Prophetic Satire

This reflection is part of the ongoing Forest Hills Haftorah Series. The rest of the content can be found here: https://www.sefaria.org/groups/FHJC-Haftorah-Series .

Scribes in the ancient world had an unfair advantage; Given that the skill they honed was writing, they could use their very craft to spread propaganda, speaking of how meritorious, or how much more important, scribal work was than any other profession.

Let's take a look at one example:

The above passage comes from what might be one of the most important works of ethics that we have from the ancient Judeans, authored by a scribe named Yeshua ben Sirah of Jerusalem in the early 2nd century BCE. It's a work that you might see referred to as the Wisdom of Ben Sirah, or the Book of Sirah, or maybe Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes, another work of (similar) philosophical musings which is included in the TaNaKh-collection).

Note what Ben Sirah does here; He praises the profession of the scribe as being uniquely a profession that allows for leisure, and it is only with leisure that one can pursue wisdom.

In addition to this advantage of the scribe, Ben Sirah then goes through a number of other professions and shows that they result in utter misery. In the above example of the smith, his flesh is burned, his eyes and ears weakened. He also has what to say about farmers, jewelers and potters.

While Ben Sirah was certainly wise, he was not the first scribe to come up with the idea of using his skills to celebrate his own field. In fact, the entirety of this poem might be a play on a much more ancient work; the Satire of the Trades.

What's most interesting, in my opinion, about the Satire of the Trades is that there's an argument to be made that this work is the oldest known written work of satire that humankind possesses, going back to the Ancient Egyptians of the early second millenium BCE; And Ben Sirah was probably familiar with it!!!

Here is how it begins:

We have here a man named Dua-Khety, who is taking his son to Scribe-School. And as he does, he makes it a point to tell his son how wonderful a profession it is! Note that like Ben Sirah above, Dua-Khety says that one of the advantages of the Scribe is the opportunity for leisure.

What happens next is just great, and this, too, is something that Ben Sirah mimicked; Dou-Khety then launches into a 20-line satire, poking fun at all the other professions that their neighbors and friends are engaged in. It's a satire that is so biting that I'd bet if someone found this text in ancient Egypt as they were about to look for a job, they would put their very life on the line in order to ensure they end up a scribe rather than something else!

I'll share with you a few of the lines:

Yuck - fish-egg stench. That's what you had to put up with, according to Dou-Khety, if you went into goldsmithing.

Here's how he feels about barbers:

I can't say I fully understand the "bees" reference, but interesting that the barbers in ancient Egypt had to go wandering around town yelling as they sought out people who needed a shave.

Like Ben Sirah, over a thousand years later Dou-Khety will go through profession after profession, showing his son how he would be in for the most miserable life had he been fated to do anything other than scribing.

below: Dou-Khety and Pepi on the Nile, en route to Scribe-School!

Satire therefore goes a long, long way back. Of course, it very well might even go back farther, but this is the earliest we have.

If you can recall, we once spoke about how some of the works we have from the Israelites were reminiscent of Egyptian literature. Our example was the Song of Songs calling to mind Egyptian love poems. (See our learning for Holy Matrimony, https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/238780?lang=bi).

The Israelites were quite aware of, and admired some of what the Egyptians had been producing since before any Israelites ever entered the scene. It should therefore not be surprising that Ben Sirah would follow closely in the footsteps of Dou-Khety, when Dou-Khety would be a major favorite of scribes for copying exercises for Egytians for hundreds of years!

Nor should it be surprising that satire in general was a huge favorite of some of the writers of the works in the TaNaKh.

One of my favorite examples comes from the prayer-poem of Psalm 115.

This is a great poem, and is actually quite hilarious, in that we see from this that both the Israelites as well as their non-Israelite neighbors viewed each others' faith as as complete nonsense.

The "Nations," i.e., non-Israel, would look at Israel's worship practices and not see an idol - i.e., a god - anywhere in sight. And so they would mock! Where is your god??? Is he hiding? Has he gone to the bathroom? Has he fallen asleep somewhere?

While from the Israelite's perspective, their neighbor's practice was equally hilarious. Do you really worship this silver and gold, this work of your own hands? Figures whose eyes don't see, and ears can't hear???

Note how our poet walks us through this whole dialogue. Though of course, in this version it is Israel who gets the last word.

The whole irony that our poet seems to want to highlight is that the elohim of Israel, who cannot be seen nor found in the world, has complete mastery of everything, such that all he wills, he accomplishes. Which is of course stark contrast to the idols, who can be seen, and yet are beyond worthless.

If you think the above example is good, wait til you see what the Herald of Zion has to say; and what he does is brilliant! He invites us to see the world from the eyes of the Makers-of-the-Gods.

Here is the passage in full; Try to catch onto all of his humor; He doesn't hold back, but is sometimes more subtle than others.

Isn't this great?

I love how, as we see this craftsman at work in the poem, we have no idea yet that it will be his hands which will ultimately fashion the gods. In fact, the Herald only really presents idols as the craftsman's afterthought. What's of higher priority is having a place for warmth, and then having a place to bake bread. After completing his idol, he uses the same furnace to cook his meat!

Note how in his narration, he goes back and forth, back and forth between the idol-making and other chores, as if our craftsman has just a handful of things to get done, the idol being but one thing on the list without any particular importance.

Do you notice any other attempts at satire in the above passage? There are a few hidden gems that you can probably find if you read slowly and carefully.

The commentary in the Jewish Study Bible has something interesting to say about all of this:

What do you think ---- misrepresentation? or misunderstanding?

Our prophets and poets loved their idol-satire, which I know we've touched upon in the past. Jeremiah was another master at it. Here's one of his:

This all does seem to make idolatry sound kind of ridiculous, don't you think? If something that is created is worthy do be worshipped, shouldn't whoever actually created that thing be even more worthy???

Jeremiah, like the Herald several decades later, would find it to be a riot that the person who went out and chopped the tree, moved it to his home and adorned it with jewelry would find nothing wrong with declaring his love and devotion to it a moment later!

Alter even thinks that, given the similarities, the Herald is riffing on Jeremiah's satire here:

In a moment, I'm going to show you what I think is the TaNaKh's greatest satiric moment of all. But in order to appreciate it fully, I want to just put some things into perspective.

The Israelite prophets, as hopefully you have long since recognized, were amazing. During their lifetimes, their friends, families and neighbors were sometimes given plenty of reason to despair. The prophets would give them all wings, teaching them to soar above and beyond everything!

At a time of chaos, in-fighting and a growing threat from the east (the Assyrians), one of them would be able to imagine real peace:

How amazing is this - that in the ancient near east, when things like conquest and slavery and slaughter were the norm, that the Kingdom of Israel would produce an individual who would be capable of hoping forward towards the realization of this image! To a time when there would be real, lasting peace, no one having to kill anyone else; Rather, ALL can live in harmony, and only then could the land be filled with devotion to YHWH.

(I'm so grateful to live at time when this possibility is being realized. To lambs, historically, humans are wolves; yet now we no longer have to cause incomprehensible suffering to the vulnerable and the innocent in our eating habits, and I can think of nothing more Holy that I could be doing other than being a vegan, thereby eating with compassion.)

below: Isaiah, surrounded by some of his most grateful friends.

In addition to lifting up the spirits of Israel, the prophets were also known for channeling the will and word of YHWH! Of bringing the thunder!

For when Israel would do such things as turn to idolatry herself, or exploit oppressed, the prophets would come forward as the agents through whom YHWH's wrath would sound throughout the land:

For the Israelite and Judahite prophets, when there was injustice, YHWH would rage, such that the very existence of the cosmos would be at risk. And through the prophets, this rage would be echo throughout the land.

The last two examples - bringing forth YHWH's anger on one hand, and inspiring Israel with exalted imagery on the other - show sides of prophets that most people generally have in mind when reflecting on their role.

But as we've seen in the satire above, they could also laugh, could also have fun.

Let's now turn to the beginning of Isaiah 28:

There's something about the northern-Israelite Ephramites that Isaiah is not happy about. Those who wear the crown are the ones who have allowed themselves to become drunkards and gluttons. And so, they shall all be trampled underfoot completely.

But unfortunately, the corruption runs too deep for comfort - for even the priests and those professing to be prophets - the very ones to whom the people should have been able to turn for sound leadership and for inspiration - are no better.

You can tell here that Isaiah is furious. It's bad enough that the Kings are despicable. But the priests and prophets, too???

But this time around, instead of reacting by calling down fire and brimstone, we get something else.

Look at the last sentence of the passage above. Isaiah is arguing that the speech and instruction of these drunken northern "prophets" is now so nonsensical, such that it is only fit to be heard and interpreted by babies newly weaned from their mothers' milk.

And what is their instruction, which only babes would understand? Well, Isaiah puts himself into these prophets' shoes and speaks for them.

Translation, however, in all cases and in this case specifically, is a very delicate art, so let's look at a few translations together.

First, the JPS:

Unfortunately, I think JPS really missed it. This is one of the most fun lines in all of the TaNaKh, in which Isaiah reduced these prophets to blabbering, drunken fools, and Isaiah's words really capture this so well. The English here, does not.

So let's turn to another few translations to see how they render it.

But first, if you can, take a look at the Hebrew to see it in Isaiah's own language. Here is the transliteration of verse 10 for those who need it:

tsaw l'tsaw tsaw l'tsaw / kaw l'kaw kaw l'kaw / zeir sham zeir sham.

With that, let's turn to The Message, an "idiomatic translation" from the late 90s / early 2,000s.

Wow.... what???

That's quite a different feel from the JPS above! But one that I think really gets what Isaiah is trying to get at. (You might notice that The Message also interprets Isaiah's mock conversation quite differently. The important part is that in all versions, Isaiah is mocking the northern prophets - but there are a few different ways to understand how he does this.)

Here's another take on verses 9-10 specifically, from the Lexham English Bible (2010):

In their comments, they explain their translation thusly:

And of course, I saved the best for last; And who could that possibly be other than Robert Alter?

Once again, we'll just look at verses 9-10:

Profound.

I wouldn't be surprised if there is someone out there who read the TaNaKh with Alter's translation, and upon being asked their favorite verse, started to recite: filth-pilth, filth-pilth, vomit-momit, vomit-momit......

All joking aside, however, Alter picked up on the depth of Isaiah's game in the Hebrew that everyone else that I saw completely missed!

Here is how he puts it:

(I bet you thought I was joking when I said "profound." But that's really what this is! Alter's ability to sense the nuanced layers of intent behind the prophets' and poets' words, rather than only the meaning, is amazing.)

Our Israelite prophets, poets and storytellers did not shy away from humor. It wasn't enough to just shout and wave their arms. They had to draw on different tools with which to draw people in. And satire is a powerful tool indeed. It is engaging, it is appealing; It worked for the ancient Egyptians, it works for us today - and it worked for the Israelites of yore.

Once I realized this was worth keeping my eyes open for, I would start to see it more and more. The TaNaKh abounds with play, with word-games, with humor. Isaiah was most definitely not happy with those who claimed to be his colleagues to the North - so he told his listeners how he really feels, but in a way that probably earned some chuckles, if not some hoots of laughter, as would Jeremiah after him, and the Herald after him.

below: I oftentimes try to imagine, in my minds-eye, what the scene might have looked like when the prophets would proclaim their oracles. Can anyone picture Isaiah in the picture below, participating at Open-Mic Night?

Personally, I LOVE that this is the case! Once upon a time, I had the notion in my mind that these works could only be approached with stiff seriousness, with fear and trembling. But if that's not what the very writers always had in mind - why should we? At times, they found ways to be light and to smile, and to even speak about serious topics in ways that for us, can be reminiscent of how our middle-schoolers might taunt each other!

What do you think about such passages being in our TaNaKh? Does it change the way you view this collection of literature? If so, how?

Here are a couple of ancient-Israelite proverb which came to mind for me throughout this:

The Israelites, in their proverbs, praised the importance of having a joyful heart. And while it is most definitely true that the prophets were oftentimes compelled to say things that would lead not to joy, but to possible panic and fear - they took it upon themselves to make room for the fun, as well, addressing heavy things with lightness and playfulness.

May we be attuned to such moments, and join them in their fun!