Isaiah 14:29, Revised.

I'm definitely not trying to clutter up the forum with multiple threads. But the original thread on Isaiah 14:29 was initially designed to be an addendum to the thread on wasps and Jews, until partway through the thread someone asked why I thought צפע (not Frank) meant "cockatrice"? As I re-researched the answer to that question my entire understanding of the verse transformed such that although I stand by much of the original thread, my new understanding is such that it requires a serious re-working of the exegesis and interpretation found in the original thread.

In all my time here I've never had to revise a thread. I added and addended, but never had to totally revise it. Nevertheless, the stuff found on the "cockatrice" justifies at least one revision and hopefully not more.

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Isaiah 14:28 Informs us that in the year king Ahaz died a prophesy משא directly related to that death sprouted. Isaiah notes that this sprouting prophesy is related to the death of Ahaz so that his (Isaiah's) target audience for the prophesy might have the necessary key required to decipher the prophesy. "Rejoice not thou anyone in the whole of Palestine thinking that finally the rod that smote thee is broken" (Isaiah 14:29).

In the same short narrative noting the death of king Ahaz (and the beginning of Hezekiah's reign), we find out that the rod, or staff, or banner, of Moses, which became Nehushtan, is broken. The general history is that king Ahaz reigned until sometime around 716 BC, when at his death, his son Hezekiah, began his reign:


John

John D. Brey said:

In the year king Ahaz died [as referenced in 2 Kings 18:1] did the following ominous prophesy sprout: Rejoice not thou entire Palestine simply because the rod that smote thee is broken [by king Ahaz son Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18:4]: For out of [Moses'] serpent-rod [Nehushtan], that is out of its root, shall come . . ..

Isaiah 14:28-29.​

Isaiah 14:28 Informs us that in the year king Ahaz died a prophesy משא directly related to that death sprouted. Isaiah notes that this sprouting prophesy is related to the death of Ahaz so his (Isaiah's) target audience for the prophesy might have the necessary key required to decipher the prophesy. "Rejoice not thou anyone in the whole of Palestine thinking that the rod that smote thee is broken" (Isaiah 14:29).

In the same short narrative noting the death of king Ahaz (and the beginning of Hezekiah's reign), we find out that the rod, or staff, or banner, of Moses, which became Nehushtan, is broken. The general history is that king Ahaz reigned until sometime around 716 BC, when at his death, his son Hezekiah, began his reign:

Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign. . . He [immediately]. . . broke in pieces the brazen serpent-rod that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it and called it Nehushtan. . . In that year . . . did the following ominous prophesy sprout: Rejoice not thou entire Palestine simply because the rod that smote thee is broken [by king Ahaz son Hezekiah]: For out of [Moses'] serpent-rod [Nehushtan], that is out of its root, shall come . . ..

2 Kings 18:1-4; Isaiah 14:28-29.

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A chapter before Hezekiah breaks Moses' serpent-rod to pieces, i.e., 2 Kings 17:18, we read that God was so angry at Israel that he removed every rod, or tribe שבט, of Israel, out of his sight but one: the tribe, or rod, or staff, of Judah. It's this staff, rod, that's represented by Nehushtan, such that in 2 Kings 17:19-21 we read that even Judah, the tribe of Judah, was so corrupt that he had to remove even that staff, Nehushtan, from his sight. Hezekiah takes the final hope, the final tribal staff שבט, and brakes it as a prophetic vision of the fact that God has turned his face from every tribe of Israel seemingly leaving Israel no hope unless a Davidic king can sprout out of the dry soil and the dead stump of the cutting down of the final branch, tribe שבט, of Israel.

God uses Hezekiah, in 2 Kings 18:4, to perform the removal of the last root, the final tribe (Jesse's tribe) from his sight. But Isaiah says not so fast. Don't think that a sprout can't rise up out of the stump of Nehushtan, the rod of Moses and Aaron, the root of Jesse/Judah, to finish off what seemed to have been laid to rest with the breaking of that rod.

Nehushtan is the only tribal rod שבט that blossomed. For that reason it's placed betwixt the wings guarding the throne of God, the ark of the covenant, symbolizing that the tribe associated with that staff שבט, will sit on the seat of David, the throne of God. So that when that staff is taken out of the temple, outside the gates of the city, and broken (the Hebrew says "hammered" on) the final blow to Israel's hope of seating a son of David on the throne is hammered home.




John

John D. Brey said:

A chapter before Hezekiah breaks Moses' serpent-rod to pieces, i.e., 2 Kings 17:18, we read that God was so angry at Israel that he removed every rod, or tribe שבט, of Israel, out of his sight but one: the tribe, or rod, or staff, of Judah. It's this staff, rod, that's represented by Nehushtan, such that in 2 Kings 17:19-21 we read that even Judah, the tribe of Judah, was so corrupt that he had to remove even that staff, Nehushtan, from his sight. Hezekiah takes the final hope, the final tribal staff שבט, and brakes it as a prophetic vision of the fact that God has turned his face from every tribe of Israel seemingly leaving Israel no hope unless a Davidic king can sprout out of the dry soil and the dead stump of the cutting down of the final branch, tribe שבט, of Israel.

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A student of scripture reading the statement that the rod, or staff, of Judah, is placed betwixt the wings on the ark of the covenant, might have already stopped reading this treatise since he might think even the biblical hoi polloi know that it was the staff of Aaron, the rod of Levi, that blossomed in order to represent the priestly tribe of Israel. Furthermore, any student of scripture worth his salts knows that Levi is the spiritual, or priestly tribe, of Israel, such that the staff of Levi, Aaron's rod, is the one placed on the throne above the kaporet, or cover, of the ark of the covenant.

This serious student of the scripture would therefore protest to the exegesis and interpretation that would place Nehushtan (Moses' rod) on the throne above the ark of the covenant (betwixt the wings).



John

John D. Brey said:

A student of scripture reading the statement that the rod, or staff, of Judah, is placed betwixt the wings on the ark of the covenant, might have already stopped reading this treatise since he might think even the biblical hoi polloi know that it was the staff of Aaron, the rod of Levi, that blossomed in order to represent the priestly tribe of Israel. Furthermore, any student of scripture worth his salts knows that Levi is the spiritual, or priestly tribe, of Israel, such that the staff of Levi, Aaron's rod, is the one placed on the throne above the kaporet, or cover, of the ark of the covenant.

This serious student of the scripture would therefore protest to the exegesis and interpretation that would place Nehushtan (Moses' rod) on the throne above the ark of the covenant (betwixt the wings).

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Even a serious student of the scripture might not have thought too hard about the fact that a staff שבט representing a particular tribe of Israel is carried by both Moses and Aaron though they're both from the tribe of Levi? At times Aaron's rod is said to perform a particular function, and at other times Moses' rod is said to perform the function. Based on this oddity many Jewish sages have stated that Moses' and Aaron's rod are one and the same rod.

Ironically, this subtle nuance lends itself to interpreting what Isaiah is going on about in 14:29 when he speaks of what the KJV translates to be a "cockatrice," as being related to a serpent נחש (nachash), since a "cockatrice," or sometimes "basilisk," represents a somewhat cockamamie mixing of two species which ordinarily can't mix (say a serpent and a dragon).

In Exodus 7:9-12, when Aaron throws down his rod or staff, the Hebrew text tells us not that it turns into a serpent נחש (nachash), but into a "dragon" תנין (tannin); the problem being that in Exodus 4, when God tells Moses to throw down his staff, it turns not into a תנין (tannin), but a נחש (nachash).

A quick-witted reader might already be thinking ahead to the fact that by the time Moses' and Aaron's rods are figured out to be one and the same rod, or else become one rod though their combining (i.e., a serpent and a dragon, a נחש (nachash) and a תנין (tannin)), you know a "basilisk," or a "cockatrice," the name associated with this cockamamie Duke's mixture of two different species (serpent and dragon) is, get this: Nachash-tannin, later nicknamed Nehush-tanin (נחש–תנין). Aaron's rod, at the point it's united with, or becomes known to be, Moses' rod, is named "cockatrice," or "basilisk," which is to say "serpent-dragon" (Nehushtan).



John

John D. Brey said:

A quick-witted reader might already be thinking ahead to the fact that by the time Moses' and Aaron's rods are figured out to be one and the same rod, or else become one rod though their combining (i.e., a serpent and a dragon, a נחש (nachash) and a תנין (tannin)), you know a "basilisk," or a "cockatrice," the name associated with this cockamamie Duke's mixture of two different species (serpent and dragon) gets called, get this: Nachash-tannin, later nicknamed Nehush-tanin (נחש–תנין).

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Naturally there's more to this herpetological monstrosity (nachash-tannin) than meets the eye since Moses and Aaron are both from the tribe of Levi (you know: Levi-atan, Genesis 49:5) while the serpent-rod or staff (Judah) is associated with kingship (Isaiah 49:10). The "cockatrice" represents the strange union of kingship and priesthood (melek-tsaddik), Judah and Levi, in one staff, one tribe, or as the Jew from Tarsus called it, one new species (2 Corinthians 5:17).



John

John D. Brey said:

Naturally there's more to this herpetological monstrosity (nachash-tannin) than meets the eye since Moses and Aaron are both from the tribe of Levi (you know: Levi-atan, Genesis 49:5) while the serpent-rod or staff (Judah) is associated with kingship (Isaiah 49:10). The "cockatrice" represents the strange union of kingship and priesthood (melek-tsaddik), Judah and Levi, in one staff, one tribe, or as the Jew from Tarsus called it, one new species (2 Corinthians 5:17).

9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him. 11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. 13 For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. 15 And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, 16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. 17 For he testifieth, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Hebrews 7:9–18.
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Naturally this all branches out in all kinds of directions; one of which is the fact that Rabbi Hirsch, Bemidar 17:17, points out that the tribes of Israel are called wooden staffs, rods, or branches מטות. They're nazarenes, sprouts, shoots, or branches, growing from the mother tree, the Lebanon.

In the Tanakh and the Talmud the temple (which is the mother tree) is referred to as the "Lebanon." The branches of that tree are the 13 tribes (14 if you count Joseph's two sons) of Israel, one of which is a "cockatrice."



John

John D. Brey said:

Naturally this all branches out in all kinds of directions; one of which is the fact that Rabbi Hirsch, Bemidar 17:17, points out that the tribes of Israel are called wooden staffs, rods, or branches מטות. They're nazarenes, sprouts, shoots, or branches, growing from the mother tree, the Lebanon.

In the Tanakh and the Talmud the temple is referred to as the "Lebanon." The branches of that tree are the 13 tribes (14 if you count Joseph's two sons) of Israel, one of which is a "cockatrice."

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Some might know that Josephus had a clandestine meeting with Titus destined to make history (so to say). In that meeting Josephus prophesied to general Titus that he would be made Emperor of Rome. When Titus asked Josephus how he could know that, Josephus quoted Isaiah 10:33-34:


The Lebanon is the temple. And so since Josephus interpreted "mighty one" אדיר to be speaking of a king, he reasoned that since Titus had destroyed the temple, he would become king. As fate would have it, Titus didn't even have to wait long. And so he rewarded Titus Josephus with a condo in Rome where he later made history by writing it down (Antiquities of the Jews).



John

John D. Brey said:

Some might know that Josephus had a clandestine meeting with Titus destined to make history (so to say). In that meeting Josephus prophesied to general Titus that he would be made Emperor of Rome. When Titus asked Josephus how he could know that, Josephus quoted Isaiah 10:33-34:

Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron. And the Lebanon shall fall by a might one.​

The Lebanon is the temple. And so since Josephus interpreted "mighty one" אדיר to be speaking of a king, he reasoned that since Titus had destroyed the temple, he would become king. As fate would have it, Titus didn't even have to wait long. And so he rewarded Titus Josephus with a condo in Rome where he later made history by writing it down (Antiquities of the Jews).

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One of the unique traits of the cockatrice, or basilisk, is what the writers claimed was its ability to kill with a stare. Its stare was lethal, fatal. Which might appear to be a pointless point of observation in the context it's being presented. And yet if Isaiah 14:29 is indeed speaking of Nehushtan as the rod that's broken in the verse, and if Nehushtan is Aaron and Moses staff, then it's the rod or staff that sits betwixt the wings on the ark of the covenant, which is to say it sits on the throne.

Jews familiar with the antiquity of their history, particularly the history of their temple, might know that only once a year, could only one person, enter behind the veil of the temple to bring the blood of the Yom Kippur sacrifice. When the kohen gadol (always a Levite mind you) brought the sacrificial offering, smoke had to fill the space behind the veil of the temple so that, get this, the gaze come from betwixt the wings on either side of the throne not slay the kohen gadol. It turns out, ironically perhaps, that although staring at Nehushtan can save, the stare of Nehushtan kills. His stare is fatal.

Abarbanel famously asked whether the serpent kills, or gives life, since the seraphim were biting and killing the Israelites while on the other hand staring at Nehushtan was supposed to be something like a snake-oil antidote to the seraphim's bite.



John

John D. Brey said:

Behold, the Lord, the Lord of Hosts, shall lop the bough with terror: And the high ones of stature shall be hewn down, and humbled. And he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with iron. And the Lebanon shall fall by a might one.

Isaiah 10:33-34:​

The Lebanon is the temple. And so since Josephus interpreted "mighty one" אדיר to be speaking of a king, he reasoned that since Titus had destroyed the temple, he would become king. As fate would have it, Titus didn't even have to wait long. And so he rewarded Titus Josephus with a condo in Rome where he later made history by writing it down (Antiquities of the Jews).

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According to fulfilled prophesy as interpreted in real time by Titus Josephus, the passage of scripture found at Isaiah 10:33-34 speaks of the siege of Jerusalem culminating in 70 AD. The various branches, the nazarenes of Israel, are destroyed and taken into captivity while the mother-tree, from whence the nazarenes grew, i.e, the Lebanon, is broken, razed to the ground, leaving only a stump.

As Isaiah read things, the breaking of the rod in the temple (2 Kings 18:4) symbolizes the breaking of the temple itself, since the most seminal aspect of the temple is its veil, it's ability to veil the most holy place, and that veil must be transgressed in order to remove the rod on the throne behind that veil.

Similarly then, when Isaiah tells all those situated around a tree in the middle of Jews and Gentile, in the middle of Palestine, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the first century AD (Isaiah 66:17-19), not to gloat ----thinking that the breaking of that beautiful branch, that tree, which is the symbolic parallel of the breaking of the Lebanon, the mother-tree, means they've defeated the Davidic-branch associated with that rod-----Isaiah's telling them all not to think that because the mother-tree, the very tree from which the nazarenes, the branches (Isaiah 60:21), are born[e], is temporarily non-existent, they've ended the everlasting reign of that still-born king. Isaiah's saying that though the rulership of that king is now still-born, still, he will be born-again, out of the stump of the Lebanon, out of the root of that broken tree, out of the "thigh" of ha-adam, such that at the time of that rebirth, the almond branch (Levi) become a king's ruling staff (Judah), i.e., the mixing of the two (melek-tsadik), will bear the fruit Isaiah calls a "flying fiery serpent."



John