Day 362- Today we are reading chapters 28-29 of 2 Chronicles/Divrei Hayamim 2.

Day 360- Today we are reading chapters 22-24 of 2 Chronicles/Divrei Hayamim 2.

• 
  Dawn Marie McAlister
  December 26, 2019 at 5:37 pm  /

  This section makes me so sad. A boy who was rescued from the murderous intentions of his own flesh and blood is raised in the House of Yehovah, crowned by the High Priest in that same House, repairs the Temple, and makes covenants, ends up throwing all that away once the man who might as well have been his father dies. Then he kills a man who was in many ways his adopted brother because he calls the king out.

  The priest is buried with the kings, but the man he raised is not. How terribly sad!

  An item of note from chapter 22: I was shocked as I read verse 2 because in TIN and the JPS, Ahaziah is said to be 42 years old. His father was only 40 when he died so how did that work?

  I checked a couple of Christian translations and they say 22 years old. Okay, so what happened here?

  I couldn’t find a Jewish commentary on this but I marveled that many Christian commentaries speculate that this was a scribal error and hence they corrected it to 22. Why do I marvel? Because I was always taught that our Bibles could not contain errors, at least not in the original language. But if that were the case, how could these commentators speculate about a scribal error? Wouldn’t that negate their belief?

  Now the Jews maintain that they cannot change anything in the written word of God so even though they might think that it should be 22, they won’t change it. They might do some interesting things with words for the purposes of interpretation, but they absolutely will not change the written word even if what they are transcribing is nearly impossible.

Day 359- Today we are reading chapters 19-21 of 2 Chronicles/Divrei Hayamim 2.

Day 357- Today we are reading chapters 13-15 of 2 Chronicles/Divrei Hayamim 2.

Day 355- Today we are reading chapters 7-9 of 1 Chronicles/Divrei Hayamim 2.

• 
  Dawn Marie McAlister
  December 21, 2019 at 8:33 pm  /

  There’s so much to say about the last two days of reading, first and foremost, why did the Archbishop of Canterbury split chapters 6 & 7 where he did? Why separate Shlomo’s prayer from the miracle of the fire falling? Obviously I don’t have the actual answer, but I do find it odd, especially when it seems that a more natural division comes at verse 4.

  Second, why do Jewish translations follow the same pattern? There are many instances where the Jewish translations DON’T follow the Christian pattern, so why here? I just don’t understand.

  I won’t say too much about Shlomo’s prayer here since it was from yesterday’s reading, but I do absolutely love it. He even remembers to include the foreigners who would honor Yehovah’s name and come to Beit HaMikdash, that our sacrifices would also be accepted there.

  Side note: I wish I was Jewish by birth, I really do, but as far as I can tell I am not. The good news is that I don’t have to be according to Yehovah’s Instruction; I can join myself to Him, honoring the Shabbat and holding fast to the covenant, and that’s all that matters. If you are member of Nehemia’s Support Team and want an amazingly encouraging teaching about this, go listen to his raw stream of Torah consciousness (Support Team Study) called “The Super Mario Prophecy”. I promise, you won’t be disappointed.

  Anyhoo… Chapter 7 has Yehovah’s response to Shlomo’s prayer (which may explain the chapter division, but there’s an awful lot taking place between the fire from Heaven and the spoken response). In it He promises to honor Shlomo’s request to forgive the sins of the people when they pray, seek His face, & repent. I used to think in terms of “Christians” bearing Jesus’ name (“Christ”, “Christian”), but since reading Nehemia’s book, Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence: The Power of the Priestly Blessing Unleashed, I can’t think that way anymore. According to Numbers 6:27, by saying the blessing over the people, the kohanim are literally putting the name of Yehovah on His people. The people who have had the name of Yehovah placed upon them through this blessing are the people who “bear My name”. If the name in Numbers had never been hidden under the word “LORD”, I could never have confused the people who bear “My name” with those who are called by Jesus’ title (“Christ”) later on in history – not that they can’t be included, but they are NOT the people referred to in 2 Chronicles 7:14.

  Yehovah’s name needs to be proclaimed at all times in order to cut through the confusion and frankly, the calculated replacement in people’s minds with other names and people-groups.

  On to chapter 8. Chapter 8:11 says that Shlomo built a special palace for his wife from Egypt because, “’No wife of [his] shall dwell in a palace of King David…’” (TIN) since the area was sacred. I don’t know a whole lot of Hebrew but from what I can tell it really does say “no wife of mine”, but he had 700 which begs some questions: did he feel that women in general were unworthy to enter holy places, or is this statement an allusion to the fact that his Egyptian bride was his favorite (meaning she was the only one he now thought of as “his wife”) and this Egyptian specifically was never going to enter a sacred space? Did she herself say she would not live in a place that was sacred to the God of Israel and this was one way she pulled Shlomo away from Him (Shlomo would have had to come to her)? And finally, what did he do with the other 699 wives, not to mention the 300 concubines?

  Finally chapter 9. The commentary on 9:1 in TIN finishes with, “The Nation of Israel continues to be charged with the same mission of spreading of God’s great name…”

  I’ll tell what I appreciate about TIN; in every place I’ve seen the Tetragrammaton I’ve also seen the full vowels. What a blessing that’s been. What I don’t appreciate is that in the English it’s still hidden. I understand that R. Weisz wants to make sure it’s accessible for all Jews and Christians, and at least no one can confuse “LORD” with anyone else since they see “Hashem” everywhere in the English, but in the commentary of the very edition he’s edited he prints that it is the responsibility of the Nation of Israel to spread Yehovah’s name throughout the world & yet the name continues to be hidden to the world who cannot read any Hebrew.

  This makes me incredibly sad and I truly hope that in future editions the name of our Heavenly Father is sanctified and proclaimed to those who cannot read Hebrew as well as to those who can.