentinel!

What of the night?

Sentinel!

What of the night?’

The sentinel says.

‘Morning comes!

Also the night!

If you will inquire,

Inquire!

Come back again.’”

Dumah means silence and may be a symbolic name for Edom. Apparently Isaiah or Yahweh presented an oracle about Edom that was south of Moab, in modern day southern Jordan. The Edomites had been part of the uprising against Assyria. Someone was calling from Seir, a mountainous region in Edom. Once again, it is the lookout, the watchman, or the sentinel who gives the cry. The question is what is happening. Apparently there will there will a night like destruction, not merely once, but twice, and then again. In between, there will be a nice morning.