The language of ivrit ( עברית ) Exodus 8, Post #6
Welcome to my Hebrew reading & language series.
Exodus 8:20-24
We went from gnats to a threat of swarming flies last week. This week, the flies are all over Mitsraim (Egypt) but not Goshen, and we have another promise from Far'oh (Pharaoh) who now says they can go (but not to go very far). Far'oh is afraid of the saying "derech shloshet yameem" ("three days' journey"). Let us talk about that in this post.
You have heard the phrase on the Lamb, right? That saying comes from the 1600's when a group of Quakers escaped from being caught. The did that by getting on their ship called "The Lamb" and even though there is no lamb involved, people all know that someone "on the Lamb" is evading capture. Similarly, the "three days' journey" became famous going back to Ya'acov (Jacob) and Laban. See my post about the first use of that phrase. They were splitting up the flocks which would be Ya'acov's severance pay so to speak. It was a common idiom back in the day.
Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in the charge of his sons. And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.
Imagine living in the meedbar (wilderness - in that region it would be desert) and someone takes off heading any direction they choose and they walk for three days. Like hide and seek, you don't get to see them leave and you would likely not find them ever. It was never about the three days, but rather, that you will never see the sheep again. The sheep were taken so far that Ya'acov and his sheep would not mate with the color or patterns of sheep necessary for him to walk away with a large inheritance. You will "never see them again", they are history, out of there, on the lamb, in the wind, etc..
Far'oh knew what they were saying when they asked to go three days' journey to worship Elohim. He knew that it meant he would lose his workforce and that God was plaguing the mitsraim (egyptians) in order to obtain the freedom of the Hebrews.
Back to our story. The swarms of flies were so severe, though only on the mitsraim, that Far'oh told them to go and sacrifice to Elohim, but within the land. Moshe (Moses) argued that the mitsraim would kill them because it is an abomination to them. He tells Far'oh that they must go derech shloshet yameem !
Far'oh agrees telling them that they must not go that far. He is trying to make Mosh reword his request. He was swatting madly at the flies the whole time and his agreement was frantic. He quickly tagged, "Plead for me" onto the end of his sentence. He knows that YHVH is the one that is doing this to him and that Moshe is the only link to that very real Elohim. There was no other way to make the plague subside, but to ask Moshe to pray.
As far as the verse numbering goes, verses 20-24 in Hebrew match the content of 24-28 in English. I wonder if they will end up aligning at the end of the chapter.
Today's reading
English
24 And YHVH did so. There came great swarms of flies into the house of Pharaoh and into his servants' houses. Throughout all the land of Egypt the land was ruined by the swarms of flies.
25 Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land." 26 But Moses said, "It would not be right to do so, for the offerings we shall sacrifice to YHVH our God are an abomination to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice offerings abominable to the Egyptians before their eyes, will they not stone us? 27 We must go three days' journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to YHVH our God as he tells us. 28 So Pharaoh said, "I will let you go to sacrifice to YHVH your God in the wilderness; only you must not go very far away. Plead for me."
Hebrew
Will Far'oh go back on his word next week too?
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