Ezra and Esdras
1.3 Which emotions?
1.3 Which emotions?
1.3.1 No emotions at the re-establishment of the altar
A first emotion is encountered at the beginning of the report on the setting up of the altar on its foundation. The reason for setting up the altar is: “because they, that are the returned exiles, were in dread of the neighbouring people” (Ezra 3:3aα). Since this is not a response to the establishment of an altar or a Temple, but a reason why a building project was undertaken, I am not taking this emo-tion into consideraemo-tion.
1.3.2 Raising a shout with a great shout and weeping with a loud voice
According to some scholars, Ezra 3:10–11 follows a liturgical protocol for festive celebrations. Joseph Blenkinsopp, for instance, notes: “Following liturgical orthopraxy (cf. 1 Chr 15:19; 16:5–6; 25:1, 6; 2 Chr 5:12–13), priests blew trumpets, and Asaphite Levites (see 2 Chr 29:25–26 …) clashed cymbals, no doubt to keep time and mark pauses in the antiphonal chant. … The shout (…), also associated with warfare, was probably understood as acclaiming YHVH as king of Israel (cf. the psalms of divine kingship, Pss 93; 95–99).”2
In Ezra 3:11, the emotional response to the establishment of the altar is recorded: all the people are raising a shout with a great shout:
וּעי ִר ֵה ם ָע ָה־ל ָכ ְו ה ָלוֹד ְג ה ָעוּר ְת
.Those who are shouting with a loud shout are “all the people.”
The second response to the establishment of the altar comes from those who had, with their own eyes, seen the first house: they are listed as the priests, Levites and heads of families, further defined as old people who had seen the first house. They also are loud, but they are weeping with a loud voice:
לוֹק ְבּ םי ִכֹבּ לוֹד ָגּ
(3:12). But then the latter group seems to be divided too, since there are also many that shouted aloud for joy:3לוֹק םי ִר ָה ְל ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ ְב
.The latter phrase is clearly connected to the first response of shouting with a loud voice. But through the use of the concept of joy,
ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ
, it also serves as a hinge that links it with the further emotional responses to the subsequent building activities (which will emerge later in the story).||
2 Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah, 101.
3 See also Davies, Ezra, 36.
Now a few comments on the noun
ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ
. When used with the prepositionְבּ
, the context is often one in which the ark functions (1 Sam 18:6) or it is being brought to Jerusalem (2 Sam 6:12; similarly, 1 Chr 15:25) and offerings are being brought to the Temple (1 Chr 29:17, 22; 2 Chr 23:18), or the Festival of Unleav-ened Bread is being celebrated (2 Chr 30:21). This element of celebration involv-ing God is also found in the Psalter (21:7; 68:4; 100:2). The positive connotation of the word, in association with the ark, the offerings or festivals, in the books of Samuel and Chronicles, may have influenced the meaning of the word in Ezra, and may point to a positive experience in relation to the ark, the Temple and the offerings to God. The noun without the preposition also connotes a positive emotion, such as the rejoicing over a king, as in the case of Solomon (1 Kgs 1:40), or simply the fact that there is joy in Jerusalem (2 Chr 30:26). The joy in Jerusalem was once taken away (see esp. the Book of Jeremiah, 7:34; 16:9; 25:10;48:33 and also Isa 16:10; 24:11; Joel 1:16), but now the joy is restored and one can sing for joy (Jer 31:7; 33:11, but also Isa 29:19). In the book of Nehemiah, the joy is part of the celebratory events when all circumstances are favourable:
people rejoice, eat, drink and send portions (Neh 8:12 and 8:17, but also Esth 8:17 and 9:19).
Given the positive connotation of the word especially in the later books (Chronicles, Nehemiah, Esther, but also Isa 55:12 and Eccl 2:1 and 9:7), the sense of the word in Ezra 3:12 must surely indicate a joyful event and a positive emotion.
In 3:13 the contrast between the two emotional responses is expressed in the two phrases
ה ָח ְמ ִשּׂ ַה ת ַעוּר ְתּ לוֹק
andם ָע ָה י ִכ ְבּ לוֹק
. The narrator then con-tinues, not with a further explanation of the two different sounds, but with the quality and quantity of the overall sound –ה ָלוֹד ְג ה ָעוּר ְתּ םי ִעי ִר ְמ ם ָע ָה י ִכּ
, “forthe people were shouting with loud shouts”. After all, the narrator needs to explain how the enemies of the people found out about the first phases of the building of the Temple (see Ezra 4:1): the sound was so loud that it could be heard far away!
An analysis of “raising a shout with a great shout” reveals the following: it is used in the context of a war or battle: “sounding the alarm”. For instance, in Num 10:7, 9; the alarm is sounded by using trumpets (
תוֹר ְצֹצ ֲח ַבּ
); we will return to the trumpets when dealing with 1 Esdras. In the case of Joshua, the Israelites have to shout at the command of Joshua,4 so that the walls of Jericho can col-lapse (Josh 6:5, 10, 16 and 20). The shouting may be done by both the attackers (e.g. Judg 15:14, the shouting Philistine, but also 1 Sam 17:20, David shouting for war, and Isa 42:13, God shouting as a warrior) as well as by the retreating men||
4 But see below for a discussion of what precisely starts the outcry.
(e.g. Judg 7:21; the fleeing men were shouting). Shouting also occurs in a celebra-tory context: in 1 Sam 10:24, the people shout “long live the king” and in Job 38:7 it is said that the morning stars were shouting for joy. And once the question is asked why someone is crying (Mic 4:9: “why do you cry?”). The same plethora of meanings, including enemies shouting, shouting for joy, shouting in triumph may be found in the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the Minor Prophets. With this diversity of meanings, it is no wonder that the precise emotion needs to be clari-fied, as happens in Ezra 3:12:
לוֹק םי ִר ָה ְל ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ ְב ה ָעוּר ְת ִבּ
, where “ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ ְב
”clearly indicates the positive connotation of the shouting, and in 3:13, where the shouting is again that of a joyful voice, with
ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ
once more clarifying that theת ַעוּר ְתּ לוֹק
is positive and definitively a joyful shout.Now the alternative to shouting for joy is weeping with a loud voice,5 and that is precisely the emotion shown by the second party witnessing the estab-lishment of the altar on its foundation. They – and I am not elaborating on pre-cisely who this is – are weeping. The verb used is
הכב
. It certainly seems like all the patriarchs and matriarchs do a lot of weeping, with Joseph probably holding the record as an individual and the Israelites in the desert as a group in Num 11.Weeping of the people before the Lord also appears in Deut 1:45, but to that weeping God pays no attention. Also particularly striking is the weeping of Jephthah’s daughter in Judg 11:37, 38, of Samson’s wife in Judg 14:16, 17, and of Hannah in the sanctuary of Shiloh (1 Sam 1:7, 8, 10). The major figures continue the tradition of weeping,6 with Naomi’s daughters-in-law weeping in Ruth 1:9, David weeping in 1 Sam 20:41, Saul in 1 Sam 24:16, Hezekiah in 2 Kgs 20:3, Ezra in Ezra 10:1 (3x), Nehemiah (Neh 1:4), and Esther in Esth 8:3.7 Most of the time, the weeping is induced by a loss of life, whether directly (the death of someone) or indirectly (weeping for possible evil that will occur in the future, e.g. 2 Kgs 8:11). In Job, weeping is lamenting, as for instance in Job 2:12 where the friends are weeping when they see Job’s condition. In Eccl 3:4, the weeping is the oppo-site of the laughing. In Isaiah, the people are offered the comfort that they will no longer weep (Isa 30:19 [2x]). It is stated that God will graciously hear the sound of the cry! In the book of Lamentations, the weeping is again not heard (Lam 1:2 and 1:16).
In the four instances where the verb occurs in the book of Ezra (3:12, and three times in 10:1), the emphasis is on bitter weeping. Ezra does so after mak-ing confession and the people respond with their own bitter weepmak-ing. Ezra and
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5 See also the paper by Michael Duggan in this volume.
6 I note that Moses weeps only as a child (Exod 2:6).
7 I note that Solomon also does not weep.
the people weep because of the breaking of faith. It could be argued that this is the same as weeping for a loss of life. Given the seriousness of this weeping, I also take the weeping in 3:12 to be a bitter weeping. Although there is now a foundation for the House of God, there is a serious loss associated with it.
1.3.3 Celebrating with joy
The final building project, and the ultimate goal of the entire process, is the building of the Temple. After some resistance and the search for decrees, fol-lowed by a continuation of the building project, the Temple is finished. Ezra 6:15, a most famous verse, reads: “And this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.” The follow-ing verse, Ezra 6:16, records the emotional response: “The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the golah celebrated the dedication of the House of God with joy”:
ת ַכּ ֻנ ֲח א ָתוּל ָג־י ֵנ ְבּ ר ָא ְשׁוּ א ֵי ָו ֵל ְו א ָיּ ַנ ֲה ָכּ ל ֵא ָר ְשׂ ִי־י ֵנ ְב וּד ַב ֲע ַו ה ָו ְד ֶח ְבּ ה ָנ ְד א ָה ָל ֱא־תי ֵבּ
.In 6:22, after the initial dedication offering (6:17) and the appointment of the priests and the Levites in their courses (6:18), the exiles celebrate the Passo-ver (6:19–21) and the Festival of Unleavened Bread (6:22). At this point, in 6:22, it is said that they celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy:
וּשׂ ֲע ַיּ ַו ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ ְבּ םי ִמָי ת ַע ְב ִשׁ תוֹצּ ַמ־ג ַח
.The common noun for joy is used, namely
ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ
, “gladness”, “joy”. The sentiment is reinforced and explained in the next phrase: “for the Lord had made them joyful”:ה ָוה ְי ם ָח ְמּ ִשׂ י ִכּ
. As in Ezra 3:12 the verb certainly indicates a joyful emotion. H.G.M. Williamson correctly observes with regard to Ezra 6:22:“The unaffected note of joy that accompanied the resumption of temple worship (…) should not be overlooked. The suggestion that the Judaism of the post-exilic period degenerated into a cold and ritualistic formalism is quite the reverse of the evidence presented in any of the texts we have.”8
Ezra 6:16 also describes the dedication of the House of God as a joyous oc-casion, but here a different word is used:
ה ָו ְד ֶח
. The Aramaic word for joy,ה ָו ְד ֶח
, is used only once in the Aramaic section of the Bible. The Hebrew word,ה ָו ְד ֶח
, is, however, used in 1 Chr 16:27 and Neh 8:10. Moreover, its verbal coun-terpart,הדח
II, “rejoice”, occurs in Job 3:6; Exod 18:9, and in the pi‘el in Ps 21:7.1 Chr 16:27 is part of David’s Psalm of Thanksgiving. In God’s dwelling place, there are strength and joy. In Neh 8:10, Nehemiah, after reading the Torah,
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8 Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, 85.
sends the people away, encouraging them to eat the fat and drink sweet wine … and not be grieved. He explains: “for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” In Job 3:6, Job curses the conditions that brought him forth, and wants the night, in which he was conceived, not to rejoice among the days of the year. In Exod 18:9, I note that it is a human who is rejoicing: “Jethro rejoices for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel.” In Ps 21:7, the verb in the pi‘el is used in combina-tion with the alternative and more common word for joy, namely,
ה ָח ְמ ִשׂ
: “you(God) make him glad with the joy of your presence”. A person is made glad through the joy of God. In all these instances, even indirectly in Job, joy is con-nected with God and thus a theologically laden emotion. The emotions dis-played at the final dedication of the House of God in Jerusalem are certainly positive ones.