The Return of Ephraim and Miracles
Brit-Am Biblical Commentary (BABCOM) to the Book of Zechariah.
Zechariah (NKJV) 10:
1 Ask the LORD for rain
In the time of the latter rain.
The LORD will make flashing clouds;
He will give them showers of rain,
Grass in the field for everyone.
RADAK (Rabbi David Kimhi, 1160-1235, Narbonne, France, see RABBIS QUOTED https://hebrewnations.com/articles/sources/rabbisquoted.html ) says (quoting sources) that in the End Times the Almighty will make HIS Presence felt even more than usual. If a community needs something and asks for it they will receive it. Even if an individual wants something special, such as rain on his field only, then he will receive it.
If you need something ask God for it.
All prayers are heard. One may not see an immediate answer but sometimes it happens.
In principle it can take place at once. Everyone who prays to God has experienced this.
The following verse refers to the delusions of the Modern World and lack of leadership.
We all need to pray more and read the Hebrew Bible more.
2 For the idols speak delusion;
The diviners envision lies,
And tell false dreams;
They comfort in vain.
Therefore the people wend their way like sheep;
They are in trouble because there is no shepherd.
These days we go to doctors, psychologists, wonder-workers from the universities.
Sometimes they have the answers and on other occasions they are little better than the witch-doctors of some primitive band in the jungle.
When we feel sick we go to doctors. Sometimes they give us treatment that helps us immoderately. At other times they seem to love overloading our system with pills of doubtful efficacy!
There is no proof of Evolution.
Mankind has not existed for more than 6000 years.
Ancient Chronology as given in the text books is all wrong.
Homosexuality is harmful.
Sexual promiscuity is dangerous.
The good way is the wise way.
The Bible shows the pathway to sanity.
We all need to recover our good senses. Leaders are lacking.
3 My anger is kindled against the shepherds,
And I will punish the goatherds.
For the LORD of hosts will visit His flock,
The house of Judah,
And will make them as His royal horse in the battle.
Your leaders and your shepherds (counsellors) lied to you. They said you came from monkeys. They said men can copulate with men and dress like women. They said that if God exists HE is not concerned with what you do. They lied to you!
4 From him comes the cornerstone,
From him the tent peg,
From him the battle bow,
From him every ruler together.
From him. i.e. from Judah (METSUDAT DAVID).
God gives victory. He decides who the winner will be.
5 They shall be like mighty men,
Who tread down their enemies
In the mire of the streets in the battle.
They shall fight because the LORD is with them,
And the riders on horses shall be put to shame.
Israel will win even if the enemy has more and better weapons.
6 I will strengthen the House of Judah,
And I will save the house of Joseph.
I will bring them back,
Because I have mercy on them.
They shall be as though I had not cast them aside;
For I am the LORD their God,
And I will hear them.
God will make Judah strong. He will bring the Lost Ten Tribes back (Ma'Am Loez, see RABBIS QUOTED https://hebrewnations.com/articles/sources/rabbisquoted.html).
the House of Joseph. METSUDAT DAVID: These are the Ten Tribes. They will return to their land and dwell in comfort and security. It will be as if God had never abandoned them.
The Ten Tribes will be re-instated. Their status as Israelites will be given back to them. It will be as if they were never exiled and never Lost awareness of their ancestry!
7 Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man,
And their heart shall rejoice as if with wine.
Yes, their children shall see it and be glad;
Their heart shall rejoice in the LORD.
Ephraim can represent all the Lost Ten Tribes in general, OR it may refer expressly to either the British (especially) or American nations or both together.
8 I will whistle for them and gather them,
For I will redeem them;
And they shall increase as they once increased.
They will increase and multiply. It may be that shortly before then some kind of disaster will have occurred and the population diminished only to be restored once again.
9 I will sow them among the peoples,
And they shall remember Me in far countries;
They shall live, together with their children,
And they shall return.
The Ten Tribes will come back.
10 I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt,
And gather them from Assyria.
I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
Until no more room is found for them.
Land of Egypt. In Hebrew "Egypt" is Mitsraim. In some contexts this word can refer to Russia.
When Egypt (Mitsraim) and Assyria are referred together in connection with Israelite exiles then Egypt usually applies to Exiles of Judah whereas Assyria is pertinent to the Lost Ten Tribes.
Gilead together with Bashan is the area of Ancient Israel east of the Jordan,
The Prophet Micah in chapter seven predicted the return of the Lost Ten Tribes:
Micah 7:
12 IN THAT DAY ALSO HE SHALL COME EVEN TO THEE FROM ASSYRIA,
AND FROM THE FORTIFIED CITIES, AND FROM THE FORTRESS EVEN TO THE RIVER, AND
FROM SEA TO SEA, AND FROM MOUNTAIN TO MOUNTAIN.
The Commentaries ALL AGREE that FROM ASSYRIA means the return of those exiled to Assyria, the Return of the Lost Ten Tribes. The Hebrew words translated as "THE FORTIFIED CITIES" are "Ari Matsor" and the word translated as FORTRESS is "Matsor". This word "Matszor" can indeed mean fortress or when used as an adjective "fortified" but it can also refer to an area in the northwest of present-day Iraq, in the region of Northern Kurdistan which in those times in the Annals of Assyria was referred to as "Mutsri" or "MATSOR".
See:
The Return of Ephraim
https://britam.org/USAMatsor.html
cf.
Micah 7:
14 FEED THY PEOPLE WITH THY ROD, THE FLOCK OF THINE HERITAGE,
WHICH DWELL SOLITARILY IN THE WOOD, IN THE MIDST OF CARMEL: LET THEM FEED
IN BASHAN AND GILEAD, AS IN THE DAYS OF OLD.
BASHAN AND GILEAD. This means the present-day regions of Syria and Jordan. This ties in with Zechariah 10:10 and the return of the Israelites to the land of Gilead and Lebanon,
Zechariah 10 (continues):
11 He shall pass through the sea with affliction,
And strike the waves of the sea:
All the depths of the River shall dry up.
Then the pride of Assyria shall be brought down,
And the scepter of Egypt shall depart.
12 So I will strengthen them in the LORD,
And they shall walk up and down in His name,
Says the LORD.
When the Tribes will return miracles may happen. According to tradition the Ten Tribes are now shut away beyond the River Sambation. The Sambation River only stops flowing on Shabat but on Shabat they cannot return. Zechariah (10:11) may be referring to the River miraculously drying up. It may be symbolic. It may represent whatever obstacles now prevent the return of the Ten Tribes will be removed. OR, There may be climate changes and cataclysms that will change the world.
Jerome (also known as Heironymous) 343-420 CE, translated the most of the Bible into Latin. He translated both from the Greek Septuagint and from Hebrew texts. Jerome was born in Stridon, Dalmiatia, probably in the region of Bosnia. He consulted with Jewish sages when making his translation.
Jerome says that both through the captivity of the Ten Tribes by the Assyrians and that of Judah by the Babylonians ("Chaldeans") Israelites entered not only Persia and Media but also southeast Europe and continued north from there.
"AND HE SHALL PASS THROUGH THE SEA..." "The Hebrews say that the Assyrians and Chaldeans took the Jews into Captivity not only to Persia and Media but also to the Bosporus and the north; and at the end of days God in his mercy will call them back from there:" (Jerome on Zechariah 10:11).
ABARBANEL on this verse (Zechariah 10:11) refers to Isaiah ch.11
Isaiah (NKJV) 11:
15 The LORD will utterly destroy the tongue of the Sea of Egypt;
With His mighty wind He will shake His fist over the River,
And strike it in the seven streams,
And make men cross over dry-shod.
16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people
Who will be left from Assyria,
As it was for Israel
In the day that he came up from the land of Egypt.
Abarbanel quotes an opinion that miracles will happen similar to what occurred when the Hebrews came out of Egypt. Alternately, he says, it may all have symbolic meaning. At all events, he explains, it definitely is referring to both Judah and the Lost Ten Tribes in the End Times. Miracles will take place. They will return. There will be wars against Edom meaning the European Nations and against God and Magog.
Adapeted from "Ephraim. The Gentile Children of Israel"):
Elsewhere we have discussed the Bosporus region (linking Asia to Europe) as one of the Places of the Three Places of Exile known as "DAPHNE." It was seen how concerning the Sambation River both the concept of the River of Sabbath as well as the actual name seemed to move with the migration of the Lost Israelites themselves. Likewise so too did the attachment of Clouds of Darkness, and of Darkness in general, move with the Cimmerians and their descendants and seem to be attached to them everywhere they went or were destined to go. It therefore follows that a similar phenomenon may be expected from "DAPHNE" and this notion is indeed justifiable from the evidence. Daphne had once been the name given to a center of the Israelite Tribe of DAN in the Galilee. There was a later settlement called Daphne in European Moesia on the Danube River close to the western shores of the Black Sea, which in this author's eyes should be considered. An Israeli scholar, Chaim Bar Deroma, wrote a very well researched work ('VeZeh Gevul Ha-aretz' in Hebrew,1958) concerning the real borders of the Promised Land. He brings evidence that the ancient Israelites once controlled much of the Middle East. He also incidentally discusses many geographical points and difficulties in Jewish sources. In his opinion the DAPHNE referred to in the Midrash as a place to which the Lost Ten Tribes were taken or went is the port of Dephenus Portas (i.e. "Port of Dephen") also known as DEFEN and as DAPHNE. Dephenus Portas or "Defen" stood on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus straits opposite European Byzantium, i.e. Istanbul in present day Turkey. Dephenus Portas was the place Welsh tradition said their ancestors came from.
The Bosporus Straits were spoken of by Jerome (d. 420 CE). He was the first to translate the Bible into Latin and had consulted with Jewish sages. These scholars reported to Jerome the tradition that Israelites exiled by the Assyrians had reached the Bosporus Straits and passed over them to the north into Europe.
By "Jews" taken into captivity by the Assyrians Jerome is actually referring to Israelites from the northern Ten Tribes. Strictly speaking these were not "Jews" which appellation refers to Judaeans from the southern kingdom dominated by Judah. Jerome was therefore recording the tradition that the Ten Tribes or part of them had reached the Bosporos Traits and from there passed into Europe.
At all events within fifty years of the north Israelites' exile the Bosporus had become a Cimmmerian centre and was to remain so for about 150 years. Welsh tradition claimed that their ancestors the Cymry (i.e. "Cimmeri") led by Hu Gadarn of the Sons of Don had come across the "Lazy Sea" (i.e. Mediterranean) to Defen (sic., same name as Defen on the Bosporus) in the British isles. Hu Gadarn had arrived from Defrobane which was just opposite Byzantium. In other words Defrobane stood on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus in the place where the port of Defen had been. Defrobane may be some kind of linguistic derivation of Daphne. The British Welsh who came from DEFROBANE opposite Byzantium called themselves Cymry and the Scandinavian peoples contained an underlying ethnic stratum from the similarly named CIMBRI of Celtic culture. In Scandinavian mythology one version (reported by Saxo Grammaticus) concerning the origins of their ancestral gods said that they too came from the area of Byzantium, and that one of their ancestors ruled over a city in the nearby Hellespont called Dana!
In Celtic Britain the region of southern Wales, Devon, and Cornwall was referred to as Defen or Defenia and from this name comes the modern day appellation of the English County "Devon"! Defenia in the south was also known as Damnonia, Daunonia, and Dannonia. Defenia also encompassed or adjoined the Deni. Hu Gadarn who led the Cymry over the seas to Britain was descended from the Children of Don who parallel the Tribe of Dana in Irish legend. This region of Defenia is called Damnonia on Ptolemy's map of Britain. The name Damnonia is similar to the ethnic name Damnonii in Scotland within whose region was the northern Don River. There was another Don River in Scotland further south and to the east upon his banks stood the city of Danum. All these names, DON, Dana, Dannonia, Danum, etc., relate to the Israelite Tribe of DAN! In the LAND OF ISRAEL the Tribe of DAN was divided into several sections one of which (perhaps the most important, certainly the most emphasized) was in the northern Galilee. This was the center of DAN where King Jeroboam ben Nebat set up one of the golden calfs he expected the northern Israelites to worship:
The Classical Welsh Poet, Taliesin, said that Hu Gadarn was descended from the Children of Don from the Land of Gwydion.
"WHEREUPON THE KING TOOK COUNSEL, AND MADE TWO CALVES OF GOLD.... AND HE SET THE ONE IN BETH-EL AND THE OTHER PUT HE IN DAN" (1 Kings 12;28 29).
The site of the golden cow in Dan in the Galilee says Josephus was also known as DAPHNE!
"...Daphne, a delightful spot with springs which feed the so called little Jordan, beneath the temple of the golden cow, and speed it on its way to the greater river" (Josephus, Wars 4;1;1).
Josephus therefore identified Daphne with Dan.
The names Defrobane, Defen, Daphne, Defenia, are all interconnected and associable with Dan. Greek tradition recalls the Danaians who once ruled Greece. The Danaians were Israelites from the Tribe of Dan who also ruled over the island of Cyprus and had territory in Cilicia of southeast Anatolia (Turkey) where they were known as the Dananu. The Dananu have been connected with Mopsus who was their mythical leader. Greek legend spoke of a maiden named Daphne who by the god Apollo gave birth to Mopsos. The myth of Mopsus therefore connects the Israelite Tribe of Dan to Daphne and Apollo the parents of Mopsus leader of the Dananu. Like Samson, Mopsus was renowned for his riddles and his death recalled aspects of that of Samson - the Danite hero. Mopsus of the Danunu in Cilicia represented both Samson and the Tribe of Dan. Even Apollo in some ways appears to be a Greek version of some Canaanite pagan local deity (Baal or Tammuz) or in some versions a copy of Biblical figures. The Israelites let themselves be seduced by Canaanite idolatry and may well have also influenced it.
In Welsh legend HU GADARN was leader of the Cymry who from Defen (opposite Byzantium) sailed to Britain. The name Hu Gadarn is explained as meaning "Hu the Mighty" in Welsh. In Hebrew the name "HU" is also explainable: "Hu" may be derived from the Hebrew Tetragammaton, i.e. the name for God. "Hu" has a similar origin as the name "Jehu" or YeHU; Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi (2 Kings chs.9 13) was an important monarch of northern Israel; "Gadarn" is reminiscent of the name Gadir. [The Hebrew "Gadir" is close in meaning and possibly cognate with the English words "Guard", and "Gird"]. The city of Gades (Cadiz) in Spain was originally called Gadir by the Phoenicians. This was the region where according to the Irish Chronicles of Eri their ancestors had been taken captives from Northern Syria and from there they had moved northwards and after that sailed to Ireland.