MICHAEL FREUND: Ezekiel is commanded by God to take two sticks. On one, he is to write "For Judah," and on the other "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim." Then comes the crucial instruction: "Bring them together into one stick so that they become one in your hand" (37:17). Ezekiel's vision is not one of uniformity. The two sticks do not cease to be what they are. Judah remains Judah; Joseph remains Joseph. Unity does not erase difference – it sanctifies and elevates it by placing it within a larger shared destiny.


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Ketriel Blad: In other words, in order for a total restoration to take place, the restored Ephraimites from among the nations will have to become Jewish, in the legal sense of the word, thus accepting the Jewish authorities and becoming obedient to Jewish halachah. In the prophecy of Ezekiel 37:19 the Hebrew text can be understood as HaShem giving Yehuda's stick the function of being over Ephraim's stick and this way both sticks will become one. This teaches us that the Ephraimite movement that comes from heaven cannot rise apart from the Jewish people without submission to the Jewish leaders' authority. This is not for all the gentiles.

แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ בָּבֶל แสดงบทความทั้งหมด
แสดงบทความที่มีป้ายกำกับ בָּבֶל แสดงบทความทั้งหมด

วันอาทิตย์, กันยายน 24, 2566

วันศุกร์, กุมภาพันธ์ 03, 2566

วันจันทร์, กรกฎาคม 05, 2564

"For he sent this message to us in Babylon: 'It will be a long time; build houses to live in; plant gardens and eat their fruit'" (New American Standard Version, Jeremiah 29:28). 🏡

KEVIN DALY: Those who think they can achieve Jewish salvation by participating in the religious observances of the Talmudic faith simply add credibility to that system, and can never – by the flattery of imitation – provoke anyone to jealousy. Only the new life by the Spirit of God, which manifests itself most profoundly through simple obedience, self-sacrifice, and by its fruits (Gal. 5:22), will produce such a result.

TOM HALE: If we take the Bible's description, we can speculate that the Garden of Eden is located somewhere near Iraq and Iran around the Persian Gulf.

MARVIN OLASKY: We Live in Babylon, Not Israel

Chaim Steinmetz: So how does one prepare for exile? Jacob chooses an unusual method: He blesses his family.

Tova Ganzel: The king of Babylonia used the magical practices of the time to decide whether to advance his army towards Jerusalem or Rabbat Ammon. The "shaking of arrows" consists of "filling a quiver with arrows, with different answers written on them. The diviner would shake the arrows, and the first to fall from the quiver was considered to represent the answer of the gods." In addition, the king "consulted the terafim" – meaning, divining the future using idols (see Bereishit 31:34; Melakhim II 23:24; Zekharia 10:2).

Tzvi Freeman: in the century before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE, the leading sages of Israel established the world's first public school system. They could feel a diaspora coming, and they bunkered down for it by formalizing the process of Jewish education.

KEN SPIRO: Part of the reason for the stability of the Jewish community in Babylon was that the area was held by the Persian Sassanian dynasty from the 3rd century CE on. The Sassanians managed to keep out of their kingdom first the Romans and then the Byzantines. In this way the Jews of Babylon were protected from harm that the Byzantine Christians inflicted elsewhere.


"Digital Babylon is the New Context for Discipleship. We are all Exiles, now."

John Copeland: Babylonians were the first to make New Year's resolutions


Chris Mullis: If we're honest and historically accurate, ancient Babylon had much in common with modern America. It's a hard truth for some to accept, but America will soon be gone and forgotten.





Andrew J. Bacevich: Twenty years after the Iraq invasion: America's humiliation was China's gain.



TREVIN WAX: The neo–Religious Right agrees with younger evangelicals that we're in Babylon. The debate is about how the church should respond to this environment. What does faithfulness in Babylon look like?

Neil Asher Silberman, Israel Finkelstein, David Ussishkin, and Baruch Halpern: The Book of Joshua (12:21) specifically mentions the defeat of the king of Megiddo and the allotment of his territory to the tribe of Manasseh;

JACQUELINE SCHAALJE: Beit Shean is mentioned as belonging to the conquered area of the Israelite tribe of Manasseh

NETANYA MUNICIPALITY: thanks to the Lord for giving them {Netan~ya, lot. "gift of God"} the ability to continue the legacy of the 12 tribes who settled in the Land of Israel, and particularly of the half~tribe of Manasseh, which settled in the region.

Stephen Epstein: Some went down the Mekong River into Vietnam, the Philippines, Siam, Thailand and Malaysia, while some of the Israelites moved to Burma and west to India.

אֵלִיָּ֨הוּ הַתִּשְׁבִּ֜י מִתֹּשָׁבֵ֣י גִלְעָד֮