Continued
1. Predominance of Joseph
2. Present Populations of Israelite Nations
3. Prediction for Ephraim and Manasseh
4. Unitary Progression. "Revavah"
5. Observations. Colbert Brian
6. Juxtapostion: David and Saul. Rabbi M. Shalnger
Joseph was to receive an especially DOMINANT portion in the Blessings:
Genesis 49:
6 "The blessings of your father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of JOSEPH, and on the crown of him that was separated from his brethren."
See:
Genealogy of the Blessings
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/biblical-proof/genb.html
2. Present Populations of Israelite Nations
In light of the above it would help our case of identification if a very large population were promised to Ephraim compatible with the Modern Reality. The present populations of the countries concerned number almost 500 million people!
We have USA (329 million), UK (67, 500,000), Canada (37, 400,000), Australia (25,200,000), New Zealand (4,780,000), Whites in South Africa 4,500,000 and other such places.This gives us about 466 million people, pertaining to Joseph alone APART FROM those of the other Tribes, and those of Joseph dwelling in other Israelite domains.
It is obvious that not all, or even necessarily a majority, of the people concerned are Israelites but many might well be.
3. Prediction for Ephraim and Manasseh
We find a Prophecy predicting the future numbers pertaining to Ephraim and Manasseh. It is in Deuteronomy 33:17. The exact interpretation may be disputed.
It would be preferable from our point of view that the relevant verses say,
# and they are the ten MILLIONS [or "hundreds of millions" or "thousands of millions"] of Ephraim, and they are together with the thousands of Manasseh [who will be together with them]. #
Rather than:
Deuteronomy (ERV) 33:
The firstling of his bullock, majesty is his; And his horns are the horns of the wild-ox: With them he shall push the peoples all of them, even the ends of the earth: And they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, And they are the thousands of Manasseh.
Compare also the two versions:
Genesis (ESV) 24:
60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, 'Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!'
Genesis (KJB) 24:
60 And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
4. Unitary Progression. "Revavah"
The difference between the different versions as to whether the expression should be "ten thousands" or "thousands of millions" lies in the correct interpretation of the Hebrew word "REVAVAH."
In Hebrew, as in other languages, we use decimal units:
"Ehad" means "one."
"Eser" is "ten."
"Maeah" is a "hundred."
"Eleph" is a "thousand."
"Riboe" is "ten thousand."
And then we have the word "Revavah." This word is sometimes understood to be a poetical form of "reboe." In some cases such an understanding would fit the context. The term "revavot" (plural form of "revavah") is occasionally founded in juxtaposition to "elefim" (thousands). It would therefore be logical to consider it as meaning "ten thousand" which is the next rung up.
e.g.
(1)
1- Samuel 18:
7 So the women sang as they danced, and said: Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands [Hebrew: "Revavotav" i.e. his "revavot" from the root "revavah."]. 8 Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?
(2)
Deuteronomy 33:
17 His glory is like a firstborn bull, And his horns like the horns of the wild bull; Together with them He shall push the peoples To the ends of the earth; They are the ten thousands [Hebrew: "Revavot" i.e. the plural form of "revavah."]. of Ephraim, And they are the thousands ["alfai"] of Manasseh.
On the other hand,
According to Biblical Cantillation (as chanted in the Synagogues) example (1) could be understood as saying: "Saul has slain his thousands, And [together with those of Saul are those of] David his ten thousands." Saul however understood them to be declaring that Saul had only killed thousands whereas David had slain ten thousands, or more.
On the same principle, example (2) may be interpreted as:
# and they are the MILLIONS [or "hundreds of millions" or "thousands of millions"] of Ephraim, and they are [intertwined with] the thousands of Manasseh. #
So we have here a proposed progression from thousands to millions, i.e. thousands of thousands.
cf. The blessing to Rebeccah the mother of Israel.
Genesis (KJV) 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
The KJV interprets the expression "alfei revavoh" here to mean "thousands of millions." The interpreters of the KJV (or those they borrowed from) had been influenced by Jewish Rabbinic sources.
Here are how some other translation render the expression.
many millions! (NIT);
thousands of ten thousands (ESV)
thousands of millions (KJB)
tens of millions! (NISV)
thousands of ten thousands (ERV and ESV).
thousands of myriads (CJV, "Complete Jewish Bible").
At all events the KJV version, "thousands of millions," may be considered the most reliable, as shown below.
5. Observations. Colbert Brian
In Chapter four of our work, "To Rule the World. How the British and Americans Proved they Descend from Joseph and the Ten Tribes of Israel,"
http://hebrewnations.com/publications/books/ruleworld.html
we discussed the meaning of the word "Revavah" in Hebrew.
"To Rule the World."
Chapter Four.
Extracts and Slight Adaptation:
Before his death, Moses blessed Ephraim and Manasseh:
HIS GLORY IS LIKE THE FIRSTLING OF HIS BULLOCK, AND HIS HORNS ARE LIKE THE HORNS OF UNICORNS: WITH THEM HE SHALL PUSH THE PEOPLE TOGETHER TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: AND THEY ARE THE TEN THOUSANDS OF EPHRAIM, AND THEY ARE THE THOUSANDS OF MANASSEH (Deuteronomy 33:17).
According to its simple meaning the verse is predicting that Manasseh will number in the thousands and Ephraim in the ten thousands i.e. the population of Ephraim will be ten times that of Manasseh.
The last section of the blessing could be retranslated as saying:
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim within the thousands of Manasseh.
So too, Rebecca the mother of Jacob had been blessed that out of her would emerge an extremely great number of people. The KJ Translation (and other Translations as well) renders the verse in question as:
Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah, and said unto her, Thou art our sister, be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them.
The Hebrew expression translated in the KJV as "thousands of millions" is "alfei revava." "Alfei" means "thousands of." "Revava" is usually taken to be a plural form of "revo" which means ten thousand. "Revava" is therefore understood as "tens of thousands." We therefore should render "alfei revava" as "thousands of tens of thousands" i.e. tens of millions. Nevertheless, 'revava' is not a plural form of "revo" (also rendered as "rebo") but rather a unitary element after it. We would say that "revo" means ten thousand whereas revava could mean hundreds of thousands or thousands of thousands. "Alfei Revava" would then be translatable as "thousands of thousands of thousands" i.e. thousands of millions. The term "revava" is from the root "rov" connoting many.
....."Revavah" would therefore imply an intensification of "revo" i.e. not just ten thousands but ten thousands doubled over and intensified and possibly multiplied with itself! It could be that even in the USA actual physical descendants of Ephraim outnumber those of Manasseh several times over though the leadership and national character are determined by Manasseh.
Moses had blessed Israel:
Deuteronomy 1: 11 May the LORD, the God of your fathers, increase you a thousand-fold more than you are and bless you, just as He has promised you!
Colbert ("Bert") Bryan first pointed out to us that it was here prophesied that the number of Israelites as it then was would be multiplied a thousand times over. They were then 600,000 males between the ages of 20 to 60 (Exodus 12:37-38) which with women and children makes about ca. 3 million, or more. That would mean ca. 3000 million! Rebecca was blessed to become the mother of thousands of millions (Genesis 24:6). This is according to the King James that is consistent with the Hebrew. Ephraim and Manasseh were destined to become a majority populace (Hebrew "rov" translated as multitude but also meaning "majority") in the midst of the earth (Genesis 48:16).
... Throughout the Biblical Period the Tribe of Manasseh was the more numerous. It was said (the Natziv, Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816 - 1893) that the application of the blessing was figurative and that actually Manasseh was to be the greater in the material sense whereas the ascendancy of Ephraim was spiritual. Our own understanding is that the comparative numbers referred to relative population numbers at some stage. ...
6. Juxtapostion: David and Saul. Rabbi M. Shlanger
cf.
1- Samuel 18:
7 So the women sang as they danced, and said: Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands. 8 Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?
The simple meaning from the Hebrew however remains (as seen from the translation of the Revised King James Version) that Saul had killed thousands while David had done away with ten thousands of the enemy...
In Deuteronomy 33:17 Manasseh is 'elafim' (thousands) whereas Ephraim is 'revava' (ten thousands). Paradoxically Manasseh had the greater population throughout the Biblical Period....
.
Ephraim was named after the principle of fruition (Hebrew 'pri'), of increase. He is therefore associated with "Revavah" which is interpreted as meaning "ten thousand" but is derived from the principle of increase without restriction. This is described in detail by Rabbi M. Shlanger, "Shiftei Nachalatecha" ("The Tribes of Your Heritage"), Jerusalem, 5766 (2006), p.61.
We see Ephraim associated with "TEN THOUSANDS" (in Hebrew "revavah") and Manasseh with THOUSANDS which in Hebrew is "aleph" or "eleph." Israelite society (like that of the Anglo-Saxons at a later date) was divided into units of tens, hundreds, and thousands (Exodus 18:21).
The denomination "eleph" (thousand) was a statutory fixed unit but "revavah" was not. Revavah ('ten thousand') has an unlimited aspect about it. It is the highest unit used by the Bible and represents a continued expansion. It is linked to Monarchy. Rabbi M. Shlanger explains the case of Saul becoming jealous of David due not tot he different numbers themselves but rather in the unlimited aspect of control implied in the word "revavah" and attributed to David in juxtaposition to Saul.
Rabbi Shlanger tells us:
# So we find in the Wilderness where they had "RULERS OF THOUSANDS, AND RULERS OF HUNDREDS, RULERS OF FIFTIES, AND RULERS OF TENS" (Exodus 18:21). They did not however have rulers of "Revavah" (Ten Thousands).
Genesis (KJV) 24:
60 AND THEY BLESSED REBEKAH, AND SAID UNTO HER, THOU ART OUR SISTER, THOU THE MOTHER OF THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS (Hebrew: "Alfei Revavah") , AND LET THY SEED POSSESS THE GATE OF THOSE WHICH HATE THEM.
R.M. Shlanger mentions that the very word "revavah" is built from a three-letter root "RBB" in which the doubling of the two last letters indicates a spontaneous self-sustained increase and expansion. The implication that "revavah" implies limitless increase seems to have been recognized by the authors of the King James Translation of the Bible. They translated "revavah" as "millions" instead of "tens of thousands". The expression translated in KJV as "THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS", in Hebrew is "alfei revavah" or literally thousands of ten thousands i.e. tens of millions at the least, according to the simple understanding of the language.
Important Note:
Rabbi Moshe ("Ha-Chatam") Sofer (1762-1839) was one of the leading Orthodox Rabbis of European Jewry in the early 1800s. Many of the leading Rabbis in succeeding generations were strongly influenced by him. In our time he is still often quoted and considered to have been a leading authority in legal Torah matters. The Chatam Softer (based on the Midrash Sifrei) said that "Revavah" means a multiplying factor of at least a million, when the context suggests it. See:Hundreds of Millions!-2 articles/biblical-proof/blessings/billions1b.html
In ADDITION to all the above, we have more Rabbinical Sources that add substance to it.
[ Continued at Hundreds of Millions-2]