The Remaining Writings: Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles

By Bob MacDonald

What books remain and what do we learn from their placement?

The third section of the third major division of the Hebrew Bible has three books. First, Daniel, and he is not among the prophets. Second, Ezra-Nehemiah, treated as one book, records the return from exile and the rebuilding of the temple. And third, Chronicles, itself in two parts, recapitulates the history from Genesis to the end of Kings. Even the lists of names are set to music!

The music seals the whole canon. Read, sing, study, compose, learn, be thankful for the love that preserved these words, and be joyful.

The Remaining Writings is volume 7 of the series, The Hebrew Bible and Its Music.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Energion Publications
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781631996344

Bob MacDonald

Bob MacDonald is a retired West Australian Police officer of thirty years experience. Bob's last day at school was his 14th birthday - commencing work, the very next day, in a timber mill in his home town of Pemberton, West Australia.He later self-educated and enlisted in the West Australian police force, retiring as a superintendent in the Internal Investigations Branch of the Professional Standards portfolio.Since retirement Bob has been working at remote aboriginal communities in Central Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. He also did a tour of duty on the island nation of Cyprus with the United Nations Blue Beret Peacekeepers.Bob, a keen sportsman continues with various sporting activities; which also includes fishing and camping trips. Writing articles for various magazines and now venturing into anecdotal short story compilations and fictional manuscripts ensures Bob leads a busy life.

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Preface

The third division of the Old Testament in the Hebrew sequence is called the Writings. It consists of the three poetry books, distinguished by their use of a slightly different musical form, the five scrolls, and the five remaining writings, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles, which return the reader to a narrative historical world. These five are placed in English Bibles with the former prophets, except for Daniel included with the later prophets.

This close translation was initially developed to show in English the intricate patterns of repeated words in Hebrew poetry. Having discovered the inferences concerning the music at a conference on the Psalms in 2010, the author decided that the whole corpus of the Hebrew canonical text should be approached to allow English speaking readers some understanding of the music. The translation retains the order of Hebrew words wherever reasonable, so that changes in reciting note and ornaments can be in English on the same syllable that corresponds to the Hebrew.

The line breaks have been chosen to correspond with the major rest points as indicated in the Hebrew manuscripts by the accents. These are the cadences in the music. The music has been derived through automation based on the deciphering key developed by Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura in the latter half of the twentieth century. All the music is available as noted below, though only a small portion of it has been performed.

In the English text of this volume next to the verse number, you may see a letter. This letter is the first note of the verse if the first note is not the default (e). Such a first note indicates that the verse is somehow related to what has come before it. The nature of the relationship is not specific. You the reader / singer must decide how the opening relates to what has been already. When you see a ~, it indicates an ornament on the first note.

The notes of the scale in the default mode for the text of the prose books are c, d, e, f, g#, A, B, C. Absolute pitch is not important. Sing the music wherever it is comfortable for your voice. For instruction on the music, see The Song in the Night.

The music for all 929 chapters of the Hebrew Bible is all available online through the pages at https://meafar.blogspot.com.

This edition includes minor changes to the translation from 2019-2021.

Table of Contents

Preface

List of Musical Examples

Introduction to the Bible and its Music

Daniel

Ezra

Nehemiah

1 Chronicles

2 Chronicles

Acknowledgements

List of Musical Examples

Score 1 Ezra 4:13, the threat of independence to empire

Score 2 2 Chronicles 31:16 geneology of the males from three years old and upward

Score 3 The proclamation at the dedication of the image

Score 4 A perturbing dream

Score 5 You are weighed in the balance

Score 6 A list of names and numbers

Score 7 A long verse without a cadence

Score 8 Nehemiah's prayer

Score 9 The longest recitation, 51 syllables

Score 10 From Adam to the first rest

Score 11 Heyman the singer, brother of Asaph

Score 12 David's intense desire

Score 13 David's other children

Score 14 Psalm 105

Score 15 Father and son

Score 16 Yahweh answered at the threshing floor

Score 17 The choral tradition

Score 18 The consequence of war and bloodshed

Score 19 The start of the temple on the hill Moriah

Score 20 The singers and the glory

Score 21 The heaven of heavens

Score 22 Gold and spice from the queen of Sheba

Score 23 Asa and the prophesy of Oded

Score 24 Micah's (Mikeyahu) prophetic integrity

Score 25 Music as a weapon of war

Score 26 Kings of Israel and of Judah with the same name

Score 27 The feast of unleavened bread

Score 28 Josiah

Score 29 The decree of Cyrus

Introduction to the Bible and its Music

This reading of the Bible is in seven sections according to the divisions of traditional Judaism. First the three major divisions: Torah, Prophets, and Writings. Torah is not further subdivided. The prophets are subdivided into three: the former prophets, and the latter prophets, which in turn are in 2 sections: the three major prophets, and the twelve. The Writings are similarly divided into three: The books of truth, Psalms, Proverbs, and Job, the five scrolls, The Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Qohelet, and Esther, and the remaining writings, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

What is unique in this reading?

Music

This English reading of the Hebrew Bible is intended to be the ground for an underlay to the musical score. The deciphering key of Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura is a full musical clarification of the text, not just verse by verse but as a whole. The shape of each part of the text becomes transparent.

EZRA_004_013-1

Score 1 Ezra 4:13, the threat of independence to empire

The music is presented with the Hebrew underlay. The translation is close so that a reader even not familiar with the language (in this example, Aramaic) can know what the words signify.

Now let it be known to the king that if this town is built, and her barriers consolidated,

levy, tariff, and toll, they will not yield, and the revenue of the sovereigns, you will affront.

This music with its elaborate ornamentation expresses the opinion of a lobby group against the project. Elaborate ornaments occur frequently in Ezra 4, verses 11 to 16, the substance of the complaint letter over the rebuilding of the temple.

Concordance

Mapping of Hebrew stems to English lemmas in this translation has been supported by several computer-driven algorithms. The algorithms strive for a 1 to 1 mapping. For example, the Hebrew stem גוי, goi, occurs in the Hebrew text 561 times in 23 distinct word forms. In this reading, it is always rendered as nation, a word derived from the idea of native, i.e. where you were born. In this volume, the stem occurs 31 times.

A one to one mapping is not possible in many cases for a number of reasons. Sometimes there are different nuances to the use of a word, even different senses for the same stem.

2_CHRONICLES_031_016-1

Score 2 2 Chronicles 31:16 geneology of the males from three years old and upward

For example, the stem זכר (third word in score 2) indicates the English gloss male. These same three letters have a more common gloss: remember. This is an example of a one-to-many relationship between Hebrew stems and English glosses.

In contrast to one-to-one or one-to-many, there are several stems in Hebrew describing common human actions, like walk, come, go, bring, enter (הבא above, from the stem בוא). In both languages these glosses are multi-faceted and I have allowed them to have a many-to-many mapping between the two languages. There are relatively few of these stems, about 1%, perhaps 2 dozen in all, but they are common and pervasive in our speech and our writing. They account for about 4% of the words in the Hebrew canon.

One consequence of this process is that if a stem is used only once in the Hebrew text, then the translation is under obligation to use a unique English gloss for it. There are over 200 such single-usage stems (hapax legomena) in the concordance. The Aramaic verses of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah have a number of single use stems. This is partly because there are very few verses in Aramaic in the Hebrew Bible. The example above in score 1 has the word אפתם rendered revenue.

Another consequence of this process is that with words where the translator allows multiple English glosses simply for the sake of variation, the translator may inadvertently create a hapax in the English where there is not one in the Hebrew. In the case of revenue, this translation also uses the gloss once in Deuteronomy related to the stem for buying and selling. This is an accidental uniqueness.

Grammatical connectors like prepositions are notorious for not mapping consistently to single values. There are various reasons for this difference in languages. Sometimes, a preposition is implied by the usage of a verb. One language may require it and the other assume it. Each preposition has a dominant sense, but will not always take its dominant sense. Identifying the exceptions is subjective. For example, the prefix ב b, in Hebrew is usually in, but it may also be rendered as any one of a number of other glosses. In this volume it is rendered as follows: against(29), among(25), as(5), at(42), by(78), for(4), from(8), his(4), if(1), in(696), into(43), of(1), on(40), over(3), their(3), through(5), to(10), when(22), with(119), your(1), and there are several times when it is left untranslated.

This brings up a significant difference between Hebrew and English ‘words’. A Hebrew word is more like an English phrase than an English word. Hebrew has several frequently used prefixed prepositions. In general, Hebrew has far more prefixes and suffixes than English. Score 2 has three illustrations.

The last three words show four frequently used single character prepositions, ל for or to or of, ב in, among, against, כ like, as, according to, and מ a letter that makes a noun (gerund) of a verb. These words also have the third person common pronomial suffix, their, one with a singular object and two with plural objects: for (ל) their (תם) service (עבד) in (ב) their (ם) watches (שׁמר) according (כ) to their (הם) divisions (חלק). Also observable are the feminine plural suffixes (ות) included for the watches and divisions. And the ה disappears from הם at times and may be replaced with a ת for ease of pronunciation. ה is one of several consonants that disappear or move in a word form that a stem might take.

In addition to these prefixes and suffixes, verb forms are many, and their affixes indicate their form including person, gender, number, mode, voice, and aspect. Both English and Modern Hebrew think in person, gender, number, mood, voice, and tense: past, present, or future. While there is both history and story time in Biblical Hebrew, the selection of past, present, or future is by no means cut and dried. Tense may be indeterminate, and there may be more emphasis in the verb form on the aspect of continuing or completed action. In English we would chose continuing present, imperfect and so on. The verb rendered they will not yield above ינתנון is a future consequence with a prefix י the stem נתן (nun taf nun, a stem with a dominant gloss of give) and third person plural suffix ון.

Translation of Names

Thirteen percent of the words in the Bible are classified as names: names of peoples, locations, persons, God, rivers, feasts, stars, species, signs, mountains, months, and even sticks, (Zechariah 11:7, 10). Names and lists of names are pervasive in these remaining writings.

Some names are opaque to us, and some may be made easier to hear if we translate rather than transcribe them. Some names are still common like Nathan derived from the stem נתן just mentioned, or Nathaniel, gift of God. With 1,690 distinct personal names used 16,279 times, a translation of every name would be as tedious to the reader as a consistent transcription. So this translation has somewhat capricious variations to keep us on our toes. Some names, readers of other translations will recognize. Some they will not. Some will be surprising.

Eden, for example, is that well-known garden first mentioned in Genesis.  It is used 20 times as a named location, 13 times as the Aramaic for time in Daniel, twice as a time based adverb yet. (Qohelet 4:2, 3), twice for a specialty food (Genesis 49:20, Lamentations 4:5), and 9 times for enthrall. The reader of this volume will find enthrall once in Nehemiah, and Eden twice in 2 Chronicles.

Where is the best place to start reading the Bible?

Many people attempt to read the Bible starting at Genesis and working their way through in the sequence of the books. But they generally get bogged down, often somewhere in Exodus or Leviticus.

People also get bogged down or skim over the endless lists of names. Sing them, if possible, and observe or hear the structure, even of a list, in its form from the music. There are many examples of the music interspersed in the text. All the musical scores have been transcribed, as described here: https://meafar.blogspot.com/p/music.html.

Daniel

Chapter 1

¹ In the third year of the reign of Jehoiachim king of Judah,

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babel came to Jerusalem and laid siege to her.

² And my Lord gave into his hand Jehoiachim king of Judah and a part of the vessels of the house of God. And he brought them to the land of Shinar to the house of his God,

and the vessels he brought into the house of the treasury of his God.

³ And the king said to Ashpenaz, overlord of his eunuchs,

to bring from the children of Israel and from the seed of the kingdom and from the patricians,

⁴ Juveniles whom in any, there is no spot, and of a good appearance, and insightful in all wisdom, and acquainted with knowledge, and of discerning from knowledge, and who had power in them to stand in the palace of the king,

so they could teach them the record and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

⁵ And the king appointed to them the wherewithal day by day from the king's rations, and from wine which he imbibed, so rearing them three years,

that at the limit they would stand in the presence of the king.

⁶ And among them were of the children of Judah,

Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

⁷ And the chief of the eunuchs set up for them names,

and he set up for Daniel, Belteshazzar, for Hananiah, Shadrak, for Mishael, Myshak, and for Azariah, Abed-Nego.

⁸ But Daniel set in his heart that he would not be sullied by the king's rations and by the wine which he imbibed,

and he sought from the chief of the eunuchs that he would not be sullied.

⁹ And God gave Daniel to kindness and compassions,

in the presence of the chief of the eunuchs.

¹⁰ And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I am fearful of my lord the king who appointed your food and your beverage.

For what if should he see your faces more frail than the juveniles that are of your caliber, that you might endanger my head to the king?

¹¹ And Daniel said to the custodian,

whom the chief of the eunuchs had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

¹² Prove please your servants ten days,

and let them give to us from the vegetables, and we will eat, and water and we will imbibe.

¹³ Then let our appearances be seen in your presence, and the appearance of the juveniles who are eating the rations of the king,

and as you see, deal with your servants.

¹⁴ And he heard them in this matter,

and he proved them ten days.

¹⁵ And at the limit of ten days their appearances were seen, finer and firmer of flesh,

than all the juveniles eating the rations of the king.

¹⁶ So it was that the custodian took away their rations and the wine they were to imbibe,

and gave them vegetables.

¹⁷ And these four juveniles, God gave to them knowledge and insight in all the record and wisdom.

And Daniel had understanding in all vision and dreams.

¹⁸ And in the limit of the days, as the king had said that he would bring them in,

the chief of the eunuchs brought them into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar.

¹⁹ And the king spoke with them, and none were found among them all like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.

And they stood in the presence of the king.

²⁰ And in every matter of wisdom of discernment that the king sought from them,

he found them ten times handier over all the magicians, the astrologists who were in all his kingdom.

²¹ And Daniel was until the first year of Cyrus the king.

Chapter 2

¹ And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams,

and beaten down was his spirit and his sleep was against him.

² And the king said to call the magicians, and the astrologists, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, to make clear to the king his dreams,

and they came and they stood in the presence of the king.

³ And the king said to them, A dream I have dreamed,

and beaten down is my spirit to know the dream.

⁴ And the Chaldeans spoke to the king in Aramaic,

May the king forever live. Talk about the dream to your servant, and the key, we will divulge.

⁵ The king answered and said to the Chaldeans,

The thing from me has vanished. If you do not make known to me the dream and its key, your members will be done for, and your houses will be put into a dunghill.

⁶ And if the dream and its key you divulge, endowments and award and huge esteem you will undergo from me.

If the dream and its key you divulge.

⁷ They answered a second time and they said,

Let the king talk about the dream to his servants, and its key we will divulge.

⁸ The king answered and said, For certain I know that you want to gain time,

all because you perceive that the thing has vanished from me.

⁹B But if the dream, you will not make known to me, one dictate there is for you, for lying and impaired speech you cooked up together to say before me, until the time adjust itself.

So if you say the dream to me, then I will know that you divulge to me its key.

¹⁰ The Chaldeans answered before the king, and they said, There is not a mortal on the planet that is able to divulge the thing of the king,

all because no king, overlord, or authority, would ask this thing of any magician or astrologist or Chaldean.

¹¹ And the thing that the king asks is rare, and no other there is that can divulge before the king,

except the gods whose tenancy is not with flesh.

¹² All because of this the king ranted and raged hugely,

and promised to eliminate all the wise of Babel.

¹³ And dictate was appropriated that the wise should be killed,

and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them.

¹⁴ Then Daniel responded with prudence and discretion to Ariok overlord of the slaughterers of the king,

who were appropriating the killing of the wise of Babel.

¹⁵ He answered and said to Ariok, the authority of the king, Why is the dictate so hasty from before the king?

Then Ariok made known the thing to Daniel.

¹⁶ And Daniel went in and solicited from the king,

if a season would be given for him, and the key he would divulge for the king.

¹⁷ Then Daniel went to his house,

and to Hananiah Mishael and Azariah, his companions, he made known the thing.

¹⁸ And they would seek compassions from before the God of the heavens about this enigma,

that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the residue of the wise of Babel.

¹⁹ Then to Daniel in a vision that night, the enigma was disclosed.

Then Daniel blessed the God of the heavens.

²⁰ Daniel answered and said, Let the name of God be a blessing from one era to another era,

that wisdom and valour are his.

²¹~ And he adjusts the time and the season. He deposes kings and he places kings.

He provides wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who know discernment.

²²d He discloses the deep and the hidden.

He knows what is in the darkness, and the radiance with him is loosened.

²³B To you, God of my fathers, my acclamation and commendation, that wisdom and valour you have provided to me,

and now have let me know what we sought from you, that the thing of the king you would make known.

²⁴ All because of this, Daniel came to Ariok, whom the king had appointed to eliminate the wise of Babel.

He went, and thus he said to him, The wise of Babel do not eliminate. Bring me in before the king, and the key, to the king I will divulge.

²⁵ Then Ariok, vexed, brought Daniel before the king,

and thus said to him, I have found one who is valiant from the children of the exiles that are Judean, who will make known the key to the king.

²⁶ The king expounded and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,

Is it so that you are able to make known to me the dream that I have perceived and its key?

²⁷ Daniel answered before the king, and said,

The enigma that the king has asked, the wise astrologists, magicians, adjudicators are not able to divulge to the king,

²⁸ Yet there is a God in heaven who discloses enigmas, and makes known to the king Nebuchadnezzar, what it is that will be in the following days.

Your dream and the visions of your head on your lying down are these.

²⁹B You O king, your thoughts on your lying down came to what it is that will be after this,

and he who discloses enigmas will make known to you what it is that will be.

³⁰ And as for me, not that there is in me any more wisdom than any living, this enigma was disclosed to me,

but about the things that are key to the king, they will be made known, that the thoughts of your heart you may know.

³¹B You, O king, perceived, and lo, one huge image. This great image, its countenance excellent, arose right in front of you.

Its appearance was perturbing.

³²B This image, his head was fine gold, his chest and his arms of silver,

his abdomen and his thighs of brass,

³³ His legs of iron,

his feet a portion of iron, and a portion of clay.

³⁴ You perceived until a stone was parted without hands that clapped the image on his feet that were of iron and clay,

and ground them finely.

³⁵ Then finely ground together was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold, and became as the bare chaff from the threshing-deck of summer, and the wind lifts them up and in every place, none was found for them.

And the stone that clapped the image became a great tor and filled all the earth.

³⁶ This is the dream, and its key we will say before the king.

³⁷B You O king, the king of kings,

the God of the heavens, the kingdom, the invincibility, and the energy, and the esteem, has provided to you.

³⁸ And everywhere that the children of the mortal are tenants, the animals of the field and the fowl of the heavens, he has provided into your hand, and he has made you authority over them all.

You are that head of gold.

³⁹ And in your place another kingdom will arise more earthbound than you,

and another third kingdom of brass that will have authority in all the earth.

⁴⁰ And the fourth kingdom will be energetic like iron.

All because iron finely grinds and overcomes all, and as iron that injures all these, it will finely grind and injure.

⁴¹ And that you perceived feet and toes, a portion of artisan clay, and a portion of iron, the kingdom will be entangled but there will be the firmness of iron in it.

All because you perceived iron intermingled with mucky clay.

⁴² And the toes of the feet were a portion of iron and a portion of clay.

From the extremity of the kingdom will be energy, but a portion will be brokenness.

⁴³ And that you perceived iron intermingled with mucky clay, intermingled