Old Questions

Elah came to the throne in the twenty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, long after Baasha was sent by his illness to be buried. How, then, did Baasha arise from his grave in the thirty-sixth year of Asa?¹ [ . . . ]

Jehoram ben Jehoshaphat died aged forty, but at his death the youngest of his sons was forty-two!² [It states] in the official account [that Ahaziah] reigned “in the twelfth year,” [but there is also a] deceptive [mention of] eleven years.³ Isn’t this a spirit of dizziness (Isaiah 19:14) and strong wrath (Proverbs 21:14)? [ . . . ]

Wise ones, be pleased to look upon me, for I shall not lie to your face with my words [see Job 6:28]. It states: [When a man dies in a tent] everything that is in the tent shall be impure (Numbers 19:14), even vessels made of my dung. How, then, does a vessel with a sealed cover not become impure,⁴ with a mighty hand and with poured out fury [see Ezekiel 20:33]?

Similarly, regarding a vessel that is properly sealed and has a dead creature in its shade, we have learned: And every earthenware vessel into which any of them falls, [whatever is in it shall be impure, and you shall break it] (Leviticus 11:33). But if the creeping animal fell on its side, or if the vessel was put on it and crushed it, how can it not require breaking or smashing? And she was plucked up in fury, she was cast down to the ground (Ezekiel 19:12).⁵

All who are discerning, give ear to my statements, understand my meditations [see Psalms 5:2]. As for the priests of the Lord, in their sanctity they have the authority to speak, but, despite the Holy Spirit that was within them, they could not answer Haggai [see Haggai 2], and now too, they are far from the spirit, those dissemblers [see Proverbs 14:14] of melting hearts, who are far from the festivals [see Zephaniah 3:18],⁶ you shall call to them but they will not answer you (Jeremiah 7:27).

It is deeper than the netherworld; what can you know? It is high as heaven; what can you do? [see Job 11:8]. If I said I will become wise [see Ecclesiastes 7:23] and extend my hand to misuse the sacred, this too were an iniquity to be punished by the judges, and it is misuse, for I should have lied to God who is above [see Job 31:28], [which was] greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown (Lamentations 4:6).

Scripture listed twelve forbidden relations in detail, but it did not command and warn against the mother of one’s mother-in-law and the mother of one’s father-in-law, and one’s father’s mother and one’s mother’s mother, and it did not record the punishment for the daughter of one’s son or daughter, and the sister of one’s father or mother, if they lay together under a blanket.⁷

The commands here, and likewise the punishments, are not listed properly; they are reversed from first to last in the punishments and warnings; the final transgressions are after him earnestly repaired (Nehemiah 3:20) like a cake unturned (Hosea 7:8).

In the curses, although twelve curses are listed, only four of these forbidden relations are recalled in the oath and bond, and the rest are rejected and are lacking, upon your people and upon you [see Exodus 7:29].⁸

One who was filled with love for a designated maidservant must bring a guilt-offering ram for his distorted wickedness. But why a guilt-offering for those who came back with the dimness of foreign wives; neither is this a work of one day or two (Ezra 10:13).⁹