Page 281 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW
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260 COINCIDENCES IN THE BIBLE AND IN BIBLICAL HEBREW

of Canaan that year” (Josh. 5:12). The manna was the food miraculously provided
by God throughout the wandering in the Sinai desert. The cessation of the manna
signaled the transition from an existence of miracles (under the provision of God,
in the desert) to a phase of existence as a people that have to earn their own living
by toil, like any other nation.
When was the first battle of the Israelites waged to conquer territory in the

land of Israel, once they crossed the Jordan River ? That battle was over Jericho .
The Bible does not specify the exact date. However, the Israelites celebrated their

first Passover in the Promised Land for seven days, from the fourteenth of Nisan

to the twenty-first of the same month. The battle over Jericho was launched after
the Israelites had first encircled the city, with no combat operations, for seven

consecutive days (a single encirclement every day for the first six days, and then
seven times on the seventh day—Josh. 6:3–4). Thus, the battle over Jericho, the
first in the Israelite’s wars to conquer the land, which was launched on the seventh

consecutive day of their encircling the city, could not have started prior to the
twenty-eighth of the month of Nisan. Most likely, it was launched well into the
second month—the month of Iyar .
With certainty, one can assert that the start of the war to gain sovereignty
over a land of their own, exercising their right for nationhood in the Holy Land,
was started by the Israelites in the second month of the biblical calendar, on the
month of Iyar .

20.3.3 Building the First Temple

The third cycle, when Jews manifested their nationhood in the Holy Land,

involved the building of the first Jewish temple . As the story is recounted in the

Bible regarding King Solomon’s building of the temple, “And it came to pass in
the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of
the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month
Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of Jehovah” (1
Kings 6:1).

The event of the beginning of construction of the first temple took place in the

month of Ziv (month of Light), the second month in the Hebrew biblical calen-
dar—the month of Iyar .

20.3.4 Building the Second Temple

The fourth defining moment for the Jews as they exercised their right for nation-

hood came about after Cyrus, king of Persia , called upon the Jews to immigrate to
Israel, proclaiming that “The Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms