Introductory Information: While there probably was a prophet by the name of Jonah – referred to in 2 Kings who lived during the reign of Jeroboam II - the Book of Jonah is not historical; it is a literary piece written probably in the 5^th century BC, post-exile. My Jerusalem Bible says it is “intended to amuse and instruct; it is a didactic work and its doctrine marks one of the peaks of the Old Testament” (1141). “It…

Joel 2:18-27 – The Lord may be angry. We may feel that He is out to destroy us, but want He wants is that we SEE the reasons for His disappointment and respond with the will as a community to CHANGE OUR WAYS. There is no doubt that the prophets anthropomorphize this God. But this is understandable in the context of the biblical narrative, for we were created to be “like him”: “God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he…

Yesterday, someone who visited this blog asked what interpretation I meant to ascribe to readings. Most of the time I really am not trying to interpret the text. I am just trying to hear what it says, connect what it says to New Testament writing and to Quaker writers that most of us are familiar with. I guess the overall interpretation I have of scripture is this - that while it is not really a piece of literature - it is more a library of books that have been…

Malachi 3 – God says He is “going to send my messenger to prepare a way before me” (3:1). “Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he is like the refiner’s fire and the fullers’ alkali . . . he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and then they will make the offering to Yahweh as it should be made” (3:2-3).

 They must stop sinning against the Lord – practicing sorcery, adultery and…

Malachi is an eponym – a “name” that is based on a meaning. The word Malachi (Gr.) means “messenger.” The oracle was written sometime between 516 BC, when the Temple was rebuilt, and 330 BC, the end of the Persian period. The content indicates probably written around the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. The author is not known according to Lawrence Boadt.           

Malachi 1 - God’s people are always challenging God to show how He has…

Ezekiel 47 – A stream is described coming out from under the Temple threshold, flowing eastward. Ezekiel’s guide takes him to the stream and has him wade across it at different points; it swells in size, becoming “a river impossible to cross” (47:5).

“Wherever the river flow, all living creatures teeming in it will live” (47:9).  Life will flourish along the banks of this river.

The frontiers of the lands allotted to the various tribes are described…

Ezekiel 46 – The east gate of the inner court is always to be shut for the six regular days of the week but opened on the Sabbath. It is also to be opened on the day of the New Moon. The prince must walk through on these days and the priests offer his holocaust and communion sacrifices. The animals to be offered are listed in detail.

The figure who appeared in 40-42 to show Ezekiel the exact dimensions and specifications the new Temple reappears here in verse…

Ezekiel 45 – In this chapter Ezekiel describes a division of the country into parallel strips. The note says this is he most hypothetical and unrealistic part of his “vision.” The idea is that the land is to be divided – a section devoted to the sanctuary (the sacred portion), a section for the priests to live in.

There is to be a portion for the prince as it was in Solomon’s time; he is exhorted to give up “violence and plundering, [to] practice justice and integrity,…

Ezekiel 44 – Meanwhile the east gate of the sanctuary is to be kept shut since the Lord Himself has passed through it. The prince may take his meals there [note says this was connected with the communion sacrifice].

He goes on to describe the rules about who are and who are not to be admitted into the sanctuary. No “rebels,” “aliens,” or those “uncircumcised in heart and body” (44:9) are to be permitted in.  The Levites, who abandoned Yahweh to follow idols, are to…

Ezekiel 43 – At the eastern gate of the city, Ezekiel is given a vision of the “glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east” (43:2). It comes in towards the prophet sounding like the ocean and shining like the sun. It is exactly like the vision he had had at the time of Jerusalem’s destruction. The glory of God fills the Temple and a “man” stands beside him. He hears a voice assuring him that this presence will abide among the “sons of Israel forever” (43:7).…

Ezekiel 41 – Ezekiel describes the “Hekal” [Hall] and Debir [Sanctuary] of the new Temple  – its dimensions and place in the vision he has of Jerusalem. He mentions some side structures, the wooden altar and doors.  There are few places in the Scriptures where the writer describes what he is talking about in such excruciating detail: Noah’s ark, the building of the first Temple and now here. I love Ezekiel for his poetry and his amazing vision of what will change in his people’s…

Ezekiel 40 – The note in my Jerusalem Bible says that this final section of Ezekiel “is a blueprint for the religious and political rehabilitation of the Israelite nation in Palestine . . . He “assumes the role of organizer intent on realizing . . . long-desired reforms . . . a founding charter for what was shortly to emerge as Judaism, and to provide a basis for all future efforts and aspiration from Ezra to the heavenly Jerusalem of the apocalypse of St John”…

Ezekiel 39 – The prophet is again told to prophesy against Gog this time, the prince of kingdoms that have attacked the mountains of Israel – as an agent of God’s wrath against His people.

Now it is they who will be brought low. “I am going to see that my holy name is known among my people Israel, and I will no longer allow my holy name to be profaned; the nations shall learn that I am Yahweh, holy in Israel (39:7).

They shall be slain,…

Ezekiel 38 – The footnote introducing this chapter says that this is the earliest apocalyptic, eschatological, vision in scripture. Other examples are Isaiah 24-27, Daniel 7-12, Zechariah 9-14. This type of literature bloomed in the 2^nd c. BC (Book of Enoch, etc.). The countries of Meshech and Tubal were on the Black Sea; Magog is not known. Gog is a “type” of victorious barbarian who will inflict the final ordeals on Israel.

In an…

Ezekiel 37 – The Dry Bones – The hand of the Lord carries Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of bones. He makes him walk up and down among them.

“He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord Yahweh’. He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you. I shall make flesh…

Ezekiel 34  – Ezekiel prophesies against the shepherds [leaders spiritual and temporal] of Israel’s people who “feed themselves” instead of feeding their flocks. They have failed to make the weak stronger; they have not cared for the sick or wounded sheep. So they have scattered and have become prey for wild animals. The shepherds will be called to account, but also the Lord will not rely on them any more. He says, “I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in…

Ezekiel 33 - God tells Ezekiel to speak to the nation and tell them that he is meant to be the sentry God has appointed to protect the people of Israel. A sentry is there to warn of coming disasters. If the sentry blows his horn and people ignore him, then they are responsible for their own fate. But if the sentry does not warn them, he is responsible for and will be held responsible for the people’s deaths. In a similar way, if the sentry God has sent – the prophet – warns the…

Ezekiel 32 – Egypt’s pharaoh is again compared to a crocodile, snorting, churning the waters and muddying its streams (32:2). God’s net will be thrown over this crocodile and its carcass will be scattered, leaving the country in darkness. The world will be shocked at the fate of Egypt.

Egypt will go down to Sheol and there meet with those who have died in battles before – Assyria, Elam [ancient civilization in SW Iran], Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the North…

Ezekiel 31 – In the spring of 587, Ezekiel is addressed by God to say to Pharaoh that Egypt can be compared to a cedar of Lebanon “with noble branches, thick-set needles and lofty trunk. Its top pierces the clouds. The waters have made it grow, the deep has made it tall, pouring its rivers round the place where it is planted, sending its streams to all the other trees” (31:3-4).

“[I]n its shade every kind of people sat . . . It was the envy of every tree in…

Ezekiel 29  – The year is 588-587 BC. Ezekiel goes on to prophesy against the Pharaoh of Egypt, the “great crocodile wallowing in [the] Niles” (29:3). God is going to “put hooks through [his] jaws,” pull him out of the Nile, drop him in the desert and give him “as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven, so that all the inhabitants of Egypt may learn that I am Yahweh” (29:6).

He is disappointed that they have not been more supportive to the House of…