Prophet Pearls #36 – Beha’alotecha (Zechariah 2:10[2:14]-4:7)

In this episode of Prophet Pearls, Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson discuss the Prophets portion of Beha'alotecha covering Zechariah 2:10[2:14]-4:7. Gordon and Johnson bring their best scholarship along with their best guesses to decipher Joshua’s emotive vision of the angel of the Lord, a satan, a stone with seven eyes, a gold lamp-stand, two olive trees and a brand plucked from fire.

Gordon explains the different forms in which the name Joshua appears. Other word studies include: “dwell”—which shares the root of “shekinah,” “levite/join,” “satan/adversary”—with its noun and verb usages, and lastly—“tzemach/branch”—the promised servant.

In closing, Gordon explains the fascinating history of the picture of the week and offers the 15th benediction of the Amidah—praying that Yehovah will speedily send his Tzemach —the branch of his salvation.

Photo by Nehemia Gordon.

"...behold a Menorah all of gold... and his seven lamps thereon ... and two olive trees by it..." (Zechariah 4:2-3)

I look forward to reading your comments!

Download Prophet Pearls Beha'alotecha Transcript
Prophet Pearls #36 - Beha'alotecha (Zechariah 2:10[2:14]-4:7)

You are listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

Keith: Welcome back to Prophet Pearls. This is Keith Johnson along with Nehemia Gordon in the land of the prophets. We’re doing whatever it takes, face-to-face, and I will tell you this, you’re listening to this sometime in June, but we’re actually recording it on a day that has been amazing, the last 24 hours… Nehemia, what are we doing in the Land of Israel? What’s going on?

Nehemia: Well, we came here because we were trying to record this long distance. It didn’t work and we decided we’ve got to come together. The whole idea of this was coming together on common ground, and we realized we’ve got to literally come together on common ground. [laughing]

Keith: … come together on common ground. I want to say this is going to be a tough one to record. Again, in English, it’s Zechariah 2:10, in the Hebrew Bible it’s Zechariah 2:14. It goes until Zechariah 4:7, am I right?

Nehemia: That’s both in Hebrew and in English.

Keith: But we start out a little confusing. Before we get started, I just want to say, folks, I had an amazing last 24 hours and I want to talk about it for a second. Last night was Purim in the walled cities, and we talked a little bit about it before. So I went and took the bus, I went to the Old City, I was at the Wall. You couldn’t go, you weren’t feeling well, and I was really concerned. I didn’t know what was gonna happen today. But it’s such a blessing, so I went yesterday, on the bus, spent some time there listening to people read. I walked all the way back to the apartment, got up this morning and I said, “I’m not going to wait for you to come at eight o’clock.”

You know, normally what happens, folks, is Nehemia gets up in the morning, he has a great breakfast from Bubby Dina, and he’s been talking about this the last few weeks. And I’d had enough, so I decided I was going to get ahead of it, because Bubby Dina invited us this morning to her house for a reading of the Book of Esther. So we weren’t going to do it for a while, because we’re like, “Oh, we’ve really got to get these things going on.” But I thought, “You know what? No way he’s going to come in here and tell me he had some great breakfast.” So I got up early in the morning, took the wrong bus, ended up walking to Bubby Dina’s and caught Nehemia walking into her place, and we had an amazing time. I mean, didn’t you think that was great?

Nehemia: Yes. We got to hear the Megillah.

Keith: But why was it that we heard it at her house?

Nehemia: The tradition is to hear the reading of the story of Esther, the Scroll of Esther or the Megillat Ester. What most Jews will probably do is go to synagogue to hear it. My mother has been in a wheelchair most of her life, and it’s difficult for her to get to synagogue, so what she’s done for many years is a rabbi will come over and he’ll read the Megillah for her. Her neighbor, who’s a rabbi, came over, and my sister and her family were there, and the rabbi’s family was there and we were there.

He took out his scroll, a handwritten scroll, he unfurled it, he stood up and he started to kind of shake in the traditional Jewish manner of devotion. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that. You’ve seen it, Keith, obviously you see it at the Western Wall, and he started to read, and he read the entire Scroll of Esther. He read it actually quite quickly, and it took him about 30 minutes.

Keith: And you recorded it.

Nehemia: I recorded it.

Keith: I don’t know where this is going to be at, because I want people to hear it.

Nehemia: It’ll be on Nehemiaswall.com, and I’ll probably be putting it out, or at least parts of it, as a podcast.

Keith: Awesome.

Nehemia: One part that I noticed that you really got excited about, Keith, is something where there’s the 10 sons of Haman, where they get hanged, and the tradition is to read those 10 names in one breath. What’s difficult for every Jew to read that is that they’re not Hebrew names, they’re Persian names. So there’s really bizarre sounding names to the Hebrew ear, and maybe that’s part of it, to like burn through them, the entire list of 10 names in one breath, and this rabbi did it quite successfully, and I noticed you got really excited about that.

Keith: I got excited about that. The other thing I get excited about, of course, is every time it comes across the name Haman, whenever he says it, the people make noises because we’re trying to blot it out. And you made a really interesting statement on our way over to the house regarding that. Or maybe it was after, I can’t remember if it was before or after.

But I would say this, I’ve been in the synagogue and I’ve listened to this happen. I was in an unwalled synagogue and a conservative synagogue, the reform synagogue and at the Western Wall, but I think this was my favorite experience, because we were with family, and these are, you know… here’s the father - your brother in law - is there, and he’s got his daughter next to him and his son. And it’s really cool, because I’m sitting there and I’m looking around and I see your brother-in-law sitting next to his daughter, and she’s reading and he’s reading. Then there’s your mother and she’s reading, and then there’s your nephew and he’s got his little scroll that’s not actually... Hold on just a second.

Nehemia: People aren’t going to know what you’re talking about.

Keith: And then he opens the parchment and he’s reading, and I’m looking around at everyone reading this story, following along as the rabbi is reading the story.

Nehemia: So the rabbi reads, and everybody follows in a book or a scroll.

Keith: Yes, everyone’s following along. But it’s just amazing because it was a really beautiful picture. Like I said, we’ve put up the Purim episode from Time Will Tell and people during this weekend are watching it, of course, and all 10 episodes are available. But this really was just a lot more personal for me, to be invited to be there and then to watch this.

Now the thing that really hit me more than anything - I’m just going to tell you this and we can move on - the thing that struck me more than anything was as the rabbi is there, and he’s got the scroll, and he’s reading and he’s davening with great passion, he’s got the Word of God, and on his hip he’s got his sword. [laughing] In other words, he’s got a Glock 45, uncapped, on his hip as he’s reading the scroll, and it brought the reality of Jewish existence in Jerusalem. This man lives how far from your mother?

Nehemia: Around the corner, like 100 feet.

Keith: Around the corner, and it’s normal for him like it is for me to have my cell phone, for him to have his pistol on his side. This is something that I’ve still not gotten my mind wrapped around, but it really was really striking to me. He’s reading a scroll about the attempt to wipe out the Jewish people in the land of Jerusalem. Netanyahu’s just talked about Purim before the U.S. Congress. Purim is now being discussed around the world…

Nehemia: Isn’t that amazing.

Keith: That’s why I’m bringing up… and here he is sitting there...

Nehemia: The Iranian foreign ministers is bragging, “We saved the Jews three times.” Wait a minute - you almost wiped us out! Yehovah saved us.

Keith: I’m in this room in this apartment. And for him this is just a part of his life. He’s got a pistol on his side, man, wow - and may have to use it. Wow.

Okay. Well, we’re Zechariah chapter 2, and I don’t know how I’m going to do this. And let me tell you this, after this, today we’re going to be recording and tonight I get to go back to the house for Shabbat. It’s the best Shabbat meal in all of Jerusalem, folks.

Nehemia: In the whole world.

Keith: In the whole world. “Sing for joy,” and I will, “and be glad,” and I am, “oh daughter of Zion…”

Nehemia: “And he is.” [laughing]

Keith: [laughing] “Behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst.” What is that about? Is that not amazing? He says, “I will dwell in your midst.” It brings me back to the Garden of Eden. I’m telling you, where He dwelled, He was there. He was walking amongst them. Then it says that’s what’s going to happen.

Nehemia: So let’s talk about this word “dwell”. I don’t think that should be the Word of the Week, but let’s talk about it. The word it “ve’shachanti”, “and I will dwell”, and ‘shachan’ that is the same root as the word Shekinah. You know, “Shekinah glory!” Your people say. In Hebrew, we say ‘schinat kavod’ which ‘shchina’ literally means dwelling - the dwelling of the presence of God - often we’ll refer to it Judaism as just the shachina, or the dwelling.

Keith: For 13 years, you keep saying “my people” - which of my people are you talking about?

Nehemia: The Methodists.

Keith: Oh, the Methodists. Methodists don’t know anything about Shekinah glory. They don’t know anything about it.

Nehemia: …Pentecostal people? Isn’t that what you… I don’t know, whatever.

Keith: Yes I’m a Pentecostal Methodist.

Nehemia: So what does it mean that Yehovah will dwell among us? So first of all, before the Temple was built, we had the mishkan and mishkan is from the same root as shchina. Mishkan is the place of the shchina, that’s literally what it is. The place of the dwelling. When you have a Mem at the beginning of certain words, it means “place of”.

Now today, or after the Mishkan, we had the Temple, the Temple has been destroyed, and what does this mean? This is a question for my Jewish brothers and sisters, but also for other people. He says, “Behold, I,” ‘ki’hineni ba’ “behold I am coming and I will dwell in your midst.” So where is He? He’s not there. Certainly, the Jewish understanding is that the shchina has left Jerusalem, right? “The Shekinah has left the building,” and what he’s saying is the shchina will come back.

How do we know it’s left? We have these scenes in the time of Solomon and other places - we have in Ezekiel where it’s leaving - but specifically, we have signs where it’s there and the fire comes down and the cloud fills. We read that in a previous section, where the cloud filled and the people couldn’t even stand there because the cloud was filled with the Temple, the Temple was filled with the cloud, and that’s a sign that the shchina is there.

Now, as far as we know, as far as we can tell, the shchina is gone. Maybe some of it can still be felt, but we believe it will come back. It’ll come to the place of the Temple, which is called the place where He causes His name to dwell, and “causes to dwell” is ‘leshaken’. Now don’t you have a teaching on that somewhere? Is that in the Open Door Series?

Keith: There’s teachings everywhere. I can’t tell you which one it is.

Nehemia: All right. But it’s in there somewhere… so this is exciting to me. Jews can say we’re waiting for God to come, and maybe we can really even say legitimately we are waiting for God to come back. Not that He’s gone, He’s everywhere. But we are waiting for God to come back, or for His shchina to be felt once again and experienced once again in Jerusalem.

Keith: Certainly that’s how we’re starting Zechariah 2:10 in English, Zechariah 2:14 in Hebrew. I’m sitting here and I’ve got my computer, now it’s back. It’s working. I’m feeling a little bit better. Just when I was feeling better last night, you got a little sick, so I don’t know how this is gonna work.

But we’ve got all of these resources, and beyond all the resources in the Hebrew and what it says, and which verses, I have to tell you the next verse is the one that I get most excited about. Because what it says gives me an image of something that really connects to me being here in Jerusalem. It says, “Many nations,” and the word for nations there is goyim, “will join themselves to Yehovah in that day and will become My people.”

Now, last week we were talking about ‘Lo ami’, not My people and My people, and I read this verse and I’m looking at what’s going on in the world, and surely this is going to be intervention only from heaven, for, “Many nations.” It says, “many nations,” Nehemia. “Many nations will join themselves to Yehovah in that day and they will become My people. Then,” and now we’re back to this, “I will dwell in your midst and you will know that Yehovah Tzava’ot, Yehovah of Hosts, has sent me to you.” What’s going on there?

Nehemia: Well, so the way I read it is there is a change of speaker here.

Keith: A-ha!

Nehemia: In other words, He says, and “I will dwell in your midst,” and that’s a quote from Yehovah, semi-colon or comma, close quotation mark, and then Isaiah then… sorry, Zachariah… I’m ready to get to Isaiah, that’s why. Zachariah then says, “and you will know that Yehovah of Hosts has sent me to you.” That’s how I read it. I suppose one could read it differently, that some other entity will dwell in the midst. But I read it as Yehovah saying, “I will dwell in your midst.”

Keith: So I want to challenge you on something. This is the thing. I’m really gonna get in trouble on this. I haven’t asked you about this in advance, but for years we’ve talked about this, and it really has to do with the other nations, and I have to say - as we were driving, Nehemia, we were talking, and this is what the beauty of being here face-to-face is. You know, if we’re just recording it from different parts of the world, it’s literally we get on the phone and we record and we’re done. But being here face-to-face we’re taking the bus, where we’re riding back and forth, we’re eating together, we’re talking, we’re discussing, and sometimes I get this feeling, and partially for good reason, that the Jewish people are so surrounded by enemies and so surrounded by those that are not thinking about joining themselves to Him - do you ever get the feeling, when you hear about the many nations, do you kind of have to struggle with… who are those exact nations? Do you wonder about that? Do you ever feel a little bit like Jonah, where you know, is God gonna have mercy on these people that are presently such, you know… I mean, for example, if one of those nations was...

Nehemia: How about Germany?

Keith: Okay, one of those nations is Germany. So for you, when you read that, what happens to you, do you think like…?

Nehemia: I think every Jew definitely struggles with this. I mean, let’s imagine a scenario where there’s someone who is an SS officer who’s turning the knob to put the poison gas into the gas chamber at Auschwitz, and then his grandson or great-grandson, maybe as a fulfillment of this verse, decides to repent and turn to the God of Israel.

On the one hand, it’s “Woo! Hallelujah! Praise God! Someone has turned to Him.” On the other hand, it’s like, “Wait a minute, your grandfather, your great-grandfather, was the worst enemy of our people.” So yes, I think there’s a certain amount of discomfort and struggle in that, and where I think Jews maybe are even more uncomfortable is, “Okay, wait a minute. We’re not that many people. We’re 14 million Jews or 20 million Jews, depending how you count us. I mean, there are villages in China that have more people than that, [laughing] not really, but the city you live in, in China, Shanghai, has 26 million people. There are more people in that one city than there are Jews in the entire world, in every country of the world.

So I think part of the Jewish fear is, “Wait a minute, we’re going to be displaced.” Then to amplify that fear, people come along and say, “Well, we’re not just joining you, we’ve replaced you. God rejected you and chose us.” And then it’s like, “Whoa, hold on a second.”

Keith: And see, that’s not what I’m thinking. I want to talk to you about the tension of… Here’s the tension, and I’m trying to say this, we’re on the radio, we didn’t talk about it in advance. But sometimes I get a sense that… So for me, when I come to Israel, oh man, I’m excited, because the nations are coming, and they’re joining themselves to Yehovah.

And so I’m not thinking of it as I’m the one who’s here and looking at others. I’m the other, so I’m a part of the other. So when I read this verse, I’m like, “The more the merrier! Come on, let’s all join ourselves to Yehovah.”

But then when I sometimes talk to you, and look, you give me a good reason for it. Sometimes I get from you where it’s not that you’re not thinking of the other nations. Even on one of our shows, you said, “Okay, we’re talking about Egypt and whatever.” In other words, Israel is the focus.

Nehemia: Oh, absolutely.

Keith: Israel is the focus. But when we read verses like this, what’s the focus? It’s like a shift. The focus is Him, and the Him is that He’s grabbing hold or getting a hold of these other nations, and it’s gonna look a lot different…

Nehemia: Well, I think even when you say Israel’s the focus, He’s the focus, because He chose Israel and we’re His people, and there are people who are going to join themselves to God, but they’ll also join themselves to the people of Israel. In my Jewish mind there is no distinction between those two things, and maybe that’s where we differ in our reading.

The reason I say that is, for example, let me just read you a parallel here. Isaiah 14 verse 1, it says, “For when Yehovah has mercy on Jacob, and chooses once again Israel, and He shall place them on their land.” And then we have that same verb - and it should be the Word of the Week - “venilvah ha’ger aleihem,” “and the sojourner, the foreign, the stranger, shall join himself onto them,” “venisbechu al beit Yaakov”, “and they should be added onto the House of Jacob.” So that’s Isaiah 14:1.

So there we can see that when they joined themselves to Yehovah they’re being added to the House of Jacob. They’re not saying, “Okay, now we’ve come in to replace you.” No, you’re sort of joining yourself onto the House of Jacob and to the House of Israel, and so you can’t be part of Yehovah’s people, the way a Jew sees it. Maybe we’re wrong. You can’t be Yehovah’s people unless you’re part of the people of Israel.

So the focus is Yehovah and the people of Israel, but the people of Israel are Yehovah’s chosen people. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not like we’re some other nation, like the English or the Albanians. We are God’s chosen people. If you want to be part of God’s chosen people, you’re joining our nation.

Keith: Right, right. I think it is a difference because the other side of it - the dangerous side of it - are those people that would come and say there’s the replacement, the replacement theology. I’m not talking about that.

Nehemia: That’s out there.

Keith: I’m more talking about this idea that many nations, whatever those nations are, maybe the name of that nation today is just an unfathomable possibility that that nation would be one of the nations that would join themselves to Yehovah. But that when that happens, and it says, “in that day they will become My people.” Just like you’re saying, who are His people?

Nehemia: Okay. So I want to talk about that Word of the Week, and in Zachariah 2:15, it’s “venilvu”, and the root is Lamed-Vav-Hay, and that means to join. It’s actually the same root as the word Levite or Levi, who was one of the sons of Leah and Jacob. So literally you could translate it, “And many nations shall Levite to Yehovah,” that is, they’ll join Yehovah on that day.

Then there’s an intentional play on words on that in Isaiah 56, but again, we have the same word in Isaiah 14:1 ‘venilva’, in our verse it’s ‘venilvu’, here in Isaiah 14:1 it’s ‘venilva’, and then finally you have the same thing in Isaiah 56. We’ve preached on this before, we don’t have to go through the whole thing, but it says again in Isaiah 56:3, “Let not the son of the gentile who joins himself to Yehovah,” and there are ‘hanilva el Yehovah’, and it goes on to say he shouldn’t consider himself separate from the people of Yehovah, or that Yehovah has separated from the people of Yehovah.

And then it says in 56:6, “And the sons of the gentile” “hanilvim al Yehovah”, “who Levite themselves to Yehovah.” So we’ve got four times this verb referring to nations who join themselves to Yehovah and join themselves to the people of Israel and are not separated from Israel. So to me that’s a very clear pattern here. There’s a very clear message that Yehovah has this covenant for Israel and has chosen Israel, but that is a hope for the entire world to come to Yehovah through Israel.

Keith: You know something, it’s hard for me not to keep talking about this. Like I said, you guys are listening to this in early June, and we’re actually sitting here in the Land of Israel with all the conversations that are going on around the world right now because of this. I think the timing of it is perfect. The timing of Purim, the timing of the fact that Netanyahu went to Congress, the controversy surrounding it and just asking and talking about Israel.

And then we have in Congress, some people say, “I’m not going to listen to the speech, I’m not going to hear what he has to say,” and the battles between the White House and is this going to affect Israel or whatever…? And that’s where I set all that stuff aside and I just read verses like this and my heart gets really glad, and my heart gets really excited that Yehovah, in the end, that there will be nations that’ll join themselves to Yehovah and they’re not gonna come with preconditions. They’re not going to come and say, “Well, we’re going to join ourselves, but here’s the deal. You’ve got to remove this part. You’ve got to do...” No, when they join themselves to Him it’s going to be about Him.

For me, when I look at the present world and then I read this verse, I tend to want to focus on this verse, even though we’re in the midst of a world that’s really very far from this. In fact, it seems now that the nations are rather joining themselves against God and against His people. So how that shift is going to take place and when it happens, boy, I cannot wait.

Nehemia: Amen.

Keith: “He will possess Judah and his portion in the Holy Land, and will again,” and I love this. It says, “He will again choose Jerusalem.” And we’re sitting here. [laughing]

Nehemia: And here we are.

Keith: No, come on.

Nehemia: That’s pretty cool.

Keith: It’s funny. Sometimes I just want to shake you. I’ll be honest with you. You know, I’ll be like, “Nehemia, we’re in Jerusalem.” “Yeah. Well, you know. Yeah, of course.” No! This is a really big deal! We’re reading a Prophet portion yesterday, today and tomorrow that says, He will choose, excuse my excitement, the city that we’re sitting in.

Nehemia: I’m excited. I’m extremely excited.

Keith: I mean, but what does that do to you? Like you were boasting. You know, folks, we get on a bus and he’s got his little card with his little picture, and then we go to the grocery store and he’s got his little card with his picture, and then Bubby Dina says, “Nehemia you know we’re voting on the 17th,” and then he’s got his little voting card with his picture, and to me, he’s like, you know, “This is just, this is what it is.” But you know, you’re a Jerusalemite.

Nehemia: I’m a Jerusalemite, but I don’t take that for granted.

Keith: No, I know, not for granted.

Nehemia: I definitely appreciate that. To me it’s no question that that’s a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. We’re reading about this prophecy. This was in the time of Zechariah, 2,400 years ago approximately, and he’s speaking about how in the end time Yehovah will once again choose Jerusalem.

And you read it a little bit differently. You read, “The Lord will possess Judah as his portion.” That’s that same word ‘nachal’. Remember we had that word, to inherit or, “He will give Judah his portion upon the Holy Land.” Yehovah’s gonna say, “Look, it’s time for you to resettle in Israel. You’re going to be an evil settler.” Not an evil settler, a settler who is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. That’s the word for settler - ‘nachal’, ‘mitnachel’.

Keith: Let me tell you why I say not that you take it for granted, but now be me. So I get on the bus last night, on Purim, I get out and I stop and get my juice because I need more vitamin C, and I go in to get the juice, and I’m having a wonderful conversation with this guy in Hebrew, and we’re going back and forth, back and forth. And he says, “You should come and live in Jerusalem! You should be a Jerusalemite!” And I said, “Well, they won’t let me.” And he happened to be an Israeli here who’s married to an Ethiopian woman. And he was looking at me and he was like, “You’re not Ethiopian, are you?” [laughing] “No, where are you from?” “Artzot HaBrit, I’m from the United States.” “Why do you know Hebrew?”

And this is always the question, but the point is Nehemia, it was a sad moment for me because he said to me, “Yeah, it would be really hard for you to become a Jerusalemite.” And I’m thinking about you, you got your little cards and your bus cards and your voting cards. And look, there’s some envy and jealousy right now, folks! I’m just telling you. I’m here and I’m thinking last night for the last 24 hours, is there anywhere else - let me just say this, in closing - is there anywhere else in the world that I would have rather been last night on the evening of the middle of the month that the Jewish people are around in Jerusalem celebrating Purim? And I said to myself last night, on that particular moment, there was nowhere I’d rather be.

And when I read this verse and He says that He will again choose Jerusalem as we’re reading this. And I’m thinking today, “Man, I can’t wait until they remove these rules and regulations that your government has right now that determine when you join yourself, what do you have do to join yourself?” And some of you that are listening understand, there’s even some folks that we know who are desperately trying to get their citizenship here, and it ain’t easy. It is a difficult situation. And what will you think about it? I don’t know.

Nehemia: It sucks to be you. I mean, there’s no question, it was relatively easy for me to get citizenship.

Keith: Why is that?

Nehemia: That’s because there’s something called the Law of Return, and my father was Jewish, my mother is Jewish. My grandparents were Jewish, my great grandparents were Jewish. Did I tell you about this? I met with a Cherokee guy and he was asking, “So you’re Jewish on both sides?” I’m like, “Yeah, all eight of my grandparents.” He says, “Oh, so you’re a full blood,” [laughing] which is I guess like a really important Indian concept. And I said to him, “You’re either a Jew or you’re not.” But yes, it was easy for me to prove that I was Jewish and then get citizenship.

Keith: Okay, controversy. I’ve never done this for all these years. We haven’t talked about it. But for those people who say, “Okay, well the lost tribes are out there, and no, you actually are physically, you know, I shouldn’t be, they can’t prove it through mother and grandfather and all that stuff.” But they say no, and I’m going to tell you what happened last night at your house. You probably did miss it because you were doing something else, and your mom said, as we were talking today, she said, “You know, Leonard Nimoy died,” and she’s giving the article that says he’s been beamed up. And so me and your brother-in-law and your sister all make the sign - you know, “live long and prosper”. Long story, people know about this. You’ve talked about it.

But the idea is that Leonard Nimoy explains why it was that he came up with that sign. Here’s the funny thing - your mom says, “Keith, because you can do that, maybe you have a Kohen in your family.” [laughing]

Nehemia: Shake that family tree!

Keith: So I’m thinking to myself if I go down to the Israel government and I show the sign, and say, “Look, I can do this. I think I’ve got somebody in my background.” It doesn’t make it. They won’t let me in. Even if I say I’m from the lost tribes of Israel, they won’t let me in. I’ve got to prove it through… and I just want to bring this up. This is why the guy said that said to me, he said, “Boy, you look like you sound like, but you can’t get here, can you? You can’t live here.”

Nehemia: Well, I think in recent years people have acknowledged really from all branches of Judaism, from all different perspectives, that there’s a huge problem with citizenship in Israel, especially for people who can’t prove that they’re Jewish. There are many scenarios where somebody’s like burned the records in the Holocaust to survive and they can’t prove it, and to make things even more complicated, when I made aliyah, when I immigrated to Israel decades ago - oh my God, it’s decades, it’s decades - things were different. Now what they want you to do is go get a letter from a rabbi and that rabbi might not even know you.

Keith: We’ve had some people that have done that. It still hasn’t worked.

Nehemia: Absolutely. But then, I just saw a statistic the other day that 55% of Jews have no affiliation whatsoever in America, no affiliation whatsoever with any synagogue. So what do those people do? 55% of Jews who can’t go to the rabbi, or if they go to the rabbi, he says, “Well, I’ve never heard of you or your father or your grandfather because you aren’t affiliated with our synagogue.” So that really is a challenge.

Then where it gets extremely complicated is when people do jump through the hoops and convert to Judaism then the state of Israel says, “Well, wait a minute, who did you convert with? Who was the rabbi?” And it gets really complicated, to the point where there was actually an Orthodox rabbi from Chicago a number of years back. He’d been an Orthodox rabbi for 10 or 20 years, but he had converted to Judaism, and they didn’t let him make aliyah, which, which to me is like… I feel like I’m in that movie…

Keith: I’m sorry for bringing it up.

Nehemia: I feel like I’m Charlton Heston in that movie, and I’m dealing with the monkeys, and I’m like, “This is madness! Like, what’s going on here?” Like I’m on Planet of the Apes. What are you talking about? And the running joke in Israel is that if Ruth the Moabite had shown up at Ben Gurion Airport, she’d be turned back and told, “You can’t come. You can’t be a citizen.” But she was a citizen. She was the ancestor of King David, she did join the Jewish people, the people of Israel.

Keith: There’s a modern-day issue and there’s a biblical issue.

Nehemia: And the modern-day issue is that you’ve got two things here - you’ve got a political status and you’ve got this religious faith status.

Keith: Well, I can’t wait until He settles the whole thing and sets His Messiah up…

Nehemia: Amen!

Keith: And it’s not going to be about that. I’ve joined myself to Him, and that’ll be it. I can’t wait till I select which part of the country I’m going to live in. That’s another discussion. Anyway. Zechariah...

Nehemia: That’s Ezekiel 44 or something.

Keith: Yeah, absolutely.

Nehemia: I think that’s one of our sections. Maybe we did it already.

Keith: No, is it really, seriously? No, are you kidding me? I don’t think we did. No, I know we didn’t, because I would have been shouting. So now when we get to Zechariah 3:1, tell me if I’m right or wrong here, now we line up.

Nehemia: I believe so.

Keith: Zechariah 3:1 and Zechariah 3:1 in the English, so now we’re together. Then this is really… wow. I’m going to let you just talk about this verse, Nehemia. “Then he showed me Yehoshua, the high priest standing before the angel of Yehovah.” And then it says, and please correct me if I’m wrong, because I didn’t want to make an argument the other day, you were talking about there were no names of any angels, except for two that we know of. And I’ll be honest with you, Nehemia, I was thinking about another being and wondering if he had a name. I want to do this, because this is kind of cool. Let me get to the verse again, I skipped ahead. Here it goes. “Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest standing before the angel of Yehovah” and then it says “hasatan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” Does it say that in Hebrew? I’m looking here, it says, and hasatan. I want this to be the Word of the Week, in fact.

Nehemia: Oh, this is the Word of the Week? Yes. We had ‘nilvu’.

Keith: Well, we did nilvu before, I let you do it. We actually had that before.

Nehemia: Did we really?

Keith: Yes, we did.

Nehemia: It’s worthwhile doing again. ‘Lesitno’ literally you could translate “to Satan.” Then the question becomes what is the meaning of the word Satan, or satan? The word satan means to be an enemy. To act as an adversary.

Keith: Give us the three-letter…

Nehemia: Alright, every word in biblical Hebrew has a three-letter root, and here it is, Sin-Tet-Nun. Sin-Tet-Nun is satan, and so it says “vehasatan omed al yemino lesitno”, “Satan to be an adversary to him.”

Keith: Now, here’s what’s interesting. I want people to know this. I’m looking at my English version, and it’s got it capitalized, as if this is a…

Nehemia: What’s capitalized?

Keith: Satan is capitalized absolutely in English. But when I go over into Zechariah chapter 3, verse 1, we’ve got the definite article, ‘ha’ - the satan.

Nehemia: The Satan.

Keith: Yeah. The Satan is there. Now, if I’m reading it in Hebrew, it’s like, so the adversary is also standing there. If I’m reading in English, the personal being, Satan, is there. So the English is saying that you’re wrong. They’re saying, “No, there’s another name of another angel, and his name is Satan.” In Hebrew it certainly doesn’t say that you’re wrong.

Nehemia: So in Hebrew, the point is that Satan is his title. That’s his job.

Keith: Exactly. That’s his job.

Nehemia: So just some statistics: the word satan appears in the Tanakh, in the Old Testament in Hebrew, some form of that word appears 35 times. That sometimes is a noun, sometimes as a verb, to satan. In the King James Bible of the Old Testament it appears… I think it’s 19 times. But let me pull up that statistic real quick. So we’ve got Satan in the King James 55 times, but then some of those are in the New Testament, and in the New Testament it’s 36, so that… I’m bad at math. It’s 19. That’s what I said. So it’s 19 times in the English of the Old Testament of King James. But in the Hebrew Tanakh, it’s 35 times in the same books, in the same place.

Why is that? For example, in this verse that we’re reading in the King James, which is Zachariah, 3:1, let me read you the King James. It says, “And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him,” and to resist him is in Hebrew ‘lesitno’, to satan him, to be an enemy to him.

And yours has to accuse him, which isn’t entirely wrong, because an enemy will accuse you, and there’s one passage where you might be able to make a strong case for the word meaning accuser or accusation, and that is in Ezra chapter 4 verse 6. Let me read you the King James. The King James says, “And in the reign of Aheserauraus,” which is important, which is significant because it’s Achashverosh, it’s the same name as in the scroll of Esther. “In the reign of Achashverosh, in the beginning of his reign, wrote they unto him an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.” And the word for accusation is sitna. Sitna is a letter of accusation or a letter of enmity, meaning, this is what your enemies send against you.

Now, in later Rabbinical Judaism, Satan is referred to as ‘kategor’, which is actually “the prosecutor.” It’s actually a term… If we put it in modern law and order terms, it would be the assistant district attorney. [laughing] That’s actually the title of satan in Rabbinical literature, the assistant district attorney, the ‘kategor,’ the prosecutor. So who is this Satan, and what does it mean for him to be an adversary? What do you have?

Keith: Exactly. When I read, again, the first thing I went to was just the idea of people getting a chance to know what the word Satan was, and again, in English and seeing it capitalized, but he’s actually doing something, and actually in terms of what his title is and what he’s doing, they match. He’s standing and he’s the enemy, and he’s making an accusation. But then this is where for me, in 3:2...

Nehemia: Well he might not be making an accusation. My reading of this is in fact that he’s not making an accusation, that he’s actually coming to hurt and attack. Meaning, I think Satan is about to harm Joshua the high priest, and probably Israel as a whole. The reason I say that is first of all just from the context, but secondly, the first time the word satan appears is in Numbers 22. Actually there’s a well called Sitna, enmity, which is in Genesis 26:21. But then we have Numbers 22:22, it says, “And the anger of God burned, for he was going,” Baalam was going, “and the malaach Yehovah,” the angel of Yehovah, “stood in the way, lesatan lo,” as a Satan against him or to him. “And he was riding on his ass and his two young men who were with him.” So here for the first time the word satan appears, and it’s an angel of Yehovah who’s coming as a satan.

And what is he doing? He’s got his sword drawn and he’s going to kill him. He’s there to kill, or at least to frighten the donkey, but he appears to be coming with his sword drawn to kill Balaam. So I think he’s going to do the same thing to Joshua. That’s as a satan against him. It’s the same word, lesitno, lesatan lo, and that makes sense in the context.

If we read the next verse, “And Yehovah said to the Satan,” ‘Yig’al Yehovah becha, hasatan,’ “Yehovah rebuke you, oh Satan.” It says, “Yehovah rebuke you, he who has chosen Jerusalem, is this not an ud mutzal me’esh?” “A brand pluck from the fire?” and I love that image. Wow. Ud is this word that refers to the needles of the Spanish broom tree, which grows all over Israel, and what they do is take those needles and dry them out and use them as kindling. So you make a spark, and eventually if you do it really well and you went to the boy scouts, the spark catches on this Spanish broom needles and you blow on it, and then once that fire starts - boom, they burn up really quickly. Yehovah is saying that Jerusalem is an ud, a Spanish broom needle plucked out of the fire. It’s not brand as like what you brand an animal with. It’s the needle of the Spanish broom tree. I don’t know why it’s called Spanish when it grows at Israel and all over the Mediterranean.

So it’s this needle grabbed from the fire, right? Milliseconds before it’s burned up. And I think it’s clear that Satan is about to burn up Israel, or burn up Joshua the high priest, and Yehovah grabs him from the fire and rebukes Satan and says, “No, you mustn’t do that. I’m going to grab this from the fire.”

Keith: Wow. Wow. Oh, I love that. Just be honest with you, those two verses…

Nehemia: There’s so much here. We could spend the whole time just on these two verses.

Keith: There’s a lot. Yeah.

Nehemia: Can we talk about Joshua the high priest?

Keith: Yes, let’s do it.

Nehemia: So what’s his name in Hebrew? It’s ‘Yehoshua HaKohen HaGadol.’ And Yehoshua, he’s the high priest at the time of Zerubavel. Zerubavel is the governor and Joshua is the high priest, Yehoshua. And interestingly, Haggai chapter 2 verse 23 people go look that up. It’s interesting. It talks about Zerubavel as being God’s signet ring. So, he’s the governor, and maybe most people couldn’t even spell his name, but he’s actually a really important figure in the Tanakh.

So, we have this figure, his name is Yehoshua Ben Yehotzadak, or Yehoshua the son of Yehotzadak, that his name appears six times, but then four times we have the same man called instead of Yehoshua Ben Yehotzadak, he’s called Yeshua Ben Yotzadak. So we have in his name and his father’s name, Yeho, six times, but four times his name and his father’s name the H drops and Yehoshua becomes Yeshua, and Yehotzadak becomes Yotzadak. Why is that? It had to do with certain shifts in pronunciation in Second Temple times.

Keith: Do you have a 1611 version of the King James version on your computer?

Nehemia: I don’t, but I can pull it up on the Internet.

Keith: While you’re doing that. I think this is really interesting, and this is for people who don’t… I mean, listen, I addressed this in my book His Hallowed Name Revealed Again, in the back I have a bonus chapter. And it was really funny. Some people actually go to the bonus chapter first before they read the rest of the book. And actually, it’s been a blessing. I had some conservative people that went to the last chapter first to decide whether they would read the first one, and the title is What About the Name Jesus. The reason it’s such an important chapter… actually, we talked about this in-depth, Nehemia, when I was doing this book, there were some sections that didn’t make it in that I think now need to be a separate book on their own. But that really gave people a chance to address some issues regarding the name Jesus and how that name became Jesus versus...

Nehemia: What do you want me to look at?

Keith: Zechariah chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. I just want you to see what the original King James does in Zechariah 3:1. I might be wrong on this - I don’t think I am - but the reason that I’m bringing this up is that we’re talking about the actual name, and we’ve talked about Joshua’s name, where that name comes from originally. Moses gave him his present name.

Nehemia: But let’s remind the people. So tell us - where did it come from?

Keith: Well, first what I want to do, I want to see if this actually is there, and this is worth taking the time.

Nehemia: So here we’ve got the original page, or a scanned photo of the page. It’s Zachariah 3:1, and I love at the top of the page it says, “a wall of fire” on the left and the right-hand side it says, “Satan rebuked.” It says, “Under the type of Joshua, the restoration of the church. Christ, the branch is promised.” [laughing] That’s what it says here! Wow. And then it says in the actual text, “And he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the LORD,” Lord in caps, “and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.”

Keith: Yes. Okay. All right.

Nehemia: Sorry, you’re wrong.

Keith: Yes, I’m sorry. I’m wrong on that. Certainly, in the New Testament we find where it says it would be Joshua - it actually uses the word Jesus.

Nehemia: Oh no, it doesn’t have Jesus here. No, it has Joshua. Although I should say in the title where it says under the type it says actually Yahshua. Yeah. Isn’t that interesting?

Keith: That is interesting. So I don’t want to go into depth on that. I just wanted to know that basically here we have, as you mentioned, he’s the high priest and he has the same name as Joshua son of Nun.

Nehemia: He has the same name as Joshua son of Nun as well as Yeshua in the New Testament, who’s also Yehoshua, because every Yeshua is actually a Yehoshua. Here the point is six times it’s Yehoshua, four times it’s Yeshua and it’s the same exact name. So that’s interesting. All right, we talked about Satan. We can get through this…

Keith: Joshua had filthy garments.

Nehemia: I’m not ready to get to that.

Keith: You don’t want to get to that yet?

Nehemia: So God rebuked Satan, and that’s really interesting. This reminds me of this parallel passage that we have - these two passages. One is in 2 Samuel chapter 24 verse 1, and the other is 1 Chronicles chapter 21 verse 1. So let me read you those two passages.

This is where David is tempted to count Israel. So 2 Samuel 24:1 says, “And the wrath of Yehovah was a once again burned against Israel and He incited David against them saying, ‘Go count Israel and Judah.’” Okay, so Yehovah is angry and He, presumably Yehovah, incites David to count Israel. 1 Chronicles 21:1, “And Satan stood against Israel and he incited David to count Israel.” So wait a minute, who incited David to count Israel?

What we can see here when we read these two passages is when the anger of Yehovah is incited against somebody, He sometimes will send Satan against that person. So maybe Satan is the one who actually incited Israel. But it was because the anger of Yehovah was being put into action through Satan. That’s really important, because I think in some traditions Satan is understood as an enemy of Yehovah. It’s almost like there’s a good god and an evil god in there and they have this conflict.

But in Tanakh, Satan is simply an angel, or maybe even a type of angel, that carries out the wrath of Yehovah. We actually saw that in Numbers 22:22, where Yehovah was angry with Balaam and the angel of Yehovah came as a satan against him. It’s exactly what we saw.

Now I want to share something that happened. I don’t know if you remember this, but we had a friend who we had shared this information with, and I guess he shared it with his son, and his son had misunderstood what his father said and thought that we were saying that Yehovah is Satan. Now, that’s not what we’re saying is it, just to be clear? Not at all.

Keith: No, no, no.

Nehemia: Right. We’re not saying Yehovah is Satan. Heaven forbid! In fact, Satan is simply Yehovah’s angel. And when the wrath of Yehovah is put into action, that is when Satan goes out and causes trouble, one of the times anyway.

Keith: The misunderstanding even made it into a book.

Nehemia: It actually made it into a book. So there’s a book out there that you can read - and I don’t even know what it’s called, don’t care - that relates this information, and it’s just not even what we said at all. So it says here, “and the anger of Yehovah…” oh, we read that, it’s Numbers 22:22.

So I want to look at one more verse, which is Psalm 78:38. And it says, “But He being merciful forgave their inequity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned He His anger away and did not stir up all His wrath.” Now what it says in Hebrew is, Vehilba lehashiv apo, “He many times turned back His wrath.”

So what that means, reading all these verses together, is Satan is like this pit bull and Yehovah’s wrath was sent out and He says, “Go get him, sick ‘em Satan!” [laughing] That’s the image I’m getting. I don’t know if I’m right. And Yehovah says at the last minute, “No, whoa, whoa. Sit, sit. Calm down, Satan. I’m going to deal with this a different way. I’m going to have mercy.” He turns back His wrath, and I think that’s what’s happening here. He’s grabbing, plucking them from the fire, at the last second, the ud mutzal me’esh. I love that image. That to me is so amazing. The brand plucked from the fire, the Spanish broom needle plucked seconds before it’s burned up. Go ahead, verse 3 now.

Keith: Now 3 says, “And he was clothed with filthy garments and standing before the angel and he spoke, and he said, ‘Those who were standing before him saying…’” Who’s speaking? Yehovah speaking, “said to those who were standing before him, ‘remove the garments, the filthy garments from him.’ Again, He said to him, ‘see,’” and the garments are actually representing something else here. “See, I have taken away your iniquity and will clothe you.” And this is a really interesting word - in English it says, “with festal robes”.

Nehemia: So ‘tumach chalatzot’, which simply means beautiful garment.

Keith: Yes. I think in the King James version it says “a change of raiment”. So anyway, he gets these different clothes and he said, “‘Let them put a clean turban on his head.’ So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of Yehovah was standing by overlooking the change of clothes.” In other words, he’s going from these filthy garments, and he’s there looking and saying, “this is what happened.”

But then this verse 6 comes and… In English, it says that he admonished Joshua.

Nehemia: Literally it says, “he testified”. And then here’s the question - so according to some language scholars, they claim that… So we have this word, ‘leha’eed’ and here it’s ‘vaya’ad’, it’s a form of it, and he testified, but then ‘beh’. When you testify ‘beh’ someone you’re testifying against them. When you testify ‘leh’ someone you’re testifying for them. So based on the preposition, you know whether they’re testifying for someone or against them.

Here apparently, according to the common explanation...

Keith: There’s no preposition.

Nehemia: Yes there is. “Beh” Yehoshua. “Vaya’ad malach Yehovah beh’Yehoshua.” So that’s against Joshua. It’s not so clear that that’s correct, but that’s what they claim. Meaning, we don’t have enough examples to really say that definitively, but this is what people have argued - that whenever you have ‘he-eed beh’ it’s against, and ‘he-eed leh’ to testify for. I’m not sure that’s correct. That’s making an awful lot out of a little preposition that we don’t have enough examples of.

Keith: Sometimes those prepositions are important.

Nehemia: No, prepositions are always important, but I don’t know that you can read so much when we don’t have enough examples of this language pattern.

Keith: Okay. Can you read 7?

Nehemia: I want to skip to 8, but all right, I’ll read it. “Thus sayeth Yehovah of Hosts, ‘If you will go on My ways and you will keep My charge and you will also judge My house and also keep My courtyards then I will give you ‘mahalchim ben ha’omdim ha’eleh.” “I will allow you to walk, or maybe walk about, between these who are standing.” “Listen now Joshua, the high priest, Yehoshua the high priest, you and your companions who are sitting before you, they are men of ‘anshei mophet,” “they are men of miracle or men of a sign.” Interesting. “For behold, I will bring my servant Tzemach.”

Keith: Oh boy.

Nehemia: Now we have to talk about Tzemach.

Keith: Okay. And just before we do Semak, I will tell you when I read verse 7, I think about what he’s talking about, the priest of Tzedak.

Nehemia: Bnei Tzadok?

Keith: Yes. When it says here, “Perform My service and also govern My house and also have charge of My courts.” It’s like that’s what they’re gonna do. Anyway. Go ahead with the…

Nehemia: Tzemach. So there’s this figure He’s going to bring, and it’s “My servant Tzemach.” So this appears in a number of places.

Keith: We call him “the branch”.

Nehemia: You’ve got “the branch” in English. With a capital B, right? All right. But in Hebrew it’s Tzemach. Tzemach is going to be a king who rebuilds the Temple and rules in harmony with the high priest. And that’s significant because there was this ongoing tension in Second Temple times between the governor, who was from the House of David - later the governor wasn’t, but in this period it was, Zerubavel - and the high priest. He’s saying, “Look, you two have to get along. There’s got to be harmony here.” So let’s read Zechariah chapter 6.

Keith: While you do that, I want to say one thing that really is interesting. In the NASB they capitalize Branch. In the King James version, they capitalize every letter. [laughing]

Nehemia: Oh really?

Keith: Yeah.

Nehemia: As if it said “Yehovah” or something?

Keith: I don’t know. It’s like B-R-A-N-C-H.

Nehemia: You mean the way that they capitalize Lord and God.

Keith: Yes, absolutely.

Nehemia: Interesting. Okay. I wonder why that is. “Take silver and gold…” This is Zechariah chapter 6 verses 11 to 13 in the Hebrew, it might be a different verse number in the English, I don’t know. “Take silver and gold and make crowns. Place one on the head of the high priest Joshua, the son of Jotzadak, Yehoshua Ben Yehotzadak, and say to him, ‘Thus says, Yehovah of Hosts, Behold a man called the Branch shall branch out from the place where he is and he shall build the Temple of Yehovah. He shall build the Temple of Yehovah and shall assume majesty and he shall sit on his throne and rule. And there shall also be priest seated on his throne,’” maybe not you, but a priest, “and harmonious understanding shall prevail between them.”

So Yehoshua the son of Yehotzadak is being given this prophecy in Zechariah 6, which parallels our prophecy here, in which there’ll be a man, and it says in Hebrew, “hinei”, “behold”, “ish Tzemach shemo.” There’ll be a man. Tzemach will be his name. So Tzemach is actually his name, and you could translate his name as branch, but we don’t translate other names, why is this name translated?

Keith: Exactly.

Nehemia: That’s strange, like I really don’t know why they did that. I wonder if some translations just write “Tzemach”. I don’t know, I didn’t check the translations, but the man’s name is Branch, Tzemach, and he is going to build the Temple, and at the time he builds the Temple there will be harmony between Tzemach and the high priest; whoever the high priest is, we don’t know.

I’m waiting for the one who’s going to come and build that temple and rule in harmony with the high priest, the descendant of Yehoshua the son of Yehotzadak. One more verse, Isaiah chapter 4 verse 2.

Keith: I was just going to read that. “In that day the branch of Yehovah will be beautiful and glorious and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.”

Nehemia: Wow. If we just read Isaiah 4:2 and didn’t know about Zechariah, we might not make much of this verse, but now that we’ve read and we found out his name is Tzemach, then that makes me excited, in Isaiah 4:2. “On that day, the tzemach of Yehovah will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth,” et cetera, et cetera. Wow. For the refugees or the remnant of Israel, for those who survive of Israel. So this is an end-times prophecy about how this figure Tzemach, the tzemach of Yehovah, is going to come.

Keith: Amen.

Nehemia: That’s exciting. Okay, a few more verses. I know I said one more. I lied.

Keith: No homework, this time, you’re saying?

Nehemia: No, we have to, this is too important. Can we make a third Word of the Week, which is tzemach, Tzadik-Mem-Chet?

Keith: Absolutely. You can do whatever you want. We’re in Jerusalem.

Nehemia: Tzemach literally means “to grow”, and hence a branch which grows out of the tree. Jeremiah 23, it says, “‘Behold, days are coming,’ says Yehovah ‘and I will raise up for David a righteous tzemach.’” I mean, that’s a third witness. Can I say a third?

Keith: Yes.

Nehemia: “And he shall reign as king, and he shall do wisely and he shall perform judgment and righteousness in the land. In his days, Judah will be saved and Israel shall dwell securely. And this is, its name that it shall be called ‘Yehovah is our righteousness.’” And some people have said that - Tzemach will be called that. But then we see the parallel - and that’s homework - Jeremiah 33 verses 15 to 16, where it’s clear that Jerusalem is the one who’s going to be called Yehovah righteous. Go ahead.

Keith: I think you’re going to these other verses so that we don’t get to the controversy of 3:9. Is that what you’re doing?

Nehemia: No. Tzemach is an important thing.

Keith: It’s huge.

Nehemia: Are you not excited that the Messiah is going to come and his name is going to be Tzemach?

Keith: Yes, his name is Tzemach. He’s the branch.

Nehemia: That’s exciting. He’s going to be the tzemach, his name is Tzemach. So then I want to read to you from a traditional Jewish prayer. Don’t get excited. No shouting. Okay? Can we agree?

Keith: Yes, I agree, no shouting.

Nehemia: All right. So this is the Amidah, or the 18 Benedictions, and this is in the Sephardic version. It says “Quickly grow the branch of David, your servant, and may his horn rise up with salvation, for we have awaited all day for Your salvation. Blessed are You, Lord, who causes the horn of salvation to grow.” Now in Hebrew, you hear about the tzemach of David, your servant. May he grow quickly, which is a play on words, because ‘tatzmiach’, may the tzemach of David, tzemach… that becomes a verb. And then it says, “may the horn of his salvation rise” and that’s yeshuatecha. And then it says, “for it’s your yeshua that we have hoped and waited all day long. Blessed are you, Lord, who causes the horn of yeshua to grow, to tzemach.”

So this is a prayer about the Messiah. And it’s interesting, I read one historian - a Jewish historian at the Hebrew University - he actually says, “Look, how can we read this prayer and say it’s got nothing to do with Jesus?” He said, it’s impossible. He’s convinced that this prayer was put into the Jewish prayer book by Jews who believed in Yeshua, and they kind of snuck it in there hoping nobody would know what it meant. I’m just saying that’s one theory out there. That’s not really the accepted theory, but it is interesting. We’re looking at this messiah that we’re waiting for, and we’re looking for his yeshu’ah, which is salvation, not to be confused with yeshua, which means ‘Yehovah yehoshiya’, Yehovah will save. But obviously they sound similar, to the point where the scholar says, “Well, look, this had to come from a Jewish Christian or you know, a Jewish follower of Yeshua.” It’s interesting, this idea of Tzemach is interesting to me. And you just want to burn past it to get to something else…

Keith: No, no, no, no, no. I don’t. I mean, are you done now?

Nehemia: Go ahead. I’ll let you do verse 9 all by yourself. Yeah, right.

Keith: [laughing] No, no, no, because I don’t understand. Yeah right, that ain’t ever going to happen. “For behold the stone that I have set before Joshua on one stone or seven eyes.” What’s he talking about?

Nehemia: Yeah, I don’t know. In Zechariah 4:10 it says “the eyes are the eyes of Yehovah,” but I still don’t know what it’s talking about. [laughing]

Keith: But there’s going to be an inscription on it, “declares Yehovah of Hosts, ‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.’” Now, if you know what that secret inscription is then you could… I’m not trying to be funny, but you could write a book.

Nehemia: I’ve figured it out! I’ve got the answer. The secret information.

Keith: Every time I’m talking about some information and I’ll say, “What are you going to do about that?” He says, “It’ll be in the book,” and you’ve got like five or six things…

Nehemia: Maybe it’s already in the book, I don’t even remember. [laughing]

Keith: So, okay, so I want to take a break for a second, and reason I bring it about this, about the book. So, inscriptions… So for you, when do you decide that something is really… that the public needs to hear versus… In other words, you’ve got a deal where there are certain people that can be a part of… here’s some parts of studies, and there are other things that are just public for everyone. You’ve got YouTube, all this. How do you determine when something is for the masses, or if it’s something that’s going to be maybe for supporters? How do you determine that ahead of time?

Nehemia: I don’t know that it’s determined ahead of time. What I’m doing with the Support Team Studies is I’m simply setting up the microphone, and I call it the Raw Stream of Torah Consciousness, which is really what it is. Just me talking in front of the microphone.

Keith: I’m asking a controversial question.

Nehemia: For 30 minutes, for an hour, and whatever I’m led to share is what I share. So it’s not like I’m saying, “Oh, this is for this group and nobody else.” And it’s interesting, I’ve had people write to me and say, “Why aren’t you sharing this? Well, you should share this with everybody. Why is this only for your Support Team?” And I’m like, “Look, I’m sharing this with people who have supported my ministry,” and you don’t need to support my ministry to get this information. Everything I’m sharing is out there. I mean, you could go through every one of my studies, and there’s nothing original in anything I’ve taught, at least I hope not. In other words, maybe I’ve pulled the things together and their combination is original, but I’m basing this on sources, and all the sources are out there.

Keith: Okay. But the reason I’m trying to get at this is because you do have things like the one that you just did a little while ago, and I’m sure there’ll be others by the time we listen to this, but those are an opportunity for people to, would you say go a little further, or go a little…? In other words…

Nehemia: Oh, absolutely, and so on the Support Team Studies, like Raw Stream of Torah Consciousness, it tends to be, it’s more of an advanced topic. So for somebody starting out, maybe they wouldn’t even get that much out of it. Once you already have that foundation then you can kind of go deeper with the Support Team Studies. But as I said, everything in the Support Team Studies is based on ancient sources, and maybe you can’t read Hebrew, so you can’t access those ancient sources, or you don’t know where to find them in manuscripts or something like that, but all the information is out there. Unless I say something, which is my opinion and then I tell people it’s my opinion, but everything else is based on ancient sources.

Keith: Wow. But anything else? Anything else about the ministry?

Nehemia: Yes. So Makor Hebrew Foundation, my website is Nehemiaswall.com, and come over and sign up for the free newsletter. And if you find that the information is helpful you can become a supporter of the ministry and be part of the Support Team and get access to these studies. On the one hand, it’s Raw Stream of Torah Consciousness, and on the other hand, anyone of those studies, it might be 30 minutes, but it could have taken me 20 years of research that goes into that, which I’m sharing with the people.

Keith: Okay, awesome. Last night… when I went for a walk last night, Nehemia, I went over to Nehemia’s Wall, the real wall, the broad wall that’s there.

Nehemia: In the old city of Jerusalem.

Keith: In the Old City of Jerusalem, and it has the dates there, and I’m like, wow. Anyway, I’ve been challenging him to get a real picture of that, and I’m sure you’ve already shared it at some point.

But anyway, with BFAinternational.com, we’re at a really interesting dispensation right now as you’re listening to this. This is the third week of the summer. We’re actually putting forth a series of Biblical Hebrew for Beginners. An audio course, this is week three right now, and it is for the people in the Premium Content Library, primarily so that we can have a control group of people that are actually going through these biblical courses and then giving us input.

It’s funny, Nehemia, when I was in seminary I went through Hebrew, and as I mentioned before, that was really so that you could learn a word, and then you and I went through a study that still is in the hall of fame for me. It’s an advanced course. I really think it is an advanced course, but it was a real chance to interact. And then I actually took - and you reminded me of this yesterday, and this is kind of separate - but I actually took a course with Yoel HaLevi, who has, I think it’s called Hebrew in Israel, and what I was doing with him was dealing with a little bit of the modern Hebrew. Then I went to Hebrew University and did an intense course with that. And in all of it...

Nehemia: He’s sticking his chest out as he speaks.

Keith: No, no, I’m not. I’m actually taking a different approach. What I realized, and why I decided to do this course, is that I’m in my own process of learning, and I like my approach and learning, and really what it is is I really don’t know so much, but I love to get this information and get it into my own heart, and that’s really what I want to do for this course.

So if you’re interested in learning a little biblical Hebrew from a basic level, this is the time to do it, throughout the summer, and then this course is going to be created so that we can share it with the masses. But we really first need input. So it’s a biblical Hebrew course, it’s under the spirit of Scripture Bytes. It’s an audio course. You actually have something you can download and mark up and then you get to hear the actual audio itself. So it’s a really basic level of Hebrew.

But what I like - you said something, you said, “Well the sources are out there, but maybe you don’t know how to read Hebrew.” And then in many cases, people are kept away from some really important sources. There’s some really important information, because they haven’t been able to interact with the basics of the Hebrew language. Now you call it, you say, “It’s an easy language to learn.”

Nehemia: It’s so easy, so much easier than Chinese or German.

Keith: [laughing] I would agree with that. But it does take a little bit of effort, and I’ve just had a lot of variations of opportunities. This is one way for you to do that. So again, go to BFAinternational.com, on the front page you’ll see a Biblical Hebrew Audio Course. Click it. Become a part of the Premium Content Library and help us develop it for the nation, so that everyone can learn to read this beautiful and amazing language that God selected.

Nehemia: Amen, may it be.

Keith: May it be. So we are now in Zechariah chapter, give… I’m sorry we are in 3 verse...

Nehemia: Let’s skip ahead, because we’re running out of time.

Keith: We are almost out of time.

Nehemia: Can we please skip ahead to chapter 4 verse 2?

Keith: Only if we only give people a chance, make sure that you go back and read these other verses, because they really are interesting.

Nehemia: Absolutely. Yes.

Keith: Oh my goodness. Okay. I’ll agree with you. Go ahead.

Nehemia: Okay, go ahead and read.

Keith: “He said to me, ‘What do you see?’ And I said…” Who is he speaking to here?

Nehemia: He’s speaking to an angel.

Keith: Absolutely. “And I said, ‘I see, and behold, a lampstand of gold with its bowl and the top of it and seven lamps on it with seven sprouts belonging to each of the lamps, which are on top of it. Also two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on its left side.’” Shall I continue?

Nehemia: Yes.

Keith: “Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, ‘What are these, my lord?’” And again, we use the word “lord”, not capital L-O-R-D but we’re using here…

Nehemia: In Hebrew, it’s ‘adoni’, as opposed to Adonai, which refers to Yehovah.

Keith: “And so the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No.’” again, ‘my adoni.’ “Then he said to me, ‘This is the word of Yehovah to Zerubavel saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’” it’s capitalized there, “says Yehovah Tzavaot.”

Nehemia: It’s capitalized in the Hebrew?

Keith: No, I said in the English.

Nehemia: Hebrew doesn’t have capital letters. Okay. All right. But one more verse.

Keith: “What are you, oh, great mountain? Before Zerubavel, you will become a plain and he will bring forth the top stone and shouts of,” oh my gosh, I love this last part. It says, he says “these are going to be shouts of grace, grace, chen, chen to it.”

Nehemia: So if you want to know what chen really means, go read my book Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence, and there’s actually a connection here, because I’m talking about this precious stone and the precious stone is going to have chen, chen. So there’s actually something going on there with the literal meaning of the word grace - Chen.

But I do want to talk about… can you just read real quick verses 13 to 14? I know they’re outside the section. I’ll read that. “And he said to me saying, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No, adoni. No, my Lord.’ And he said ‘These are the two sons of oil who stand by the Lord of all the earth.’” And we had to read that, because that’s the explanation of the vision.

So he has this vision, it’s in the same section, just not in the traditional section read in the synagogue. He has this vision, and in the vision he sees the menorah, and either side of the menorah is an olive tree, and he doesn’t know what he’s looking at. And then finally it’s explained to him, “Oh, well these are the two sons of oil who stand by the Lord of all the earth.” So that menorah represents the Lord of all the earth, which is interesting. If it said, Adonai, we would know that that was God. But it says the Lord of all the earth. It’s not clear what that Lord is. The Lord maybe is God. One could argue that the Lord is the king, is the Messiah. it’s not entirely clear. Then who are the two sons of oil? Now, who do you understand these two sons of oil to be?

Keith: I have no idea.

Nehemia: No idea. Huh? So definitely, the traditional Christian interpretation is that those are the two witnesses from the Book of Revelation, which is obviously reading something into Zechariah, but you know, I suppose it’s possible.

The Jewish understanding here is that the two sons of oil - what does oil mean? Sons of oil is understood to be those who are anointed with oil, and so the two sons of oil are understood to be the king, who was anointed with oil, and the high priest who’s anointed with oil. And that then ties into the earlier prophecies where we heard about how He’s saying there’s going to be a tzemach - that’s actually later prophecy - and there’s going to be a tzemach, and then there’s going to be the king, and the two of them will rule in harmony.

So that’s the image here. We’ve got the high priest and the king, and they’re standing on either side of the menorah, which represents the Temple in which Yehovah dwells, and they’re ruling in harmony. And it’s really interesting, I was visiting some people in Tennessee, and in their living room they had this interesting display. It was sort of this wooden canopy, and underneath the wooden canopy there was a menorah, a seven-branch menorah, like exactly described here, like in the Temple. And on either side of the seven-branch menorah was an olive tree, a little olive tree, and kind of like a little thing, a little planter.

And I said, “Oh, you’ve set up a representation of Zechariah 4.” And they said, “What’s Zechariah 4?” They had no idea. They hadn’t thought about this prophecy at all. What happened? So really, you know, really, really moving story. The woman had for years spent a great deal of energy decorating for Christmas, and they kind of got involved in Torah, and they said, “Look, we can’t do Christmas anymore.” But she wanted to create some kind of a decoration, and so instead of a Christmas tree, he said, “Well, let me get some olive trees,” her husband said. So he got the olive trees. And she says, “Well, what am I going to do with these olive trees?” She sets up the menorah and she says, “Wow, it would look nice if we put an olive tree on either side of the menorah.” I walk in there and I’m telling you, I see this, it’s exactly the representation described here. It’s described in more detail later, that we didn’t read. I’m looking at this thinking it’s got to be Zechariah 4, in fact, I made that the picture of the week that’s going to show up next to this teaching.

Keith: Really?

Nehemia: Yes. I took a photo of what they did, and I’m thinking like, “This has got to be a God thing.” I’m sorry. It’s got to be a God thing. You know? I feel like maybe they were moved by God to create this without even knowing the prophecy. Is that possible?

Keith: Sure. It’s possible. I think one of the things and I said to you, “I have no idea,” but when you do bring the concepts together, when you talk about the oil, and you think about the anointing and you think about the word meshiach, and you think the two messiahs, and other things in Scripture that would give you indication of that, it does make sense.

I’ve got to tell you something, Nehemia, you’re talking about these people that you saw, and this is going to sound like a little bit of a diversion, but it really isn’t, it has to do with a person who is our Prophet Pearl Partners. We don’t give the full name, but Paul, we want to thank you for being a partner.

Nehemia: Todah, Paul.

Keith: And really, I have to say this, the many people that either are partners in real action in terms of they support us, but are partners in other ways. And you know what? These people become partners, because you go there into their house and you see this and it ends up being here in the show. But it’s a really important thing. And that really has been what’s been such a blessing as we’ve been traveling around the world, sitting down with people and hearing their journey and their process and what they’ve learned. And sometimes there’s some real crazy things that we interact with, and sometimes there are things like this where you just say, “Wow, could this be anything other than some sort of intervention?” That you would walk in that house? And it would be a witness, if I can say, to Scripture, and they had no idea.

Nehemia: Right. Isn’t that amazing?

Keith: That’s amazing. That really is. So there are all those people we’re connected to that are really supporting and listening. And I want to stop, if I can, I also want to say, Nehemia, we’re now in 34-35. I can’t remember what number we are, but based on what we’re finding, is literally thousands of people...

Nehemia: Episode 36 actually.

Keith: Nehemia, literally thousands of people, folks, from you saying to me, “Would you consider doing this?” And for me, hearing the word, I heard it, “Teach My people My word.” And here we are, 35 episodes in, and isn’t it… I want to say it’s humbling, but it’s exciting that we have so many people around the world that are opening up their bibles and they’re going through these sections with us, and they’re not only going through the sections of the Prophets, they’re also listening to the Original Torah Pearls. I mean, literally, I think if you sit down and listen to everything just on a weekly basis, there’s about three hours’ worth of bible study, at least three hours every week.

Nehemia: At least.

Keith: Amazing. So, you’re the prayer guy. I don’t know if you have anything else you want to say.

Nehemia: Wow. I think we said it. Yehovah, avinu shebashamayim, Yehovah our Father in heaven, I thank You, Yehovah, for turning back Your anger and rebuking satan, who’s come to attack us. Yehovah, I ask that You do that in our situation, individually for everybody and collectively for us as a people coming before You, Yehovah.

Yehovah, I ask You… I thank You, Yehovah, I thank You for pulling me out of the fire. I was the ud mutzal me’esh. I was that brand, seconds away from being burned up in the fire in my own life, and You pulled me out of that fire and I want to acknowledge that every day for the rest of my life, of how You pulled me out of that fire, Yehovah, that fire that would have burned me up for the rest of my life, Yehovah, and would been the end of my ministry.

And I’m so thankful to You, Father, for rebuking satan and pulling me out of the fire, Yehovah. Yehovah, I ask You to send your tzemach, to send Your branch. Yehovah, the branch of Your salvation. Yehovah, this prayer I grew up saying and never really thought about, Yehovah, I didn’t know what the prophecy was in Jeremiah and Isaiah and Zechariah. We didn’t read those sections, and… Yehovah, but I grew up saying this prayer in the Amidah, in the 15th Benediction, and I want to offer this prayer to You, Yehovah, with Your name. This prayer is offered throughout the world millions of times a day to Adonai, I want to offer this to You Yehovah in Your name. ‘Et tzemach David avdecha mehera tatzmiach, vekarno tarum beyeshuatecha, kileyeshuatcha kivinu vetzipinu kol hayom. Baruch ata Yehovah matzmiach keren yeshua.’ Amen.

Keith: Amen.

You have been listening to Prophet Pearls with Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon’s Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.

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  • donald murphy says:

    once again people enough with the christian junk.

  • Deborah Shively says:

    I noted that Nehemiah didn’t understand the meaning of the seven eyes. Plural eyes in scripture represent God’s omnipresent Holy Spirit one eye can see in one place, two eyes can see more and many eyes can see all over the place. We see them on the wheels in Ezekiel’s vision and on Jesus in Rev. 4:6. Jesus is referred to as a Rock in scripture and in Zechariah we see Him symbolically as the stone that is engraved with the seven eyes, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the image of God, His invisible Holy omnipresent Spirit. I have the impression that the stone in Zechariah’s vision is similar to a gem stone that is engraved as a signant to be used as a seal. God engraves His Holy Spirit in the Messiah to seal those who have received Him, with the Holy Spirit.

    The candlestick represents the church and God is in the midst of her and we see God’s image, Jesus, in the midst of the church in Rev. 1:13. Joshua the high priest and Zerrubbabel the governor represent the spirit and the word, the law. They also represent the two future representatives of the Holy Spirit and the law in harmony as the two witnesses, who in turn are used to represent the remnant of believers(144,000) operating in a time of great apostasy.

    My favorite chapter of Zechariah is 14, where we see Jesus returning after Israel’s second captivity.

  • David says:

    Revelation 11:4(KJV)- “These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.”
    This mirrors Zechariah 4:11-14 repeating olive branches are two anointed ones.
    YHVH bless.

  • UKJ says:

    Shoshana

    Thak you for the extensive explanation, makes complete sense to me and I too would agree with it.

  • UKJ says:

    Shalom,

    Zech 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel [with] those seven; they [are] the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth.

    The seven eyes are mentioned in the book of Rev.

    Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into allthe earth.

    • Deborah Shively says:

      Yes. The seven eyes represent God’s omnipresent Holy Spirit that is in Jesus, who is the rock. He is also symbolically the stone that is engraved with the seven eyes in Zechariah.

  • Wessels says:

    Thank you for teaching us. Much blessings to you.

  • Courtney Abrams says:

    Nehemia, Is it against Torah to have a menorah in one house?

  • Mark Dunn says:

    Regarding Zechariah 4. Here is an interpretation I put together today after listening to HOI Shabbat service and listening to this podcast. At some point in the question & answer time at the end of service it was mentioned that there are three anointed ones: The King, The Priest, And the Prophet. So, If the candle stick is Adonee/My Lord I suppose that is the King. Thus, the two olive trees, annointed ones (bene), are the Prophet and the (High?) Priest.

    Does anyone know of anything that could contradict this?

    • Mark Dunn says:

      Correction, not “Adonee”.
      Strong’s Hebrew 113: adon (adown)/אדון אדן
      The Lord/My Lord/My King

    • Yosef says:

      I think if you read through Ezekiel especially chapters 30-on till the end of the book as well as perhaps Jeremiah chapters 31 and onward it might help aswear some of that . You could flip through Isaiah as well.

  • Shalom Nehemia,

    Am so grateful and appreciative of all you and Keith do.
    Would you please post the ¨15th benediction of the Amidah¨that you prayed to YeHoVah, as am trying to search for it, but am unable to locate the one you read. Would greatly appreciate it. Todah Rabah. Shabbat Shalom.

  • NANCY HORTON says:

    Nehemia, can you please share in English , the prayer you said at the end of the segment? Thank you, in advance! May Yah continue to bless the work you are doing!

  • NANCY HORTON says:

    Hi Nehemia, would you please post the prayer in English that you prayed at the end of session # 36?
    May Yehovah continue to bless you and Keith and the work that you are doing for His Glorious Kingdom!

  • SHMUEL BEN NAFTALI says:

    Re: “Many nations will join themselves to YHVH in that day and will become My people.” I think part of the problem with the Christian interpretation of this, is the misunderstanding that Gentiles have to be ‘grafted onto’ the Covenant between God and Israel in order to be saved from sin; and part of the Jewish unease is the misunderstanding that Gentiles will become Israelites, thus swamping and replacing us. What I think IMHO is this: at some point in the future, certain nations (unspecified – or maybe even just parts of nations) will become ‘Yahwist’ – they will accept the authority and leadership of YHVH, they will follow the ethics, mindset and principles that guided Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and they will ally themselves to Israel. HOWEVER, they will not become ‘Israelites’, because the Covenant is about preserving Israel as a nation forever, and giving Israel the Land forever, for as long as Israel holds to the Way of YHVH (that is what ‘The Covenant’ is – Gentiles do not need to be grafted to it, because it is not about salvation from sin). The Jewish people also do not need to fear, because Israel is God’s firstborn, and has a particular mission in the world – to preserve the reputation of YHVH’s holiness, to be a light to the nations, be a kingdom of priests etc – that’s never going to change. There will be Israel (with our unique mission), and then there will be Yahwist nations, who will become allied to Israel, and help spread the Kingdom of God. Before Sinai, Israel was not the only Yahwist nation – Jethro’s tribe among the Midianites were Yahwist, as were the Salemites and the Shasu). In the future, there will be many nations who serve YHVH. They will all be God’s people, but that isn’t the same as being One Nation.

    • Reyes Nava says:

      SHMUEL,

      Just to get a clearer picture of what you are saying
      can you explain the difference between Jethro and Ruth?

      • Yes Reyes. Both Jethro and Ruth worshipped YHVH. Ruth basically changed her ‘ethnicity’ or nationality and became Israelite. That meant her fate and Israel’s fate became the same. Her spiritual mission and Israel’s spiritual mission became the same. Her children were also able to inherit land in the Land of Israel. Jethro was also Yahwist, but he remained Midianite. His personal mission was to follow YHVH’s ways, and uphold the holiness of YHVH, but that was not the mission of his people (the Midianites). Also, he could not have land in Israel, and neither could his children.
        Also, within Israel, there are priests, Levites and ordinary Israelites. The ‘higher up’ you are, the more responsibility you have to maintain YHVH’s ways, and the more answerable you are to God in what you do. So it is with Israel and the nations: Israel are the priests, the Yahwist nations will be the Levites, and non-Yahwist nations will be like ordinary Israelites. An ordinary Israelite is not less loved by God than a priest, but the responsibility of a priest, and his answerability to God is greater. So too it will be with Yahwist nations and non-Yahwist nations – a Yahwist nation will be more answerable to God than a non-Yahwist nation – more will be expected of a Yahwist nation. I hope that makes sense to you.

        • Reyes Nava says:

          It is very comforting to know that it
          is a matter of choice.

          So I choose the same path that Ruth made in joining myself to YHVH:

          “Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where * you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God

          Isaiah 56:6 is my new standard:

          “Also the foreigners who join themselves to YHVH, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the YHVH, To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds fast My covenant; Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer.

          • As per these Scriptures, Ruth was really an Israelite, she could not have been anything else. Problem is both Jew and Gentiles keep saying otherwise but a Moabite can also be an inhabitant of Moab. Israel, like is done elsewhere, sometimes keeps the name of an area the way it has been. Not all Arizonians are Hopi Indians. Israel killed all the Moabites north of the Arnon River, then settled the area for at least 300 years, albeit adopted the local deities.

            Deuteronomy (Devarim) 1:5
            “On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying,”
            Deut. 2:32-36
            32 “When Sihon and all his army came out to meet us in battle at Jahaz, 33 the LORD our Elohim delivered him over to us and we struck him down, together with his sons and his whole army. 34 At that time we took all his towns and completely destroyed[a] them—men, women and children. We left no survivors. 35 only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, with the spoil of the cities which we had taken. 36 From Aroer, which is on the edge of the valley of Arnon, and from the city that is in the valley, even unto Gilead, there was not a city too high for us: the LORD our God DELIVERED UP ALL before us.”
            Deut. 3:12, 16:
            12 “And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.
            16 But to the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the territory extending from Gilead down to the Arnon Gorge (the middle of the gorge being the border) and out to the Jabbok River, which is the border of the Ammonites.”
            Deu 23:2-3
            2 “ A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the LORD.
            3 An AMMONITE OR MOABITE SHALL NOT ENTER into the congregation of the LORD; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the LORD FOREVER”.
            Numbers, Be-Midbar 21:21-26
            “21 Israel sent messengers to say to Sihon king of the Amorites:
            22 “Let us pass through your country. We will not turn aside into any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will travel along the King’s Highway until we have passed through your territory.”
            23 But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the wilderness against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he fought with Israel. 24 Israel, however, put him to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified. 25 Israel captured all the cities of the Amorites and occupied them, including Heshbon and all its surrounding settlements. 26 Heshbon was the city of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken from him all his land as far as the Arnon.”
            Numbers 26:3 – “And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by Jordan [near] Jericho”
            Numbers 26:63
            “These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.”
            Numbers 33:49 – “And they pitched by Jordan, from Bethjesimoth [even] unto Abelshittim in the plains of Moab.”
            Numbers 36:13
            “These are the commandments and the judgments, which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.”
            Joshua 13:32 – These [are the countries] which Moses did distribute for inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side Jordan, by Jericho, eastward”

            Even Jer 40:11 makes reference to ALL the Jews in Moab. In 1 King 11; 1-2, the Moabites are included among “the nations concerning which Yahveh said unto the children of Israel not to go into you”. Verse 1 calls them “strange” women. So according to Torah was Ruth a stranger or a Rubenite? This shows the prohibition was still valid even in King Solomon’s days. Forever is forever folks…

        • aj says:

          Ezekial …21You are to divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22 You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners who dwell among you and who have children. You are to treat them as native-born Israelites; along with you, they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe a foreigner dwells, you are to assign his inheritance there,” declares the Lord GOD.…

        • donald murphy says:

          enough of the yahwist and christian junk.

    • Deborah Shively says:

      I think you are misunderstanding what it means when a Christian is grated in. We do not have to be grafted in to be saved. We are grated in because we are saved through faith in the blood atonement of the Messiah Jesus. This automatically makes us separated to God through Him and we are grafted into the Hebrew Olive Tree and we are made one with other believing Jews.
      Also, if you look at the latter part of Ezekiel, in the end the land that is given to Israel after Messiah returns is 400 miles north and south and 100 miles east and west. That’s it, they don’t get all the land, that belongs to the Messiah.

    • Wily Andino says:

      Baruch HaShem very good!

  • MaryAnne says:

    Don’t know if it means anything but when you were reading Zechariah 3:8 Listen, cohen gadol Y’hoshua, both you and your colleagues seated here before you, because these men are a sign that I am going to bring my servant Tzemach [Sprout]… I thought of Aaron’s sprouted branch that was placed inside the Ark? Because there was also a jar of manna (Yeshua as the Messiah as I believe represents the bread of life) and the ten commandments (He is The Word of God).

  • Janice says:

    Are the trees in TN, olives or Ficus which are Fig Trees?

  • Janice says:

    Domestic olive tree, is one born in the land; the wild brach is grown outside the land, they are both olive trees. And wild doesn’t mean goofy, church.

    • James says:

      as far as trees go,

      ‘Domestic’ means it’s cared for as something brought into or belonging to a home–cared for.

      Wild means it’s left to itself.

  • Janice says:

    In the grafting process, the domestic tree there’s a cut, usually some ointment is applice to the cut (zion) and wrapped with cloths (wrapped in linen) this protects it from loosing moisture and protects from disease. This cut, zion, like eye of potatoe with the wrapp is called blinding – the blinding is not about spritual ignorance is about protection until the grafting is complete. If the 3.5 year old tree is not grafted it will die, so gardner goes out to the field and makes cutting and cuts off branch, that tree is also provied ointment and wrapping (so it won’t die, the branch is brought to the domesstic tree, and salve is applied, linen garments wrapp or bind the wild branch to the domestic olive.

    Truly is amazing if you learn how to graft an olive tree.

    • MaryAnne says:

      Thank you Janice, I never knew that, and it is filled with meaning! Israel (the domestic tree) is partially blinded until the time of the gentiles is complete (Luke 21:24). The 3 1/2 years of testing was when Steven preached to JUST the Jewish nation, then when they stoned him (rejected the Messiah) the gospel went to to gentiles. If we don’t adhere (become a successful graft and take on characteristics of domestic tree like you said).. “it” dies.
      SO many Christians believe that just because they are grafted… they won’t die that second death 🙁

  • Janice says:

    Go to a gardner and learn the process of grafting an olice tree. When the process is complete, it undergoes a test of 3.5 years, at that time the engrafted branch (wild branch) will look just like the original domestic tree. That’s a successful graft. If does not take on characteristics of domesitc tree, it dies.

  • Samantha says:

    Brian, you do realize that the gentiles are referring to the other 10 tribes.

    • Reyes Nava says:

      Samantha,

      Please enlighten us with your great wisdom.
      When did the prophets convert the gentiles into the 10 tribes?

    • Reyes Nava says:

      Samantha,

      Your statement is not only baffling but completely contrary to the Word of YHVH spoken through the prophets.

      Never did the prophets refer to the gentiles as the 10 tribes.

  • Norman says:

    What would it physically look like when the phrase in Isaiah 14: 1 “The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob” comes to be? I know it’s almost impossible to say but can we do this today?