Spiritual Incorrigibility – Cities Burned With Fire (Part 2)

Your country is desolate,
Your cities are burned with fire;
Strangers devour your land in your presence;
And it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

     Strangers is a word meaning to be alienated, or estranged. The verb form of the word is used back in verse 4 where Israel was said to have “turned away backward” or become “estranged” from God. As is normal for most words in Hebrew, it can have several shades of meaning. It can speak of that which is “illegitimate, unauthorized”, i.e., pertaining to that which is not allowed according to a standard, as in a sin or wrongdoing, for instance as in Lev. 10:1:

Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them.

     It can also speak of that which is strange, foreign, or alien, i.e., namely pertaining to that which is not of a native group or land, and often with an associated meaning of latent or overt hostility. 2Ki 19:24 uses it in this fashion:

“I have dug and drunk strange water,
And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
All the brooks of defense.”

     It can also be translated “other”, i.e., pertaining to that which is of a different class or kind compared to a standard group or class. Ex 29:33 uses it in this fashion:

33 They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but an outsider shall not eat them, because they are holy.

     It can also be used to speak of a distant place, formally, foreign place, i.e., a place relatively far from the speaker’s perspective This is the fashion in which it used in Jer 18:14:

Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon,
Which comes from the rock of the field?
Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

     Finally, it can speak of that which is illegitimate and formally, foreign, i.e., pertaining to a child born of a mixed marriage (a marriage where one is a native and the spouse is an unauthorized foreigner as in Hos. 5:7:[1]

They have dealt treacherously with the Lord,
For they have begotten pagan children.
Now a New Moon shall devour them and their heritage.

     It is applied to foreigners, that is, those who were not Israelites, (Ex. 30:33); and is often used to denote an enemy, a foe, a barbarian; (Ps. 109:11):

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath, And let the strangers plunder his labor. (Ezek. 11:9; 28:10; 30:12; Hos. 7:9; 8:7).

The word refers here particularly to the Syrians. (Foreigners does, by the way, have a very negative context here. To be a “foreigner” was not a good thing in the way that it is used here). Now, when Israel was being obedient in the land, foreigners were welcome and could live in the land. We’re told that they chiefly consisted of six major elements[2]:

• The remnant of the mixed multitude who came out of Egypt. (Ex 12:38)

A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds—a great deal of livestock.

• The remnant of the nations of the land. (1Ki 9:20; 2Ch 8:7)

9:20 All the people who were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel

8:7 All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel

• Captives taken in war. (De 21:10 )

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hand, and you take them captive,

• Foreign servants. (Le 25:44,45)

44 And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves. 45 Moreover you may buy the children of the strangers who dwell among you, and their families who are with you, which they beget in your land; and they shall become your property.

• Persons who sought employment among the Jews. (1Ki 7:13; 9:27)

7:13 Now King Solomon sent and brought Huram from Tyre.

9:27 Then Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, seamen who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon.

• Persons who came into Israel for the sake of religious privileges. (1Ki 8:41)

“Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for Your name’s sake

     But this is assuredly not the sense in which it is used here. The “stranger” here is in not any of those classes, nor is he, properly in the class of the invader. He is almost in the class of the invited guest. One who has been allowed in and is ransacking the nation and consuming those provisions intended and laid in store for God’s children.  We’ll look further in our next post…

____________________________________

[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 2424, #5). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

[2] Torrey, R. (1995, c1897). The new topical text book : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos research Systems, Inc.