Page 242 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

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CHAPTER 16 SPECIAL LETTERS IN THE BIBLE
CHAPTER 16 SPECIAL LETTERS IN THE BIBLE 221
One example is in the book by prophet Isaiah: “In all their affliction he was

afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them” (Isa. 63:9). The key words

in this sentence are “he was afflicted,” which, translated more literally from the
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Hebrew text, are: “It was distressful to him” [lo in Hebrew). However, the actual
written word that appears within the text is “no” (also pronounced in Hebrew
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“lo”). This modifi es completely the sense of the sentence. The new meaning is,

“In all their affliction, it is not distressful.”
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This case is extreme, since the two words (the written lo and the read “lo”)
are pronounced the same, and they both confer sensible meaning on the sentence.
English Bible translators, obviously familiar with Jewish tradition, ignored the
written word (which means “no”), and chose the traditionally read word (which
means “to him”), even though this word neither appears nor is indicated in the
Hebrew text.
A less extreme case, where the written word is entirely meaningless when read
in the context of the verse where it is implanted, is the subject of section 16.3.

16.2 The Case of Haman s Sons
’

This section has been the most difficult, and at times distressful, to write. There
are two interrelated reasons for this. First, this section is related to the Holocaust .
Second, my families, both on my late father’s side (my father’s name was Daniel,
deceased 1967) and on my late mother’s side (my mother’s name was Havah,
deceased 2005), both families perished in the Holocaust. Therefore, writing about
the Holocaust, and suggesting that somehow a most bizarre coincidence in the
Bible insinuates a forthcoming Holocaust, looks like an outrageous—perhaps
even offensive—assertion.
After much hesitation and deliberation, I have decided to proceed with
detailing this coincidence. This was done for two reasons.
First, the coincidence to be expounded in this section is not new, and it is
well-known, at least in Israel. It had previously been recounted in various publi-
cations (for example, Katz 1991, 1996), and is routinely taught in seminars for
nonreligious Jewish Israelis, delivered by religious not-for-profit organizations,

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like Arachim. In discussing this coincidence, therefore, I am not introducing
controversy or an as-yet-unknown coincidence.
Second, the reader was assured in the introductory chapter that we would
expose Bible-related and biblical-Hebrew-related coincidences of any sort known
to us, leaving the reader to decide the nature of the coincidence, whether random
or otherwise (as alluded therein, the results of the statistical analyses are exempt
from this characterization). Faithful to this principle of censorship-free exposure