"Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you" (Isaiah 49:18): Reality as an Up-to-Date Midrash on Prophetic Verses and Psalms
*Written during the hours of anticipation and tension leading up to the release of our abductees from the captivity of the murderous terror organization, Hamas, and before it became known that it had violated the agreement, and returned only the hostages who remained alive (as opposed to the deceased, many of whom have not yet been returned) 12.10.2025.
Dr. Lea Mazor, The Hebrew University
In these breathtaking historical days, where the honey and the sting are intertwined and the bitter and the sweet create an emotional whirlwind, it is impossible not to be drawn to the words of prophecy and the psalms that express the pain and suffering of captives-prisoners thrown into dark subterranean spaces, to the faith and hope that their salvation will surely come, and to the immense joy that will then sweep over everything.
The Pit (בור) and the Well (באר) as Places of Life
In the arid climate of the land of Canaan, finding water sources that would supply the consumption (drinking, agriculture, and livestock) throughout the year was a vital necessity for existence. People used to dig wells (be'erot) that filled with groundwater, and hew cisterns (borot) for storing rainwater. A person had a well or a water cistern on his property and drank its water (Deut. 6:11; 2 Kings 18:31 // Isa. 36:16; Neh. 9:25). There were also public water cisterns, some of them particularly famous (1 Sam. 19:22; 2 Sam. 3:26; 2 Sam. 23:15-16//1 Chron. 11:17-18; 2 Chron. 26:10).
Water in the Bible is a symbol of life, blessing, abundance, and hope. Due to its vitality for the continuous and constant consumption of water, wells became central and lively meeting places. Local girls came there to draw water, shepherds came there to water their flocks, and strangers who happened upon the place arrived there. Occasionally, encounters occurred there that led to engagements and marriages. We only need to recall the stories of Abraham's servant and Rebekah (Gen. 24), Jacob and Rachel (Gen. 29), and Moses and the daughters of the priest of Midian (Exod. 2).
Empty Pits (בורות) as a Place of Torment and Death
"Broken cisterns [pits], that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13) were a symbol of severe disappointment. Wells that could no longer serve their original purpose or pits whose rainwater and surface runoff had run out became subterranean spaces that sometimes acquired roles different from their original function. The most common type of pit in the biblical period was the bell-shaped pit, which had a narrow neck that widened downwards and became a large storage space. Because of the bell shape of the pit, a person who fell or was thrown into it was trapped in a dark underground space without the ability to extract themselves. In the metaphor of the prophet Zechariah, a "pit where there is no water" (בור אין מים בו) is mentioned where there were prisoners: "I have set free thy prisoners from the waterless pit" (Zech. 9:11–12), and in Isa. 24:22 we read: "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the dungeon, and shall be shut up in the prison." Hence the use of the word בור (pit/dungeon) or the phrase בית הבור (pit-house/dungeon-house) to denote a place of imprisonment (Gen. 40:15; 41:14; Exod. 12:29; Jer. 37:16; 38:6. From the verse "from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon" (Exod. 12:29), we learn that the captives placed "in the dungeon" were considered the bottom of the social ladder.
The prisoners suffered from particularly difficult conditions, as is told about Jeremiah: "And in the cistern there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire" (Jer. 38:6). The fate of the prisoners was entirely in the hands of their captors: if they wished, they provided them with food to keep them alive (38:6–13); if they wished, they withheld food to kill them, as the brothers did to Joseph. They threw him into the pit in the wilderness, and their heart was so hardened and full of the desire for revenge that they were deaf to his pleas (Gen. 42:21). And while he was in the pit, condemned to a slow and agonizing death by starvation, they sat "to eat bread" (Gen. 37:25), which is not only an extreme contrast between his condition and theirs (starvation versus eating bread, alone versus many, death versus life) but also an expression of their joyful heart, for eating bread in the Bible also carries a meaning of joy (such as: “… to eat, and to drink, and to be merry," Eccles. 8:15).
In some cases, corpses were thrown into empty pits (2 Kings 10:14; Isa. 14:19; Jer. 41:7, 9). From here it is a short step to the perception of the pit as a grave and the name given to the dead as "those who go down to the pit" (יורדי בור), especially in prophetic and psalm literature (Isa. 38:18; Ezek. 26:20; 31:14, 16; 32:18).
The "pit where there is no water" (בור אין מים בו) became a symbol of cruel imprisonment and is embedded in prophecies and psalms that describe a miraculous reversal from terrifying disaster to divine salvation. Psalm 107 summons the redeemed to thank the Lord for His kindnesses that brought about a reversal in their situation. "O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom He hath redeemed from the hand of the adversary" (Ps. 107:1-2). The Lord redeemed people who reached "unto the gates of death" (18), and saved the "hungry and also thirsty" (5). Verses 10–14 also refer to the rescue of prisoners who dwelled in a dark pit, bound with iron chains: "Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron... He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bands in sunder" (10, 14).
The Reversal from Captivity to Salvation
The image of prisoners confined in darkness is also interwoven in the words of the comforting prophet, who promises salvation that will bring about a reversal: "Saying to them that are bound: 'Go forth', and to them that are in darkness: 'Show yourselves.'... They shall not hunger nor thirst" (Isa. 49:9–10).
The magnitude of the reversal is emphasized in the double rhetorical question: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be delivered?" (24). The way of the world is that prey (מלקוח) or captives (שבי) cannot be rescued from the hand of a cruel tyrant. But the Lord promises that the unbelievable will happen and that the prey and the captives will be released and returned: "But thus saith the LORD: Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children" (25). The variation in the placement of the words emphasizes the transition from the rhetorical question to the promise of its fulfillment:
הֲיֻקַּח מִגִּבּוֹר מַלְקוֹחַ
וְאִם-שְׁבִי צַדִּיק יִמָּלֵט.
…
גַּם-שְׁבִי גִבּוֹר יֻקָּח
וּמַלְקוֹחַ עָרִיץ יִמָּלֵט
(Here צדיק is used in the sense of tyrant.)
The prophet describes the wonder at what is perceived as unbelievable: "Lift up your eyes round about, and see: they all gather themselves together, they come to you" (18)! And the joy at the return of the Lord's redeemed to Zion will be immense. In the prophecy, there is an impassioned call to strengthen the physically weak: "Strengthen ye the weak hands, and make firm the faltering knees" (Isa. 35:3), which is a rallying cry that echoes the battle slogan, "Be strong and of good courage" (חזק ואמץ). And miraculously, the disabled will be healed: "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing" (5–6). The healing is described in chiastic parallelism, and note the sounds and rhyming: תִּפָּקַחְנָה עֵינֵי עִוְרִים / וְאָזְנֵי חֵרְשִׁים תִּפָּתַחְנָה (The eyes of the blind shall be opened / and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped).
The redeemed captives will recover, be filled with positive energies, and express their joy in leaping and singing: "And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isa. 35:10). ששון ושמחה (gladness and joy) is a pair of synonyms connected by content and alliteration. And the rolling joy is expressed in the rolling sound of the 's' (=ש): וְשִׂמְחַת עוֹלָם עַל-רֹאשָׁם שָׂשׂוֹן וְשִׂמְחָה יַשִּׂיגוּ (and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy).
A reversal from captivity in an enemy land to the return of children to their border is promised in the moving prophecy (Jer. 31:15-17):
Thus saith the LORD:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children;
She refuseth to be comforted for her children,
Because they are not.
Thus saith the LORD:
Refrain thy voice from weeping,
And thine eyes from tears;
For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD;
And they shall come back from the land of the enemy
And there is hope for thy future, saith the LORD;
And thy children shall return to their own border.
(Jer. 31:14-16, the verses correspond to 31:15-17 in JPS).
Reality as Midrash
Reading these verses as a kind of "living Midrash" on the suffering of our abductees in the tunnels of their cruel captors, and the joy over their release from captivity, is a hermeneutic framework for our contemporary national and social emotions. In this sense, the Bible continues to function as a living text that interprets the present and shapes its consciousness. Hope, faith, return, and comfort are thus perceived not only as theological categories but also as actual emotional and social processes – as historical events that are a deep continuation of the biblical story of redemption.
אין תגובות:
הוסף רשומת תגובה
תודה רבה על תגובתך. היא תפורסם אחרי אישורה.