"and they became a sign"

Today's post will outline an interesting new idea I recently had about this promise in Isaiah:

26 ¶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth... (Isaiah 5)

I've always thought of this "ensign" as a positive thing -- a banner or a beacon to which the honest in heart will flock. And I still think that is a perfectly valid way to think about this verse.

What I offer below is an alternative suggestion for what this "ensign" might be. In this post, every time you see a word highlighted in blue, it comes from the same Hebrew root.

The company of Korah

In the book of Numbers, we read about a challenge to the authority of Moses and Aaron.  Descendants of Reuben (the eldest son of Jacob) dispute over who should have the right to lead the people.

Moses prevails in a pretty miraculous way, and then we read this:

10 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign. (Numbers 26)

The NRSV translates this word as "warning." Although I'm only a novice when it comes to Hebrew, I get curious as I read the Old Testament about what the original Hebrew words are for certain phrases. I read this and really wanted to know what word was translated into "sign" in this verse. Here is is:

nes (נֵס): a standard, ensign, signal, sign

This same word is used to describe the brazen serpent that Moses raises in the wilderness to heal the people from the fiery serpents (see Numbers 21:8-9).

Isaiah uses the word several times in a similar context as the verse quoted above from Isaiah 5.  A few key examples are presented below:

Isaiah 11

10 ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Interestingly, Doctrine & Covenants 113:3-4 seems to indicate that the "root of Jesse" is Joseph Smith. Furthermore, in verse 11, flanked by two references to the latter-day "ensign for the nations," we get the prophecy that the Lord "shall set his hand again to recover the remnant of his people." The Hebrew of this phrase includes yō·w·sîp̄, from which the name Joseph derives. Very interesting and clever, if you ask me.

Isaiah 13

2 Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

This verse is also very interesting.  It's presented in a clear military context.  Bible commentaries outline how this verse essentially describes the Lord declaring war on Babylon and calling His people to gather to the standard to prepare for the coming war.

Isaiah 18

3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

In this verse we see much of the same imagery as in Isaiah 13:2, with the addition of the trumpet.  I'll get to that symbol as I attempt to tie all of these symbols together below.

Connecting to the Book of Mormon

With all of this in mind, what is the latter-day 'ensign' spoken of in these verses? I can't help but see the Book of Mormon itself as the best fit.  Of course it connects to the restoration of the Gospel, the priesthood, the temple, covenants, etc.  But the Book of Mormon itself is the voice of warning to the world. What better way to warn than to give us the record of a civilization of Israelites who collapsed as a result of rejecting the covenant? The voice of warning "[cries] from the dust" (2 Nephi 33:13) and admonishes us to "give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been." (Mormon 9:31).

Moroni, the same being who is depicted with a trumpet on so many of our temples, sounds this voice of warning to the world and reminds us that the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is the sign that the Lord has set His hand again to recover the remnant of his people.

16 ... Remember, when ye see these things, ye shall know that the time is at hand that they shall be made manifest in very deed.

17 Therefore, when ye shall receive this record ye may know that the work of the Father has commenced upon all the face of the land. (Ether 4)

The company of Korah "became a sign" for the ancient Israelites to remember by what power they had been delivered from Egypt.  Similarly, the Nephites have become a sign for us in the latter days to remember that the way of life comes through hearkening the voice of the Lord.

A note about Hebrew, translation as an act of textual violence, and the Book of Mormon

A few years ago, I began following a prompting to learn how to understand scripture in God's context rather than my own.  At the time this felt unimportant to me -- I suspected it would contribute little to my understanding of the scriptures, but I plodded ahead nonetheless.

Today I can testify of the importance of striving to understand the original context of holy writ. It isn't enough to simply read the words and use the modern English conception to derive meaning from the verse. Doing only this might cause us to completely miss very important subtext. Genesis 1 gives us multiple important examples, such as the fact that Adam's name means "from the ground." Another example would be poetic features intended to relay layers of meaning in very few words. The second half of Isaiah 5:7 is a perfect example of this (as Stisa has previously discussed here):

he expected justice ('mishpat'),
    but saw bloodshed ('mispakh');
righteousness ('tsedaqah'),
    but heard a cry ('tseaqah')! (NRSV)

Many elements are happening all at once in this poetic verse about Israel's covenant rebellion. Taking the verse from Hebrew to English forces the translator to make a choice between preserving the ringing sounds of the poetry or the strict meaning of the words. The example above preserves the meaning of the words.  Notice how another translation reads:

“And [God] hoped for justice, 

But behold, injustice; 

For equity, 

But behold, iniquity!” (NJPS)

In this case, the ringing sound of the words is preserved at the expense of the meaning of the original Hebrew.  In English, one can't have both a precise rendering of the meaning and a preservation of the ringing poetry.

Translation as as act of violence

The need to transform . . . the ancient languages of the Bible (Aramaic, Hebrew, Greek) into a modern language, thereby modernizing the language, thought, and culture of the Bible by means of such translation does unimaginable violence to the text. It wrenches the text from its home in the ancient cultures and languages, deports that text and exiles it in foreign languages and cultures. The cultural transformations required to make the translation work in its new language and culture often involve serious violations of the text. Radical changes between cultures are not easily accommodated by translation techniques and each cultural translation shifts the text further away from its roots in ancient culture. (Robert P. Carroll, “Cultural Encroachment and Bible Translation: Observations on Elements of Violence, Race and Class in the Production of Bibles in Translation,” Semeia 76 (1996): 39–53, here 39–40.)

Any time we attempt to study scriptures in a language other than its original language we run a risk of grossly misinterpreting what was meant by the author.

How this relates to studying the Book of Mormon

The original language of the Book of Mormon is neither English nor Hebrew. It is clear that the writers knew Hebrew, evidenced by numerous examples of Hebrew wordplay, metanyms, and literary devices common to ancient Hebrew. So why do Stisa and I spend so much time trying to understand Hebrew if this is not the original language of the Book of Mormon? 

The best answer to this is that by a deeper understanding of Hebrew very often leads to a deeper/better understanding of the the Book of Mormon.  Identifying patterns such as the Isaiah example above reveals hidden layer of meaning within the English text.

Let's look at 3 Nephi 9:11 in light of Isaiah 5:7 --

11 And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them. (3 Nephi 9)

God expected righteousness from His covenant people but found none righteous among them. He found their blood crying to Him from the ground (ha'adamah) against the people. He goes on to introduce Himself to those who were spared four verses later:

15 Behold, I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. I was with the Father from the beginning. I am in the Father, and the Father in me; and in me hath the Father glorified his name.

Do you see the deeper message here?  The creator has come to visit His people. Mormon describes the visitation (and preceding destruction) in a way that highlights Isaiah's words (which we know Mormon had as they are contained on the small plates). These sons of Adam had forgotten the purpose of the creation, ignored messages from the prophets, and instead spilled their blood onto the ground from which they had come.

If this were an isolated example, or if they were few and far between, I'd probably be able to dismiss the concept as mere coincidence. Instead, I find them almost every time I study the scriptures. Here is a link just to wordplay in names found in the Book of Mormon.

The Book of Mormon was very carefully written by people familiar with ancient Hebrew.  As we take the time to understand this deeper context, our understanding of the scriptures will expand in a very satisfying way.

I've learned that for me, part of "studying it out in my mind" is now:

1. unlearning the typical modern meaning of a word
2. learning the scriptural context for that word
3. getting a deeper understanding of the passage itself
4. seeing how clearly it connects to other passages

The Holy Ghost teaches me along the way at each step, and the more I succeed in this process the easier it has become to trust this will continue to happen for the rest of my life.

Righteousness -- Part 1

After I posted on the paths of righteousness and wisdom, I got stuck in the concept of righteousness. Looking into the ancient Hebrew understanding of certain concepts or words sometimes opens up a new world. This is definitely the case with righteousness and I find it fascinating. This paper by Margaret Barker introduces this concept and its background. Here is the essence:

The Bible is full of words that describe the creation as a web of life, the role of human beings in guarding and preserving it, and why things went wrong[...] the Bible writers said that God had bound all creation into one system. This was how people talked about it, and thought about it, and so this was how they lived. Human society and all the natural world belonged together. Everything had its place and its boundary[...] These bonds of creation formed the great covenant - the word means binding together - and as long as the bonds of the covenant remained in place, people could live in peace and prosperity. The bonds were called the covenant of peace, or the covenant of life and peace (Numbers 25.12; Malachi 2.5). Peace did not mean simply ‘absence of conflict’. The Hebrew word shalom implies far more: rest, balance, harmony and completion - we might nowadays say ‘a sustainable state.’ The story of the creation in the Bible says this was achieved when everything was very good and at rest. There is no mention of maximum production. Resting was an essential part of the system; enough was enough. The bonds and boundaries maintained everything as the Creator intended it to be, and human beings had to live in such a way that the covenant was not broken. The storyteller said that Adam was put in the Garden of Eden to serve it and to preserve it (Genesis 2.15). The English versions say something like ‘to till it and to keep it’ but this does not make clear what Adam had to do: he had to be the Servant and Guardian of the creation, not just a gardener. The Servants of the LORD had to maintain the covenant of peace. When it was threatened or damaged, they had to do whatever was necessary to restore it. And here we come to the word that forms the title of this talk; righteousness, tsedaqah. Righteousness describes both the action needed to restore the broken covenant, and also the result of that action. Righteous people had been restored to their intended place in the creation, and they then had to work to restore other parts of the covenant system. Righteousness meant the activity of making righteous, protecting and maintaining the covenant.

In other words, the term "righteousness" ties neatly into the creation-covenant connection. Righteousness is what preserves or restores the bonds of creation. This adds context to the "paths of righteousness". In that post, I showed some examples where God himself was described as righteousness. He is the originator of the covenant and the creator of this harmonic system. His paths lead to this peace and "rest" that Barker mentions. (See previous posts on "enter into His rest"). But He also wants Adam ("man" or "mankind" in Hebrew) to be righteous as He is - a servant and guardian of creation.

I don't really know Hebrew, but I have seen that some nouns have both a masculine and a feminine version. This is the case with righteousness. Tsedeq is the masculine form and tsedaqah is the feminine form. They carry the same meaning but there is disagreement among scholars if these words can be used interchangeably or if there in fact are differences. Some claim that tsedeq signifies the right order of things (think God as the creator and preserver of the creation-covenant connection) and tsedaqah is the human behavior (think the servant who guards the "garden" or creation).

I studied some scriptures that give deeper meaning with this background knowledge. In Moses 7 we read about the establishment of Zion. This is where righteousness has overcome the unrest, the broken covenant, and brought back the initial "shalom" and bonds of creation. "Righteous" and "righteousness" are mentioned 11 times in this chapter. For example:

And it came to pass that Enoch looked upon the earth; and he heard a voice from the bowels thereof, saying: Wo, wo is me, the mother of men; I am pained, I am weary, because of the wickedness of my children. When shall I rest, and be cleansed from the filthiness which is gone forth out of me? When will my Creator sanctify me, that I may rest, and righteousness for a season abide upon my face? (Moses 7:48)

The earth, the creation, is pained because of wickedness (which is the common word used as the opposite of righteousness). The creation mourns and longs for rest; the harmony that only the covenant bonds can give through righteousness. I also highlighted "my face" since Lord Wilmore previously speculated that "face of the earth/land" is another covenant symbol, which I agree with. 

When I posted about the concept of "heaven and earth" previously, it was triggered by a verse in this same chapter, in Moses 7. 

And righteousness will I send down out of heaven; and truth will I send forth out of the earth, to bear testimony of mine Only Begotten; his resurrection from the dead; yea, and also the resurrection of all men; and righteousness and truth will I cause to sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four quarters of the earth, unto a place which I shall prepare, an Holy City, that my people may gird up their loins, and be looking forth for the time of my coming; for there shall be my tabernacle, and it shall be called Zion, a New Jerusalem. (Moses 7:62)

I believe that heaven and earth is an allusion to the very first verse of the Bible and the creation, including the "web of life"/bonds/covenant that comes with it. When righteousness comes from heaven and truth from the earth, they meet and are united. This is the setting for the establishment of Zion. This same idea is found in Psalms.

11 Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12 Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

13 Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps. (Psalm 85)

In this case, righteousness looks down from heaven and gives another example of the personification that I wrote about in "paths of righteousness and wisdom" post I linked. In verse 13, the path of righteousness is established when righteousness goes in front and creates a way for us to follow. Another example:

Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it. (Isaiah 45:8)

As in Moses 7, righteousness is sent from heaven. Avraham Gileadi comments on this verse:

Jehovah’s sending down righteousness out of heaven alludes to blessings flowing as a consequence of covenant keeping by his elect.

In this case, righteousness also springs up from the earth. Whereas the righteousness from heaven in both the quoted verses from Psalms and Isaiah is the masculine, tsedeq, the rightousness from earth in the same Isaiah verse, is the feminine tsedaqah. I interpret this as an allusion to the covenant concept of a symbolic marriage between heaven and earth, between Jehovah and his bride, Israel. This is the establishment of Zion.

Righteousness springing up is also reminiscent of the righteous branch that the Book of Mormon mentions. This aspect and a few others found in the Book of Mormon related to "righteousness" will be the topic for part 2.

But there is also one more verse in Isaiah related to this that I'd like to include:

For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry. (Isaiah 5:7)

This is Isaiah's song of the vineyard that tells of wickedness, covenant-breaking and scattering, the very opposite of the establishment of Zion through righteousness. God expected to find righteousness in the vineyard (creation) and the plant springing up, but found "a cry" instead. The Hebrew word means an outcry, a cry of distress. Consistent with the other quoted verses, "righteousness" in this case is the feminine, tsedaqah. Isaiah is engaging in a word-play here by applying similar words with opposite meaning.

and he looked for judgment (Hebr. mispat), but behold oppression (Hebr. mispah)

for righteousness (Hebr. tsedaqah), but behold a cry (Hebr. tseaqah)

Brilliant poetry! My take from all this: The initial bond that keeps all creation in balance and harmony is established by the Creator, the righteous one. Man has been assigned to serve and guard it, but has broken the covenant and caused disruption through wickedness. In order to establish Zion and restore the covenant of peace, God sends righteousness (tsedeq) from heaven and calls on righteous people from all the face of the earth/land to walk on His paths and gather. The righteousness from heaven was sent in the form of his Son a couple of millennia ago. In the latter days it has been in the form of a glorious restoration, including priesthood power from heavenly messengers and revelations. At the same time, the Book of Mormon has been coming forth from the earth and righteous (tsedaqah) people are participating in the gathering of Israel.

In the next part we will see how the Book of Mormon is particularly concerned with the establishment and preservation of a righteous people.

Samuel the Lamanite channels Nephi (and Isaiah)

I've found numerous examples of Samuel the Lamanite making reference to themes and phrases from Nephi (and Isaiah).  I started a list.  I'm sure there are many, many more to find. Notice the similarities between how Samuel describes false teachers and how Nephi described them:

This final example has a very clear parallel in the writings of Isaiah:

20 Wo unto them that call evil good, and good evil, that put darkness for light, and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (2 Nephi 15/Isaiah 5)