31Parsha Behar – On the Mount - B’chukotai – In my Instruction

31Parsha Behar – On the Mount - Vayiqra 25:1-26:2

Yrmeyahu 32:6-27,  Luke 4:16:21

B’chukotai – In my Instruction - Vayiqra 26:3 – 27:34

Yrmeyahu 16:19-17:14, 2^nd Corint. 6:14-18, 1 Kefa 1:13-16

Daniel ban Ya’acov Israel

Heb 10:1 For the Torah, having a shadow of the good matters to come, and not the image itself of the matters, was never able to make perfect those who draw near with the same slaughter offerings which they offer continually year by year.

When used: • "Scripture taken from “The Scriptures”, Copyright by Institute for Scripture Research. “Used by permission”!When other: King James Version; I have restored the Name of our Heavenly Father and our Master Yehoshua Messiah when needed otherwise the RNKJV(Revisited New King James Version) is used!

The RNKJV (Renewed King James Version) use YHWH while I use יהוה for the Name of our heavenly father. The RNKJV write according to the English letters, I preserve the Hebrew letters of the tetragramaton in order to avoid vain discussion and strife concerning the spelling and pronunciation of the Name of our heavenly Father. During the reading you will also found the Tetragramaton written as: Yehovah, and the name of our Master as Yehoshua this is my conclusion after many searching and prayer!

Today’s “parasha” bring us to a new point which has been neglected by men until יהוה in His mercy put back in the heart of His people to search the truth. This is the Shabbat of the land and the “Yovel”, called Year of Jubilee in English.

In יהושע’s time, only the Shabbat of the land was kept in Eretz Israel (land of Israel), there was no “Yovel” kept! We are going to see that יהושע was concerned with the restoration of all things (Acts 3:21).

Today we see more and more believers dedicate themselves to study and learning of the Torah. We know that when Messiah יהושע, will come back to establish the Kingdom of Elohim, the Torah will be the standard of life throughout the earth.

----- Isa 2:2 and it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of YHWH's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. Isa 2:3 and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of YHWH, to the house of the Elohim of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word (Torah) of YHWH from Jerusalem.

----- יהוה spoke to Moshe in the Mount Sinai! This took place when Moshe went up for forty days and forty nights.  When Moshe writes these laws of rest of the land and Yovel, the children of Israel are still in the wilderness, this is the preparation for entering the land.” When you come into the land………”As I wrote in a former “parasha”, we are not in Eretz Israel now and therefore should understand that the study of Torah is a preparation for time to come at the second advent of Messiah. 

Remember, יהוה, sanctify (Set apart) His people through keeping the Shabbat: 

Exo 31:13 “And you, speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, saying, ‘My Sabbaths you are to guard, by all means, for it is a sign¹ between Me and you throughout your generations, to know that I, יהוה, am setting you apart. Footnote: ¹The only sign of יהוה setting us apart, the only sign of the everlasting covenant, is His Sabbaths, one of them being the seventh day Sabbath. This is repeated in Ezek. 20:12 & 20………………

Exo 31:14 ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Exo 31:15 six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to YHWH: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Exo 31:16 wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

Exo 31:17 it is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days YHWH made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Eze 20:12  “And I also gave them My Sabbaths (Heb.Shabbot), to be a sign¹ between them and Me, to know that I am יהוה who sets them apart.

Eze 20:20  ‘And set apart My Sabbaths (Heb. Shabbot), and they shall be a sign between Me and you, to know that I am יהוה your Elohim.’

When studying the Torah (יהוה’s instructions) we should have always in mind that the natural points toward the spiritual. Nowadays, you can hear people everywhere, in the TV, the radio, or read in news papers about “spiritual”. In reality their so called “spirituality” is far from the real spiritual way ordained by יהוה’s Ruach (Spirit). It is only a Greek “understanding” of “satisfying the desire of the flesh”.

According to the Torah, the pattern is simple: To follow the flesh is “carnal” to follow the Ruach is “spiritual”:

Gal 5:16 and I say: Walk in the Spirit and you shall not accomplish the lust of the flesh.

Gal 5:17 for the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you desire to do.

Gal 5:18 but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under Torah.

From another translation:

Gal 5:17 for the old nature (carnal man) wants what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other, so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions.
Gal 5:18 but if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism.
In other words we must choose to be led by the Ruach, in order to follow Abba יהוה’s will. “You are not under the Torah”, means that walking in the Ruach in Messiah יהושע make us free from the bondage of the “Ink of the letter” in other words, trying to be justified by keeping the Torah!

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law (Oral Torah of the Pharisee), but by the faith of Yehoshua the Messiah, even we have believed in יהושע the Messiah, that we might be justified by the faith of the Messiah, and not by the works of the law (Ma’asee HaTorah: Work of the Oal Torah): for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Gal 2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by the Messiah, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore the Messiah the minister of sin? By no means.

Torah keeping is to walk in a righteous way and not to be justified by the regulations of men.

Rom 8:1 There is, then, now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah יהושע, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Rom 8:3 For the Torah being powerless, in that it was weak through the flesh…………

Rom 8:5 for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the matters of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the matters of the Spirit.

Rom 8:7 because the mind of the flesh (carnal man) is enmity towards Elohim, for it does not subject itself¹ to the Torah of Elohim, neither indeed is it able

Rom 8:8 and those who are in the flesh (carnal) are unable to please Elohim.

With this, we should be able to see those who are able to “please Elohim” in the world today!

Now this is the aspect of the redemption. When Adam transgressed following Chawah’s (Eve) sin, the all world was put under the power of sin and was held under the need of redemption.

יהוה established the rest of the land (Shabbat) in the same pattern it was for the day of rest for mankind (Weekly Shabbat). In the book of B’reshit (Genesis) the Rest of the seventh day is given for all mankind, it is only after the flood, when יהוה called Abram that the Shabbat was determined to be for יהוה’s chosen people, because of the rebellion of mankind.

Now this pattern was extended to the land of Israel (Eretz Isarel), when the Children of Israel (carnal man) will enter it led by Yohushua son of Nun, a picture foreshadowing our (you and me) future entering in Eretz Isarel under Messiah יהושע’leadership.

This Shabbat of rest every seven years will become a challenge which the children of Israel (carnal man) our forefathers were not able to keep.

Later on we will see that Sha’ul speaks concerning the earth waiting also for redemption.

“The land shall observe a Shabbat to יהוה “

The challenge: During this year, the Children of Israel (carnal man) were not allowed to reap what grows of its own and also not to gather the grapes of “un-pruned” wine. The reason been “it is a year of rest for the land”: “Do not sow and do not prune your vineyard” (verse 5).

There are many things to see in this verse.

-         ●The Children of Israel (carnal man) were not allowed to reap what grows of its own of “un-pruned wine”

-         ●The Children of Israel (carnal man) were not allowed to sow and to gather the grapes during the seventh year.

Remember all this point to a spiritual aspect of our life!

Who is the sustainers of life, is it not יהוה?

Neh 9:21 “And for forty years You sustained them in the wilderness – they lacked not. Their garments did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Nehemiah wrote a remembrance concerning יהוה sustaining His people during their time in the wilderness: He gave them “manna”. What is harder, to give “manna” forty years or to feed the Children of Israel during the “seventh year”, the Shabbat year?

“The Sabbath of the land shall be to you for food”.

I wrote a midrash to explain the forty years in the wilderness which are a pattern of the two thousands years from the first advent of Messiah יהושע to his second advent.

Forty years endurance in the wilderness equal: 40 x 50 (Yovel) = 2000 Years!

So the pattern came from יהוה speaking to Noach:

Gen 6:3 and YHWH said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

The explanation is this: 120 years represent not the length of man’s life (read Psalm 90:10) but the length of mankind living in this form on earth:

120 x 50 (Yovel)= 6000 years.

One Yovel = 50 Years (7 x7=49 + the Yovel year).

Now the second explanation is this:

The six year of labour are the six thousand years of man on earth, the Shabbat is the Millennium when יהוה’s people will be feed by יהוה’s himself, for during this time יהוה’s people will not work, those having fed on the Torah before the “Millennium “will eat the fruit of it during the Millennium and will have enough for the Eighth day which is “Olam Aba”, Eternal life as we are going to see.

 יהושע came in the year four thousand; thus remain 2000 years (40 Yovels) or “40 years wilderness” foreshadowed in the time of Moshe when they walk in the “natural” forty years.

The question was given by Moshe verse 20:

“What do we eat in the seventh year, since we do not sow nor gather in our crops………”

יהוה say that He will command blessing on the sixth year and that it will be enough for the next three years:

-         ●The seventh year which is the Shabbat of the land,

-         ●The eight year which will be the year of sowing again

-         ●The ninth year which will be the coming harvest.

Now I want you to see something according to the numbers and the Hebrew “gemetria”

●Six is the number of man. During Six years men will sow and reap (work of the hand).

●Seven is the number for divine completion on earth, when יהוה’s people will not sow nor reap it is the Millennium Reign of Messiah.

●Eight is the number for behind the natural, also a number for Eternity, found in the last feast during the feast of the booth, the Eight days is the last great day or “staying a while” also called Shemini Atzeret also shimcha Torah.

●Nine is the number for judgment!

●Un-pruned wine! Let us read:

Un-pruned: Strong’s #H5139 naw-zeer', naw-zeer'

 נזר    .written nun (50), tsade (90), resh(200) (340). nâzir

From H5144; separate, that is, consecrated (as prince, a Nazirite); hence (figuratively from the latter) an un-pruned vine (like an unshorn Nazirite). (The translation, Nazarite, is by a false alliteration with Nazareth.): separate (-d), vine undressed.

H5144 nâzar naw-zar'

A primitive root; to hold aloof, that is, (intransitively) abstain (from food and drink, from impurity, and even from divine worship (that is, apostatize)); specifically to set apart (to sacred purposes), that is, devote: - consecrate, separate (-ing, self).

You remember the “Nazarites” where to be set apart like Samson not drinking (abstaining) alcohol neither cutting the hair.

So we can see that this Shabbat of rest was to consecrate יהוה’s creation to His maker.

All what grows from the corn to the wine, all point to יהושע Messiah:

Joh 15:1 “I (יהושע) am the true vine, and My Father is the gardener.

Joh 15:2 “Every branch in Me that bears no fruit He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit He prunes, so that it bears more fruit.

Prune: Strong’s #G2508 kathairō kath-ah'ee-ro

From G2513; to cleanse, that is, (specifically) to prune; figuratively to expiate: - purge.

Thayers goes further saying: to cleanse, free from corrupt desire, free from every admixture of what is false, sincere genuine

Prune is the opposite of un-pruned, bringing back to its intended form!

During the seventh year, the land was to be like under a “Nazarene vow” so to say, subjected to יהוה’s law in order to rest.

I remember that in France until the 60^th, we had the year of “Jasher” the field was left unsown in order to rest. Now it is finished, people use “fertilizer”. Nevertheless, this time of “Jasher” came from the Yehudin living in France; and also from those of Ephraim who were still keeping the tradition of their ancestors; of course it was no more perfectly according to the Torah, because they did it in a manner that they could reap from another field who was in it sixth years so doing in a circle in order that every filed had one year rest (Shabbat).

Do you think the earth was not able to bear fruits in the seventh year? Not so but it is written, the Just (righteous) will live by faith (Abakkuk 2:4). Faith is to trust Elohim and not our own ability.

Verse 8-11. you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years……….. shall be to you forty-nine years……………………..sound a ram’s horn to pass through on the tenth day of the seventh month, on the Day of Atonement……….. The fiftieth year is a Jubilee to you………………

The year of the “yovel”, seven time seven and the next year is the fiftieth, the year of the “yovel”, starting on Yom kippur, the tenth of the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar.

Yovel year the year of freedom:

The seventh year is a year of rest for the land; Yovel is the year of release for people, a year when people got a new chance for a new start.

Luk 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Yeshayahu was handed to Him (יהושע). And having unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written:

Luk 4:18 “The Spirit of יהוה is upon Me,¹ because He has anointed Me to bring the Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away crushed ones with a release, Footnote: ¹Isa. 61:1-3.

Luk 4:19 to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה.”¹ Footnote: ¹Isa. 61:1-2.

Luk 4:20 and having rolled up the scroll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the congregation were fixed upon Him.

Luk 4:21 and He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been filled in your hearing.”

יהושע came to fulfill the Yovel year, he didn’t came to set material things straight, we have learned that the Last Adam came to make the “new man”. People in יהושע’s time were poor, because having no Torah’s life (they followed the traditions of men Matt.15:3-9, i.e. the Pharisee) blind to the truth, captive in the prison of their own sins. They were in need to recover in order to see again, to be released:

Good news to the poor: What was the “Good news to the poor, what does יהושע says”?

Isa 42:1 “See, My Servant (יהושע) whom I uphold, My Chosen One My (יהוה) being has delighted in! I (יהוה) have put My Spirit upon Him; He brings forth right-ruling to the nations.

            ●The poor:

Mat 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, because theirs is the reign of the heavens.

           

Jas 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers: Has Elohim not chosen the poor of this world, rich in belief and heirs of the reign which He promised to those who love Him?

●To heal the broken hearted!

Psa 34:18 יהוה is near to the broken-hearted, and saves those whose spirit is crushed.

2Ch 34:27 “Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Elohim when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your garments and wept before Me, I also have heard,” declares יהוה.

Psa 147:3 He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds.

            ●Release to the captive

Psa 102:19 for He looked down from the height of His set-apart place; from heaven יהוה viewed the earth,

Psa 102:20 to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to release those appointed to death,

Psa 146:7 Doing right-ruling for the oppressed, Giving bread to the hungry. יהוה releases those who are bound,

            ●Recovery of sight to the blind

Isa 42:7 to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.

Isa 42:16 “And I shall lead the blind by a way they have not known – in paths they have not known I lead them. I make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These matters I shall do for them, and I shall not forsake them.

Isa 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come! And the esteem of יהוה has risen upon you. (who is the light, is not יהושע?

Isa 60:2 “For look, darkness covers the earth; and thick darkness the peoples. But יהוה arises over you, and His esteem is seen upon you.

●Send away crushed ones with a release

Gen 3:15 “And I put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed¹. He shall crush your head, and you shall crush His heel.” Footnote: ¹First promise of the Messiah.

Isa 42:3 “A crushed reed He does not break, and smoking flax He does not quench. He brings forth right-ruling in accordance with truth (Torah).

            Isa 35:3 Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the weak knees.

Isa 35:4 Say to those with anxious heart, “Be strong, do not fear! See, your Elohim comes with vengeance, with the recompense of Elohim. He is coming to save you.”

            ●Release

            Deu 15:1 “At the end of every seven years you make a release of debts.

      Deu 15:9 “Be on guard lest there be a thought of Beliyaʽal in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of release, is near,’ and your eye is evil against your poor brother and you give him naught. And he shall cry out to יהוה against you, and it shall be a sin in you.

What then was the “Gospel of the Kingdom of Elohim”?

Deu 15:2 “And this is the word of the release: Every creditor is to release what he has loaned to his neighbour, he does not require it of his neighbour or his brother, because it is called the release of יהוה.

The last citation יהושע did from the book of Yeshayahu must be look at, very carefully:

Luk 4:19 to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה.”

This is what Yeshayahu wrote?

Isa 61:2 to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה, “and the day of vengeance of our Elohim”, to comfort all who mourn,

יהושע omitted the second part of the sentence: “and the day of vengeance of our Elohim”!

This was not a coincidence, because the “day of vengeance” was not at יהושע first advent.

Mic 5:8 And the remnant of Yaʽaqoḇ shall be among the gentiles (nations), in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of a forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, who, if he passes through, shall both tread down and shall tear, and there is no one to deliver………

Mic 5:15 “And I shall take vengeance in wrath and rage on the gentiles who did not obey.”

Luk 21:5 and as some were speaking about the Set-apart Place, that it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, He said,

Luk 21:6 “These that you see – the days are coming in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.”

Luk 21:7 and they asked Him, saying, “Teacher, but when shall this be? And what is the sign when this is about to take place?”………………………

Luk 21:22 “Because these are days of vengeance, to fill all that have been written.

Luk 21:23 “And woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing children in those days! For there shall be great distress in the earth and wrath upon this people.

2Th 1:7 and to give you who are afflicted rest with us when the Master יהושע is revealed from heaven with His mighty messengers,

2Th 1:8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know Elohim, and on those who do not obey the Good News of our Master יהושע Messiah,

As we have seen the spiritual follow the natural and not the other way round

1Co 15:46 the spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.

1Co 15:47 the first man was of the earth, earthy; the second Man is the Master from heaven.

1Co 15:48 as is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly.

1Co 15:49 and as we have borne the likeness of the earthy, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly.

In the Tanak the release was in the Yovel year every fifty years. Could it bee that when יהושע came that it was also a Yovel year in spite that it was not celebrated? (Read my midrash on the “One hundred twenty years).

Lev 25:13 ‘In the Year of this Jubilee let each one of you returns to his possession.

Verse 23.the land is not to be sold beyond reclaim, for the land is Mine (says יהוה)

It is amazing to see that today the all world is pushing to make Israel give land to the Palestinians: “Land for peace”. How can people deal with the land belonging to the King of the universe?

Verse 24 And provide for redemption for the land……

Redemption for the land, what does Shaul say concerning the creation waiting for redemption? Read (Rom.8:19-23)

Act 3:20 and that He sends יהושע Messiah, pre-appointed for you,

Act 3:21 whom heaven needs to receive until the times of restoration of all matters, of which Elohim spoke through the mouth of all His set-apart prophets since of old.

Verse 25. ‘When your brother becomes poor, and has sold some of his possession, and his redeemer, a close relative comes to redeem it, and then he shall redeem what his brother sold.

We can read in the book of Ruth: Read (Ruth 4:1 - 16) Boaz redeem the Land of a relative.

We know that Ruth a Moabite woman became the vessel through whom King David will come and later our Master יהושע according to the seed.

Ruth a pagan woman was married to Mahlom the son of Elimelek a Yehudin from Beth Lechem. When her husband died, instead to do like the other Moabite woman who departed to go back to her kinsmen, she staid with her mother in law and followed her back to her country (Israel). What is amazing is that יהוה in His own purpose and wisdom “overlooked” the fact that Ruth was a Moabite and looked at her heart:

Rth 1:16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you, or to go back from following after you. For wherever you go, I go; and wherever you stop over, I stop over. Your people is my people, and your Elohim is my Elohim

What does Kefa says:

Act 10:34 Then^G1161 Peter^G4074 opened^G455 his mouth,^G4750 and said,^G2036 Of^G1909 a truth^G225 I perceive^G2638 that^G3754 Elohim^G2316 is^G2076 no^G3756 respecter of persons:^G4381

Act 10:35 But^G235 in^G1722 every^G3956 nation^G1484 he that feareth^G5399 him,^G846 and^G2532 worketh^G2038 righteousness,^G1343 is^G2076 accepted^G1184 with him.^G846

Verse 39…………..do not make him serve as a slave

Read the book of Philemon in the Brit Chadasha for Onesimus who passed from slave to man as slave in Messiah יהושע and who came back to his owner:

We read in Vincent word’s study:

The name is withheld until Paul has favorably disposed Philemon to his request. The word means helpful, and it was a common name for slaves. The same idea was expressed by other names, as Chresimus, Chrestus (useful); Onesiphorus (profit-bringer, 2Ti_1:16); Symphorus (suitable). Onesimus was a runaway Phrygian slave, who had committed some crime and therefore had fled from his master and hidden himself in Rome. Under Roman law the slave was a chattel. Varro classified slaves among implements, which he classifies as vocalia, articulate speaking implements, as slaves; semivocalia, having a voice but not articulating, as oxen; muta, dumb, as wagons. The attitude of the law toward the slave was expressed in the formula servile caput nullum jus habet; the slave has no right. The master's power was unlimited. He might mutilate, torture, or kill the slave at his pleasure. Pollio, in the time of Augustus, ordered a slave to be thrown into a pond of voracious lampreys (fishes). Augustus interfered, but afterward ordered a slave of his own to be crucified on the mast of a ship for eating a favorite quail. Juvenal describes a profligate woman ordering a slave to be crucified. Some one remonstrates. She replies: “So then a slave is a man, is he! 'He has done nothing,' you say. Granted. I command it. Let my pleasure stand for a reason” (vi., 219). Martial records an instance of a master cutting out a slave's tongue. The old Roman legislation imposed death for killing a plough-ox; but the murderer of a slave was not called to account. Tracking fugitive slaves was a trade. Recovered slaves were branded on the forehead, condemned to double labor, and sometimes thrown to the beasts in the amphitheater. The slave population was enormous. Some proprietors had as many as twenty thousand.

Phm 1:15 for he parted from you for a while, possibly because of this, so that you might have him back forever,

Phm 1:16 no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother, especially to me, and how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Master.

Phm 1:17 so, if you regard me as your partner, receive him as you would me.

Phm 1:18 But if he has wronged you or owes you whatever, put that on my account.

Phm 1:19 I, Sha’ul, wrote with my own hand. I shall repay – not to mention to you that you indeed owe yourself to me also.

1Co 12:13 for indeed by one Spirit we were all immersed into one body, whether Yehuḏim or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink into one Spirit

Gal 3:27 for as many of you as were immersed into Messiah have put on Messiah.

Gal 3:28 There is no Yehuḏite nor Greek, there is not slave nor free, there is not male and female, for you are all one in Messiah יהושע.

Slave or servant used in these few example is Strong’s#G1401 doulos doo'-los

From G1210; a slave (literally or figuratively, involuntarily or voluntarily; frequently therefore in a qualified sense of subjection or subserviency): - bond (-man), servant.

Col 3:10 and have put on the new one who is renewed in knowledge according to the likeness of Him who created him,

Col 3:11 where there is not Greek and Yehuḏite, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, Scythian, slave, free, but Messiah is all, and in all.

Verse 42. For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim, they are not sold as slaves

The Children of Israel (carnal man) were already bought from slavery to freedom by יהוה. Slave were of lower value and therefore יהוה didn’t wanted His people been considered as slave.

Lev 25:1 And יהוה spoke to Mosheh on Mount Sinai, saying....hall be released in the Year of Jubilee, he and his children with him.

Lev 25:55 ‘Because the children of Yisra’ĕl are servants to Me, they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim. I am יהוה your Elohim.

1. Chapter 26.

After having given the rules of the Shabbat of the land and of the Yovel of release, יהוה (Yehovah) remind His people that they don’t have to make idols, carved image and pillars and statues of stone.

Centuries later, the children of Israel, both the House of Israel (Ephraim) and the House of Yehuda will both falls into idolatry following the way of the heathen nations

The first step to guard יהוה’s commands is to keep the Shabbat, written here in the plural form.

Lev 26:1  ‘Do not make idols for yourselves, and do not set up a carved image or a pillar for yourselves, and do not place a stone image in your land, to bow down to it. For I am יהוה your Elohim.

Lev 26:2 ‘Guard My Sabbaths and reverence My set-apart place. I am יהוה.

The Hebrew word for “guard” or “keep” is the word:

H8104

שׁמר shâmar shaw-mar'

A primitive root; properly to hedge about (as with thorns), that is, guard; generally to protect, attend to, etc.: - beware, be circumspect, take heed (to self), keep (-er, self), mark, look narrowly, observe, preserve, regard, reserve, save (self), sure, (that lay) wait (for), watch (-man).

Haftorah

The prophet Yrmeyahu give the example, buying the field of his uncle, using his right of redemption.

Yrmeyahu was sent to be a vessel for יהוה against the crookedness of the children of Israel which pushed יהוה to turn over the land of Israel to the Chaldean in order to chastise His children.

My question is: How it is today when we see the Palestinians, taking more and more place in Eretz Israel? Many ask to pray to Elohim to deliver our brethren from the Palestinian oppression, but few ask to pray for repentance from sin!

What is the reason why יהוה gave the land over to the Chaldeans, may be this will help to understand today’s situation?

Read verses 23-24

Jer 32:6 And Yirmeyahu said, “The word of יהוה came to me, saying...

Jer 32:26 Then the word of יהוה came to Yirmeyahu, saying,

Jer 32:27 “See, I am יהוה, the Elohim of all flesh. Is there any matter too hard for Me?”

Luk 4:16 And He came to Natsareth, where He had been brought up. And according to His practice, He went into the congregation on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.

Luk 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Yeshayahu was handed to Him. And having unrolled the scroll, He found the place where it was written:

Luk 4:18 “The Spirit of יהוה is upon Me,¹ because He has anointed Me to bring the Good News to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send away crushed ones with a release, Footnote: ¹Isa. 61:1-3.

Luk 4:19 to proclaim the acceptable year of יהוה.”¹ Footnote: ¹Isa. 61:1-2.

Luk 4:20 and having rolled up the scroll, He gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the congregation were fixed upon Him.

Luk 4:21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been filled in your hearing.”

Parsha B’chukotai – In my Instruction

The second part of this two-fold “Parasha” give us a deep understanding concerning the consequences of rebellion against יהוה right ruling and commandments.

The first two verses show the condition: If and then, to keep the statutes and guard the commands is the way to get יהוה’s protection from the enemy and provision for our daily life.

What can we say for us today in our daily life, for those who are in Messiah יהושע?

The battle is spiritual:

Eph 6:11 Put on the complete armour of Elohim, for you to have power to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Eph 6:12 because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual matters of wickedness in the heavenlies.

Jas 4:7 so then subject yourselves to Elohim. Resist the devil¹ and he shall flee from you. Footnote: ¹Or adversary.

Jas 4:8 draw near to Elohim and He shall draw near to you. Cleanse hands, sinners. And cleanse the hearts, you double-minded!

1Pe 1:22 Now that you have cleansed your lives in obeying the truth through the Spirit

The truth (read Yochanan 17:17, Psalm 119: 142, 151, 160)

There are great promises, but if the Children of Israel, our forefathers reject the truth and turn to wickedness, יהוה make promise to punish them for breaking the covenant. What does this mean and what are the consequences?

            ●wasting disease

            ●inflammation, destroying the eyes

            ●you shall sow your seed in vain

            ●you shall be smitten before your enemies

            ●those who hate you shall rule over you

            ●you shall flee when no one pursues you.

And if they still remain stubborn:

            ● then I shall punish you seven times more for your sins.

And if they still keep going their own way in spite of punishment?

            ● I shall bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins

            ●send wild beasts among you (euphemism for cruel adversary)

            ●I shall send pestilence among you,

            ●you shall be given into the hand of the enemy.

●I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

            ●you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and eat the flesh of your daughters.(see the excerpt from Josephus “War of the Jews”, below)

●And I shall destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. And My being shall loathe you.

●I shall turn your cities into ruins (Jerusalem was completely destroyed by Caesar Titus in the year 69-70 C.E, only few tower and the west wall was left as reminder of what Titus and his army did to the “Jews”, doing יהוה’s will against His people.

●I shall lay the land waste, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

            I shall scatter you among the gentiles

The land enjoys its Sabbaths as long as it lays waste and you are in your enemies’ land. Then the land would rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

The House of Yehuda was punished a first time when יהוה according to the word of the prophet Yrmeyahu, send them to Babylon for seventy years for not keeping the Shabbat of the Land during 490 years. (70 X 7=490)

Dan 9:2 in the first year of his reign I, Dani’ĕl, observed from the Scriptures the number of the years, according to the word of יהוה given to Yirmeyah the prophet, for the completion of the wastes of Yerushalayim would be seventy years.

Chapter four, the prophet Yechezk’el was commanded of יהוה to set himself before the Children of Israel to announce their rebellion:

Eze 4:4 “And lie on your left side, and you shall put the crookedness of the house of Yisra’ĕl on it. As many days as you lie on it, you shall bear their crookedness.

Eze 4:5 “For I Myself have laid on you the years of their crookedness, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days. And you shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yisra’ĕl. (One year = one day)

This was to come to the House of Israel years according to the number of days, so it became 390 days it should become 390 years. The left side is the side of judgment in the “Tree of life”.

Remember that יהוה promised that if in spite of it, if they don’t listen and change their ways, he will punish them seven times more (Vayiqra/Lev. 26:18,21,24,28)

The house of Israel, Ephraim was banished or scattered among the nations (gentiles) in 721 B.C.E.

Let us make a short calculation: 390 years were the initial punishment, and seven times more for not turning back, thus we count three hundred ninety years time seven and we get Two thousand seven hundred and thirty years punishment (2730).

The punishment started in the year 721B.C.E. when יהוה sent His people to the Assyrian from where they will be later scattered in the four winds, to the end of the world.

2730 year add to the -721 before common area we have the year 2009 (1981 in the Lunar calendar), meaning that the punishment for the House of Israel, Ephraim will come an end in the year 2009 (1981) our time. I know some scholars have counted it another way and there are some small differences. We are now in the time of refreshing, in our relationship to our heavenly Father.

Yrmeyahu spoke of another punishment for the House of Yehuda which has been overlooked by many scholars:

Eze 4:6 “And when you have completed them, you shall lie again on your right side and shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yehuḏah forty days, a day for a year. I have laid on you a day for a year.

Eze 4:7 “Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Yerushalayim, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it.

When was this period to come?

I will show you something and prove it by the word of the historian “Josephus”.

When Messiah יהושע came, the Yehudin rejected him, even if many among them received him as the promised messiah.

Act 3:17 “And now, brothers, I know that you did it in ignorance, as your rulers did too.

Act 3:18 “But this is how Elohim has filled what He had announced beforehand through the mouth of all the prophets, that His Messiah was to suffer.

Act 3:19 “Repent therefore and turn back, for the blotting out of your sins, in order that times of refreshing might come from the presence of the Master,

Act 3:20 and that He sends יהושע Messiah, pre-appointed for you,

Kefa/Peter is saying that if they (the Yehudin) repent and turn back to the Torah, accepting יהושע, יהוה will send back יהושע messiah. Do you remember what we read in the Parasha?

Lev 26:29 ‘And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and eat the flesh of your daughters....

Lev 26:31 ‘and I shall turn your cities into ruins and lay your set-apart places waste

The set apart place is the Temple in Yerushalayim.

Messiah says to the Yehudin:

Joh 8:21 Therefore יהושע said to them again, “I am going away, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin. Where I go you are unable to come.”

Sin is here singular, the sin for having rejected the one sent of Elohim!

יהושע died on the stake at the age of 33, during Pesach. In  order to have fulfilled the first part of his coming for three and half years, יהושע must have started his ministry during the seventh month at Yom Kippur and died on the stake three and half years later during the month of Pesach on the 14^th of Aviv.

Now remember that יהוה commanded Yechezk’el to lie on the side for 40 days as a sign that:

Eze 4:6 “And when you have completed them, you shall lie again on your right side and shall bear the crookedness of the house of Yehuḏah forty days, a day for a year. I have laid on you a day for a year.

Eze 4:7 “Then you shall set your face toward the siege of Yerushalayim, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against it.

We have seen that the punishment for rebellion given in the book of Vayiqra/Lev. should be: To eat the flesh of sons and daughters, and the city shall become a ruin. With this in mind we can read what the historian Yosephus wrote: From the books Wars of the Jews Book 5-6 Thought it is a bit long I encourage you to read these excerpts in order to see that יהוה fulfilled His word perfectly at the right time and that if there are some mistake it is on our part and not יהוה.

Hab 2:2 and יהוה answered me and said, “Write the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that he who reads it runs.

Hab 2:3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, and it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it lingers, wait for it, for it shall certainly come, it shall not delay.

The prophet Habakkuk spoke from the chastisement of Yehuda through the Chaldeans. What I want us to see is that when יהוה speak a vision for an appointed time it will come to pass in the time it has been appointed for and will come to pass.

Vision in Hebrew is the word: Strong’s #H2377 חזון châzôn khaw-zone'

From H2372; a sight (mentally), that is, a dream, revelation, or oracle: - vision

What happened after Messiah יהושע departure is the fulfilment of prophecy spoken of יהוה many centuries before starting with Moshe according to Vayiqra/Lev. chapter 26:14-39.

Josephus: “War of the Jews” Book 5-6, excerpt (this happened in the year 69-70C.E, 40 years after יהושע went back to the Father:

1. WHEN therefore Titus had marched over that desert which lies between Egypt and Syria, in the manner forementioned, he came to Cesarea, having resolved to set his forces in order at that place, before he began the war. Nay, indeed, while he was assisting his father at Alexandria, in settling that government which had been newly conferred upon them by God, it so happened that the sedition at Jerusalem was revived,

Now Titus, according to the Roman usage, went in the front of the army after a decent manner, and marched through Samaria to Gophna, a city that had been formerly taken by his father (Vespasian), and was then garrisoned by Roman soldiers; and when he had lodged there one night, he marched on in the morning; and when he had gone as far as a day's march, he pitched his camp at that valley which the Jews, in their own tongue, call "the Valley of Thorns," near a certain village called Gabaothsath, which signifies "the Hill of Saul," being distant from Jerusalem about thirty furlongs. (6) There it was that he chose out six hundred select horsemen, and went to take a view of the city, to observe what strength it was of, and how courageous the Jews were; whether, when they saw him, and before they came to a direct battle, they would be affrighted and submit; for he had been informed what was really true, that the people who were fallen under the power of the seditious and the robbers were greatly desirous of peace; but being too weak to rise up against the rest, they lay still.

The Jews became still more and more in number, as encouraged by the good success of those that first made the attack; and while they had such good fortune, they seemed both to themselves and to the enemy to be many more than they really were. The disorderly way of their fighting at first put the Romans also to a stand, who had been constantly used to fight skilfully in good order, and with keeping their ranks, and obeying the orders that were given them; for which reason the Romans were caught unexpectedly, and were obliged to give way to the assaults that were made upon them. Now when these Romans were overtaken, and turned back upon the Jews, they put a stop to their career; yet when they did not take care enough of themselves through the vehemence of their pursuit, they were wounded by them; but as still more and more Jews sallied (sudden attack) out of the city, the Romans were at length brought into confusion, and put to fight, and ran away from their camp.

1. AS now the war abroad ceased for a while, the sedition within was revived; and on the feast of unleavened bread, which was now come, it being the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when it is believed the Jews were first freed from the Egyptians, Eleazar and his party opened the gates of this [inmost court of the] temple, and admitted such of the people as were desirous to worship God into it. (9) But John (a zealot) made use of this festival as a cloak for his treacherous designs, and armed the most inconsiderable of his own party, the greater part of whom were not purified, with weapons concealed under their garments, and sent them with great zeal into the temple, in order to seize upon it; which armed men, when they were gotten in, threw their garments away, and presently appeared in their armor.

NOTES:

9) Here we see the true occasion of those vast numbers of Jews that were in Jerusalem during this siege by Titus, and perished therein; that the siege began at the feast of the Passover, when such prodigious multitudes of Jews and proselytes of the gate were come from all parts of Judea, and from other countries, in order to celebrate that great festival. See the note B. VI. ch. 9. sect. 3. Tacitus himself informs us, that the number of men, women, and children in Jerusalem, when it was besieged by the Romans, as he had been informed. This information must have been taken from the Romans: for Josephus never recounts the numbers of those that were besieged, only he lets us know, that of the vulgar, carried dead out of the gates, and buried at the public charges, was the like number of 600,000, ch. viii. sect.7. However, when Cestius Gallus came first to the siege, that sum in Tacitus is no way disagreeable to Josephus's history, though they were become much more numerous when Titus encompassed the city at the passover. As to the number that perished during this siege, Josephus assures us, as we shall see hereafter, they were 1,100,000,(1million and One hundred thousand) besides 97,000 captives. But Tacitus's history of the last part of this siege is not now extant; so we cannot compare his parallel numbers with those of Josephus.

3. And now Titus pitched his camp within the city, at that place which was called "the Camp of the Assyrians," having seized upon all that lay as far as Cedron, but took care to be out of the reach of the Jews' darts. He then presently began his attacks, upon which the Jews divided themselves into several bodies, and courageously defended that wall; while John and his faction did it from the tower of Antonia, and from the northern cloister of the temple, and fought the Romans before the monuments of king Alexander; and Sireoh's army also took for their share the spot of ground that was near John's monument, and fortified it as far as to that gate where water was brought in to the tower Hippicus. However, the Jews made……….

1. AS Josephus was speaking thus with a loud voice, the seditious would neither yield to what he said, nor did they deem it safe for them to alter their conduct; but as for the people, they had a great inclination to desert to the Romans; accordingly, some of them sold what they had, and even the most precious things that had been laid up as treasures by them, for every small matter, and swallowed down pieces of gold, that they might not be found out by the robbers; and when they had escaped to the Romans, went to stool, and had wherewithal to provide plentifully for themselves; for Titus let a great number of them go away into the country, whither they pleased. And the main reasons why they were so ready to desert were these: That now they should be freed from those miseries which they had endured in that city, and yet should not be in slavery to the Romans: however, John and Simon, with their factions, did more carefully watch these men's going out than they did the coming in of the Romans; and if any one did but afford the least shadow of suspicion of such an intention, his throat was cut immediately.

The madness of the seditious did also increase together with their famine, and both those miseries were every day inflamed more and more; for there was no corn which any where appeared publicly, but the robbers came running into, and searched men's private houses; and then, if they found any, they tormented them, because they had denied they had any; and if they found none, they tormented them worse, because they supposed they had more carefully concealed it. The indication they made use of whether they had any or not was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches; which, if they were in good case, they supposed they were in no want at all of food; but if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching any further; nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because they saw they would very soon die of themselves for want of food. Many there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure; it was of wheat, if they were of the richer sort; but of barley, if they were poorer. When these had so done, they shut themselves up in the inmost rooms of their houses, and ate the corn they had gotten; some did it without grinding it, by reason of the extremity of the want they were in, and others baked bread of it, according as necessity and fear dictated to them: a table was no where laid for a distinct meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and ate it very hastily………..

3. It was now a miserable case, and a sight that would justly bring tears into our eyes, how men stood as to their food, while the more powerful had more than enough, and the weaker were lamenting [for want of it.] But the famine was too hard for all other passions, and it is destructive to nothing so much as to modesty; for what was otherwise worthy of reverence was in this case despised; insomuch that children pulled the very morsels that their fathers were eating out of their very mouths, and what was still more to be pitied, so did the mothers do as to their infants; and when those that were most dear were perishing under their hands, they were not ashamed to take from them the very last drops that might preserve their lives: and while they ate after this manner, yet were they not concealed in so doing; but the seditious every where came upon them immediately, and snatched away from them what they had gotten from others; for when they saw any house shut up, this was to them a signal that the people within had gotten some food; whereupon they broke open the doors, and ran in, and took pieces of what they were eating almost up out of their very throats, and this by force: the old men, who held their food fast, were beaten; and if the women hid what they had within their hands, their hair was torn for so doing; nor was there any commiseration shown either to the aged or to the infants, but they lifted up children from the ground as they hung upon the morsels they had gotten, and shook them down upon the floor……

They were more barbarously cruel to those that had prevented their coming in, and had actually swallowed down what they were going to seize upon, as if they had been unjustly defrauded of their right. They also invented terrible methods of torments to discover where any food was, and they were these to stop up the passages of the privy parts of the miserable wretches, and to drive sharp stakes up their fundaments; and a man was forced to bear what it is terrible even to hear, in order to make him confess that he had but one loaf of bread, or that he might discover a handful of barley-meal that was concealed; and this was done when these tormentors were not themselves hungry………………

They confessed what was true, that they were the slaves, the scum, and the spurious and abortive offspring of our nation, while they overthrew the city themselves, and forced the Romans, whether they would or no, to gain a melancholy reputation, by acting gloriously against them, and did almost draw that fire upon the temple, which they seemed to think came too slowly; and indeed when they saw that temple burning from the upper city, they were neither troubled at it, nor did they shed any tears on that account, while yet these passions were discovered among the Romans themselves; which circumstances we shall speak of hereafter in their proper place, when we come to treat of such matters……….

when they were going to be taken, they were forced to defend themselves for fear of being punished; as after they had fought, they thought it too late to make any supplications for mercy; so they were first whipped, and then tormented with all sorts of tortures, before they died, and were then crucified before the wall of the city. This miserable procedure made Titus greatly to pity them, while they caught every day five hundred Jews; nay, some days they caught more: yet it did not appear to be safe for him to let those that were taken by force go their way, and to set a guard over so many he saw would be to make such as great deal them useless to him. The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment. So the soldiers, out of the wrath and hatred they bore the Jews, nailed those they caught, one after one way, and another after another, to the crosses, by way of jest, when their multitude was so great, that room was wanting for the crosses, and crosses wanting for the bodies……………..

3. So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its progress, and devoured the people by whole houses and families; the upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine, and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged; the children also and the young men wandered about the market-places like shadows, all swelled with the famine, and fell down dead, wheresoever their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it; and those that were hearty and well were deterred from doing it by the great multitude of those dead bodies, and by the uncertainty there was how soon they should die themselves; for many died as they were burying others, and many went to their coffins before that fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentations made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints; but the famine confounded all natural passions; for those who were just going to die looked upon those that were gone to rest before them with dry eyes and open mouths. A deep silence also, and a kind of deadly night, had seized upon the city; while yet the robbers were still more terrible than these miseries were themselves; for they brake open those houses which were no other than graves of dead bodies, and plundered them of what they had; and carrying off the coverings of their bodies, went out laughing, and tried the points of their swords in their dead bodies; and, in order to prove what metal they were made of they thrust some of those through that still lay alive upon the ground; but for those that entreated them to lend them their right hand and their sword to despatch them, they were too proud to grant their requests, and left them to be consumed by the famine……………………

. However, when Titus, in going his rounds along those valleys, saw them full of dead bodies, and the thick putrefaction running about them, he gave a groan; and, spreading out his hands to heaven, called God to witness that this was not his doing; and such was the sad case of the city itself……………

These Romans besides had great plenty of corn and other necessaries out of Syria, and out of the neighbouring provinces; many of whom would stand near to the wall of the city, and show the people what great quantities of provisions they had, and so make the enemy more sensible of their famine, by the great plenty, even to satiety, which they had themselves…….

After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead, and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; and they told him further, that when they were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was not possible to gather herbs, by reason the city was all walled about, some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dunghills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there; and what they of old could not endure so much as to see they now used for food. When the Romans barely heard all this, they commiserated their case; while the seditious, who saw it also, did not repent, but suffered the same distress to come upon themselves; for they were blinded by that fate which was already coming upon the city, and upon themselves also………

1. THUS did the miseries of Jerusalem grow worse and worse every day, and the seditious were still more irritated by the calamities they were under, even while the famine preyed upon themselves, after it had preyed upon the people. And indeed the multitudes of carcasses that lay in heaps one upon another was a horrible sight, and produced a pestilential stench, which was a hindrance to those that would make sallies out of the city, and fight the enemy:

And let my first argument to move you to it be taken from what probably some would think reasonable to dissuade you, I mean the constancy and patience of these Jews, even under their ill successes; for it is unbecoming you, who are Romans and my soldiers, who have in peace been taught how to make wars, and who have also been used to conquer in those wars, to be inferior to Jews, either in action of the hand, or in courage of the soul, and this especially when you are at the conclusion of your victory, and are assisted by God himself; for as to our misfortunes, they have been owing to the madness of the Jews, while their sufferings have been owing to your valor, and to the assistance God hath afforded you; for as to the seditions they have been in, and the famine they are under, and the siege they now endure, and the fall of their walls without our engines, what can they all be but demonstrations of God's anger against them (read again Vayyiqra 26:14-32), and of his assistance afforded us?........

For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, (8) and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions."……

1. AND now Titus gave orders to his soldiers that were with him to dig up the foundations of the tower of Antonia, and make him a ready passage for his army to come up; while he himself had Josephus brought to him, (for he had been informed that on that very day, which was the seventeenth day (5) of Panemus, [Tamuz,] the sacrifice called "the Daily Sacrifice" had failed, and had not been offered to God, for want of men to offer it, and that the people were grievously troubled at it,) and commanded him to say the same things to…….

Note:

5) This was a remarkable day indeed, the seventeenth of Paneruns. [Tamuz,] A.D. 70, when, according to Daniel's prediction, six hundred and six years before, the Romans "in half a week caused the sacrifice and oblation to cease," Dan_9:27. For from the month of February, A.D. 66, about which time Vespasian entered on this war, to this very time, was just three years and a half. See Bishop Lloyd's Tables of Chronology, published by Mr. Marshall, on this year. Nor is it to be omitted, what year nearly confirms this duration of the war, that four years before the war begun was somewhat above seven years five months before the destruction of Jerusalem, ch. 5. sect. 3.

Upon this Josephus stood in such a place where he might be heard, not by John only, but by many more, and then declared to them what Caesar had given him in charge, and this in the Hebrew language. (6) So he earnestly prayed them to spare their own city, and to prevent that fire which was just ready to seize upon the temple, and to offer their usual sacrifices to God therein……

Note:

(6) The same that in the New Testament is always so called, and was then the common language of the Jews in Judea, which was the Syriac dialect.

Thou hast indignation at me again, and makest a clamor at me, and reproachest me; indeed I cannot deny but I am worthy of worse treatment than all this amounts to, because, in opposition to fate, I make this kind invitation to thee, and endeavor to force deliverance upon those whom God hath condemned. And who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them, - and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, (8) and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollutions."

Note:

(8) Of this oracle, see the note on B. IV. ch. 6. sect. 3. Josephus, both here and in many places elsewhere, speaks so, that it is most evident he was fully satisfied that God was on the Romans' side, and made use of them now for the destruction of that wicked nation of the Jews; which was for certain the true state of this matter, as the prophet Daniel first, and our Saviour himself afterwards, had clearly foretold. See Lit. Accompl. of Proph. p. 64, etc.

Moreover, their hunger was so intolerable, that it obliged them to chew every thing, while they gathered such things as the most sordid animals would not touch, and endured to eat them; nor did they at length abstain from girdles and shoes; and the very leather which belonged to their shields they pulled off and gnawed: the very wisps of old hay became food to some; and some gathered up fibres, and sold a very small weight of them for four Attic [drachmae]. But why do I describe the shameless impudence that the famine brought on men in their eating inanimate things, while I am going to relate a matter of fact, the like to which no history relates, (15) either among the Greeks or Barbarians? It is horrible to speak of it, and incredible when heard. I had indeed willingly omitted this calamity of ours, that I might not seem to deliver what is so portentous to posterity, but that I have innumerable witnesses to it in my own age; and besides, my country would have had little reason to thank me for suppressing the miseries that she underwent at this time………

4. There was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezob, which signifies the house of Hyssop. She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time. The other effects of this woman had been already seized upon, such I mean as she had brought with her out of Perea, and removed to the city. What she had treasured up besides, as also what food she had contrived to save, had been also carried off by the rapacious guards,………….

She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a by-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews." As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and eat the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed………

upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, "This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also." After which those men went out trembling, being never so much aftrighted at any thing as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while every body laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries.

5. This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom could not believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, he excused himself before God as to this matter, and said that he had proposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of all their former insolent practices; but that they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and before satiety and abundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore they deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon the habitable earth to be seen by the sun, wherein mothers are thus fed,

But when Titus perceived that his endeavours to spare a foreign temple turned to the damage of his soldiers, and then be killed, he gave order to set the gates on fire……..

But as for that house, God had, for certain, long ago doomed it to the fire; and now that fatal day was come, according to the revolution of ages; it was the tenth day of the month Lous, [Ab,] upon which it was formerly burnt by the king of Babylon; although these flames took their rise from the Jews themselves, and were occasioned by them; for upon Titus's retiring, the seditious lay still for a little while, and then attacked the Romans again, when those that guarded the holy house fought with those that quenched the fire that was burning the inner [court of the] temple; but these Romans put the Jews to flight, and proceeded as far as the holy house itself. At which time one of the soldiers, without staying for any orders, and without any concern or dread upon him at so great an undertaking, and being hurried on by a certain divine fury, snatched somewhat out of the materials that were on fire, and being lifted up by another soldier, he set fire to a golden window, through which there was a passage to the rooms that were round about the holy house, on the north side of it. As the flames went upward, the Jews made a great clamor, such as so mighty an affliction required, and ran together to prevent it; and now they spared not their lives any longer, nor suffered any thing to restrain their force, since that holy house was perishing, for whose sake it was that they kept such a guard about it.

Moreover, the hope of plunder induced many to go on, as having this opinion, that all the places within were full of money, and as seeing that all round about it was made of gold. And besides, one of those that went into the place prevented Caesar, when he ran so hastily out to restrain the soldiers, and threw the fire upon the hinges of the gate, in the dark; whereby the flame burst out from within the holy house itself immediately, when the commanders retired, and Caesar with them, and when nobody any longer forbade those that were without to set fire to it. And thus was the holy house burnt down, without Caesar's approbation……..

Now the number of years that passed from its first foundation, which was laid by king Solomon, till this its destruction, which happened in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, are collected to be one thousand one hundred and thirty (1130), besides seven months and fifteen days; and from the second building of it, which was done by Haggai, in the second year of Cyrus the king, till its destruction under Vespasian, there were six hundred and thirty-nine years and forty-five days.

2. And now the Romans, judging that it was in vain to spare what was round about the holy house, burnt all those places, as also the remains of the cloisters and the gates, two excepted; the one on the east side, and the other on the south; both which, however, they burnt afterward. They also burnt down the treasury chambers, in which was an immense quantity of money, and an immense number of garments, and other precious goods there reposited; and, to speak all in a few words, there it was that the entire riches of the Jews were heaped up together, while the rich people had there built themselves chambers [to contain such furniture]………

Thus also before the Jews' rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eighth day of the month Xanthicus, (21) [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day time; which lasted for half an hour. This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskillful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes, as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it. At the same festival also, a heifer, as she was led by the high priest to be sacrificed, brought forth a lamb in the midst of the temple. Moreover, the eastern gate of the inner (22) [court of the] temple, which was of brass, and vastly heavy, and had been with difficulty shut by twenty men, and rested upon a basis armed with iron, and had bolts fastened very deep into the firm floor, which was there made of one entire stone, was seen to be opened of its own accord about the sixth hour of the night……….

They were all received by the Romans, because Titus himself grew negligent as to his former orders for killing them, and because the very soldiers grew weary of killing them, and because they hoped to get some money by sparing them; for they left only the populace, and sold the rest of the multitude, (28) with their wives and children, and every one of them at a very low price, and that because such as were sold were very many, and the buyers were few: and although Titus had made proclamation beforehand, that no deserter should come alone by himself, that so they might bring out their families with them, yet did he receive such as these also. However, he set over them such as were to distinguish some from others, in order to see if any of them deserved to be punished. And indeed the number of those that were sold was immense; but of the populace above forty thousand were saved, whom Caesar let go whither every one of them pleased.

Note:

28) This innumerable multitude of Jews that were "sold" by the Romans was an eminent completion of God's ancient threatening by Moses, that if they apostatized from the obedience to his laws, they should be "sold unto their enemies for bond- men and bond-women," Deu_28:68. See more especially the note on ch. 9. sect. 2. But one thing is here peculiarly remarkable, that Moses adds, Though they should be "sold" for slaves, yet "no man should buy them;" i.e. either they should have none to redeem them from this sale into slavery; or rather, that the slaves to be sold should be more than were the purchasers for them, and so they should be sold for little or nothing; which is what Josephus here affirms to have been the case at this time.

THAT WHEREAS THE CITY OF JERUSALEM HAD BEEN FIVE TIMES TAKEN FORMERLY, THIS WAS THE SECOND TIME OF ITS DESOLATION. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF ITS HISTORY.

1. AND thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul the sixth month before Etanim]. It had been taken five (34) times before, though this was the second time of its desolation; for Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but before all these, the king of Babylon conquered it, and made it desolate, one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and six months after it was built. But he who first built it. Was a potent man among the Canaanites (himself was not a Canaanite) , and is in our own tongue called [Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple [there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem. However, David, the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and set-tied his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years (1179); but from its first building, till this last destruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years (2177); yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem.

Do you remember what יהושע told his disciples?

Mat 24:1 and going out, יהושע went away from the Set-apart Place (Temple), and His taught ones came near to point out to Him the buildings of the Set-apart Place.(Temple)

Mat 24:2 and יהושע said to them, “Do you not see all these? Truly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, at all, which shall not be thrown down.”

This prophecy was fulfilled 40 Years after יהושע departure according to Yechezk’el 4:6-7

Eze 4:6 and when thou hast accomplished them lie again on thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: I have appointed thee each day for a year.

Eze 4:7 Therefore thou shalt set thy face toward the siege of Jerusalem, and thine arm shall be uncovered, and thou shalt prophesy against it.

What can we say then? I have heard many people judging the accuracy of יהוה’s word, but here we have the proof that what Moshe, the prophets or Messiah יהושע spoke, was perfectly fulfilled:

Mat 5:18 “For truly, I say to you, till the heaven and the earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the Torah till all be done.

Luk 16:17 “And it is easier for the heaven and the earth to pass away than for one tittle of the Torah to fall.

The prophecy and understanding must be revised because according to Josephus’s proof concerning the destruction of the Temple and Yerushalayim the vision concerning the last week was completely fulfil in the year 70C.E.

The first part was fulfilled when יהוה entered his ministry for three an half year. The last part of the week (seven years) was accomplished by Titus from the midst of Year 66 to the year 70CE.

For those waiting now for the last seven years, when the “Anti-Christ” shall appear; they should read the work from Josephus before making a conclusion. I know that it is also written: “what has been, it is what will be… Eccl.)

יהושע do not speak of one remaining week in his prophecy:

Mat 24:2 and יהושע said to them, “Do you not see all these? Truly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another, at all, which shall not be thrown down.”

Mat 24:3 and as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the taught ones came to Him separately, saying, “Say to us, when shall this be, and what is the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

In this chapter, יהושע told his disciples first of the destruction of the Temple, this was fulfilled in 70C.E as we read from Josephus, after that, the disciples asked him concerning the sign of His coming and of the end of the age. So the all chapter is divided in two different period of time. Let the reader be careful when reading and not putting all in the same period of time.

יהושע give the premises of what will be before his second coming and the time of the end of the age.

The first part: The destruction of the Temple and so the completion of one part of Daniel’s vision was completed in 70C.E, the last part the end of the age will be when Messiah will come back. I will give more details in the study of Daniel’s vision.

It is not said that history does not repeat itself, concerning the seventy’ weeks vision in Daniel’s book?

Dan 12:1 “Now at that time Miḵa’ĕl shall stand up, the great head who is standing over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress such as never was since there was a nation, until that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every one who is found written in the book,

Mat 24:21 “For then there shall be great distress, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.

In the first verse from Daniel chapter 12, the Hebrew word for “stand up” is the word “âmad” which can also means: “stand still”. If we consider the meaning to be “stand still” we will see what Shaul say:

2Th 2:7 for the secret of lawlessness is already at work – only until he who now restrains comes out of the midst.

The question is: Who is this “he”?

I have read many interpretation, Christians like to say that it is the “church” that will be “raptured” and then the lawless One will come. This of course is not true. Michael is the Archangel in charge of the protection of Israel, by “standing still” this will open a free way for the man of perdition to enter into the scene and do what he is appointed to do and Elohim judgment comes upon the earth. You may say, what happen with Yah’s people?

You should read Psalm 91 which is a psalm for the coming end days, and also what יהושע say to the Philadelphia Assembly:

Rev 3:10 “Because you have guarded My Word of endurance, I also shall guard you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the all world, to try those who dwell on the earth.

The word “Philadelphia” is a Greek word meaning: “Love as brethren” from two words: “Philos” and “adelphos”.

Do you remember what יהושע told his disciples in the book of Yochanan?

Joh 13:35 “By this shall all know that you are My taught ones (disciples/talmidin), if you have love for one another.”

Could this be valid for the Philadelphia Assembly during the last days?

Lev 26:3 ‘If you walk in My laws (chuqqah/Statutes) and guard My commands (mitzvoth), and shall do them,

Lev 26:4 then I shall give you rain in its season, and the land shall yield its crops, and the trees of the field yield their fruit.

Lev 26:5 ‘And your threshing shall last till the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last till the time of sowing. And you shall eat your bread until you have enough, and shall dwell in your land safely.

Lev 26:6 ‘And I shall give peace in the land, and you shall lie down and no one make you afraid. And I shall clear the land of evil beasts, and not let the sword go through your land.

Lev 26:7 ‘And you shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you.

Lev 26:8 ‘And five of you shall pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you pursue ten thousand. And your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.

Lev 26:9 ‘And I shall turn to you and make you bear fruit, and shall increase you, and shall establish My covenant with you.

Lev 26:10 ‘And you shall eat the old supply, and clear out the old because of the new.

Lev 26:11 ‘And I shall set My Dwelling Place in your midst, and My being shall not reject you.

Lev 26:12 ‘And I shall walk in your midst, and shall be your Elohim, and you shall be My people.

Lev 26:13 ‘I am יהוה your Elohim, who brought you out of the land of Mitsrayim, from being their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.

Lev 26:14 ‘But if you do not obey Me, and do not do all these commands,

Lev 26:15 and if you reject My laws, or if your being loathes My right-rulings, so that you do not do all My commands, but break My covenant,

Lev 26:16 I also do this to you: And I shall appoint sudden alarm over you, wasting disease and inflammation, destroying the eyes, and consuming the life. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Lev 26:17 ‘And I shall set My face against you, and you shall be smitten before your enemies. And those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you.

Lev 26:18 ‘And after all this, if you do not obey Me, then I shall punish you seven times more for your sins.

Lev 26:19 ‘And I shall break the pride of your power, and shall make your heavens like iron and your earth like bronze.

Lev 26:20 ‘And your strength shall be spent in vain and your land not yield its crops, nor the trees of the land yield their fruit.

Lev 26:21 ‘And if you walk contrary to Me, and refuse to obey Me, I shall bring on you seven times more plagues, according to your sins,

Lev 26:22 and send wild beasts among you, which shall bereave you of your children. And I shall cut off your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be deserted.

Lev 26:23 ‘And if you are not instructed by Me by these, but walk contrary to Me,

Lev 26:24 then I also shall walk contrary to you, and I Myself shall smite you seven times for your sins.

Lev 26:25 ‘And I shall bring against you a sword executing the vengeance of My covenant, and you shall gather together in your cities, and I shall send pestilence among you, and you shall be given into the hand of the enemy.

Lev 26:26 ‘When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

Lev 26:27 ‘And if in spite of this, you do not obey Me, but walk contrary to Me,

Lev 26:28 then I shall walk contrary to you in wrath. And I Myself shall punish you seven times for your sins.

Lev 26:29 ‘And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and eat the flesh of your daughters.

Lev 26:30 ‘And I shall destroy your high places, and cut down your sun-pillars, and put your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. And My being shall loathe you.

Lev 26:31 ‘And I shall turn your cities into ruins and lay your set-apart places waste, and not smell your sweet fragrances.

Lev 26:32 ‘And I shall lay the land waste, and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.

Lev 26:33 ‘And I shall scatter you among the gentiles (goy) and draw out a sword after you. And your land shall be desert and your cities ruins,

Lev 26:34 and the land enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies waste and you are in your enemies’ land. Then the land would rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.

Lev 26:35 ‘As long as it lies waste it rests, for the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it.

Lev 26:36 ‘And as for those of you who are left, I shall send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, and the sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee. And they shall flee as though retreating from a sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues.

Lev 26:37 ‘And they shall stumble over one another, as from before a sword, when no one pursues. And you shall be unable to stand before your enemies.

Lev 26:38 ‘And you shall perish among the gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up,

Lev 26:39 and those of you who are left rot away in their crookedness in your enemies’ lands, and also in their fathers’ crookednesses rot away with them.

Lev 26:40 ‘But if they confess their crookedness and the crookedness of their fathers, with their trespass in which they trespassed against Me, and that they also have walked contrary to Me,

Lev 26:41 and that I also have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies – if their uncircumcised heart is then humbled, and they accept the punishment of their crookedness,

Lev 26:42 then I shall remember My covenant with Yaʽaqoḇ, and also My covenant with Yitsḥaq, and also remember My covenant with Aḇraham, and remember the land.

Lev 26:43 ‘For the land was abandoned by them, and enjoying its Sabbaths while lying waste without them, and they were paying for their crookedness, because they rejected My right-rulings and because their being loathed My laws.

Lev 26:44 ‘And yet for all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I shall not reject them, nor shall I loathe them so as to destroy them and break My covenant with them. For I am יהוה their Elohim.

Lev 26:45 ‘Then I shall remember for their sake the covenant of the ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Mitsrayim before the eyes of the nations to be their Elohim. I am יהוה.’ ”

Lev 26:46 These are the laws and the right-rulings and the Torot¹ which יהוה made between Himself and the children of Yisra’ĕl on Mount Sinai by the hand of Mosheh. Footnote: ¹Torot - plural of Torah, teaching.

Lev 27:1  And יהוה spoke to Mosheh, saying,

Lev 27:2 “Speak to the children of Yisra’ĕl, and say to them, ‘When a man separates a vow, by your evaluation of lives unto יהוה,

Lev 27:3 when your evaluation is of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old, then your evaluation shall be fifty sheqels of silver, according to the sheqel of the set-apart place.

Lev 27:4 ‘And if it is a female, then your evaluation shall be thirty sheqels;

Lev 27:5 and if from five years old up to twenty years old, then your evaluation for a male shall be twenty sheqels, and for a female ten sheqels;

Lev 27:6 and if from a month old up to five years old, then your evaluation for a male shall be five sheqels of silver, and for a female your evaluation shall be three sheqels of silver;

Lev 27:7 and if from sixty years old and above, if it is a male, then your evaluation shall be fifteen sheqels, and for a female ten sheqels.

Lev 27:8 ‘But if he is too poor to pay your evaluation, then he shall present himself before the priest, and the priest shall set a value for him. According to the ability of him who vowed, the priest shall value him.

Lev 27:9 ‘And if it is a beast of which they bring an offering to יהוה, all such given to יהוה is set-apart.

Lev 27:10 ‘He is not to replace it or exchange it, good for spoilt or spoilt for good. And if he at all exchanges beast for beast, then both it and the one exchanged for it is set-apart.

Lev 27:11 ‘And if it is any unclean beast of which they do not bring an offering to יהוה, then he shall present the beast before the priest;

Lev 27:12 and the priest shall value it, whether it is good or spoilt. According to your evaluation, O priest, so it shall be.

Lev 27:13 ‘But if he indeed redeems it, then he shall add one-fifth to your evaluation.

Lev 27:14 ‘And when a man sets his house apart, to be set-apart to יהוה, then the priest shall value it, whether it is good or spoilt. As the priest values it, so it stands.

Lev 27:15 ‘And if he who sets it apart does redeem his house, then he shall add one-fifth of the silver of your evaluation to it, and it shall be his.

Lev 27:16 ‘And if a man sets apart to יהוה a field he owns, then your evaluation shall be according to the seed for it – a omer of barley seed at fifty sheqels of silver.

Lev 27:17 ‘If he sets his field apart from the Year of Jubilee, according to your evaluation it stands.

Lev 27:18 ‘But if he sets his field apart after the Jubilee, then the priest shall reckon to him the silver due according to the years that remain till the Year of Jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your evaluation.

Lev 27:19 ‘And if he who sets the field apart ever wishes to redeem it, then he shall add one-fifth of the silver of your evaluation to it, and it shall be his.

Lev 27:20 ‘And if he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it is no longer redeemed,

Lev 27:21 but the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, is set-apart to יהוה as a dedicated field, to be the possession of the priest.

Lev 27:22 ‘And if a man sets apart to יהוה a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession,

Lev 27:23 then the priest shall reckon to him the amount of your evaluation, up to the Year of Jubilee, and he shall give your evaluation on that day, set-apart to יהוה.

Lev 27:24 ‘In the Year of Jubilee the field returns to him from whom he bought it, to him whose is the possession of the land.

Lev 27:25 ‘And all your evaluations is to be according to the sheqel of the set-apart place: twenty gĕrahs to the sheqel.

Lev 27:26 ‘However, a first-born of the beasts, which is first-born to יהוה, no man sets it apart – whether bull or sheep, it belongs to יהוה.

Lev 27:27 ‘And if among the unclean beasts, then he shall ransom it according to your evaluation, and shall add one-fifth to it. And if it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your evaluation.

Lev 27:28 ‘However, whatever a man lays under ban for יהוה of all that he has, man and beast, or the field of his possession, is not sold or redeemed. Whatever is laid under ban is most set-apart to יהוה.

Lev 27:29 ‘No one under the ban, under the ban among men, is ransomed, but shall certainly be put to death.

Lev 27:30 ‘And all the tithe of the land – of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree – belongs to יהוה. It is set-apart to יהוה.

Lev 27:31 ‘If a man indeed redeems any of his tithes, he adds one-fifth to it.

Lev 27:32 ‘And the entire tithe of the herd and of the flock, all that passes under the rod, the tenth one is set-apart to יהוה.

Lev 27:33 ‘He does not inquire whether it is good or spoilt, nor does he exchange it. And if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it are set-apart, it is not redeemed.’ ”

Lev 27:34 These are the commands which יהוה commanded Mosheh for the children of Yisra’ĕl on Mount Sinai.

Haftorah

The hope for those who have been scattered to the end of the earth the day will come and has indeed come when men shall see and understand and therefore turn away from their false gods, to the living and only true Elohim  יהוה Zebaoth the Qadosh One of Israel.

Yrmeyahu 17:13 ………Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken יהוה, the fountain of living waters

We see something done by יהושע which is directly related to what the prophet is saying:

Joh 8:2 and at dawn He came again into the Set-apart Place, and all the people were coming to Him. And having sat down, He was teaching them.

Joh 8:3 and the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And having set her in the midst,

Joh 8:4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.

Joh 8:5 “And in the Torah Mosheh commanded us that such should be stoned. What then do You say?”

Joh 8:6 and this they said, trying Him, so that they might accuse Him. But יהושע, bending down, wrote on the ground with the finger, as though He did not hear.

Joh 8:7 But as they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

I know that some scholars say that this part of chapter 8 was not in earlier documents, nevertheless the writing on the ground from יהושע was directly related to the words from Yrmeyahu, pointing to the scribes and Pharisee who were seeking to proclaim their own righteousness, following their Oral Torah with their “takanots, gezerot and ma’asee” but indeed had only evil in their heart “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”!

Joh 8:8 and again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

Joh 8:9 and they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Yehoshua was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

Joh 8:10 when יהושע had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

Joh 8:11 She said, No man, Sir. And יהושע said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

We should understand in this story, that  יהושע was not first concern with the adulterer woman but much more with the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisee and thus writing on the ground did what the prophet Yrmeyahu spoke. יהושע came first to restore and not to judge, nevertheless he told the woman to stop sinning. The Scribes and Pharisee had not righteousness in mind but to accuse יהושע 

Jer 16:19 O יהוה, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge, in the day of distress the gentiles (goy) shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited only falsehood, futility, and there is no value in them.”¹ Footnote: ¹See Ps. 147:19, Isa. 2:3, Isa. 60:2-3, John 4:22, Rom. 2:20, Rom. 3:2, Rom. 9:4.

Jer 16:20 Would a man make mighty ones for himself, which are not mighty ones?

Jer 16:21 “Therefore see, I am causing them to know, this time I cause them to know My hand and My might. And they shall know that My Name is יהוה!”

Jer 17:1  “The sin of Yehuḏah is written with a pen of iron, engraved with the point of a diamond on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars,

Jer 17:2 while their children remember their altars and their Ashĕrim by the spreading trees on the high hills.

Jer 17:3 “My mountain in the field, I give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, your high places of sin, throughout all your borders.

Jer 17:4 “And you, even of yourself, shall let go of your inheritance which I gave you. And I shall make you serve your enemies in a land which you have not known, for you have kindled a fire in My displeasure which burns forever.”

Jer 17:5 Thus said יהוה, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from יהוה.

Jer 17:6 “For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and not see when good comes, and shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land that is not inhabited.

Jer 17:7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in יהוה, and whose trust is יהוה.

Jer 17:8 “For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, and does not see when heat comes. And his leaf shall be green, and in the year of drought he is not anxious, nor does he cease from yielding fruit.

Jer 17:9 “The heart is crooked¹ above all, and desperately sick – who shall know it? Footnote: ¹See 7:24, 16:12, 18:12, 23:17.

Jer 17:10 “I, יהוה, search the heart, I try the kidneys, and give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

Jer 17:11 “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by right. It leaves him in the midst of his days, and at his end he is a fool.”

Jer 17:12 An esteemed throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our set-apart place.

Jer 17:13 O יהוה, the expectation of Yisra’ĕl, all who forsake You are put to shame. “Those who depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken יהוה, the fountain of living waters.”¹ Footnote: ¹See 2:13.

Jer 17:14 Heal me, O יהוה, so that I am healed. Save me, so that I am saved, for You are my praise.

May יהוה our Elohim bless you as you follow our Master יהושע in the Torah, the path or Life!

Comments can be sent to: danielchaud@yahoo.com

Daniel ben Ya’acov Israel