Ezekiel 36:25

Earlier this month, I read Ezekiel 36, and I found a chiasm in verse 25:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean

From all your uncleannesses, 

And from all your idols

I will cleanse you.

I lookt up the Hebrew text, and I'm pretty sure it also has this feature.

Around the same time I read this particular verse, I was following along with the Daily Dose of Greek series in John 3 where Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and refers to baptism.  Dr. Plummer mentions this verse from Ezekiel in his video on John 3:5, and the study notes in my Bible also reference it.  Clearly, this verse in Ezekiel describes baptism.

But since it has this chiastic structure, it also points to Christ's crucifixion.  The study notes in my Bible explain that "sprinkle" is a "term most often used with the blood of the atonement and covenant," and that description seems to fit more with the crucifixion than with baptism.

Les siècles des siècles

For a little over a year and a half (26 June 2018 to 4 February 2020), I followed along in the Daily Dose of Greek videos on Revelation (copying out each verse).  This is where I learned that the Greek phrase "τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων" literally means something like "the ages of the ages" but is an idiom that means "forever."  (The first instance of this that I could find is in Revelation 11:15.)

As I noted before, since the lectionary started over in December, I've been following along with each Sunday's readings in French.  I have a French New Testament and a French hymnal that has most of the Psalms.  At end of the Gloria Patri after each Psalm, the French has "les siècles des siècles," and for a few weeks, I'd been suspicious that this is the same way that the French New Testament translates "τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων."  I finally lookt it up a couple weeks ago, and not only did I confirm that, but I also discovered that "les siècles des siècles" has the same literal meaning as "τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων" - "the centuries of the centuries."

John 10:11

Once again, I'm behind, but while watching the previous week's Worship Anew last week, I noticed a small feature in John 10:11 in my French New Testament.  "Je suis le bon berger.  Le bon berger donne sa vie pour ses brebis."  "I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."  Granted, it's a rather small instance, but in French, there's alliteration in "good shepherd" ("bon berger").  This consonance gives something of an idea of Jesus' perfection.

Ezekiel 29:9-10

I'm still making my way through Ezekiel, but I recently found a note I made in late March about chapter 29 that I forgot to write about.

The Lord tells Ezekiel to prophesy against Pharaoh, and in the second half of verse 9 and into verse 10, He says, "Because you [Pharaoh] said, 'The Nile is mine, and I made it,' 10 therefore, behold, I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Cush."

Pharaoh's claim that "The Nile is mine, and I made it" is very similar to what the Psalmist says of God in Psalm 95:5:  "The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land."  (I lookt up the Hebrew, and while most of it is beyond me, I did notice that both verses use the same verb for "made.")  Pharaoh's claim is prideful and arrogant, but the Psalmist properly credits and (elsewhere in this Psalm) praises God for His creation.


As brief side notes:

"From Migdol to Syene" and "the sea/the dry land" are both merisms.  The first seems simply to indicate a specific geographic area, but the second illustrates the variety and expanse of God's creation and - in turn - His powerful dominion over it.

Psalm 95:5 has a chiastic structure whose elements are features of God's creation ("the sea" and "the dry land") and the act of creation ("he made it" and "his hands formed"):

The sea is his

for he made it 

and his hands formed

the dry land.

Psalm 13:1-2

A couple weeks ago, I heard Psalm 13 and discovered a small feature in the first two verses:

1 How long, O LORD?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  2 How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?  How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

The repeated "how long" is an example of anaphora, and in its use here, it gives a sense of duration.  Things have been going on in this same way for some time, and the Psalmist wonders when there will be a change.

Psalm 113:3

Last month, Concordia University Wisconsin tweeted Psalm 113:3:

#PassageOfTheDay "From the rising of the sun to its setting the name of the Lord is to be praised!" - Psalms 113:3 pic.twitter.com/aPZQ4cocmc

— Concordia University (@CUWisconsin) March 19, 2020

I'd realized before that "from the rising of the sun to its setting" is a merism, but I had been thinking about it merely temporally:  from morning to night.  The paraphrase "from east to west" made me realize that it can also be taken spatially:  all over the world.

Psalm 28:7

Within the span of one week last month, I ran across references to Psalm 28:7 in two different hymns:  "Be Thou still my strength and shield" in LSB #918 "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" and "You are my strength, my shield, my rock" in LSB #734 "I Trust, O Lord, Your Holy Name" (which KFUO posted on Instagram).  Psalm 28:7 is "The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him."

I noticed that there's a bit of alliteration:  "my strength and my shield."  While only slight, this illustrates that God is steadfast and immovable.

For what it's worth, the same feature is present in German:  "Der HERR ist meine Stärke und mein Schild; auf ihn hofft mein Herz, und mir ist geholfen.  Nun ist mein Herz fröhlich, und ich will ihm danken mit meinem Lied."

Proverbs 1:13

Although I'm about two weeks behind, I've been following along in the Daily Dose of Hebrew's diversion into Proverbs as the series takes a break from Deuteronomy.  A couple weeks ago, I noticed some significance of the structure of Proverbs 1:13:

There's something of a chiastic structure:  "All precious goods we shall find; we shall fill our houses with plunder."  While the subjects are inflected into the verbs, they're literally surrounded by "precious goods" and "plunder," so in their description of themselves, the enticing sinners are exactly where they want to be:  in the midst of wealth.

Matthew 4:10-11

A couple weeks ago, I found an old note I'd made about Matthew 4:10-11 back when I was following along in the lectionary in my German New Testament.  This is at the end of the account of the temptation of Jesus:  "10 Da sprach Jesus zu ihm:  Weg mit dir, Satan! denn es steht geschrieben:  »Du sollst anbeten den Herrn, deinen Gott, und ihm allein dienen.«  11 Da verließ ihn der Teufel.  Und siehe, da traten Engel zu ihm und dienten ihm."

"10 Then Jesus said to him, 'Be gone, Satan!  For it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve."'  11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him."

I was curious about "him only shall you serve" and "angels... were ministering to him."  These are different verbs in English, but the same verb in German (albeit with different inflections).  Jesus says, "Du sollst... deinen Gott... dienen," and then, "Engel... dienten ihm."  Immediately after Jesus quotes, "You shall serve your God," the angels do serve their God.  The range of meaning of the verb dienen is wide enough to cover both of these uses.

The same is true of the French translation I'm following along in now:  "10 Jésus lui dit:  Retire-toi, Satan! Car il est écrit:  Tu adoreras le Seigneur, ton Dieu, et tu le serviras lui seul.  11 Alors le diable le laissa.  Et voici, des anges vinrent auprès de Jésus, et le servaient."

I lookt up the Greek to find that it uses different verbs (λατρεύω and διακονέω), so this is a feature specific to these German and French translations.

Psalm 121:6-8

Psalm 121 was the appointed Psalm last Sunday (the Second Sunday in Lent), and while following along in my French New Testament while watching Worship Anew, I noticed some significant anaphora in verses 7 and 8:

7 Le Seigneur te gardera de tout mal, il gardera ta vie.  8 Le Seigneur te gardera, au départ et au retour, maintenant, à jamais.

 I like the New King James Version:

7 The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul.  8 The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore.

The repeated "shall preserve" illustrates God's constancy of care while the variety of direct objects ("you," "your soul," and "your going out and your coming in") demonstrates the breadth.  As in Psalm 91, the you here ("te" in French) is singular (as it is in the Hebrew), which indicates God's individualized protection.

About a year ago, I noticed that there's a merism in verse 6:  "The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night."  There are also merisms in verse 8 ("your going out and your coming in" and "this time... forevermore"), and all of these provide an idea of the range of God's care.

Psalm 2:9

The Psalm reading for last Sunday (Transfiguration) was a section of Psalm 2.  This doesn't appear in Liturgies et cantiques Luthériens, so I followed along in my German Bible and noticed again something I discovered three years ago.  In verse 9, the parallelism is emphasized by alliteration:

Du sollst sie mit einem eisernen Zepter zerschlagen, wie Töpfe sollst du sie zerschmeißen.

In English, this is:  "You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."  The alliteration between zerschlagen and zerschmeißen highlights the parallelism of break and dash.

Deuteronomy 4:35

I've been following along in the Daily Dose of Hebrew series on Deuteronomy, and I noticed a small feature in Deuteronomy 4:35:

אַתָּה הָרְאֵתָ לָדַעַת כִּי יְהוָה הוּא הָאֱלֹהִים אֵין עוֹד מִלְבַדּֽוֹ׃

"To you it was shown, that you might know that the LORD is God; there is no other besides him."

In English, there's merely "the LORD is God," but in Hebrew there are three words referring to God:  "the LORD," "He," and "God."  Because there are three, there's a picture of the Trinity.