Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Isaiah 43:5

אַל־תִּירָ֖א כִּ֣י אִתְּךָ־אָ֑נִי מִמִּזְרָח֙ אָבִ֣יא זַרְעֶ֔ךָ וּמִֽמַּעֲרָ֖ב אֲקַבְּצֶֽךָּ׃


5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you I will bring your offspring from the east and I will gather you from the west.

אַל־תִּירָא כִּי אִתְּךָ־אָנִי Do not be afraid, for I am with you, See comments on 43:1 for אַל־תִּירָא "Do not be afraid." כִּי is causal here. The phrase כִּי אִתְּךָ־אָנִי is pointed כּֽי־אִתְּךָ֣ אָ֑נִי in the earliest editions of BH (1909, 1913).

מִמִּזְרָח אָבִיא זַרְעֶךָ I will bring your offspring from the east. מִזְרָח is the sunrise; here "east" with מִן of direction away from (GK §119z). אָבִיא is the hifil imperfect of בּוֹא, "come, go." In the hifil, "bring." Notice that here the object of בּוֹא is connected to the verb with munach. The "east" here undoubtedly includes Babylon in its thought, although we would unwise to exclude any place. The idea behind "east" and the upcoming "west" is that God will gather his people from wherever they are.

וּמִמַּעֲרָב אֲקַבְּצֶךָּ and I will gather you from the west. Like , the word מַעֲרָב "west" (sunset) is a four-letter root. A minor variant: the Second Rabbinic Bible (1524-1525) does not have the waw in וּמִמַּעֲרָב, but the Mp note ("This form occurs three times") discounts the variant. The three are Psalm 75:7; 107:3 and Isaiah 43:5. Hopefully you can see the modern qibbuts "gather" in אֲקַבְּצֶךָּ, piel imperfect 1st singular.

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